Still Waiting…
May 14, 2010NBA Free Agency: LeBron James Apparently Has a Plan
May 14, 2010While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com
Yeah, about that… “Perhaps Shaq’s “win a ring for the King” plan served to damage his own narrative by reaffirming the importance of the perimeter players he has teamed with. The phrase on its face seems like traditional Shaq bravado — “LeBron hasn’t been able to do it for himself, so I’ll handle it” — but it’s really a bit of self-deprecation. O’Neal admitted defeat in Phoenix and attached himself to the league’s best player. He effectively told the world he needed to be a role player, even if that admission came wrapped in his own self-trumpeting.
The fact is that Shaq is simply not a king-maker any longer. In fact, it could be argued he’s a drain: the Suns, after all, are in the Western Conference Finals after essentially trading O’Neal for nothing last summer, and the Cavs have regressed with Shaq in tow. That speaks to an unsure future for the big fella, who has claimed he wants to play a couple more years before hulking off into the sunset. Shaq is a free agent come July 1.” [Tom Ziller/NBA FanHouse]
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Trade deadline hindsight? “It appears the Cavaliers didchoose Jamison over Stoudemire, and did so because Jamison “fit” better and they could still keep Hickson. Now that we’ve seen the way this has played out, it’s clear Jamison isn’t fitting in, keeping Hickson was pointless because he never plays and Stoudemire is way, way better than anyone realized. In making their decision, Cleveland overrated Jamison considerably, both as a player and in terms of his ability to fit in. Cleveland figured that the difference between Jamison and Stoudemire wasn’t great enough to risk whatever possible chemistry issues might come. They were very wrong.” [Mike Prada/SBNation]
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Obviously, staying put at home in Cleveland where he can get the most money and years on a contract compared to other suitors. He knows the organization, he knows the players that will be returning, he knows the city, and perhaps most importantly, he knows what must be done to win an NBA championship after two disappointing postseasons that carried NBA title expectations. Perhaps even now, he’ll have the Kobe Bryant level desire for a ring. Not simply just wanting one, but needing one.The sting of a loss is still fresh, but it’s very possible that after the nagging pain and dark clouds passing, the clarity of knowing the Cavs offer the best chance for LeBron to win that elusive championship will come before the King and he will accept it.” [Dennis Velasco/Fanway.com]
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Whipsawed, son: “Antawn Jamison and Shaquille O’Neal is the perfect frontline — for an Orlando series. Shaq would have done a good job against Howard defensively, and Jamison would have been able to guard Lewis on the perimeter. The problem is that the Cavs didn’t get to play Orlando, and Boston absolutely murdered this frontline. The KG/Jamison matchup was a disaster, and in game six Antawn didn’t come close to making up for it on the offensive end. Shaq had his moments offensively, but Boston doesn’t run anything through Perkins, he got beat to rebound after rebound, and he got shredded defensively more than a few times on the pick-and-roll.
I don’t know what the attitude in the locker room was; all I know is that from a team-building point of view, this team looked past Boston.” [Cavs the Blog]
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And finally, more human than human: “That fear has real vulnerability — as you can hear in the post-game snarkiness from the supposedly omnipotent James. But it doesn’t stem from egotism or entitlement; LeBron James is not a prima donna sulking because things didn’t go his way. In the same way that he delights at a ridiculous fast break or a teammate’s flush, LeBron James is feeling the game like anyone else would. He’s just a zillion times better at it. And yet the concerned LBJ is the somewhat comforting (not demeaning!) flipside of what LeBron really shows on the court.This isn’t a god, or a toy sent from beyond the stratosphere to amuse us. He’s great because of his humanity, and in one of the worst losses of his career, he registered a very human, very revealing emotion.
Kobe or Durant would have radiated anger or frustration. LeBron, unable to get out and play his game, got worried, even lost. Does that make him perfect? No. More human? Yes. And really, isn’t it about time we start injecting a little more of that into our view of The Next Great Basketball Savior?” [Shoals/NBAFanHouse]
40 Comments
I nominate “The Collapse.”
