Red Right 88

In Cleveland, hope dies last

Archive for the category “Cleveland Cavaliers”

Jamison’s bad break good for Cavs

The Cavs announced on Monday that leading scorer Antawn Jamison will be out 5-7 weeks with a fractured left little finger that will require surgery on Tuesday.

Jamison hurt his finger during Sunday’s loss to the 76ers. The 5-7 week time frame basically means Jamison and his 18 points per game will join Anderson Varajeo on the sidelines until next season.

While this is bad news for Jamison, it’s actually good news for the Cavs’ long-term future. After losing an NBA-record 26 games in a row, the Cavs appeared to be a lock for the most balls in the draft lottery.

But after going 3-3 over their last six games, the Cavs have let Minnesota creep within 2.5 games of the worst record in the league; with Sacramento just four games back.

That’s no way to go about maximizing your chances of landing the top pick in the NBA Draft.

***

For what it’s worth, NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock expressed faith in Cleveland’s second-year quarterback Colt McCoy at a press conference Sunday at the NFL Scouting Combine.

“That kid did a heckuva job last year,” Mayock told The Beacon Journal. “The kid’s won at every level. What did I say earlier about quarterbacks? How much do they care about the game? Are they the first one in the building? That’s him. He’s a gym rat.

“So I’m betting on him and I think the Cleveland Browns are, too. His arm is above average. It’s not great and it’s not elite. But the league has been (filled) with those kind of kids forever.

“If you understand where and when to throw the football and get it out quickly, you’re going to be fine.”

***

We’re still not sure how Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney can get off with no punishment for elbowing Wigan’s James McCarthy in the head during Saturday’s FA Cup game, but Liverpool’s Ryan Babel was censured and fined £10,000 for Tweeting a mocked-up photo of ref Howard Webb wearing a Manchester United shirt.

If only we could identify the common thread that unites these two incidents, we might be able to make some sense of this.

Cavs score their biggest win of the season

The Cavs scored their biggest win of the season on Thursday, completing a trade that landed the team the Clippers first-round draft pick in this year’s draft.

The unprotected pick (the Clippers are the best) means the Cavs could wind up with two lottery picks in the draft, a perfect recipe for a team working hard to rebuild. And while there is certainly no guarantee that Cavs will land two impact players, having more than one shot certainly increases the odds that they will end up with one really good player and one really good support player.

In addition to the draft pick the Cavs acquired guard Baron Davis, shipping out Mo Williams and Jamario Moon.

“We’re excited to make this move,” Cavs general manager Chris Grant said in a press conference at the team’s practice facility. “We’re excited about Baron, a very talented player at a position that’s a difficult position in this league. We’ve also created an opportunity for ourselves as we continue to build this franchise and move forward with the draft pick. We feel good about it. We’re eager to keep going and keep moving. Our scouting department just got a little busier, which is a good thing.”

We like the way Grant handled the day. He knows he did a nice job with the trade, but that there is still more work to be done. If the Cavs don’t get lucky in the lottery and don’t pick the right players, this all means much less.

We’re sad to see Williams go, as we’ve enjoyed his play since he arrived in Cleveland before the 2008-09 season. Williams seemed to enjoy his time with the Cavs and he was fun to watch, especially during that first, 66-win season.

Sure, he struggled at times on defense, but he always gave a good effort, which is all fans can really ask for out of a player.

As for Moon … he was nice to have around when the Cavs were winning games by 25 points, but when the team asked him to do more this season it quickly became clear why he’s played on practically every professional team in the world during his career.

As for Davis, who knows? He’s still one of the league’s best point guards – when he wants to be.

“Baron won’t be happy,” a general manager who has had past dealings with Davis told ESPN on Thursday before the trade became official. “This is a worst-case scenario for him. He was just starting to get happy in L.A. playing with [Clippers rookie] Blake Griffin. There’s not much to get excited about in Cleveland these days.”

We’ll let that last remark slide for now.

Davis didn’t always get along with current Cavs coach Byron Scott when the two were together in New Orleans. And Davis often lets himself get out of shape when he’s not motivated.

