Mike Brown needs to speak up
February 3, 2014WFNY Roundtable: The unofficial rules of athletes talking or not
February 4, 2014Cleveland 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.
“Honestly, I like Chris Grant. I think he makes smart, calculated decisions in free agency and via trades. The draft is where he loses a lot of people; but, the Bennett pick notwithstanding, it’s not like he’s passed on no-brainers. Would I have preferred Jonas over Tristan? Sure, but the difference in output is, thus far, insignificant. Same with Barnes and Waiters.
The Bennett selection is where the CG frustration comes to a head. If Bennett stays in Cleveland, receives 10 or less minutes per for the rest of this year and doesn’t make a noticeable jump this offseason, that will reflect poorly on the organization.” [Duprey/Stepien Rules]
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“The Cavaliers probably had something to prove after a particularly tumultuous weekend. There are reports that the roster is headed for detonation, that new all-star on the block Luol Deng can’t believe how laissez-faire the whole team is, and that the team is generally swamped by darkness. How a team responds to diversity and negativity is a big indicator of their potential. Reporters have called the Durant-Westbrook relationship into question before, but it always seems like they respond with a defiant show of togetherness. Against the Mavericks, the Cavaliers played the most average Cavs game I’ve seen from them. They weren’t horrible, but there was a lack of urgency. The Mavericks maintained a steady lead over Cleveland all game and the Cavs yawned themselves to death.” [Redford/Cavs the Blog]
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“The Tribe needs to do what it can to keep Santana in the lineup as much as possible, and if they can do that while keeping him out from behind the plate as much as possible, all the better. The team didn’t do much to upgrade its offense during the off-season, so Santana’s bat is an important one.
The club also needs to find a way to get the situation at third base figured out. The Tribe enjoyed almost a decade of production from the position between Jim Thome, Matt Williams and Travis Fryman, but ever since Fryman retired after the 2002 season, third base has turned into the Indians’ equivalent of the quarterback position for the Cleveland Browns.” [Moore/Red Right 88]
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Finally, tweet of the night. Wanna mulligan?
strong bleachereport take from 2012 pic.twitter.com/ZVMdyFGngt
— PFTCommenter (@PFTCommenter) February 3, 2014
26 Comments
The Mavs won every single quarter last night. At no point did the Cavs have enough fire to get stops on defense… it was comical watching Monta Ellis drive right down the lane and get whatever he wanted. Please blow this team up. Defense is about desire… the Cavs have no desire.
I disagree with Duprey on whether the difference between Barnes and Waiters is insignificant. Waiters appears to be a malcontent and, more importantly, he’s a ball-dominant guard who can’t play defense where you already had a ball-dominant guard.
Barnes, while perhaps little different from Waiters statistically, would not have compounded your guard issue.
I’ve always liked Waiters, but he has to go yesterday. He should have gone in the off-season to be honest.
” They weren’t horrible, but there was a lack of urgency. The Mavericks
maintained a steady lead over Cleveland all game and the Cavs yawned
themselves to death.”
Exactly what I saw in the 10 minutes or so I could stand to watch. But there’s this sense that as soon as any opponent looks up at the scoreboard and wakes up the Cavs immediately back down and here come the onslaught of lay-ups and open 3s. Sure, the offense is a mess, but they have zero idea idea how to ratchet up the intensity and maintain it in order to win ugly.
Also, I was a big Tristan booster but I’m about ready to close that book. If he’s both too weak and too ungainly to score under the basket, and if he either won’t or can’t play smart, strong, intense defense, then there’s precious little of value there. Grant drafted a nice, herky-jerky kid with neither an offensive game nor the heart to bang. The only improvement in his crucial third year was to make his horrendous free throw shooting average. A fading Varajao is way better and that’s not good at all for the Cavs’ future.
Probably a fair point … I should’ve been more clear. On a talent level, I like the pick. Overall, now that it appears Waiters is unlikely to be a Cavalier past this season, I don’t like the pick. A No. 4 selection should last more than 2 years on his original team.
Unfortunately, I agree.
4.5 games out of the playoffs. 4 games out of the second worst record in the NBA in a loaded draft. #tankstrong
I’m not sure it needs blown up, but it needs major reconstructive surgery.
I’m thinking Waiters should be gone. I think he’ll get his act together and be a 10yr vet in this league as a bench-scorer. But, I also think he needs the brutal truth of a team (or more) giving up on him first.