So what’s Prada’s source that the Cavs chose Jamison over Amare? Everyone, and I mean everyone, including Windhorst, said the Cavs wanted Amare more. The Suns, like last year with Shaq, refused to bite and the Cavs had no choice but to move on. It’s a little revisionist history going on now to claim that the Cavs really wanted Jamison over Amare and that the Cavs turned down the Suns.
Additionally, I think Jamison did fit in well…until Shaq returned. As Windhorst points out, Shaq and Jamison never played together until game 1 of the Bulls series. We saw how long it took to integrate Shaq into the starting lineup at the beginning of the season. I, like most, thought he would fit in fine when he returned from injury to play with Jamison. I, like most, was completely wrong.
But the Indians still…At least the Browns are…The great thing about Cleveland is…
Nuts.
I love that we didnt trade for Stoudemire because we wanted to keep Hickson, but then never played him in the playoffs!!!
Wasn’t it odd that LeBron went around after the game hugging everybody in green and whispering in their ear? As you remember, after Orlando last year, he said he couldn’t congratulate anyone who just beat him. Last night he was Mr. Touchy-Feely. Was he being sincere or was he doing that be be a wise guy? Weird.
Wasn’t “The Collapse” what happend a couple years ago against Boston in the ALCS?
Mr. Cleaveland
The Cavs didn’t get close enough to a title for this year to even deserve a name.
I just heard a song on the radio that’s pretty fitting for us…
“Maybe, someday we’ll figure all this out. Try to put an end to all our doubt and try to find a way to make things better now that maybe someday we’ll live our lives out loud. We’ll be better off somehow, someday.”
Seeya later, Shaq. You won’t hear me pining for your return.
I feel dead inside
5KMD hit the nail on the head:
“The Cavs didn’t get close enough to a title for this year to even deserve a name.”
@6
Good point, JK. Maybe we should name them The Collapse v. 07 and The Collapse v.10. And we can throw in The Collapse v.99 for the Tribe’s epic come-from-ahead meltdown against — who else? — Boston.
It’s a good thing we’ve all built up plenty of scar tissue, or this would really hurt.
I just have a few things to say.
I’m not jumping on the woe is me “typical cleveland” bandwagon attitude right now. I get it but I don’t want it anymore. I think we have to endure seeing the clips of all of our prior defeats because we perpetuate an attitude nationwide of “we’ll never win”, which simply isn’t true.
Sure, Cleveland is a hard luck town at this point but it won’t always be like this. I will fully admit maybe this is my somewhat youthful? (I’m 25) optimism, but I think this loss is part of a greater story. We need to stop pouting and kicking rocks. We need to pick our heads up and remember we’re all fans of the same teams and that as a collective unit we have endured more pain than any group of fans…maybe in the world. In the end that’s what makes Cleveland great, because unlike other large markets when we get our day in the sun it’ll be ten shades brighter than it is in New York, Boston, and even New Orleans.
I’ve watched people tear each other apart over the past 12 or so hours and it’s completely foolish. We lost, it’s not a curse, it’s not gods wrath, it’s life.
/end rant (sorry for the length)
I just heard a song on the radio too… I think it was Ke$ha… incredibly annoying.
@5KMD
My thoughts exactly. This series sucked, but it’s hardly the 1997 World Series.
I actually don’t feel as badly about this as I did about the Orlando series because the Cavs played around 1.5 good games of team basketball over the entire playoffs this year. They weren’t playing well enough to give me confidence in a win tonight, and had they somehow taken this series I had no confidence this team was going to beat the Magic.
This year we genuinely found the limitations of Mike Brown as a coach. He had all the pieces to make this work but couldn’t get them to fit. He didn’t have the courage to start Andy or JJ at the 5 and bring Shaq off the bench to exploit matchup problems Boston has against athletic line-ups. Every time the Cavs came out of the locker room at the half the Celtics did something to adjust and Brown couldn’t come up with a counter.
He’s Flip Saunders. Good regular season coach, but won’t take you far in the playoffs when faced with equal talent or better coaching.