But we have to believe Scott was consulted on the move and is comfortable that he can make this work. And the Cavs survived the ultimate malcontent in Ricky Davis, and lived through the girth of Shawn Kemp and Mel Turpin; they’ll get through anything Baron Davis may bring.

Luckily, the 31-year-old Davis, who is joining his fifth team in his 11-year NBA career, isn’t the key to the deal, despite what some would have you believe (h/t to Craig at WFNY). The real gem here is the draft pick.

And the fact that the Clippers, who have blown more high draft picks than probably the rest of the NBA combined over the years, reportedly were willing to trade the pick because they think this year’s draft is thin only makes us feel better about the deal.

After all, you don’t become a team like the Clippers unless you repeatedly do stupid things.

Oh, by the way, the Cavs also reportedly acquired center Semih Erden and forward Luke Harangody from Boston in exchange for a 2013 second-round draft pick.

We admit we don’t know much about either player, but in the spirit of the day we’ll chalk it up as another win for the team.

Is contraction really the answer?

Should Major League baseball start eliminating under-peforming teams? What about the NBA or the NFL?

Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal is the latest to ask the question, putting fans in Oakland and Tampa on, if not high alert, at least an elevated level, writing that:

Fans of the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays need not worry. But don’t be surprised if the “C” word — contraction — returns to the baseball lexicon soon.

I’m already hearing rumblings that certain big-market teams want to drop the A’s and Rays, even though the idea stands little chance of actually becoming reality.

Still, a major battle is brewing over revenue sharing, baseball’s method of rich teams helping the poor. Contraction would be an extreme solution, but one that addresses the big-market concern: Why keep struggling clubs afloat?

This comes on the heels of stories last fall that the NBA would consider contracting teams as a way to solve the league’s financial troubles:

“It’s a sensitive subject for me because I’ve spent 27 years in this job working very hard not only to maintain all of our teams, but along the way add a few,” commissioner David Stern said during his preseason conference call.

“But I think that’s a subject that will be on the table with the players as we look to see what’s the optimum way to present our game, and are there cities and teams that cannot make it in the current economic environment. I’m not spending a lot of time on it.”

While we understand the financial realities of pro sports and it makes sense that fewer teams would possibly be better, as Cleveland fans any talk of contraction makes us nervous.

The big unanswered question is: How would teams be selected for elimination?

Certainly the Browns wouldn’t be contracted if the subject ever came up within the NFL, not after everything that went on after the move. And Cleveland couldn’t have supported the Cavs any stronger than they did in the past seven years; same with the Indians from 1995 to 2001.

But teams generally cycle through good times and bad, and fan support cycles with them. Teams that are down now would, in theory, be the ones facing contraction. But is that fair?

If we were having this conversation in the 1970s or ’80s, it would be hard to argue that the Indians should not be eliminated. Year after year of owners with no money fielding bad teams in a crumbling stadium in front of 5,000 fans each night would have left the Tribe as prime candidates for contraction.

Same with the Cavs during Ted Stepien’s reign of errors and the dark years pre-LeBron, when Ricky Davis and Trajan Langdon played before a sea of blue seats on a nightly basis.

Imagine Cleveland as a one-sport town, where we would get 16 Browns games a year and that’s it for pro sports. Not something we like to think about.

We sometimes lose sight of how other fans are impacted by their teams, because nothing anyone else goes through compares to the pain of being a Cleveland fan. But on the issue of contraction, we would feel their pain.

Because this time they might be coming for them. But next time, what if they come for us?

***

Yeah, poor Denver (speaking of not having sympathy for other teams).

Again, don’t remember this being such a problem last July.

***

If this truly is Liverpool’s away shirt for next season, the only thing we have to say is Blech!

Adidas can’t really think putting the Reds in the color of cross-town rival Everton is a good idea. That would be the same as having the Browns come out for a game in black-and-gold.

Please tell us it ain’t so.

Spanning the globe

Oh sure, now the NBA may want to add a franchise tag for players.

