Box Score: Hawks 83, Cavaliers 99
January 9, 2013Browns contribute to Deadspin naming Erie PA the NFL’s most tortured TV market
January 10, 2013While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
“And so the Cavs, less than two years after winning the no. 1 pick, have a chance to do it again, unless they use $10 million or so in present-day cap space to upgrade their current roster before the trade deadline. This is, of course, by design. The Cavaliers, flush with max-level cap room last summer, scoured the free agency market and decided to splurge on Alonzo Gee and C.J. Miles. They passed on all the high-profile restricted free agency building blocks — from Roy Hibbert to Nicolas Batum — and somehow came away mostly empty-handed on the front line in a mid-tier market featuring plenty of available free agents (Chris Kaman, Ian Mahinmi, Carl Landry, Green, Boris Diaw, the Memphis backups), available trade targets (Samuel Dalembert, Timofey Mozgov, Gustavo Ayon), and amnesty castoffs (Luis Scola, Elton Brand, Andray Blatche, Brendan Haywood).” [Lowe/Grantland]
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“Your stat of the night: six Cavaliers recorded at least three assists, which is evidence that the ball was moving much better than it has during the majority of the Cavs’ games this season. Because the Cavs don’t have many players who can create their own shots, they have to work hard to manufacture decent looks and that means quick passes and movement off the ball.The Cleveland broadcast highlighted one such instance in the third quarter where the ball started with Irving on the right wing and moved from the corner, to the baseline, to the opposite corner, to the left wing, and all the way back to Kyrie on the right in a span of a few seconds. It didn’t create a great look, but Irving caught the ball with the defender half a step off him, which is all he really needs to have a solid chance at converting a three-pointer, which he buried. At C:TB, we’ve been bemoaning the lack of ball movement on offense, and tonight demonstrated hat the Cavs can be pretty effective on offense with a little extra effort and some luck.” [McGowan/Cavs the Blog]
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Meyer vs Saban– “College football is about turnover – coaches, players, seasons. But a constant for the past decade has been the success rate of Meyer and Saban’s teams. Since LSU won the national championship in 2003 with Saban at the helm, he and Meyer have won six titles. Sixty percent! And that doesn’t include two undefeated seasons by Meyer-coached teams that didn’t win the national title.” [Rowland/Eleven Warriors]
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“In the summer, the Cavs gave C.J. a very small and extremely friendly deal. He makes just $2.5 million this year and his next year’s contract isn’t even guaranteed. After a horrific start to the season, Miles has really turned it on. He’s currently the Cavs’ second best scoring option (this is not a good thing). His three-point stroke looks awesome and when he plays within the offense, it works well. What doesn’t work well is when C.J. decides that he’s Kevin Durant and starts taking tons of jumpers off the dribble.
Recently, Miles moved into the starting lineup and pushed rookie Dion Waiters to the bench. While it’s disappointing to see Dion come off the bench, it really helps Miles. When the Cavs signed Miles, Byron Scott was really excited about him because of what he does well and how that fits in Cleveland’s offense. He comes around screens and shoots off the catch particularly well. We’ve seen that in recent weeks as he is draining tons of jumpers and his form is virtually perfect when he doesn’t have to dribble.” [Kaczmarek/Fear the Sword]
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Gimme some Kent State news. Ok– “On the one hand, Archer’s stock will probably never be higher after leading the Golden Flashes in rushing (1,482 yards, 16 touchdowns and 9.0 yards per carry), receptions (39 catches for 561 yards and four touchdowns) and averaging 36.9 yards per kickoff return with three touchdowns (before teams stopped kicking to him).
On the other hand, Archer has only this big year on his resume (he missed last season over an academic issue) and he is just 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds. After watching Cleveland’s Travis Benjamin (who’s two inches taller than Archer but the same weight) look pretty small on an NFL field, it’s easy to wonder if there is a place for Archer in the NFL.” [Moore/Red Right 88]
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“Between ordering those burgers and eating them, Kenny Lofton smacked a pitch from Jay Howell into the right-field seats in the bottom of the 12th. I can’t be certain what Tom Hamilton on WTAM yelled regarding this home run, but I would guess that it was something like SWUNG ON AND BELTED! Herb Score probably said something grandfatherly and not entirely coherent. My dad and I expressed happiness that our early and slightly disloyal departure hadn’t jinxed the Tribe.
