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In Cleveland, hope dies last

Archive for the category “Cleveland Cavaliers”

28 Oct 2010

It’s All Good For One Night

Nice job by the Cavs in beating the Celtics on opening night.

Nine players saw action for at least 15 minutes, the Cavs overcame an 11-point deficit in the third quarter, Boobie Gibson got hot in the second half with 16 points, and they did it without starting guard Mo Williams and with Antawn Jamison only scoring four points.

Now it’s not going to be like this every night. The team will struggle and there will be games where that 11-point deficit turns into a 25-point deficit. But with Toronto, Sacramento, Philadelphia, Washington and New Jersey coming up on the schedule, the Cavs have time to find their rhythm.

But for one night at least, the winning Cavs were back and it was all good.

***

We generally don’t put much stock in conspiracy theories, and don’t buy the argument that local media members – at least the print ones – are trying to run coaches or players out of town.

Nor does any media member in the area have the power to do that – Peter Franklin was the last guy to have that kind of juice in this town.

But that doesn’t mean that media members don’t frame questions or selectively use quotes to build an article to fit their predetermined angle.

Take a look at this piece at Cleveland Frowns, especially the video. You’ll see what we mean.

***

Finally, check out this story at Waiting for Next Year about the Indians and the playoffs of the late ’90s. But be warned, you will be depressed.

We still firmly believe if the Indians had been willing to part with Jaret Wright in a trade for Pedro Martinez, or had been able to convince Curt Schilling to come here in ’97, the Tribe would have won World Series in ’97 & ’98 and would have had a great chance in ’99.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, NBA, NFL | Leave a comment
26 Oct 2010
1 Comment

Basketball time at the Q returns

Just in time to fill the void of a Browns bye week come the Cavaliers, who tip off their season Wednesday night at home against Boston.

After months of nonsense, ranging from LeBron’s elbow, LeBron quitting on the team against the Celtics in the playoffs, the playoff loss to Boston, the Cavs being the first NBA team to have consecutive 60-win seasons and not make the NBA Finals, the firing of coach Mike Brown, the resignation of general manager Danny Ferry, the summer of LeBron, the nationally televised Decision, the hiring of new coach Byron Scott and the endless speculation that this year’s Cavs team will be the worst team in the history of sports, it’s finally basketball time again at the Q.

And while we finally get to focus on the games, we’re left with two questions:

  • How good will this Cavs team be post-LeBron?
  • More importantly, how good do we want them to be?

Scott’s Princeton offense should be fun to watch as it emphasizes ball movement and works to get everyone involved. Gone are the days of dribble, dribble, dribble, stand around and watch, and shoot.

“When you’re talking about the Princeton offense, basically what you’re talking about is motion and cutting and screens and spacing,” Scott told The Plain Dealer. “To me, it’s just talking about basketball … it’s not just two or three guys playing basketball, you’ve got all give guys getting a chance to play.”

That sounds great, and we like that Scott has a system that he is committed to. Maybe after being a star-driven team for the past seven years, switching to a team-oriented offense is the way to go.

“This equal-opportunity offense gives everybody the opportunity to play – from the one to the five,” guard Boobie Gibson, who should see more playing time this year, told The Plain Dealer. “Everybody is capable of doing it. The way we share the ball, that’s a fun style of play.”

The one thing is that the offense asks players to relearn team basketball concepts and that may take a while. It wouldn’t surprise us to see the Cavs struggle early in the season as everyone gets to game speed with the offense, then show improvement as the season moves along and the players get more comfortable with the offense and find their new roles on the team.

Luckily Antawn Jamison is experienced in the offense, having played it in Washington, and it should be fun to see how Jamison, Mo Williams, Gibson and Jamario Moon work in a quick-shot offense (Scott wants a good look at a shot in six seconds).

So that brings us to our first question: how good will this Cavs team be?

Clearly they won’t be a 60-win team, but they also aren’t going to be a 12-win team either. LeBron was good, but there’s no way – barring several major injuries and/or a purging of the team at the trading deadline – that he alone was good for 50 wins. That’s completely absurd.

The problem with trying to gauge how good the Cavs can be is that the national media has spent the past five years or so telling us how everyone on the Cavs is horrible and that they only win because of LeBron. They can’t now admit how ridiculous that notion is, so it’s easier for them to predict the Cavs to be historically bad.

We can see this team being around .500 and battling for the last playoff spot. Terry Pluto – who knows a lot about the NBA – has them at 46 wins and easily making the playoffs.

And that leads us to our second question: how good do we want the Cavs to be?

