June 19, 2013

Kyrie Irving to lead Charles Barkley’s team in Rising Stars Challenge, Tristan Thompson on team Shaq

February 16, 2012 by 5 Comments

Charles Barkley was impressed enough with Cavaliers’ rookie Kyrie Irving to select him over Jeremy Lin, Ricky Rubio and John Wall just to name a few. Barkley and Shaq are the honorary GMs for the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge at All-Star weekend. Instead of the rookie vs sophomore format of the past, TNT’s big men mixed it up by drafting two teams of mixed rookies and second year players.

Shaq selected Blake Griffin first overall leaving the board wide open for Charles Barkley who took the 19 year old Irving and added this about the selection-

“It wasn’t very difficult [to pass on Jeremy Lin] to be honest because [Lin's] only been playing for a week and it’s been a fantastic week,” Barkley said. “But Kyrie Irving is terrific and he’s going to hand it to [Lin] and if Ricky Rubio wants some…he can come get some too.”

Fellow Cavaliers’ rookie Tristan Thompson was selected by Shaq and will play against his teammate.

Team Chuck

Kyrie Irving – Cleveland Cavaliers (Rookie)

DeMarcus Cousins – Sacramento Kings (Sophomore)

Paul George – Indiana Pacers (Sophomore)

Derrick Williams – Minnesota Timberwolves (Rookie)

MarShon Brooks – New Jersey Nets (Rookie)

John Wall – Washington Wizards (Sophomore)

Gordon Hayward – Utah Jazz (Sophomore)

Tiago Splitter – San Antonio Spurs (Sophomore)

Kawhi Leonard – San Antonio Spurs (Rookie)

Evan Turner – Philadelphia 76ers (Sophomore)

Team Shaq

Blake Griffin – Los Angeles Clippers (Sophomore)

Jeremy Lin – New York Knicks (Sophomore)

Ricky Rubio – Minnesota Timberwolves (Rookie)

Greg Monroe – Detroit Pistons (Sophomore)

Markieff Morris – Phoenix Suns (Rookie)

Kemba Walker – Charlotte Bobcats (Rookie)

Landry Fields – New York Knicks (Sophomore)

Norris Cole – Miami Heat (Rookie)

Brandon Knight – Detroit Pistons (Rookie)

Tristan Thompson – Cleveland Cavaliers (Rookie)

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While We’re Waiting… More Building a Winner, Signing Big Names and Being Twitter Responsible

February 16, 2012 by 1 Comment

While 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.

Part 3 of ‘Building a Winner’- “The historical evidence continues to pile up that there’s no reason to think that drafting in the high lottery is vital to future success. The list of recent teams taking a quick, few year dip into the lottery and emerging as contenders is…the present day Thunder. Overwhelmingly, the elite franchises are built through smart trades, value free agency pursuits, and mid-to-low draft picks. As several commenter’s have noted; continuity, good scouting & player development, and incorporating the right players into a system (thanks for further defining my giant umbrella of “good management”) are how team’s punch their tickets to Titletown. The lottery is a gamble; you either hit it big, or miss & go back next year. That’s totally fine, if the Cavs hit on a really high pick again this year and score another young star – that is OUTSTANDING. If they score a top 5 pick and draft an average player, well that’s a squandered opportunity. If they pick 11th…they can make that work too. The Cavs hit the lottery once and scored a franchise changer; now it’s time to make the most of wherever their draft picks are, along with their trade assets and cap space.” [Hetrick/Cavs the Blog] [Read more...]

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Shaquille O’Neal Says LeBron James Was Not Accountable to Mike Brown in Cleveland

November 2, 2011 by 39 Comments

When the Cleveland Cavaliers traded for Shaquille O’Neal before the start of the 2009-10 season, it was certainly met with mixed reviews. But whether it was ever really the smartest move or if it was instead a reactionary move meant only to deal with the Orlando Magic, the fact remains that Shaq represented a symbol of hope in Cleveland.

