Al Jefferson may have led the way for Utah in their defeat of the Cleveland Cavaliers, but he took some time to show love to rookie point guard Kyrie Irving following a spin move which led to two hard-earned points for the Wine and Gold.
Valade: Cavs Longing for a Point-Center
December 24, 2010 by 6 Comments
While watching his undersized team allow the Atlanta Hawks to score 40 points in the paint this past Saturday may have helped expedite the process, the Cavaliers have reportedly been on a longstanding hunt for a post presence to help the New Expression get back on track.
With his team presently sitting at 8-21, fifth place in the Central Division, head coach Byron Scott continues to look for the right pieces to place into his Princeton style offense. Predominantly constructed around ball movement and backdoor cuts, a center (or “point-center” per Pete Carril, the creator of the Princeton offense) that can post up and attract attention with the ability to see the court and make pinpoint passes is vital. And with all due respect to Anderson Varejao, Ryan Hollins, JJ Hickson and Antawn Jamison, for this offense to begin clicking, the Cavaliers need a dominant figure in the paint.
“I’ve watched teams that have post-up guys and I know what a post-up guy can do as far as this offense,” Scott said to The Plain Dealer’s Jodie Valade. “When you get a good post-up guy, this offense runs even better. Then you have somebody who’s a threat that’s hard to double because of the movement and spacing.”
About Those Al Jefferson Trade Rumors…
December 22, 2010 by 20 Comments
On Tuesday night, Bob Finnan of The News-Herald reported an unconfirmed rumor in which the Cleveland Cavaliers were approached by Minnesota’s David Kahn.
The report, which has since been confirmed to WFNY by a source close to the team, states that Kahn was looking to unload a player with $42 million remaining due to him via a contract signed in 2007. The Cavaliers, having the ability to take on a player of this financial magnitude thanks to their Traded Player Exception, considered the idea of adding the 6-foot-10-inch big man, but subsequently declined the proposal.
At the time, the 25-year old Jefferson was viewed as a power forward who has had a bit of an injury history. Jefferson underwent ankle surgery in 2006, an appendectomy in 2006, and endured a torn ACL and reconstructive knee surgery in 2009, playing more than 75 games just twice in his now seven-year career. While the back-to-the-basket presence would have been a welcomed addition to a team lacking a dominant post presence, Jefferson was viewed by the team as a player who could be a complimentary piece in a “win now” environment, not one who would be the Cavaliers’ new savior.
In-Game Blog, Game #28: Cavs vs Jazz
December 20, 2010 by 4 Comments
Editor’s note: With Rock on vacation this week, I’m going to try something a bit different. Hang with me throughout the game tonight as I will be updating this bad boy after each quarter. Do enjoy…
Cleveland Cavaliers (8-19) vs
Utah Jazz (19-9)
Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
Monday, December 20, 2010
7:00 PM EST
FSOH(HD)/WTAM 1100 AM
Coming off of a win for the first time in 20 nights, the Cavaliers will take on yet another tough December opponent in Jerry Sloan’s Utah Jazz. Unfortunately for Cleveland, the Jazz are not coming off of a late night in Miami.
Though these teams do not get to face each other more than two times per season, every time Sloan’s team comes into town, the Cavaliers have themselves a battle. Cavaliers head coach Byron Scott and Sloan go back to their playing days, and to this day Scott claims nothing but admiration for the Jazz’ head coach of 23 years. [Read more...]
Dan Gilbert and the Cavaliers Finding Acceptance in the Wake of Losing LeBron
July 13, 2010 by 33 Comments
If there’s one lesson we’ve learned throughout this past week, it’s that different people deal with adversity and grief in different ways. Of course, if you believe Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, then everyone deals with it the same way (five stages of grief), although at different paces. Whatever the case may be, I think we’ve all seen various examples of processing this week.
Perhaps none more so by members of the Cavaliers themselves. On the night of The Decision, we saw Mo Williams process the five stages in a matter of minutes on his Twitter account. And then there’s the case of Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert.
Gilbert and the Cavaliers went through Denial when they believed they still had a chance with LeBron in this offseason even though he wasn’t returning calls or texts and was busy recruiting other free agents to Miami and was renting cabanas at a hotel in Miami for his celebration. [Read more...]
A Few Trade Proposals For Danny Ferry
January 8, 2010 by 49 Comments
Everyone’s an expert these days. if you have access to a computer and the internet, the ESPN Trade machine awaits. Throw in a little research at 82games.com and HoopsHype, and viola! You are Bill Simmons without the fat contract and book deal. The problem with this of course is that we usually end up with completely one-sided deals or trading with teams that have no interest in trading. We are inspired by actual events however, because you just never know what crazy thing a GM will do in this league. (I’m looking at you Memphis and Minnesota!)