There’s a reasonable fear among the fans that the Cavs will just become another team, winning around 40 games a year and losing in the first round of the playoffs. In other words, a repeat of the Mike Fratello years.

The flip side is that the front office should gut the team, accept being crappy while they rebuild through the draft, hoping to land the one stud draft pick that will lead the team back to the top of the standings.

But there’s no guarantees that strategy will work. It worked when they drafted LeBron, but what if the ball hadn’t dropped in the right spot during the draft lottery and the Cavs ended up with Darko Milicic? Or they do get the top pick and select Greg Oden instead of Kevin Durant?

Then what?

Maybe the Cavs should just be the best team that they can be. What if this year’s 36-win team lays the foundation for next year’s 48-win team and the 55-win team the following season?

What if the front office learns from the mistakes of the past 3-4 years and uses the resources available to them and the second chance offered to build the team the right way?

What if, instead of this being the end of a golden age of Cavalier basketball, this is really the beginning of something special?

Is that really any more improbable that what we’ve witnessed the past two-and-half years with this team?

We’ll start to get answers Wednesday at 7 p.m. when the Cavs tip-off. We’ll be watching to see how this season unfolds.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, keeping the faith, NBA
14 Oct 2010

There Are No Words

An officially NBA licensed 2011 Cleveland Cavaliers wall calendar was released yesterday.

Words will not do it justice, just click here to see the cover.

Incredible.

At least it’s not in Comic Sans.

Posted in calendar, Cleveland Cavaliers, major fail | Leave a comment
17 Aug 2010

Hey, they’re actually pretty good

The Cavs unveiled their new uniforms today and, after thinking about it, they’re not all that bad.

According to the team: “The uniforms feature a deep wine and bright gold that echo the hues from the early 1970s, with a simplistic, yet bold, design and introduce several new and unique design elements. The front of the home white jersey displays a new official team wordmark Cavaliers in wine across the chest, and the front of the road wine jersey the new wordmark reads Cleveland in white.

“On both uniforms, special details make them distinctive. The Cavaliers DNA statement: ‘All for One. One for All’ is printed along the back of the inner-collar of the crew neck jersey, and the Cavaliers secondary logo ‘C-sword’ appears on both sides of the shorts.”

OK, so they’re not really out there, design wise, but they are certainly better than what the team wore a few years ago when they strangely went with a black-and-blue uniform combo.

The uniforms are clean, with a traditional, old-school look that actually fits in nicely with the other pro teams in town. The Browns have one of the best and most iconic uniforms in the NFL, if not all of sports; while the Indians (as long as they stay away from the blue softball tops) also have a nice old-school look, especially when they wear their cream-colored uniforms.

The new uniforms also got the Uni Watch seal of approval. But then Paul Lukas contradicted his own site in a posting today on ESPN.

Now if the Cavs could only come up with their own version of this for their third jersey, they’d really be cooking. That may be the sweetest jersey ever created and it would be fun to see what a Cleveland version would look like. More info on that particular jersey can be found here.

***

We could have used some of that motivation in Game 5, yes? Or perhaps a bit more maturity.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, new uniforms | Leave a comment
17 Aug 2010
2 Comments

What Makes a Good Owner?

Here in Cleveland, we want to classify the owners of the local sports teams with neat little labels.

The Dolans are “cheap.”

Randy Lerner “doesn’t care.”

Dan Gilbert is “a winner.”

Those are easy tags for the hoople heads to latch on to, and there’s something to be said for that. But are the labels accurate?

If winning championships is the only criteria, then every Cleveland owner since 1964 has failed. But is that fair? George Steinbrenner was hailed as a great owner by Yankee apologists because he was willing to do “whatever it took” to win. That overlooks the fact that in 2009 the Yankees had $441 million in revenue – $173 million more than the second-place team! Having that much of an advantage makes it a lot easier to do “whatever it takes.”

If you look deeper into the numbers, however, you find something interesting: in 2009 the Yankees spent 54 percent of their revenue on player salaries ($240 million on $441 million in revenue), while the Indians spent 53.5 percent of their revenue on salaries ($91 million on $170 million in revenue).

It appears that the Dolans may not be unwilling to spend to make the Indians a winner, but rather they are unable to spend to compete under the current system.

So does that make them cheap or bad owners? I don’t think so. It’s more that they, like other mid-market owners in Major League Baseball, are caught in a cycle that makes it next to impossible to compete.

What about Randy Lerner?

The Browns have been a mess since they returned in 1999 and Lerner has been the one constant. That’s certainly a huge negative against Lerner. Many wrongly believe because Lerner is in England on Saturday watching Aston Villa play, rather than sitting behind a desk in Berea, he’s indifferent about the Browns.

