WFNY Stats and Info: Browns first half vs. second half
October 19, 2013Buckeyes hold off Hawkeyes 34-24, Bradley Roby ejected for targeting
October 19, 2013Before Thursday’s preseason game against the Detroit Mike Brown revealed to the media that Anthony Bennett’s conditioning battles were partially attributed to the first overall pick dealing sleep apnea as well as having asthma.
In Jason Lloyd’s storyfor the Akron Beacon Journal, Brown explains the big man’s poor conditioning is due to a culmination of factors.
“It’s a culmination of a lot of things,” Brown said. “The shoulder, he’s been out for awhile, he’s got asthma, we’re throwing a lot at him. He’s probably never played this hard against this competition in his life. He’s got sleep apnea and some other things, he likes to stay up late. As a young person, that can affect you in a lot of ways the next day.”
Brown went on to comically describe how just watching Bennett run the floor makes him tired.
“Every time I watch him he’s (gasping),” Brown said. “It makes me tired, so I try not to look at him. I tell him, ‘If you need a sub, just tell me. Otherwise I’m not going to look at you.”
Conditioning is always a concern for a big man coming into the NBA, couple that with the fact Bennett was reportedly 18 pounds overweight this summer due to being limited from his off season shoulder surgery and the alarm bells start ringing for me.But is the guy we’ve watched lumber up and down the floor this preseason simply getting back into shape, or is this an issue that will plague him throughout his career?
A quick Google search of “athletes with asthma” returns results of Jerome Bettis, Dennis Rodman, and JaVale McGee — none of which ease my feelings going forward with Bennett.
Looking back at Bennett’s college stats and he only played 27 minutes a game last season in the Mountain West Conference. The Mountain West is rising the ranks of college basketball conferences, but the intensity and pace are nowhere near what Bennett will face in the NBA.
It’s way too early to write Bennett off as another Cleveland athlete whose career will be plagued with a mysterious injury or condition, but how his conditioning comes along is now near the top of what I’m watching for with Bennett — right behind if he grows his hair back out, if he flexes after monstrous dunks, and how many threes he drains. But in all seriousness this is something will have to be monitored.
In Grantland’s Annual League Pass Rankings, Bill Simmons questions the Cavs’ selection of Bennett.
“Let’s decide a date when we’re officially no longer allowed to say the word “Oladipo” to a Cleveland fan.”
While I’m a big Simmons’ guy, reading this angered me as I’m almost certain Simmons hasn’t seen the bright spots we’ve seen watching Bennett this preseason. I doubt he watched Bennett showcase his raw strength, ball handling, post moves, and range in the fourth quarter against Orlando. And I doubt he saw the threes he confidently hit against Detroit or this steal and thunderous throwdown.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITZcHrVCB94
Still, part of me wonders if Simmons is right. Oladipo may have been the safer pick at number one. There’s no doubt Bennett has upside, but with that upside comes risk. It feels unfair to judge Bennett on conditions that are out of his control, but the reality of it is asthma and sleep apnia will make it that much tougher to succeed in the NBA. As I’m not overly worried yet, the fact we’re used to seeing motorcycle accidents, staph infections, and blood clots derail some of Cleveland’s best athletes scares me into thinking that asthma could easily be the next line on that list.
(Photo: David Manning, USA TODAY Sports)
25 Comments
Plus the Browns just signed a guy with a torn ACL!
So you found one HOF’er, one soon to be a HOF’er and a decent NBA player with asthma and you are worried?? I think you may want to find so far worse examples to justify your concerns. Just sayin…
this guys a idiot.. and simmons is a bigger idiot. and i read that article where simmons and some other guy ranked the cavs as the 8th most exciting team to watch this upcoming season.. but the were pretty much labeling the cavs as a circus act surrounding the great kyrie irving.
but then at the same time, saying we have great trading assets and look forward to our “inpatient owner” to pulling the trigger on a trade to break up this young talented team.
i swear the media hates when cleveland has something good. they hate to see us doing something good. they long for kyrie to leave, which is why i think they are always propping him up and shooting the rest of the cavs / cleveland down. sound familiar? *cough* lebron era *cough*. media trick. gas up the 1 player you want while making him feel like hes way above his current situation to push him out.
they hate to see this young nucleus broken up. they hate what we have cuz they love what we are doing. but they hate cleveland, so they refuse to give us our props. what is it with the media and cleveland. why do they hate cleveland so much. and ryan jones is silly for even taking anything that clown bill simmons has to say with a grain of salt. hes a moron and a media puppet. an agenda pusher.