So before you go screaming at me in the comments saying I’m crazy because so and so team would never do that deal, I am not disagreeing with you. I’m saying let’s at least see if they’ll pick up the phone on some of these before we commit to any trade.
Trade #1- Cleveland trades J.J. Hickson and Zydrunas Ilgauskas to Minnesota for Al Jefferson. [Read more...]
Cavaliers Preview Game #3: Cavs at Timberwolves
October 30, 2009 by 26 Comments
Cleveland Cavaliers (0-2) vs
Minnesota Timberwolves (1-0)
Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
Friday, October 30, 2009
8:00 PM EST
FSOH/WTAM
Ok, now that we’ve all gotten our cathartic musings on the decline of Cavalier civilization out of our system these last two days, it’s time for the Cavaliers to get on the court and make us forget about this insufferable start to the season. Quite frankly, there’s not too many opponents I would rather see right now than the next 2 the Cavaliers have on their schedule. If the Cavs can get right over these next 2 days, it will go a long way to help get everyone through the upcoming stretch that includes games against good teams like the Wizards, Bulls, and Magic as well as the team’s only trip to New York this year. Fun times ahead! Tonight’s game against the Wolves isn’t a must win game…..but the Cavaliers better win. This city will likely implode upon an 0-3 start. [Read more...]
Cavaliers Preview Game #25
December 17, 2008 by 7 Comments
Cleveland Cavaliers (20-4) vs
Minnesota Timberwolves (4-20)
Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
8:00 PM EST
FSNOH/WTAM
The Cavaliers continue their mini road trip tonight when they head north to take on the struggling Minnesota Timberwolves. As far a road trips go, this one isn’t too bad. 4 games, none of them back to back, and 2 of them against a couple of the worst teams in the NBA (Minnesota and Oklahoma City). In fact, in the last 3 weeks of December, Cleveland has only 7 games, and none of them are back to back. There are a couple moderate tests in Miami in there, as well as tough games against Denver and Houston, which will make the easy games against Washington, Oklahoma City, and tonight’s opponent, Minnesota, that much more important for Cleveland to not get complacent and to take care of business. The Cavaliers will still be without the services of Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Daniel Gibson, and Minnesota has a couple tough offensive players in Mike Miller and Al Jefferson, but this is still a game the Cavaliers should be able to control. The Cavaliers are facing injuries, Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak are slumping majorly with their outside shooting, LeBron’s minutes are rising, and the offense isn’t running as smoothly as it once was. There’s some adversity facing the Cavaliers tonight, and it will be a good sign for them to come out and take care of business against a team they should beat. [Read more...]
Cavaliers end 2 game skid
February 29, 2008 by Leave a Comment
You better double team LeBron
LeBron scored 30 and led the Cavs past the old Celtics, er Timberwolves 92-84 at the Q Friday night. Four starters reached double figures for the Cavs, who were without Wally Szczerbiak. Wally missed for ‘personal reasons’ which we were told during the broadcast was a family matter. We weren’t told if he’d return for Sunday’s game against the Bulls.
After a fairly sluggish start the Cavs picked up the defensive pressure and held Minnesota to 39% shooting, forcing 13 turnovers and blocking 10 shots. Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 4 of those blocks, Ben Wallace 2, (including a rejection halfway up the stands) and Delonte West had 2 blocks against bigger players. On his last block Delonte snuck up behind the taller Chris Smith and rejected him out of bounds. Al Jefferson found points hard to come by in the second half, as 18 of his 22 came in the first. [Read more...]
Cavaliers Preview Game #59
February 29, 2008 by 1 Comment
Minnesota Timberwolves (12-44) vs Cleveland Cavaliers (32-26)
Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
Friday, February 29, 2008
7:30 PM EST
FSN OH/WTAM
Minnesota, Chicago, New York, Chicago, Indiana, Portland, New Jersey, Washington. Tonight begins a stretch of very winnable games for the Cavaliers. Coming off back to back bad losses (I know, Boston is a better team right now….what I mean is that the team played horrible down the stretch in that game), now is the time for the Cavaliers to make their push. The grace period is over. It has to be. Not that the new guys don’t deserve more time to get things figured out….they do. The problem is, the Cavaliers don’t have that kind of time to spare. Nobody wants to see this team go into the playoffs as a 4 or 5 seed, especially not the 5 seed. If the Cavaliers want any chance of trying to catch Orlando for the #3 seed, they need to take care of business over the next 2 weeks, beginning tonight against the rebuilding Timberwolves. [Read more...]