If we were still in the 1930s, when a trans-Atlantic crossing took weeks on a ship, that may be true. But when you can make a flight from London to Cleveland in 7-8 hours, there’s no reason Lerner can’t have a presence at both team’s games.

Many fans want Lerner to be more “hands on” to prove he is “passionate” about the Browns. Because he lets people do the job that they are hired for, without constantly interfering, he’s labeled as being apathetic about the team. But if you look around the NFL, hands-on owners are not what you necessarily want.

Consider Dan Snyder of the Redskins, for example. Snyder has been overly involved with the team since buying them in 1999. Since then, the Redskins have been to the playoffs only three times. The team has had six different head coaches, has spent a disproportionate amount of money on expensive free agents and has traded away draft picks to acquire stars, many of whom have fizzled in Washington. He’s also sued season-ticket holders who’ve lost their jobs.

How about Al Davis? He’s as hands-on as they come. Or Jerry Jones, who’s led the Cowboys to one more playoff win than the Browns since 1999? Are those the type of owner Browns fans want Lerner to be?

It seems extremely unlikely that Lerner doesn’t care about the Browns. The problem is more that he’s made some mistakes in his hiring.

That brings us to Gilbert, an owner who’s benefited the most from a perfect storm of circumstances.

Gilbert has spent money and that was made easier by the presence of LeBron James, having the smallest roster size of the three major sports and the ability to pad the bottom line with all the extra playoff games the Cavs have been in since he bought the team.

But that has to be balanced with the fact that he let LeBron essentially run the team, which as we’re learning this summer, wasn’t the best idea. That “all-in” mentality cost the team a GM and a coach this off-season and it still wasn’t enough to keep James in town.

It would appear that Gilbert is as much an opportunistic owner as a winning owner.

So what does this all mean? Just as there’s no one way to define what a “good” coach is, there’s no one true blueprint for finding the best owner. As fans, all we can ask is for our owners to spend money to try and keep the team competitive, hire the best people they can find for the job and stay out of the way.

And remember that perception isn’t reality.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Dan Gilbert, Dolans, hoople heads, Randy Lerner
10 Aug 2010
1 Comment

We Really are Spoiled

I was reading through Terry Pluto’s Sunday Q&A with Joe Tait when I came across this part of the article:

Q: Is this really going to be your last season?
A: That’s it. I’m done. A few years ago, the travel really started to get to me. I was getting off airplanes at 4 a.m. after flying all night … I realized it was time to go.

It took a few minutes for it to register, but then it hit me: Joe Tait’s retiring after next year! I’m still having some trouble processing it. Tait has always been there, doing Cavs games on the radio since the team started in 1970 (well, except for those two years when he wasn’t there, but you know what I mean). Can there be a Cavs game without Joe Tait behind the mic?

Tait is an old-school pro, someone who understands that people tune in for the game, not necessarily to just listen to him. He’s an announcer, not a personality, and he’s going to be missed once he leaves the building.

Growing up one of my friends had a 12-inch LP of The Miracle of Richfield, which featured audio from Tait’s game calls. We listened to that so many times I can still hear Tait’s words to this day.

Sunday’s New York Times had an article about how longtime broadcaster Dick Enberg has returned to calling baseball games with the San Diego Padres. In the article, Padres president Tom Garfinkel describes Enberg this way:

“Broadcasters in a way are the greatest brand ambassadors you can have,” Garfinkel said. “Dick brings a degree of credibility that’s very rare. He’s a great storyteller. He brings an enthusiasm and tells a story in a way that separates him from a lot of others.”

Those same words could be used to describe Tait. He truly is the Cavs, having been with the team through a multitude of players, coaches, wins, losses, arenas, uniform colors and logos. He is the Cavs brand.

Thinking about Tait made me realize how spoiled we have been as Cleveland fans to have the quality of announcers we’ve had over the past 40+ years.

I can remember Gib Shanley calling Browns games in the late ’70s & early ’80s, especially home games as the Browns rarely sold out at home during that period unless it was against Pittsburgh. Shanley gave way to Nev Chandler, one of the best football announcers. Who can ever forget his calls during the Browns playoff seasons of 1986 & 1987?

On the Indians side, everyone under a certain age grew up with Herb Score who, in a bigger market, would have received more acclaim than he did here in Cleveland. Hearing the voice of Tom Hamilton on a Tribe game has been the soundtrack of summer in Cleveland since 1990.