Fans here in Cleveland were smart enough to know that the Cavaliers were not getting THE Shaquille O’Neal. No, they were getting the watered down version. But still, the hope was that pairing Shaq and LeBron would be enough. That it would be just the push the team needed to get over the hump.

Of course that never happened. Instead, Shaq was injured for most of his tenure in Cleveland and the Cavaliers never got a shot at revenge with the Magic, instead flaming out spectacularly against the Boston Celtics in the 2nd round. That was the painful end of the great LeBron James era in Cleveland.

A lot will probably be written in the future about LeBron James. I expect a time will come when books will be written explaining more about The Decision, and LeBron’s meltdown against the Celtics, and other less than scrupulous rumors flying around town. Nothing that scandalous has been written now, but still, Shaquille O’Neal has written a book that gives us our first real look behind the curtain in Cleveland. [Read more...]

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Cavaliers Preview Game #1: Celtics at Cavs

October 27, 2010 by 45 Comments

Boston Celtics (1-0) vs
Cleveland Cavaliers (0-0)
Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
7:00 PM EST
FSOH/WTAM

The Cleveland Cavaliers begin a new journey tonight. Although the result of their path is as unclear as I can ever recall it being, just having the ability to begin down the path brings excitement. And with that excitement comes the nerves. I’m not sure I can remember the last time I was nervous about a season opener. Nervous in a good way, I mean. Nervous because I don’t know what to expect. Nervous because my security blanket is gone. Nervous because I had forgotten what it’s like to watch the Cavaliers and not have LeBron James being a part of it. But it’s a nervous excitement because tonight we begin this journey together. This is about as united as the fans, players, and team as a whole have been in a very long time. We don’t know how this is going to turn out, but we’re in this together. [Read more...]

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Cavaliers, Fans Prepare For Season Opener

October 25, 2010 by 4 Comments

The Cavaliers open the 2010-2011 season Wednesday night at home against the Boston Celtics. Shaquille O’Neal will no doubt find his way from the visitor’s locker room to see some of his Cleveland friends, but the trip will be all business for the poetic big man. Delonte West will likely not make the trip as he will begin serving his suspension for the weapon’s related trouble he got into prior to last season.

The Celtics will come to town on the second half of a back-to-back. They play the Miami Heat on Tuesday.

The Cavaliers finished the preseason with a 6-2 mark. That record means absolutely nothing of course. The team has been trying to implement a new system, all while adjusting to a different roster. This year’s roster features 6 players that were not members of last year’s team. To make matters more difficult, they have played the majority of the preseason without starters Mo Williams and Andy Varejao. Antawn Jamison has also been limited in his on-court time. [Read more...]

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Antawn Jamison: Cavaliers’ Chemistry Was “Not Good”

September 7, 2010 by 21 Comments

Believe it or not, in less than a month, the Cleveland Cavaliers will start training camp. Before too long, I’ll begin hammering out my previews and begin focusing 100% on the future. Until then, though, we still need to spend some time looking back on what happened in Cleveland in the LeBron James era. The only way we can learn and build going forward is to better understand our past.

One thing that’s clear is that we were all deceived by a great number of things with regard to the Cavaliers franchise. At the end of the 2009 season we thought the Cavaliers were an extremely close-knit team with endless supplies of chemistry. We thought this was a team building something special for the future. I spent countless hours doing cap projections and laying out the different ways the Cavs could build around LeBron and convince him to stay.

By the 2010 season, much of that had seemingly been unraveled. Sure, the Cavaliers were still winning a ton of games and would eventually finish with the NBA’s best record again, but something was off. Last November, I wrote about this in an attempt to rationalize what was going on: [Read more...]

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Cavaliers to Unveil New Uniforms

August 16, 2010 by 24 Comments

Tomorrow night the Cleveland Cavaliers will release their new uniform design. In case you missed it, they have already made subtle changes to the color scheme and logos, and changed the design on the floor. Could that design already have leaked out however? Apparently an NBA video game already has the floor design, and has Cavaliers in new digs. No word on whether these jerseys are the real deal, but they have the floor correct. [Read more...]

