Larry Hughes: Victim of Economic Downturn
April 20, 2009For Mike Brown, COY Is Fitting Award
April 20, 2009I participated in a round table discussion over at the PD last weekend, in which the question was asked “Which role player needs to step up for the Cavaliers to win the title?” My first inclination was to say Daniel Gibson, in fact I have been writing as much for over a month now. But the more I thought about it, the more I kept coming around to Joe Smith’s name. His rap career notwithstanding, Smith is certainly best at creating offense in the high post. It is perhaps his ability to defend those larger than him that could mean the difference between the Cavs winning and losing a championship this year. Especially if Ben Wallace isn’t close to 100%.
One of the interesting storylines of game 1 that probably got swept under the rug was the health of Ben Wallace. At first, it seemed he wouldn’t play at all, but then we were told before the game to expect to see Ben. Wallace played 12 minutes on Saturday. He grabbed one rebound and handed out an assist. At best I would say that we can grade his performance as incomplete. I didn’t see any signs that he was favoring either leg, but he didn’t seem to be terribly active or physical during his brief time on the floor.
Joe Smith on the other hand was excellent. He certainly contributed on the offensive end, and didn’t hurt us defensively. Truthfully, this isn’t the series that I worry about Smith’s defense though.
Some have suggested that Mike Brown rest Wallace for the first series. I’m not sure I agree. I feel comfortable that the Cavs would be fine in this series playing Smith and Darnell Jackson the majority of the back-up minutes, but I would like Ben to get some confidence in that knee if it is ready to go. Let’s not forget that Ben wasn’t completely over his inactivity from the broken lower leg when his knee starting to give him trouble.
It seems that Wallace’s knee has given Mike Brown the easy out when it comes to who should be the starting PF. We can only hope that Wallace is able to come off the bench and provide some inside toughness when it is needed down the road.
6 Comments
I hate resting guys for the next series. It has been 1 game, we need to treat each and every game equally.
My man crush on Darnell grows every day….
@TD
Agreed, Agreed, Agreed … and i’m not ashamed at all
Is that OK that I read this? Because in all honestly, I have moral, ethical and religious reasons against hurting (or even killing) someone who violently attacked me, my wife and my kids.
Rick, I’ve been at the PD a few times (failed job interviews, if you want the reason), but I noticed they had very few such “roundtables.” The ones I saw were more rhombus in nature. Perhaps those are the first to go during such an economic downturn.
I honestly think Big Ben is very much a rhythm and I personally think choppy minutes serve him better than zero minutes. At least with minimal minutes throughout the series he is able to stay “warm.”