Maybe with no injuries this season he could have gotten everything to meld together but quite frankly that’s not going to happen and championship coaches will adjust and improvise their way along.
Yes, James has to take some of the blame for this loss because of his play in Games 4 an 5. But a James-less line-up of Mo/West/Jamison/Andy/Shaq should be able to put up more points than they were able to in Mike Brown’s unimaginative offense. The sets they ran failed to create space to drive or space to shoot. The offense was horrible and while part of it was execution part of it was also the game plan.
@7
That’s why it does deserve a name. You’ve got the best record in the league and the MVP and you don’t even come close? That’s name-worthy.
I suppose we should also throw in The Collapse v.09 for the gargantuan el foldo against Orlando last year.
Face it guys, two years in a row we’ve got the best record and the MVP and all the other stuff and we still can’t win? If you can’t win in those circumstances, when can you win? Never, that’s when.
Sticking with my Back to the Future references:
I feel though that last night’s game (or maybe game 5) is going to be that seminal moment, that crucial point in the space-time continuum, that we all have to go back to in order to prevent the alternate “Biff’s Pleasure Paradise” reality from becoming the norm.
Could Dan Gilbert’s casino be the new Biff’s Pleasure Paradise? Is this the end of Cleveland? Do y’all know any Libyans?
After watching last nights game,I don’t think the Cavs spend lots of time practising their “offense”
I’ve seen a few “Cleveland is actually the best place for James” arguments, but none of them convince me. I don’t see how he’s better off playing with role players than playing with another star (or two). Whatever team he plays on is automatically a playoff caliber team. Why would he shy away from going to the Bulls? That was his favorite team growing-up.
Just so it’s not the one year option. Don’t put us through this crap again.
I think/hope we’ll hear Lebron’s decision on Cleveland sooner rather than later. I think there is truth to the speak that he holds the organization in high regards, and stringing this out to any length of time would hinder our chances at working the FA market.
Does anyone know if we do no resign Z/Shaq, and Lebron does stay are there any FA options to be had with the money they free up?
@stin4u — This is what I’d like to know as well. Like I said before you, I don’t see how staying in Cleveland can be more appealing than playing with Chris Bosh in NYC or Dwayne Wade in Miami or Derrik Rose (and D-bag Noah) in Chicago.
Could you imagine how sickening it would be to have LeBron roll into Cleveland with Noah after dissing the entire city?!? Wanna throw-up at the thought.
@19
From a purely basketball standpoint the Bulls, the Heat and the (remember, purely basketball standpoint) Clippers are the only logical places Lebron could conceivably go.
The Bulls are probably one Lebron short of meeting the Thunder in the Finals for the next 8 years. The Heat have the inside track tow DWade and have the ability to create more cap space than the Knicks. With Lebron, the Clip Show would probably have the best front-court in the league with Kaman, Griffin and James.
I don’t think Lebron would go to the Clips b/c the front office has proven to be one of the biggest messes in the NBA.
The Nets have a lot of young talent and a top 4 pick this summer, but I don’t know that Lebron will want to step into that young of a situation.
Notice the Knicks are nowhere near this list. That’s what happens when you have one player on your team in David Lee that you’re not even committed to (indeed, your plan practically involves writing him off unless you whiff on everyone else you want), mortgage all of your draft picks for a series of years and have a coach that is morally opposed to defense.
@Robbie – I believe the points Avery Johnson presents on the Chicago possibility are spot on. Rose is a scoring point guard that likes to control the ball..how well would that work with Lebron? I think IF he leaves it’s going to be somewhere where he is the number one guy. I think Avery is justified in thinking the Nets may be the most Legit contenders with a young big man who can play, a young-ish pg, and a decent cast of other characters plus a high draft pick. With all of that said I honestly believe that Lebron will end up staying. I still think we present him the best opportunity both short and long run to win because of Dan Gilbert.
No on Issue 3.
@ 20/21 – Andrew’s got a “cavs future” piece in the works for 11. I’m guessing some of those things will be addressed then.
@6 that was a choke by the Indians not at collapse.