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Cavaliers: Under the Microscope

May 27, 2010 by 19 Comments

With the drama of LeBron James’ free agency playing out like the last episode of LOST, I thought it would be prudent to take a thorough look at this Cleveland team to see what kind of shape they are in. In order to do this I will have to try and be as objective as possible. So if I say something that sounds cold or unfeeling towards a beloved player you know why from the start. It will be necessary to look at the players, coaching staff, owner and front office in order to do this correctly.

There is no sense evaluating who ISN’T part of the team right now. Instead, let’s take a look at the roster and determine what kind of team is here, and what options the Cavs have. [Read more...]

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Cavs 88, Celtics 120: Season on the Brink

May 12, 2010 by 74 Comments
Antawn Jamison talks following Game 5 loss to Celtics

LeBron had quite possibly the worst playoff game of his career (15 points on 14 shots), and the rest of the team wasn’t able to pick him up. While the blame for this game will fall mostly on the shoulders of Cleveland’s superstar, there were plenty of poor performances. Mo Williams, Antawn Jamison, the entire bench to name a few.

I think it is ridiculous to think that LeBron James played “like a guy with one foot out the door.” After watching him play every game of his professional career here, how can anyone really question if he wants to win? It isn’t even worth bringing up. The team will take criticism for not coming out with a sense of urgency, which is fair. There will no doubt be talk that they are mailing this series in, which seems hard to believe- but if it is true then it is completely unacceptable. [Read more...]

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The Cavs Will Win If…

April 30, 2010 by 20 Comments

During this playoff run, we will adapt a Browns feature for each of the Cavs’ series. (Certainly we hope to do two more of these.) Each writer will contribute a paragraph on one of the keys to success for the Cavs against a particular opponent. After dispatching with the Bulls in round one, Cleveland opens up the Conference semi-finals against the Boston Celtics. Andrew gave us a great series preview yesterday, now check out what the rest of WFNY thinks will be key to the series. With that: The Cavs Will Win If…

Rick-…the Cavs remember what earned them regular season wins against the Celtics. Cleveland was built to play multiple styles, and that includes uptempo against slower teams. Yes, Shaq can bang against Perkins, but the real advantage this year was when the Cavs went smaller AND forced the tempo. Just inserting Hickson doesn’t mean anything if the Cavs don’t push the ball in transition against KG, Perkins and Allen. Taking care of the ball will be important, and getting back to out-hustling our opponent would be nice.

[Read more...]

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2010 NBA Playoffs Eastern Conference Semifinals Preview: Cavaliers vs Celtics

April 29, 2010 by 39 Comments

The Cleveland Cavaliers not-so-easily dispatched of the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the playoffs in 5 games and now are gearing up for a matchup fans have been waiting for. Ever since Paul Pierce dueled with LeBron James in that infamous Game 7 two seasons ago, Cavs fans (and presumably LeBron himself) have wanted a chance at redemption and vindication. The basketball gods have smiled their gracious faces upon us and given us a chance to vicariously achieve our revenge and true justice. Perhaps for some fans this is overstating the importance of a battle against a bunch of aging Hall of Famers, but not for this fan, and I suspect, for many Cavs fans out there like myself. This is a war 2 years in the making.  [Read more...]

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Game #82 Cavaliers vs Hawks Open Thread

April 14, 2010 by 16 Comments

Well it appears that we will not see Coach Brown Release the Shaqken tonight, that will have to wait until the playoffs. Nor will we see LeBron James in this one either. Aside from some sort of ridiculous mandate from the league office, neither team has much reason to play the starters in this one. The Hawks are firmly in the 3 seed, and the Cavs have clinched the top spot no matter what the outcome of this one.

What is a shame is that the Cavs’ winning streak against the Hawks could very well come to an end in a game that is pointless. The Cavs have Atlanta’s number. Fortunately for the Hawks, they would only see Cleveland in the Conference finals this year instead of the second round.

Your likely starters for the Cavaliers (as of 2:30 pm anyway) Mo Williams, Jawad Williams, J.J. Hickson, Antawn Jamison, Jamario Moon. Daniel Gibson is out (personal reasons) and Sebastian Telfair is also out.