Asthma and sleep apnea are two of the less worrisome conditions in an athlete. There are easy treatments that work great for most people. Ya’ll should chill.
Bennett should definitely go see a Ear/Nose/Throat specialist…he may have a series of issues in that region. I had a deviated septum as well as a lot of polyps in both of my nostrils which made breathing through my nose all but impossible. This means that I’d “get winded” quick and made it difficult to play sports (though I continue to work out and play sports…even if at a much lower level than the NBA.) LOL
I also have a long soft pallet…so when I sleep on my back…the back of my throat tends to collapse into my esophagus (causing me to have sleep apnea.)
Had one surgery to fix the nose issues and my quality of life (as well as sports) quickly improved. I was able to go out and take an Army PT test 10 days later with no issues (2 minutes of pushups, 2 minutes of situps and a 2 mile run.) In fact, I was able to run a faster time than I had in years.
I’m feeling kind of anxious that they shut Francisco Lindor down with a cranky back and that Ray Horton will leave.
(Is this how you play?)
I don’t get the picking of Oladipo when he plays Waiters position…just shows Simmons is idiotic in basketball knowledge and doesnt know all the teams needs….as per Bennett I think he’ll be okay…Waiters had issues last year and still played solid enough to be top 3 rookie last year and looks to be improved already this year….for a #1 pick bennett is coming off the bench and has little pressure to do much since everything will be on irving,waiters, tt, and varajao, etc
I agree with Leo, the Cavs didn’t and still don’t need Victor Oladipo, why are we even discussing him?
Asthma and Sleep Apnea don’t have me worried; once Bennett gets into shape and drops a few pounds, the Sleep Apnea might just disappear. If I’m not mistaken, apnea has a high correlation to being overweight.
Simmons is one of those people who were bearable before ESPN put him on all the time. Now he’s a typical annoying ESPN personality. As far as Bennet goes, it’s still early and only preseason.
Maybe they can win 30 games before we get all upset at them not saying the team is great, because, you know, the team hasn’t shown it’s that good yet. Plenty of potential, little results so far, and that’s what the national media is saying. Sometimes, and I know this shocks Cleveland fans, the media isn’t down on our crappy teams that have yet to show they can make the playoffs simply because they are crappy teams that have yet to show they can make the playoffs, and not because ESPN thinks anything they say can actually influence where Irving goes. Take the tin foil hat off.
Simmons was against the Bennett selection and loved Oladipo at the draft. Until Bennett proves otherwise, he will continue to repeat this refrain. If he does prove otherwise, he’ll just drop the constant references to Oladipo (or if he ends up disappointing).
ahhh.. the tin foil hat insult.. very original.. but yet, very predictable.
either you see the bullshit, hide the bullshit, or justify the bullshit. not sure who you are, but my instinct is screaming you are ryan jones.
but lets not ignore how the media loves to make jokes about cleveland, the mocking, the constant insults. everything is in clear view to see.
why does espn always stress simmons to constantly beat up the trade idea dion waiters and andy to the LAKERS FOR THE CORPSE OF PAU GASOL. i thought everybody surrounding kyrie was a joke.. so wouldnt that make andy and dion part of the circus act in cleveland? so why would they want dion and andy in LA so badly? funny how timely this lopsided trade is… comes at a desperate time in LA, a time where they need to reload, and 2 players like dion waiters and andy wouldnt be a bad beginning to a reload. a big man who has a proven impact on the game, and a promising explosive young talent in dion.. but, yet they refuse to acknowledge them in anyway respectful way regarding the CAVS..