With the growth of satellite radio and more out-of-town broadcasts available, it’s easy to see that, even if the Cleveland teams haven’t always been winners over the past four decades, the local announcers have always been at the top of their games.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Joe Tait, professional announcers
27 Jul 2010

They’re Breaking up the Band

Delonte West is the latest Cleveland Cavalier to be elevated to the status of ex-Cavalier, as the team traded him, along with Sebastian Telfair, to Minnesota for guard Ramon Sessions, Ryan Hollins and a 2013 second round pick.

It was understandable and not a surprise that the Cavs moved West, but it’s still disappointing. West was one of the players that made the Cavs so enjoyable to watch over the past three years. He was one of the team’s best players and his gritty, fearless style of play on the court fit in well in Cleveland.

Sadly, West’s off-court legal troubles – he recently plead guilty to two gun charges in Maryland and was sentenced to eight months of house arrest – and ongoing medial problems were too much for the Cavs to deal with anymore and they moved him out of town.

Sessions had his best seasons in Milwaukee, which is what made Mo Williams available to Cleveland two years ago after Sessions’ rookie season. Following the trade, he averaged 12.4 points and 5.7 assists in his second season. He moved to Minnesota last year as a free agent and struggled, averaging 8.2 points and 3.1 assists.

Sessions is in the second year of a four-year, $16 million contract, which means he is very cap friendly for the Cavs. Plus, the team picked up another draft pick, which is just another chip that can use in a potential trade down the road or to pick up another young player.

The 25-year-old Hollins is a super-athletic, but raw, forward/center who averaged 6.1 points and 2.8 rebounds last year.

So, while certainly not a blockbuster type of trade, it is another step in the slow process of rebuilding the Cavs.

But you’ll be missed Delonte.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, Delonte West, NBA | Leave a comment
19 Jul 2010

Cleveland Sports On Demand Wishlist

Last week, during the mid-summer dead period of sports – World Cup over, baseball on its All-Star break, no basketball, football not yet here – I started to dream of an on demand channel that featured Cleveland sports games through the decades.

No sporting events happening? Just order up a complete game from the past, sit back and enjoy. And if I had every Browns, Indians and Cavs game at my fingertips, which would be my go-to selections? Most of my top choices are older games, either ones that happened before I was born or I was too young to remember.

For the Browns, you’d have to start with the championship games, not just the NFL titles, but the AAFC ones as well. Other must-have games include:

  • A Jim Brown game vs. Sam Huff and the New York Giants
  • The 1972 Monday Night game vs. San Diego that the Browns won on a late Mike Phipps to Frank Pitts TD pass
  • The Browns defeat of Dallas in 1979 on Monday Night Football
  • The 1976 game vs. Pittsburgh when David Mays came off the bench to lead the Browns to the win
  • Brian Sipe’s last game as a Brown, a 30-17 win over Pittsburgh at the Stadium
  • The double OT win vs. the Jets in the 1986 playoffs
  • The 1986 win in Three Rivers Stadium

For the Cavs:

  • Any of the four playoff wins vs. Washington in the Miracle of Richfield season
  • The blowout of Boston in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals that same season
  • The Cavs Game 3 win vs. Boston in the 1985 playoffs
  • The Game 4 OT win vs. Chicago in the 1989 playoffs
  • The OT win in Boston Garden in the 1992 playoffs
  • The Game 2 win against Chicago in the Eastern Conference Finals in 1992
  • The team’s first ever victory, a 105-103 win over Portland

For the Indians:

  • A Luis Tiant game from the 1968 season, when he won 21 games with a 1.60 ERA
  • A Sam McDowell game from the 1970 season, when he won 20 games
  • An early 1970s game when the Indians had Chris Chambliss and Graig Nettles
  • A Gaylord Perry game from his Cy Young season of 1972
  • The 1975 home opener when Frank Robinson homered
  • Dennis Eckersley’s no-hitter in 1977
  • The home opener in 1980, when Super Joe Charboneau became a legend
  • Game 5 of the ALCS in 1995 when Paul Assenmacher struck out Ken Griffey
  • Sandy Alomar’s homerun off of Mariano Rivera in the 1997 playoffs

That’s a good start for a list. I’m sure, given enough time, I could come up with several games I’ve overlooked.

I don’t know if something like this will ever become available as it’s unlikely that film exists of some of these games.

But I’m old enough to remember when we only had five channels to watch on the TV and televising a home game for the Indians and Cavs was not even a consideration, while the Browns could only sell out their home game vs. Pittsburgh. Plus you got one college football game on Saturday.

Now we have games in HD, virtually every game is televised, NFL Sunday Ticket, NBA League Pass and MLB Extra Innings, so anything is possible.