Clark, Gee, and Jack can all be tossed aside. They are contributing to the problem of apathy.
I think Thompson and Irving are salvageable. I honestly think with a Tyson Chandler type defensive leader they could get their act together. Of course, there are only so many of those guys in the league. Yes, I get that Kyrie has his issues with energy/defense, but he is too talented to give up on. I’m willing to give him time, but we definitely have to make him aware he needs to improve.
I think we should be shopping our 2014 1st rounder (w/ some protection, top6 or 8). We need veterans and we need guys who care. It’s either we shop this pick or we tank and shop Kyrie. I’m much more willing to shop the unknown.
And, I love Andy, but, yeah, he’s on the table in most trade situations too in order to balance the $$$. Plus, he hasn’t been able to get his teammates to follow his lead with energy and focus, so we need to get a new voice in there.
I completely agree as well. In the Kyrie draft, it at least appeared that Grant cared about character along with talent (Tristan and Kyrie both were noted as good workers and good people).
But, neither Waiters nor Bennett were known to be gym rat workers with a great off-court desire. It may be part of his undoing here.
I disagree on Tristan. I think he’s got the heart (he’s shown it in the past), but the entire team is in a discouraged funk. If the NY Daily article was true at all, then it’s likely the off-court drama manifesting itself in games. We need to break this team down and build it back up.
The fact that this team is only 4.5 out of the playoffs speaks to the unspeakable horridness of the East this year. If you play for whatever flaming hairy turd of team that “claims” the 7th and 8th seed in the East you better look at the ground and shuffle quietly when you pass members of the 4 far more deserving teams Western teams that are going to stay home.
Exactly – it’s meaningless. Meaning they better not try to add another piece this year just to try to make the playoffs. It’s pointless. Play for the draft and continue to build the core.
Yes, I was definitely being hyperbolic when saying that we need to blow the entire team up, but it would certainly be cathartic if it actually happened (big words!). I think you hit the nail on the head saying that our team needs a defensive anchor like Tyson Chandler (or to a lesser extent, I’d take Andrew Bogut, Robin Lopez, or someone like that). When you have good perimeter defenders, like the Miami Heat, you can get away with having no paint patroller. The Cavs’ perimeter defenders are little more than scarecrows… anybody who wants to drive to the hoop can do so at will, and as much as I love Anderson Varejao, he’s not going to stop them from doing whatever they want once they get close to the rim. I’m perplexed by the complete absence of Matthew Dellavedova these days, and the way he’s misused when he is in the game. Mike Brown loves to put Delly on the point guard when he’s in the game, rather than using him on the wing players who he was so effective at guarding early on this season. It reminds me of how Byron Scott saw Alonzo Gee shut down Chris Paul once and decided he needed to use Gee only against point guards from then on. Start Delly with Irving, Deng, Thompson, and Varejao and see how well that works. The Jarrett Jack as starting 2-guard experiment obviously isn’t paying dividends.
Seattle has a simply fantastic defense, but that doesn’t mean Bruce Irvin wasn’t a stretch at #15 overall. He had a nice rookie season, but regressed with 2 sacks and 4 QB hits in 12 games this season in spite of being drafted primarily as a pass-rusher.
I think that Grant’s picks will all stack up okay against their peers in a vacuum. My problem is that Grant deserves a big flaming F for team building.
In his first lottery Grant took an undersized ball dominant guard and an undersized project power forward. In his subsequent two lotteries he took an undersized ball dominant guard and an undersized project power forward.
While Barnes and Waiters have similar stats, the Irving/Waiters redundant skill set problem has crippled the entire team. Failing to get TT help up front in the form of a true center (his disappearing acts seem to coincide with Andy injuries), has hurt his production.
This teams construction is really a stunning display of incompetence, on Grant’s part. Draft 1 you pick up PG and PF. Now you have 3 positions to fill. So draft 2 you take… The exact same guard from the year before and a project big man. Never mind the fact that there was a very nice wing who would complement Irving, or since Grant obsesses over project big men Drummond could have been had. The lack of work ethic argument falls flat because I don’t remember Waiters work ethic being touted as one of his attributes.
The next year you bring back a coach who hates the mistakes that young players makes, hates rookies even more, and hates having to explain elementary facts of defense most of all and then dump in his lap yet another undersized project power forward, and a 19 year old euro who everyone knew is going to struggle defensively.