why must they constantly attach lebron to every cavs headline.. every single cavs story somehow circles back around to lebron… why is this? why do they FORCE OUR NEW CAVS TEAM TO LIVE UNDER LEBRONS SHADOW? also, why do they talk to kyrie about him? why do they force him to live under lebrons shadow? is that just another method to get him tired of being in cleveland? not only does his team never get respect, but he now has to fill lebrons shoes.. now saying its guaranteed, but its a nice attempt at squeezing kyrie out of cleveland..
especially when you add in all the “kyrie wants out of cleveland” rumors.. they kind of showed their hand with all those rumors.. but i dont expect you to acknowledge that as anything substantial.. on top of all those kyrie to lakers rumors that were floating.. and how many pics did you see of kyrie in a lakers jersey floating around on facebook.. who could be making these rumors up? the media.. dont have to be guaranteed, just have to plant the seed. the seed is the idea, in case you didnt put that together.
not even going to completely cover this video…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6n3CYaQoio
simmons and jalen rose… went completely disrespectful on cleveland and the cavs… showed their ass… not even going to get into every little detail…
one again covering the dion and andy trade for gasol.. even tried to say that rudy gay would be a great addition to the cavs.. really.. rudy gay? they want cleveland to add mediocre talent, old talent, and be stuck in 8-10 seeds for the foreseeable future.
cant stop talking about lebron, like theres nothing to discuss about the cavs, except a player thats not even on the cavs.
wont respect jarret jack… said we overpaid and he thinks hes jordan.. which may be true, but jarret jack is not only the jarret jack on the court. hes also jarret jack in the locker room, on the court, and jarret the leader and mentor, also, our badly needed backup PG… so thats money well spent. and hes proven in the playoffs. which is never a bad thing. have a feeling if he went anywhere else, that team would have been praised for the pickup. anywhere but cleveland.
and they are so disrespectful and think so lowly of cleveland, that they wont even acknowledge our right lake.. lake Michigan? really? they know damn well its lake eerie.. but they just want to disrespect the cleveland and the cavs.. to give us the “loser” aura.. because, who wants to play for a loser in a “loser” city..
they refuse to acknowledge that kyrie NOW has a TEAM around him.. instead of talking about the cavs and their future, immediate future, like, “im looking forward to seeing how cleveland does this year. kyrie finally has the right team surrounding him, they can make the playoffs pretty easily this year even if bynum doesnt contribute, but from reports, hes almost ready for game action so this should be interesting”… instead of respecting the cavs, they say we will finish way out of the playoffs and be worse than the bucks.. how many slaps in the face can they give? you dont do that “accidentally”.. thats intentional.. and why?
maybe its just me, but now that we have a team and promise, they have been getting worse with the disrespect… is that a coincidence? i dont think so. and i really shouldnt have even types all that. i could go on but i wasted enough time talking about the obvious.
so you can take your $2 post and shove it up your ass.
hes naturally a SG, but ORL got him playing point… so essentially, hes playing both, dion and kyries position.. which is dumb. we went and got a proven leader / mentor, and playoff presence in jarret jack. we did great this off season. simmons is just a mindless idiot.
Did you ever watch Rodman play basketball? He was kind of active.
Too bad we couldn’t have know about these things before wasting a second round pick on a project.
Oh wait, you’re saying he was the first pick in the draft?
Never mind.
Whoa nellie. You’ve got some issues. Some grammar would help too.
ESPN doesn’t stress Simmons to suggest that trade. That’s the wonderful world of Simmons at his finest. Throwing out a bunch of random ideas, and ignoring how well they’d work in reality. That’s been his shtick for years. There’s no anti-Clevelandness to it.
Why does ESPN attach Lebron to every headline? For the same reason everyone else is, it’s a potential huge story. It’s a wonderful narrative to write, and every writer, everywhere, and his mother is hoping to cash in on that story.
The “Irving will leave” story was not from ESPN, but some radio morning show host. Let’s keep the facts straight.
As far as the Simmons/Rose video, it’s not supposed to be high level analysis. If anyone ever goes to Simmons for that, they need their head re-screwed on again. A group of NBA fans still think Gay is a good-to-great player. It is what it is. Recognize that there is more to playing well than PPG, but that’s not an anti-Cleveland bias.