For the Hawks- Mike Bibby, Joe Johnson, Al Horford, Josh Smith, Marvin Williams. I haven’t seen a report that they aren’t going to play, so we’ll assume that they at least start.

Have at it, but as always- remember the commenting policy.

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It Took A Full Season, But We Finally Have A Name…

April 14, 2010 by 19 Comments

I take no credit for this. I’m just happy we got something a little better than Big Witness Protection. The Optimist from the Cavaliers’ official site, in talking about the possibility of Shaq playing coined the phrase the Shaqken! For those of us sick of listening to the same argument about players resting or not are certainly ready for Mike Brown to Release the Shaqken!

Thanks Denny for the photoshop.

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Cavs 104, Celtics 93: Cavs Miss 17 Free Throws, Still Embarrass Boston

March 15, 2010 by 17 Comments

Can we stop now? I’d love for all media members (you know who you are) to refrain from calling the Boston Celtics the best team in the legaue* (when healthy). After getting drilled by the Cavs in Boston a few weeks back, the Celtics were back to full strength Sunday and still had no real chance to beat the Cavs. Yes, the starting five for the Celtics held their own for a while- but when the benches came out, Cleveland walked all over Boston.

The Celtics have no answer for LeBron James. He had 30 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists to go along with 3 monster blocks. They also couldn’t match Andy Varejao’s energy off the bench. Varejao was all over the boards and contributed 17 points (15 in the first half). Kevin Garnett, Glenn Davis and Kendrick Perkins all were frustrated by Varejao’s hustle. Rasheed Wallace even ended up tipping a ball in the Cavs’ basket with the help of Andy. (Did I ever mention how happy I am that we didn’t sign Sheed?)

[Read more...]

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Cavs 124, Knicks 93: Third Quarter Chalupas

March 2, 2010 by 19 Comments

“They outclassed us, outmatched us and outplayed us. Obviously, they’re a better team than we are.”- Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni.

90043764_DLK009_CAVS_V_KNICThanks to the Knicks coach for the win and writing the recap. Goodnight!

Alright, we’ll go a little deeper.

The Cavaliers are a different team without Shaq (and Z) in the line-up. They are a much quicker, much more athletic group. Note- that does not always mean better. But against a team like the Knicks, it can appear that way. The Cavs sure had fun tonight playing a run and gun style.

It’s hard to evaluate a game like this one. The Cavs shot well from the field, nearly 57%. That will happen though when you are getting fast break opportunities off made baskets. They didn’t shoot particularly well from long range or from the line however. Actually, they shot fairly well from long range in the first quarter…you know when the game was still in question.

[Read more...]

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Cavs 108, Celtics 88: Shaq Injured, Cavs Dominate Without Him

February 26, 2010 by 44 Comments

90043720EG017_Cleveland_CavI have to swallow my pride for a moment. Charles Barkley was absolutely correct. (That really hurts to say.) The Cavaliers were down 8 at the half, and looked to be completely out of sorts. O’Neal had sprained his thumb and was ruled out for the rest of the game. Z is sitting on a couch somewhere. And Charles Barkley guaranteed the Cavs would win the game. It wasn’t so much the prediction of a win that was impressive, but that he called exactly how the game would be won. The comment that got my attention- “the Cavs don’t need Shaq to beat the Celtics.”

He was correct. The Cavaliers completely switched gears in the second half, going with a much more athletic line-up and just pummeled Boston. (Yes, Boston was playing without Paul Pierce, thank you for noticing.) The defense, which was non-existent in the first half clamped down on Boston’s guards and swung the game wide open. At half Boston’s guards held a 33-6 scoring edge. In the second half Delonte West, Jamario Moon and Mo Williams reversed the trend, outscoring Allen, Rondo and Robinson 25-14. [Read more...]