I never saw a highlight of that Kenny Lofton home run, never saw the celebratory beatdown or the perfunctory shot of the crowd going bonkers. I never felt like I needed to, either, because I could then and can still see now Kenny Lofton hitting a home run without much strain to my imagination. When Kenny swung for power, he grimaced, his teeth bared in concentration. The cords in his neck jumped into relief and his left arm flew up as a counterbalance, his right arm sweeping the bat like a sword. His thin gold chain spilled out of his jersey’s neckhole, and his legs began to tear around the bases, extremely insistent on getting back to where it was starting from. On the ratty old Costacos Brothers poster in my office, Kenny is frozen in that exact pose, the Willie Mays Hayes uppercut, for as long as I need him to be.” [Beatty/The Classical]
16 Comments
None of those players mentioned by Lowe are any good. I wouldn’t want a single one of them (with the exception of Batum) given our roster.
Interesting that one Cavs piece bemoans the lack of Cavs who can create. And Kaczmarek’s advice to CJ Miles is essentially: Don’t just do something, stand there.
The Cavs plan is…don’t use up any cap space until 2014 and pray for “The Redemption”.
Plan B is the Las Vegas Cavaliers.
he mentions the Bynum deal. thank goodness that one didn’t go through. I love Hibbert, so I would include him with Batum (but both were restricted and matched by their original clubs).
Fun times in Cleveland today! CLEVELAND!
It is interesting, but I definitely think Kaczmarek is right on that one… CJ Miles is a horrible shooter off the dribble (because he tends to drift on his shot) and doesn’t tend to make good decisions with the ball either (driving into traffic and losing the ball). He’s excellent off the catch though… apparently the Cavs tweaked his shooting stroke to get him to straighten up in his shot and shoot more from the top of his jump, and it’s helped a ton with his consistency.
I love Ian Mahinmi. Huge guy, extremely athletic, only 26 years old, and developing some good skills. He’s the perfect foil for Hibbert in my mind. Hibbert can be really effective against older/unathletic teams (Spurs, Celtics, etc) and Mahinmi is really good against younger/athletic teams (Heat, Thunder, etc). I watched the Pacers game against the Heat the other day and Mahinmi matched up better with them and looked very impressive.
Yeesh, maybe I shouldn’t trust my eyes so much… Mahinmi’s stats stink this year.
watched alot of him with the Mavs, haven’t watched much of him with the Pacers this year.
w/ the Mavs, he was the perfect 5th big man. you trot him out anytime the other team tries to play smallball (which is more and more these days) and he wreaks havoc. anyone willing to put a shoulder into him though and he doesn’t know what to do.
non-Cavs NBA tangent:
anyone else loving Deron Williams this year? he tanked the last 2 years playing completely uninspired while trying to get himself onto a “stacked” team. and, now that the Nets have set him up with a team, he is finding that he cannot just flip that switch back as easily as he thought he could. serves him right.
note: I’d say the same for Dwight, but I think his back is still hampering him and he’ll be back to himself once/if healed properly.
I was never that high on Williams for me the best PG in the NBA has been and will be Chris Paul. The guy is finally being rewarded by of all teams the Clippers. He has the mental as well as physical tools to do whatever he has to for his team.
I’ll take some of the redemption but not the Vegas one. That won’t happen. On a side note I’m excited to see Seattle might be getting back a team even if it comes at the result of Sacramento losing theirs. Very ironic and unfortunate.
and he’ll punch anyone who doesn’t agree with that in their groin
That’s called being a competitor hell I’ve wanted to do the same to you a few times! 😉
It won’t happen as long as Gilbert is owner.
pretty sure Michael Jordan is also a competitor and was able to accomplish that without groin shots.