WaitingForNextYear

Coast To Coast is your bi-weekly (as in, twice a week, not every other week…or does that mean it’s semi-weekly?) look at the NBA outside of Cleveland through the perspective of the Cavaliers. Because how else will we find out who the Wizards might trade to Cleveland?

Lets start by looking at some blogger rankings. The first one is one that we took part in, and the second one is one that we did not. First, the latest round of NBA Blogger MVP/ROY Rankings are in, and this time they were hosted by TruthAboutIt. No big surprise, but LeBron is in first for MVP and O.J. Mayo is in first for ROY awards. Please check out the whole list for all the analysis on each of the selections provided by some of the best bloggers out there.
[NBA Blogger MVP/ROY Awards Round 5: It’s Unanimous, Guess Who]

The second list is With Malice’s NBA Blog Power Rankings. This one was maybe surprising, maybe not, but the Cavaliers were voted #1 in the power rankings. Again, check out the full list for the full array of quotes and breakdowns provided by some great NBA minds.
[NBA Blog Power Rankings!!!]

Speaking of great NBA minds. John Schuhmann wrote a truly fascinating piece for NBA.com last week where he looks at the NBA’s best offenses and tries to find correlations between to decipher what traits are possibly indicators of good offensive habits. There are tons of surprises in this one, including his finding that the teams who play the best offense tend to shoot the most threes (lets just hope the Cavaliers don’t read this, as they shoot more than enough from three as it is). Anyway, his breakdown of the Cavaliers finds some interesting numbers:

“The Cavs are an interesting study. The pace number, by itself, seems to indicate that they play slow. But the fast break points (they also give up a high percentage) tell you otherwise. The slow pace may be more of a factor of their No. 1 defense, which makes opponents use a lot of clock to find a good shot.

What may be the most interesting thing about the Cavs is that they don’t score a high percentage of their points in the paint, but they rank second in the league by shooting 52.5 percent from inside the arc. They might be the best midrange shooting team in the league.”

That last sentence really caught me off guard, because when I think of the Cavaliers at first, I don’t think of great mid range shooting. However, as I began to contemplate this idea, I realized that Z is shooting more midrange jumpers than ever before, and until his injury, was drilling a high percentage. Then, you have Mo Williams and his reliable mid range jumper. And then there’s the much improved jumper from Anderson Varejao. And then there’s Delonte West, who isn’t afraid of using his pump fake from outside to get past his defender and take a nice pull up jumper. And then there’s Daniel Gibson who continues to work on his mid range jumper. And you just kind of realize that yes, indeed, the Cavaliers do have a lot of guys who can knock down a mid range jumper.
[The Numbers Game: Best Offenses Do It In Different Ways]

Are we getting closer to seeing Marbury in Boston? The maligned Knicks guard is once again putting his oh-so-generous offer to take a $1 million reduction from his salary in exchange for a buyout. Speculation is that if he gets the buyout, he will be heading to Boston to help give the reigning champs some much needed depth at PG. Anyway, now that Marbury is willing to accept a buyout once again, the decision is once again in the hands of the Knicks:

The Knicks have told Marbury a decision now rests with owner James Dolan, the Post reported. The 12-year veteran said he’s been waiting to hear from them for several days, according to the paper.

“I’m hoping,” Marbury told the Post. “I don’t know what the real reason would be if they didn’t take it.”