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Cavaliers: Who Should Start Not as Important as Who Finishes

February 23, 2010 by 30 Comments

Jamison Cavs JerseyMike Brown is juggling his line-up. He has said he will start Antawn Jamison at the 4 spot. It is not out of the ordinary for Brown to say something like Jamison will start and then change his mind. (For what it’s worth Brian Windhorst tweeted that Jamison will start tonight, whether that was because Hickson had to miss shoot around with an illness or because Brown had previously decided to start Jamison is moot.) Perhaps the game which will give an indication as to Brown’s intentions will be the Celtics on Thursday.

No matter who gets the start, the real question is who gets the minutes? Hickson has been starting for some time, but that doesn’t mean he plays starter’s minutes. For now, the Cavaliers are forced to use a 2 man rotation at Center. There are line-up possibilities in which a guy like Hickson or Powe or even LeBron could steal a few minutes at the 5, but those are match-up games that we really wouldn’t count on. There are 48 minutes available for Shaq and Andy at the center. Shaq is averaging 23.5 minutes per game for the season, but that number has gone up since the calendar turned. Without Zydrunas, figure Shaq to get 30 minutes unless severe foul trouble sits him sooner. Andy averages 29 minutes a game as well. If Shaq and Andy play their current averages, that means all 48 center minutes are taken as well as say 10 power forward minutes. (Both men on the floor at the same time.) [Read more...]

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Cavaliers 116, Nuggets 118 (OT): Costly Mistakes End Win Streak

February 19, 2010 by 39 Comments

90043626GE012_NUGGETS_CAVSThere was actual basketball played! That’s the good news. Actually, the good news doesn’t end there. Mo Williams made his return, playing limited minutes, showing a little rust. But he played – that is good news.

However, Leon Powe did not make his first appearance in a Cavs uniform, as was thought he might. He still wasn’t cleared to play. Antawn Jamison was courtside but not in uniform, still awaiting all players involved in the trade to report to their teams and go through their physicals.  That’s just the beginning of the bad news as the Cavs would lose a close one to a tough opponent.

Tough to assign any blame on him in this one, but LeBron James might have been both hero and goat. [Read more...]

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Cavs 115, Magic 106: That Felt Good

February 12, 2010 by 58 Comments

90043576_DLK009_CAVS_V_MAGIThe Cavs head into the All-Star break full of confidence. First, they are winners of 13 in a row. In addition they have the best record in the league at 43-11. The exact same record as last season after 54 games. The Cavs have a seven game lead in the loss column in the Eastern Conference. Oh yeah, and they just beat the team that eliminated them in the playoffs last season  without second-leading scorer Mo Williams. They got Delonte back tonight, and should get Mo Williams back shortly after the break is over. And don’t forget Leon Powe seems like he is close to coming back following the break as well.

The Magic came out daring J.J. Hickson to beat them. He did his best to do so. Dunk after dunk in the first quarter for the suddenly tough to trade youngster.

After the first quarter Stan Van Gundy revealed the strategy to the world, “We’re not going to worry about J.J. Hickson.”

Good job coach. All Hickson did was outscore Dwight Howard 20-19 in fewer minutes. Credit the Cavs with making the adjustment to a defense that they hadn’t seen much of this year.

[Read more...]

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Cavaliers Preview Game #54: Magic at Cavs

February 11, 2010 by 225 Comments

Cavaliers vs MagicOrlando Magic (36-17) vs
Cleveland Cavaliers (42-11)
Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
Thursday, February 11, 2010
8:00 PM EST
TNT/WTAM

Well, it was certainly fun while it lasted. This extended home stand will be ending shortly, but what is already over is the stretch of playing mediocre teams. Tonight begins a stretch of games against Orlando, Denver, at Charlotte, at Orlando, New Orleans, at Boston, and at Toronto to close out the month of February. The Magic struggled for a while earlier this year after their blazing hot start, but they’re beginning to get the heat back as they have begun to play some really great basketball. Delonte West will be a gametime decision, although Brian Windhorst seems to think there are some indications he will play, which makes me think he will. It would be nice if he could, because Orlando is a team that will flat out punish you if you’re not tough on your perimeter defense against them. This is going to be a great test tonight to see where this Cavaliers team really stands.   [Read more...]

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