According to The Sporting News:

“The franchise tag is something the owners will bring up in the collective bargaining agreement, but now you’re going to have to get that by the players’ association, get them to buy into it,” said NBA TV analyst and former Timberwolves GM Kevin McHale. “It is an interesting concept – there is something to that. It would give the team that drafts a guy, develops a guy, more of an opportunity to hold on to the player. … Having the talent distributed all throughout the NBA is much better for the NBA, and the health of the game depends on having competitive teams in all different types of markets.”

Great. They couldn’t have figured that out before LeBron left town?

***

Too bad Liverpool couldn’t give Kenny Daglish a win in his first match in Europe as Liverpool manager, as the Reds drew 0-0 with Sparta Prague in the Europa League.

“It is special but every time you go into the dugout for this club it is special,” Daglish said in published reports. “It is a club with fantastic tradition and pride and to get a first opportunity to take the club that I served as player and manager before into Europe was fantastic.

“It was an honour for me because of the history this club has in Europe. Tonight was a bit of a milestone for myself because it was the first game in Europe I’d been in charge of the club.

“It was a difficult game for us. We would rather have been more offensive but circumstances dictated the way we played with the players we had available. Nil-nil is not the best result we could have got but it is not the worst either. Next week you can anticipate it being a different game.”

The return leg at Anfield certainly will be a different story as the Reds should advance. And this year’s experience will pay off in the team’s inevitable return to Champions League play.

***

We guess, when it comes to Alabama, it’s true that “stupid is as stupid does.

***

Finally, a home-schooled Iowa high school wrestler defaulted on his first-round state tournament match rather than face one of the first girls to ever qualify for the event.

Because rolling around on a sweat-stained, germ-infested mat is OK when it’s with another guy, but girls are icky or something.

How the business world can fix Cleveland sports

A few weeks ago, Forbes ran an article highlighting the most annoying business jargon flowing through American workplaces on a daily basis.

According to the article:

“For people bent on achieving superstar status in the business world, knowing one language is often not enough. Unfortunately the second tongue most popular to many American corporate types isn’t Spanish, German, French, Italian or Chinese. It’s jargon, a heinous amalgamation of terms with unknown origins and delivered with no explanation, irony or even a crumb of guilt. Business clichés have long been allowed to proliferate, multiply and slink around like evil gremlins within the American business establishment.”

After wading into this swamp of nothingness, we found answers to what’s been going on with the local sports teams.

Clearly, the Cavs need to drill down to find more talent.

Mike Holmgren has all his ducks in a row now that he has Pat Shurmur on board as coach.

The Dolans unfortunately put a hard stop on payroll growth as they have reached their predetermined price point.

Browns coach Pat Shurmur is thinking outside the box with his decision to act as his own offensive coordinator.

While the scoreboard may not reflect it, we hope the Browns, Cavs and Indians are all giving 110 percent.

If they are going to turn the Indians around, GM Chris Antonetti and manager Manny Acta need to synergize. (although we’re still not sure how well that worked for Mark Shapiro and Eric Wedge).

There’s a whole list of players – Grady Sizemore, Matt LaPorta, Travis Hafner, Mo Williams, JJ Hickson and Colt McCoy, among others, who clearly need to move the needle during the season.

No doubt Dan Gilbert is wondering how long the Cavs plan to boil the ocean before they start winning again.

Cavs coach Byron Scott is praying that the team’s season-long struggles have provided a critical learning for the young players on the roster.

Browns general manager Tom Heckert hopes the upcoming NFL Draft will impact the team’s fortunes in the AFC North.

Randy Lerner is routinely out of pocket when he’s watching Aston Villa play.

It would be nice if Mohamed Massaquoi and Brian Robiskie would take it to the next level in 2011.

The Browns have a very hard time managing expectations among the fan base.

The Cavs should strive to grab the low-hanging fruit and string two wins together.

By replacing Eric Mangini as coach with Pat Shurmur, Mike Holmgren continues to break down silos in Berea.

Sadly, no matter what they do, the current state of Cleveland sports is what it is.

Cavs break streak, lose identity?

The Cavs finally broke their historic losing streak with an overtime win over the Clippers on Friday night.