Well, I can think of a couple reasons. First of all, even with a $1 million reduction off his salary, $19.8 million is still a lot of money to hand out just to get rid of a headache. Second, and along the same line, I seriously doubt James Dolan is thrilled with the idea of paying Marbury to go help the Celtics try to win another Championship. I’m not sure how much of a good idea it is on Boston’s part to bring such an enigmatic personality into their locker room, but regardless, I would think the odds of the Knicks granting Marbury a buyout under these circumstances are slim right now.
[Report: Marbury Puts $1M Back On Table]

Things are getting bleak in Detroit. Five losses in a row and the Pistons are now 9.5 games behind the Cavaliers in the Central. Things are getting so bad that open letters are being written to Pistons coach Michael Curry:

This whole Rip / A.I. telenovela (due credit to DBB commenters here – great title, guys) is worse than the fact that 90210 is back on television. If you’re the player’s coach that they respect that holds everyone accountable and makes the right moves… well, MAKE THE RIGHT MOVES! It’s one thing to play around with lineups when you add a new player mid-season (hey, we understand no training camp affects the whole shebang) but it’s another to consistently keep throwing out five (see? i wasn’t kidding – five’s a bad number right now!) guys who don’t fit together. Whoah, sorry about all the parenthesis there. You can’t even manage a lineup so I don’t mean to do anything else to confuse you right now.

Factiousness aside, we’re only acting like this because we care. We truly care about this team and know we’ve been spoiled with so many consecutive trips to the ECF. But we also hold people accountable (novel idea, eh?) for our team and want to see results. So please Coach Curry, please start acting like, you know, a coach. We’ve already gotten rid of Matt Millen once around these parts and don’t need a second coming.

There’s not really much to add to that. We’ve been on that side of the fence….playing below expectations while the Pistons ran away with the division. For once, it feels good looking at the frustration from the outside rather than from within.
[An Open Letter To Coach Curry]

The Wizards fans are ready for some trades. I wish I would have led off with this story, because it’s one of the best pieces in this column. Pradamaster of Bullets Forever talks about why the Wizards need to make a trade, who should be available, and where they would fit. If you’re only going to click on one story in this edition of Coast To Coast, I hope you pick this one, because this is great analysis. After he breaks down all the situations and trade scenarios, he picks his favorite trade option:

The Dream Scenario: Antawn Jamison and Darius Songaila to Cleveland for Wally Sczcerbiak and J.J. Hickson

Why is this the dream scenario?  Making this trade would save us an incredible amount of money while also allowing up to pick up another youngster in Hickson.  Sczcerbiak’s contract expires this season, shaving over 13 million dollars off our cap, more than enough to solve our tax problem.  Hell, we could even sign a free agent with that money.

I also think this trade helps Cleveland immensly, though Delonte West’s recent injury doesn’t help matters.  The Cavs are pretty shallow in the frontcourt, with only Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Anderson Varejao and the decaying Ben Wallace.  Jamison would immediately step in at the power forward spot and would be a great fit.  He plays well off playmakers, is a good three-point shooter and can be a 3/4 hybrid with LeBron at times.  He isn’t much of a defender, but neither was Mo Williams.  Meanwhile, Songaila takes Lorenzen Wright’s spot in the rotation, suddenly giving Cleveland a ton of options up front.

You know, I think he’s right. This would be a trade that would help both franchises. The thing the Cavaliers would have to ask themselves is if they’re ok with it if Songalia picks up his $4.82 million option for the 2010-11 season. That’s not a ton of money, but it could limit the Cavaliers’ options for the 2010 summer. Again, though, that may be a moot point anyway as Jamison’s contract runs all the way through 2012. There’s no doubt this trade helps Cleveland, but it’s risky because they will be stuck with both players for a long time if it doesn’t work out.
[We Have A Tax Problem and the Only Prescription Is More Trades]

Yes, Mike Conley is still a member of the Grizzlies. Despite rumors over a week ago that a trade with the Bucks to send Conley to Milwaukee was in the works, Conley still remains with Memphis. There’s some talk that Milwaukee is trying to use Conley as leverage to find a better trade, and are forcing the Grizz to stand around waiting, which doesn’t sit well with some fans:

This delay is making the Grizzlies organization look bad. We’re like the bride who got left at the altar. We’re the kid who asked a girl to the prom and she said she’ll get back to us (secretly hoping anyone else would ask her to the dance). Do you think the Lakers make deals this way? Can you imagine Gregg Poppovich waiting a week for another team to decide if they want to make a deal or not? I sincerely doubt Red Auerback ever let a team sit on the fence as long as the Grizzlies have without pulling his offer.
We don’t have to take this either. Conley has disappointed so far but that doesn’t mean the 21 yr old with lightining speed and a winner’s mentallity won’t develop. The only reason Milwaukee and Sacramento are interested is that they know Conley has more potential than he has shown in Memphis.