I agree that Grant has won in the trade department but it has been completely negated by his terrible team building. He’s like a baseball player that manages to hit triples every time he’s up but gets thrown out every time for taking to big of a lead off 3rd.
Sorry I’m rambling, I’ve been heated ever since heard the Grant’s interview a week or so ago when he answered “Yyyyeaah, I kinda think they dooo…” when asked if the players take losing personally.
To me he is Lumbergh, and every time I watch the Cavs I’m Peter dreaming he’s having sex with Jennifer Aniston while still giving apathetic middle management orders. “Mmmm, yeah, Mike, I’m going to need you to go ahead and play Bennett some more minutes mmmkay?”
besides, it’s B-R, so can we trust the writer? it’s not like it was a writer for nfl.com who actually got to see Russell Wilson start for 4 weeks before writing:
Right now, the perception of Wilson as a success does not match the reality on the game tape. The Seahawks have to find a way to score more, and they have to see whether Flynn can help them do that.
Sorry Michael Lombardi. You walked into that one.
of course, he also said:
Monday was a sad day in the NFL.
It was sad that so many coaches and executives lost their jobs,
and it’s sad that so many families are going to be disrupted. It’s also sad that so many NFL franchises have not found the right infrastructure for sustained success. Monday’s firings were not entirely the fault of the people being fired; some of those who kept their jobs were as responsible as their former colleagues for their teams’ failures.
Ok, ok, I’ll stop piling on.
I disagree. I’d dangle the pick (protected, we’re not the clippers) trying to obtain the defensive veterans we need to rebuild this team the correct way.
Kyrie/Tristan/Bennett aren’t going to listen to a new fangled rookie. We need someone to take charge of the team and change the direction.
The Cavaliers played well not defense given they allowed 124 pts. Go Mike Brown go!
I haven’t seen much heart out of him this year at all. And his offense is frankly offensive. I think I’d rather see him go back to being a lefty because clearly all the work he’s done to use his right hand for anything other then foul shooting has been a failure.
Prior to the last week I still held out hope now unfortunately I have to agree they would be better off playing for a higher lottery pick then trying to sneak into say the 8th playoff spot. That is unless we start to see some signs but I’ve been saying that since the Deng trade.
Kyrie/Tristan/Bennett aren’t going to listen to a new fangled rookie.
Maybe not but when that rookie with actual talent outplays them perhaps they’ll notice. (Applies more to Thompson and Bennett not to mention Waiters) Not only that use some of that financial flexibility that Grant has been accruing the past three years and add some proven veteran talent even if it’s just one All-Star. Waiters, Gee, Clark, Jack, Varejao (like you said only because he’s the only other real asset other then Irving), Bennett and even Thompson would all be on the trading block.
Drummond. And it’s embarassing for the writer to suggest that maybe Dion has equalled Drummond’s production.
I can’t kill Grant for whiffing on Drummond. So did Charlotte, Sacramento, Golden State, and Toronto.
Outside of that, I’m wholly with you.
I think you made my point. You should never have to walk into your bosses office and say “Hey I know I missed on that one, but that just makes me as good of a talent evaluator as the Maloof’s and Michael Jordan. 🙂
Seriously though, Sac had already taken Boogie Cousins 2 years earlier (a Boogie/Drummond front court would be amazing, if I could watch them battle Gasol/Randolph in a 7 game series I would probably give up a kidney), Toronto had taken Jonas Charlotte was riding with Bismark, and Golden State was in with Bogut. 2 years in a row, Grant passed on high ceiling big men and took a major project 4 and a project 2 with questionable attitude and redundant skills to KI.
I’m not saying it had to be Drummond but to ignore Drummond and Barnes and take Dion, sight unseen is negligent to the point of incompetence, in my opinion. (again, sorry if I’m coming off flaming, his presser just really made me long for Paxson to come back.
You convinced me!
wish I disagreed with myself about Tristan. It’s not just the heart. I’ve forced myself to look at him objectively. He has few decent basketball skills, he’s just weak under the basket and he’s not a very coordinated athlete. And he seems to have a very low basketball IQ as to how to score from point blank range when he has position – how to use leverage, do a countermove, sell a fake, even just execute a reverse lay up. He needs more skills just to be a valuable rotation guy, never mind a starter who is somewhat effective on both ends of the floor. For two plus years I was just projecting what skills I hoped he’d pick up but it’s simply not happening.