While We’re Waiting… for a New Year with a winning team

Cleveland sports fans are waiting. Thus, while we’re all waiting, the WFNY editors thought you might enjoy reading. Because you never know how long we might be waiting. So here are assorted reading goodies for you to enjoy. Send more good links for tomorrow’s edition to tips@waitingfornextyear.com.

“Fans have been screaming that the product on the field has been unacceptable and the team has now made a bold move that echoes these sentiments. The front office believes that if they can find the right coach, and more importantly the right QB, and then surround that QB with even more talent via the surplus of draft picks and cap space, that this team and roster should really only be one year away from being competitive and turning this franchise around. But should we be hopeful they can make the right decisions and make this happen?

We all know Mike Lombardi is gearing up for the draft and probably has some input on who the new coach should be since both will be a piece of the equation when it comes to bringing on new players and draft picks. That, folks, is scary. All along I was offered assurance that with Banner, Chud, Lombardi, Farmer and Haslam that the consensus would help shield the Browns from Lombardi’s history of draft failure, but bringing in a coach who could very well align with Mikey, this to me is very scary.” [Krupka/Dawgs by Nature]

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“Tom Brady gave his offensive coordinator the best possible recommendation on WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan Show on Monday. ‘Josh is the best offensive coach I could ever imagine,” Brady said. “He’s so prepared, he’s so confident in what he does. He figures out a way every week to get us in the best position as players to win. I have so much respect for him and what he does for me, what he does for our team. He’s just a great coach. He’s got a lot of poise, got a lot of discipline. I hope he doesn’t go anywhere. I mean, I’d love for him to coach me the rest of my life. But that’s just the way it is. He’s one of my best friends, and I love having him.'” [Perry/CSNNE]

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Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer’s video on his pitches and detailed breakdown of how he throws them and what he expects them to do. [Hardball Times]

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“Competitive balance is a nice buzzword, and sports owners do a great job of using it to make salary caps sound palatable to mouthpieces in the media and fans at home. But on substance, there’s nothing there. That Yankees money would still in the Steinbrenners’ bank accounts after a salary cap, and they’re either going to spend it on winning more games where other teams can’t or they’ll shove it into their own pockets. Quite frankly, neither sounds particularly balanced to me.” [Moore/Getting Blanked]

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“The lack of small forwards in the Cavalier rotation is the throbbing pain on this team. Through Saturday’s game against Boston, the Cavs utilized lineups featuring three of Kyrie, Dion, Jack, and Dellavedova for a total of 380 minutes. That is somewhat astonishing, considering all are “combo-guards”, not even the size of a prototypical “shooting guard”, let alone being a “small forward”. In the Celtics game, announcer Tommy Heinsohn commented on taking advantage of Jarrett Jack switching onto Jeff Green. Unfortunately, that was no defensive switch; Jack, Waiters or Delly is routinely playing out of position. Thirteen minutes per game, if you’re counting.

Granted, this hasn’t always failed; the pairings of Jack, Waiters & Delly and Irving, Waiters & Delly have outscored opponents by over 12 points per 100 possessions during their combined 140 minutes on the court. On the other hand though, the 41 minutes of Irving, Delly and Jack have been an abomination (outscored by 22 pp100p), while the most used group of Irving, Waiters and Jack (198 minutes), while not horrible, is getting outdistanced by 3 pp100p. That is losing, which ummm, is not the plan.” [Hetrick/Cavs the Blog]