You would think a resolution would be coming soon one way or the other, but it’s hard to say at this rate.
[When Will The Buck Stop Here?]

I’m not the only one who realizes how important Delonte West is to the Cavaliers. Rob Mahoney wrote a great piece for Hardwood Paroxysm this week about the impact of West on the Cavaliers. I especially enjoyed this part:

I’m willing to go a step further: this changes everything. On the surface, the Cavs lose an undersized starting two guard who would seem to be easily replaced by some combination of Sasha Pavlovic, Wally Szczerbiak, and Daniel Gibson. But he’s more than that. Moore described him as a catalyst, and I think that’s a fair description. When you tune in to The Muppet Show (not that you, y’know, would ever watch The Muppet Show), you expect to see Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, and Gonzo all working in harmony. Kermit is the motherf*cking star, and it’s his show. But when there’s no “wocka wocka wocka,” everything just seems a little off. Everything that Mo Williams has done for this team on offense is magnified by West’s passing and shooting abilities, and having a capable weapon that isn’t a serious liability on either end. I wish I could say that the Cavs’ improvement was because Wally or Sasha suddenly became more well-rounded players, but it’s just not the case.

Exactly. It’s not that Delonte West is exceptional at any one thing on the court beyond his perimeter defense, but there’s also nothing on the court that he doesn’t do well. He’s more than just glue, he’s a liquid epoxy that can fit into any nook and cranny and can be used with a myriad of tools and appliances. It’s half art and half industry. That’s what you get from epoxies and that’s what you get from Delonte West.
[The Fracture Heard ‘Round The World]

Call me a geek, I don’t care….this just looks like fun. How many times have you listened to the ESPN NBA broadcast teams and thought to yourself, “Ugh, these guys are HORRIBLE. I swear, I could do a better job than this.”? If you’re like me, the answer is, ‘a lot’. Well, now NBA fans can put their money where their mouth is, thanks to Yoostar:

At the recently-completed Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Yoostar unveiled their new technology, which will allow users to insert themselves into video, including movies and television, using a small video camera and green screen technology.

While the main focus is letting people pretend to be in feature films, Yoostar announced today that they will be partnering with the NBA.

The Yoostar-NBA partnership “will allow NBA fans to replace the play by play announcer or color analyst and provide their personal commentary and analysis in video highlights from their favorite team or take their turn as NBA Commissioner in announcing the top picks from NBA Drafts.”

While some might scoff at this idea, there’s potential for it to be a very popular new medium for sports fans. If blogs have allowed anyone to write about sports, Yoostar could allow anyone to provide commentary.

Yes, at a retail price of $149.95, combined with the fact they are going to charge people to download the raw video footage, it’s a little bit pricey. But when you see how many people are buying Rock Band and Guitar Hero to play out a fantasy, and how many people pay to download additional songs for it, I can’t help but wonder if NBA geeks will be willing to do the same.
[Do Your Own Commentary On NBA Highlights And Videos With Yoostar]

As sick as I am of having to talk about 2010, this article is pretty funny. LuckyJ68 wrote a piece for RootZoo in which he gives ten reasons why LeBron won’t be going to New York in 2010. Most of the 10 are pretty legit, but you have to chuckle at his top reason:

1) Someway, somewhere, somehow…Isiah Thomas will find a way to screw it up!!!

And I can think of no finer way of ending this edition of Coast To Coast than that.
[10 Reasons Why LeBron Won’t Be A New York Knick In 2010]