The Clippers should have known better as the Cavs are at their most dangerous in overtime – their last win prior to Friday game against the Knicks in OT on Dec. 18.

Now that the Cavs have finally won again and are no longer the team with the losing streak, they can go about their business like just another NBA team.

Of course, your average NBA team isn’t 9-45, but nobody ever said rebuilding was going to be easy or quick.

As Clay Davis explained it to Stringer Bell on The Wire: crawl, walk, then run.

***

Wayne Rooney’s goal Saturday against Manchester
City was sick.

Cavs on the brink of history

The Cavs can claim their place in the history books Friday night against the Clippers.

If they lose, the Cavs will stand alone among American sports teams with a 27-game losing streak, surpassing the NFL’s Tampa Bay Bucaneers, losers of 26 consecutive games in 1976-77.

While things are rough now for the Cavs, what with injuries and a roster of mostly not ready for the NBA players, coach Byron Scott is not worried for his job.

“I just have a lot of confidence in what I do,” Scott told The Plain Dealer. “I know I’m the right man for the job. We obviously need to keep improving as a basketball team, but I know I’m the right guy for the job.”We’re all unhappy when it comes to winning and losing, we’re all unhappy with the way things are going, but [there has been] no indication about job being in jeopardy or anything like that.”

It seems like an odd thing to even bring up to Scott. He’s halfway through his first season with a team that most people expected to be in a major rebuilding mode. If he was the right guy when he was hired six months ago, why would owner Dan Gilbert change his mind now?

Veteran Antawn Jamison knows where to lay the blame.

“I have no problems with what our coaching staff has been doing,” Jamison told The PD. “I think they’re going over and beyond. It’s hard now with certain guys injured and you’ve got a lot of young guys out there getting the opportunity to play. But our coaching staff has been phenomenal. They bring it every day, they expect us to do it and we’ve been doing it. They pick the right coverages, they talk about things we need to do. Sometimes it takes a while for us as a group and a unit to get to that point, but we get to it.”

The Cavs are going to get through this. Making a change at coach certainly isn’t going to accelerate the process.

No word on if members of that Buccaneers team will gather Friday night with bottles of champagne to celebrate if the Cavs lose.

***

While it seems as if NFL owners and players could figure out a way to split the $9 billion annual pie in a way that would leave both sides rolling on giant piles of money, that apparently may not be the case.

According to Dan Graziano, senior NFL writer at Fanhouse:

The likelihood that the NFL will lock out its players on March 4 now stands at an all-time high after Thursday’s scheduled negotiating session between the league and the players’ union was canceled. Multiple sources familiar with the talks said the owners’ side walked out of Wednesday’s meeting due to a disagreement over the talks’ most fundamental issue — the manner in which the players and owners will split the NFL’s approximately $9 billion revenue pie.

Having some kind of work stoppage obviously won’t be so bad in March and April, but if the labor problems carried over into the summer and the start of training camp, it will be a different story.

With the economy the way it still is in this country, we have to wonder how fans will react to a prolonged battle between millionaires and billionaires.

There’s still time to go and both sides have options to avoid a work stoppage. The owners can impose their “last, best offer” rather than lock the players out, as expected. According to The Huffington Post (h/t to Waiting for Next Year) that means:

After bargaining to impasse, labor law permits employers to unilaterally implement changes to the terms of the previous collective bargaining agreement. These changes must be “reasonably comprehended” within the employer’s pre-impasse proposals – in essence, this means that, after the impasse, the owners can implement their last, best offer as the new set of rules to govern the NFL and its relationship with the players. By implementing their last, best offer instead of locking the players out, it would force the players to either accept the terms while continuing to negotiate, strike, or decertify.

So while things may appear bleak right now, we’re going to remain optimistic.

Because the alternative, a year without Browns football, is just too depressing to even think about.

***

Speaking of big money, Saturday’s Manchester Derby between Manchester United and Manchester City will be the most expensive game – in terms of player salaries – in sports history.

