Buckeyes beat Marquette in first early season test
November 16, 2013Hyde, Buckeyes extend streak to 22, but about that defense…
November 17, 2013Andrew was fired up after the Cavs won. I can only imagine what this podcast would have been like if they lost.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and Kyrie Irving
Player’s only meetings and what’s going on with that
Dion Waiters and maybe not taking a leap as quickly
Anderson Varejao and his age
Can Varejao be traded?
What is this thing that Chris Grant built?
Anthony Bennett and how brutal it is that this is the #1 draft pick
The game doesn’t look natural to Anthony Bennett
Andrew wanted Oladipo. Craig Wanted Ben McLemore
10 Comments
Did TT “make the leap” after 10 games last year? Did you know Bradley Beal is shooting 40% in his second year? Do you guys know about any other players other than those on the Cavs? Oh and Barnes is averaging like 8 points a game.
The 3 guard system is the key to this team, as we saw tonight. That is because our superstar is NOT a PG. Keeping the ball out of his hands and instead playing him off the ball is far more effective as we’ve seen in BOTH overtime victories lately.
We are the second youngest team in the league. The oldest teams in the league last year all made the playoffs. You should stop watching this team if you cannot have some perspective and patience. It is ludicrous to panic or question our draft picks. Both Wash and Det have more proven vets then us and BOTH HAVE WORSE RECORDS THEN WE DO! Get some damned perspective. Please.
Oh and neither Olidipo or McLemore are showing themselves as being as good as Dion was last year. So, please, Hindsight Gods, what possible difference could either of those players have made on this team this year? Bennett is a project pick. This draft was full of projects and mediocre players.
I like that you’re trying to cover all the sports in Cleveland, but I’m curious how any person could still have the passion to be a Cavs fan. I merely see a league where 4-5 teams have a legit shot at the title and the rest of the teams blow.
The Decision just showed me that ESPN, like a common street prostitute, is willing to do anything for money. Even if that means destroying a franchise. I know it’s unlikely that the Browns or Indians will rake in the championships anytime soon, but at least they don’t have to deal with the nonsense of the NBA.
LeBron left a sour taste in my mouth and I don’t know how anybody can say he didn’t dim the lights on the team, let alone the league.
Btw, I don’t know what I hoped to accomplish by this rant. If you’re a Cavs fan this probably won’t sway you over to not liking hem, but I wanted to know if a part of you ever considered not covering them anymore because of the BS of the system.
TD, I think we can agree that twitter tends to magnify less reasoned opinions and lends itself to competing fan anxieties. But even with his 41 last night, Kyrie is simply not playing the point position well. Washington folded last night like all Randy Wittman teams, matching the Cavs bonehead turnover for bonehead turnover. Kyrie looks more like Allen Iverson right now than Chris Paul. As Austin Carr keeps pointing out, he’s letting the defense trap him in a corner and then attempting a heroic dribble or shot to get out, rather than reacting quickly, giving up the ball, getting it back to re-set or positioning himself to get a pass and slash. He’s confused, the Cavs don’t seem to running set plays for others to shoot and he’s defaulting to I’ll Bail Us Out ball. He does care, absolutely. But he’s confused and hesitating.
Right now he reminds me of a young gifted QB who can both run and throw, but when he sees a rush he can’t help but take off with the ball himself. He needs to know who he can trust and how to deliver it to them. This team needs a lot of practice reps on offense right now.
TD?
To your comments about his struggles with the trap, I actually blame that more on the offense than I do on Kyrie. When Kyrie has the ball, the only other offensive player who moves is the guy who comes to set the pick. Even when Kyrie is double teamed and trapped, everyone is just standing around. There are no hard cuts, no working off the ball to get open in position to score. The only time someone moves, it seems to be a move away from the basketball to get out of the way so they don’t have to be involved in the offense.
Kyrie hasn’t shot the ball well and he’s struggled to adapt to the late trap defense teams are running on him. But I don’t question his effort or attitude out there. I’ve seen him give way more efforts in all aspects. Kyrie is a scoring PG. He’s never going to be a CP3, Rubio, or Rondo type PG. But his assists are at a career high. He’s 11th in the NBA in assists per game. And that’s on a team where there are no scorers other than Kyrie. Dion is the 2nd leading scorer at 13.3 ppg. The only other teams to have a 2nd leading scorer averaging 13.3 or less are Boston, Milwaukee, San Antonio, and the Lakers. And the only player on those teams to average more assists than Kyrie is Steve Blake for the Lakers (7.3 apg to 7.0 apg).
No, I have never considered that.
Andrewandrewandrew (sorry!).
Agree that few are moving, though Andy is still doing what he does without the ball. But again, Kyrie is making a technical mistake – reacting to lack of movement by moving into the corner of the floor where he thinks he can go baseline. Teams now anticipate this move and send help and he’s pinned there with the baseline and sideline as extra defenders. This results in the Curly Neal dribbling to escape. He needs to stay up top and demand movement, or give it to Andy and take it back at another angle. He has to take charge and demand his guys move – not so quickly default to superhero.
I agree that Kyrie needs to adapt to how teams are playing him. I would agree with anyone who says Kyrie hasn’t played as well as he’s capable of. What I don’t like is how quickly Cavs fans are turning on Kyrie, making him into the villain, taking their frustrations with this team out on him, and projecting a poor attitude on him. I’m just trying to make people realize that Kyrie has improved several aspects of his game, is playing harder than anyone, is continuing to try to develop leadership, and in general has been a great player to have on the Cavaliers.
agree on all. Twitter doesn’t represent fan consensus, though. It rewards instant blowhard opinions. That’s why I read Andrew 😉
I know, I really need to stay off Twitter more.