As far as Jamison verse Stoudemire you can’t second guess now. I like Jamison
and think he was a good fit the problem is the coaching staff. You never saw much
run for Jamison and let’s remember Shaq was injured and out until
the playoffs. This didn’t help the offensive fluidity either.
I don’t think Stoudemire would have resigned but who knows. Shaq was a last
ditch shot but he came 5 years to late.
@EZ, why couldn’t he go to the thunder and not worry about facing anyone in the playoffs?
I could care less if LBJ stays or goes. Anyone who thought we had a chance to come back after those two poor performances was crazy. As far as the Cavs go… If Danny and his boys want fans next year it better be “BYE BYE MIKE BROWN” this postseason. Mike Brown is a terrible coach.
I’m am beyond the “Cleveland” mindset with this ending but come on Danny, way to “buy” a championship this year… oh wait YOU DIDN’T but you did lose a lot of money. THANKS DANNY FOR ANOTHER CLEVELAND ENDING SEASON!
Here’s why this isn’t as bad as the 97 Indians…I’m in the Navy and had checked onto my first ship on Friday night. The Tribe blows game 7 Saturday, I go out to sea Monday, puke for a week straight, pull into St Croix Friday night, and my girlfriend (we dated all through high school) dumped me over the f’in pay phone.
That was the worst, so this sucked, but not as bad in comparison.
(Add to this the fact I grew up between NY and Ohio, so I am a Indians and Mets fan).
Break up San Antonio north (Brown/Ferry) amen!
@stin4u —
I love what you’re saying in this thread
@Turk – Thanks, I’ll freely admit I’ve been quite the pessimist in the past but I think last night put things into perspective. I really just want this city and all of us as fans to move forward as difficult as it is right now, were still going to have our time.
@32
Sorry, stin, but you’re in denial. We’re never going to have our time. This must be blindingly obvious by now.
Only after you embrace your fate and accept that we will never win anything ever can you truly move forward and leave the sunshine of false hope and blissfully enter the partly-cloudiness of eternal mediocrity.
I was on hand for Red Right 88, The Drive, and The Shot. But no sports disappointment in my Ohio memory, college or pro, is in the conversation with the ’97 Series.
@stin4u — As for your comment about LeBron sharing the limelight with another star, until a few days ago I would’ve defended him by saying, “Winning it all is all that matters to him. If sharing the limelight is what it takes, so be it.” Maybe that’s not the case anymore. I can’t get inside that big of an ego. Personally, if I were in LeBron’s shoes, I would team up with Wade and win multiple rings. Kobe, Jordan, Bird, Magic all had stars around them… not to mention “The Big Three” in Boston who couldn’t even seriously challenge without one another. No shame in it.
@MrCleaveland: in the past 11 seasons, the team with the best regular-season record has only won a title 3 times. In the past 21 years, the best record has won 7 rings, and every one of those 4 teams were named Chicago Bulls. People should learn some history before proclaiming that the Cavs did something out of the ordinary.
@36
MysticX, you’re right. The Cavs did not do something out of the ordinary. To the contrary, they did something very ordinary for a Cleveland team — choke, fold, collapse, whatever you want to call it.
But that’s okay. I am at peace with this. It’s who we are. It’s what we do.
@33 – It’s not denial, it’s a fundamental distaste for the idea that we are somehow born to be losers. That is the exact attitude that allows the rest of the nation paint Cleveland as some worthless city with worthless teams when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The self loathing and self pity needs to go away, and people need to realize that way of thinking casts a poor light on how genuine our fan base really is. We’re going to have our day and unfortunately yesterday wasn’t it, sorry, but get up and move on instead of dwelling on past failures every time something doesn’t go our way.
@ stin – I’ve been beating that drum as well. It’s good to have you aboard.
@38
Ah, stin. (Presumably) young, starry-eyed, full-of-hope, naive stin. I remember when I used to feel that way. Back before they pistol-whipped it out of me.
Sorry if it seems harsh to dash your delusions, but it’s for your own good. Call it tough love.