According to The Wall Street Journal, based on analyst estimates, team statements and media reports, the players on the field and on the two benches in the Manchester Derby will have cost their teams roughly $850 million to acquire.

That top mark will fall next month when Manchester City and Chelsea meet – their combined salaries are about $900 million.

Now if we could just get a Russian oligarch to buy the Indians from the Dolans, we’d be all set. Unfortunately, we’ll have to settle for the Tribe signing 36-year-old Orlando Cabrera to play second base this year.

Now What Do We Do?

The NFL season ended Sunday … so now what do we do?

The NFL Draft is still a little more than 11 weeks away. If there is no labor-related work stoppage, the Browns won’t play another meaningful game for almost seven months.

And unless the NFL throws realignment into the new CBA, the Browns are still in the same division as Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

So now what do we do?

The Cavs are currently mired in hell, loser’s of an NBA-record 25 consecutive games. Two more losses and they will own the mark for most consecutive losses by any professional team in any sport.

To their credit, the Cavs are trying hard – they’ve held leads in the fourth quarter of the past three games – but with injuries they are just void of any talent after Antawn Jamison.

Nothing against Jamario Moon, but when he is an option to take a game-tying shot at the end of regulation, that pretty much tells us all we need to know about the Cavs season so far.

So now what do we do?

Spring training is just around the corner for the Indians, but the front office is still trying to figure out a way to compete in a sports where the top teams can spent $6 or $7 for every $1 the Tribe spends.

The Phillies spent $120 million guaranteed on Cliff Lee this winter; the Indians big signing was Austin Kearns for $1.8 million.

So now what do we do?

Luckily the Champions League returns next week with the start of the knockout stage and some exciting matchups in Arsenal vs. Barcelona and AC Milan vs. Tottenham Hotspur, among others.

And while we know it probably won’t last, we’re buying into the magic of King Kenny at Liverpool.

And now that Fernando Torres has turned into a bit of a dandy we don’t feel as bad about him leaving Anfield for Chelsea.

And the Cavs are bound to win a game eventually, maybe even this weekend when Washington – currently 0-25 on the road – comes to town.

And maybe the youngsters actually turn out to be pretty good for the Indians this summer.

And the draft isn’t really that far away for the Browns.

So it may get a little dry here for a while, but we’ll find something to do.

***

According to an article in Sports Business Journal Daily, the four major pro leagues in America are missing out on an estimated $370 million annually by not allowing advertising on jerseys the way they do in Europe.

“We don’t necessarily see this happening soon in the U.S.,” said Michael Neuman, Horizon Media’s managing partner for sports, entertainment and events, said in the article, “but until the revenue potential is clear, it certainly won’t go anywhere, and clearly this shows there is significant opportunity at a time when most of the big leagues are looking for new revenue.”

While this is all speculative – “I don’t think we’re anywhere close to that now,” Phoenix Suns President and CEO Rick Welts said in the article – we’re sure if enough teams found a way to make this a viable revenue option, they would be all over it.

They used to win titles here, yes?

As we prepare for another Super Bowl without the Browns being an active participant (again), we’re left to our annual wondering (again, some more,) about when we will see a championship in Cleveland.

And it got us to thinking about the 1950s, the only true golden era of Cleveland sports, and wondering if Clevelanders appreciated what they had during that decade.

After joining the NFL in 1950, the Browns went to seven title games over an eight-year stretch, winning in 1950, 1954 & 1955:

For the better part of the decade, Cleveland fans knew to block out time right around Christmas because the Browns would be playing in the title game.

Imagine what it would be like now if Browns fans had the first Sunday in February booked for the Browns in the Super Bowl? And it went on for the better part of a decade?

Once football season ended the Indians did their part to make the decade memorable. Over seven seasons from 1950 to 1956, the Indians averaged 94.5 wins a year, won an AL pennant in 1954 and finished in second place, behind the Yankees, five times.

We can only dream of a Cleveland sports scene where one championship-chasing season blends into another one, year after year after year.