Rose predicted 6th man of the year for Jack, but somehow he’s being disrespected? I can assure you that Rose just slipped up with the Lake Michigan comments. Man, if you think that is an intentional knock, you need to lighten up Francis. And Rose predicted them to make the playoffs. It’s like you only watched half the video.
They’ve been getting worse with the disrespect? Have you seen what they said about the team the last two years compared to now?
It seems like you finally have jumped on the bandwagon and started paying attention, and are shocked when a team that has yet to win 30 games isn’t overly loved. But I’m sure you’ll be back here saying “man, ESPN was right, and I was wrong” if this team wins 35-40 games, just barely makes the playoffs, right?
you have some reading comprehension problems. but i have issues? everything i said is pretty clear and elaborated.
i really dont feel like typing another novel to you again, especially since the game is on so ill keep it short.
like i said, either you see it, hide it, or justify it. not sure if you are hiding or justifying. but its pretty clear its one or the other. im good where im at with viewing the media. ill continue to filter their bullshit, tricks, and propaganda. lets not act like the media doesnt have tricks like they play fair.. kind of ironic that the media capital is LA, right… laker land. lakers have a lot going for them being that they have the media on their side.
and it wasnt just a radio host with the kyrie rumor. there were multiple sources. lets keep the facts straight.. and guess where they came from.. LA.. and guess where they had him going.. LA.. is this a coincidence? to you, its nothing. thats why im wasting my time talking to a naive closed minded individual.
and no i didnt just “jump on the wagon”. that was a poor attempt at a insult. i been coming around more and more to the medias tricks in the last few years. say what you want.. but you look extremely naive if you really believe what you say.
another thing.. gay is extremely overrated lol. silly guy.
A severely undersized, overweight tweener who has asthma, conditioning issues, and sleep apnea, is coming off surgery, and plays zero defense. What could go wrong.
This knucklehead is not going to be a contributed this year. We should’ve taken noel or, at worst, oladipo. Bad move and Dan gilbert is to blame (for win now mentality).
You’ve done zero to demonstrate that my statements are incorrect. Only innuendo, and attributing a homer radio host statement’s to the wrong person.
My only point on the “jump on the wagon” thing is that if you think the media is harsh on the Cavs now, you must have missed everything they’ve said since Lebron left. They’re downright giddy in comparison.
You’re not changing your mind, but, my god, I don’t know how you enjoy sports with that mindset that everyone is out to get your team.
Sleep apnea is a serious issue. Sleep apnea is when people stop breathing momentarily during sleep and often make choking sounds. People may also wake up abruptly and start gasping for air. Other signs are: limbs jerking during sleep, morning headaches, waking up tired and thirsty, irritability, memory problems, daytime fatigue, having an irresistible urge to nap. So these fall out issues will have a detrimental effect on anyone who is training, let alone a professional athlete.
“everyone is out to get your team”
comments like this are annoying.
i dont have to argue your weak argument. i stated my side clearly.. and its very realistic in the big scheme of things. your take is very bland. the common pitch to defending a ill agenda. “no its not what it looks like!”
its easy to argue a hidden agenda.. because its hidden. the hidden agenda is the root to the surface.
bill simmons WORKS for ESPN. do you know what it means when you work for somebody? they tell you what to do. you do what you are told.
lol @ this analysis.
you gave your stupidity away when you said, “plays zero defense”.
no, hes not the greatest playing team defense at this point.. coming from a university who didnt put a ounce of stress on defense.. but his post defense is already good. still got a lot to learn, but hes a brick wall down there. this would be obvious if you watched him.
but you obviously YOU didnt like the pick on draft night, and your current view shows just that.
I pointed out where the flaws in your argument were, and you ignored them, because they don’t fit your blinders-on thoughts.
And Simmons has butted heads with ESPN management on more than a couple occasions. He’s earned himself a lot of free rein.
Your “realistic” side is ignoring half the things said in that Simmons/Rose video. It’s not an accurate portrayal of anything.
you havnt pointed out any flaws in my argument. you just addressed another side to the same situation. you didnt “correct” anything.