For now, we’re left hoping that Mike Holmgren got it right in his hiring of Pat Shurmur as coach of the Browns; that the Indians young players are good enough to make the team a contender before they inevitably leave in free agency; and that the Cavs, currently stuck in an NBA-record 24-game losing streak that seems like it will never end, can get lucky in the next couple of years in the draft and rebuild the team.

Because in the absence of wins, all we can cling to is hope.

***

As much as the Pro Bowl is a waste of time, imagine if next week we would be watching the Jets and the Bears, losers of their respective conference championship games, competing in the Playoff Bowl?

That’s what happened at the end of the NFL season from 1961 to 1970.

The league matched the two second-place teams in each conference in the game, played every year but one at the Orange Bowl in Miami. Later the game matched the losers of the league’s playoff games.

And in case you’re wondering, the Browns played in three of these games, losing to the Lions in ’61, the Packers in ’64 and the Rams in ’68.

Cavs flirting with absurdly historic lows

OK, we admit it, we talked ourselves into the Cavs not being completely and utterly awful this season and, clearly, we were wrong.

We knew the team would struggle post-LeBron, but we didn’t know they could potentially become not only one of the worst teams in franchise history, but in NBA history as well:

  • Tuesday’s lost to Boston was the Cavs 22nd consecutive on the road, breaking the team record of 21.
  • The Cavs have also lost 18 consecutive overall and 28 of their last 29 games.
  • The Cavs can tie the franchise record for consecutive defeats in a season if they lose to Denver on Friday. If they can’t get past the Nuggets, the record will certainly be broken Sunday against Orlando.
  • The Cavs are a threat to break their franchise record for longest losing streak – 24 games – that was sent over the course of the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons.

But wait, it gets worse.

According to Sports Illustrated, the Cavs could finish the season last in both offensive efficiency (points per 100 possessions) and defensive efficiency (points allowed per 100 possessions). The Cavs are currently last on the offensive side, and next-to-last on the defensive side.

If the Cavs pull it off, they would join the 1986-87 Clippers and 1992-93 Mavericks as the only teams to hit that dubious achievement since the 1979-80 season (the start of the 3-point era).

In the process the Cavs have become a team that opponents worry about – because they don’t want to be the team that loses to the Cavs. Plus there are plenty of teams looking for payback for the beatings the Cavs put on them the past few years.

While the current team is playing as poorly as the 1981-82 squad that finished 15-67, they are no where near as dysfunctional. That Cavs team went through four coaches – Don Delaney (4-11), Bob Kloppenburg (0-3), Chuck Daly (9-32) and Bill Musselman (2-21) – was plagued by in-fighting and was owned by the infamous Ted Stepien.

Say what you will about Dan Gilbert and his fondness for Comic Sans, but he’s no Stepien (although Gilbert can’t be happy with the latest news from Forbes, which said the team’s value has dropped 26 percent since LeBron left). And we can only imagine what Stepien would have been like with access to a Twitter account.

In Cavs: From Fitch to Fratello, authors Joe Menzer and Burt Graeff detail some of the shenanigans from that lost season:

  • The Cavs traded both Mike Mitchell (an All Star from the previous season) to San Antonio and Bill Laimbeer to Detroit
  • Stepien tried to fire Daly while Stepien was in the midst of judging a lingerie show at a downtown club
  • Musselman wouldn’t use the office phones for fear of being overhead and spied on people during road trips
  • Stepien met with officials in Toronto and actually unveiled a logo for the Toronto Towers – the name the Cavs would take when he relocated them to Toronto

So while things are bad now, older Cavs fans now it could be far, far worse. That’s the one thing about Cleveland sports: when things go bad you can always find a team from the past that was worse.

As frustrating as the Cavs currently are, it’s actually better that they are horrible than a middle-of-the-road team. This team needs to take a beating for a couple of years and rebuild through the draft. With a little bit of luck, this down cycle will not last forever.

Don’t forget, it was only six years after that ’81-’82 season before the rebuilt Cavs were back as legitimate playoff contenders.

For more on the ’81-’82 Cavs team, check out Chris Tomasson’s piece at AOL Fanhouse: Will These Cavs Sink as Low as Old Cavs?

Post Navigation