We may be on to something here.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, TV sports, wishlist | Leave a comment
19 Jul 2010

An Inside Look at Free Agency – Allegedly

When I first read Adrian Wojnarowski’s take on LeBron’s free agency journey from Cleveland to Miami, I, like most Cavs fans, said, “yep, that’s the LeBron I know.” A me-first, spoiled, athlete who treats others poorly and who turned his back on Cleveland.

But when I went back and read it a second time, I started to wonder. Am I agreeing with Wojnarowski because his story is accurate, or do I believe it because, as a jilted fan, I want to believe it? I’m not sure, but what I do know is, it would be a lot easier to buy into this tale if Wojnarowski actually quoted someone.

That’s right, in almost 4,100 words on how LeBron landed in Miami, we get exactly two quotes – one from a “league official” and a “top NBA front office executive.” Neither are quoted by name, of course.

The article lays out some pretty harsh criticisms of James:

  • claiming Team USA did not want him on the 2008 Olympic team
  • that James forced Dan Gilbert to fire coach Mike Brown and that Brown did not respect James
  • that James wouldn’t allow photos or videos at the birthday party of Chris Paul’s son because James was attending
  • that William Wesley was driving a wedge between James and Maverick Carter

And on and on.

Now all of this may be true, or at least mostly true. But without a single person willing to go on the record for the article, how can we know? How do we know that someone with an ax to grind didn’t feed Wojnarowski an “inside look” that is more speculation and half-truths than reality?

Or that Wojnarowski wanted to believe this so he allowed himself to be led down the path? He wasn’t exactly balanced in his coverage of LeBron during the free agency period:

Sadly, as we all learned during the past few months, proper sourcing and going on the record just isn’t all that important in today’s media. On any given day, ESPN will have 3-4 stories on it mainpage without any attribution.

And that leaves it to us, the fans and readers, to try and sort through the mess to find out what’s the truth and what’s propaganda.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James, NBA | Leave a comment
15 Jul 2010

Roll up your sleeves – it’s time to get to work

We all knew things were going to be tough for the Cavs post-LeBron. But in the past few days, it’s become clear that things are going to be really tough, at least in the short term.

The team not only has to replace the two-time MVP in the lineup, but they have to learn and adjust to coach Byron Scott’s system, which is significantly different that the one run by former coach Mike Brown. Scott wants the team to run off of “rebounds, turnovers and even made baskets, we’re going to try to run off all of them,” Scott said in published reports.

And after five years of watching taller guards come up short – Sasha Pavlovic anyone – the team is now looking for guards who can push the ball to create offensive chances.

The Cavs came up short in their bid to acquire Houston guard Kyle Lowry, and now are reportedly looking at Mike Conley (Memphis) and Ramon Sessions (Minnesota). They may also give some time to current guard Sebastian Telfair.

Not exactly the cream of the crop, but at this stage they may be only players available.

The team is also taking a look at 2009 first-round pick Christian Eyenga – remember him? – at the Las Vegas Summer League.

This is what Brian Windhorst had to say about Eyenga:

“Whether you’re watching him in a practice or a game, usually within a few minutes it is easy to see why the Cavaliers were so attracted to the talent of Christian Eyenga. Often, at the same time, it is easy to see why it is hard to figure what to do with him.

“The 2009 first-round pick from the Congo is immensely gifted with remarkable leaping ability and long arms on his 6-foot-7 frame and the ability to get from one side of the floor to the other in an instant. He can close to block a shot in a flash or outrun everyone on the floor to finish a fast break.

“But then he’ll miss a defensive assignment, take the wrong angle on defending a screen roll or get trapped on the wing without a move to counter the defender.”

Oh boy, that doesn’t sound like fun.

Windhorst also said the Cavs are kicking the tires on Adam Morrison, who has averaged 7.5 points on 37 percent shooting for his four-year career.

This just gets funner by the minute.

But the hardest article to read may have been one Windhorst penned for ESPN.com. In it he says:

“In the midst of trying to pick up the pieces, the Cavs are suddenly staring at one of the league’s toughest conundrums, one that nearly every franchise faces once a decade or so. How can they rebuild? How should they rebuild? How can they sell the rebuilding process?

“The questions are unpleasant and the answers are complicated for reasons the Cavs can’t control and reasons they can.

“In the unrelenting heat of Vegas, though, reality is here. The Cavs see it as they watch their summer league team attempt to install new coach Byron Scott’s running offense, a system for which they don’t have the personnel right now. They hear it when they talk to agents about their clients and the troubles recruiting them to what is left of the team. They feel it in the glares of other executives as they know teams see them as desperate.

“The truth, whether the team and its fans are prepared to admit it, is the Cavs cannot rebuild quickly or on the fly. They will not be competing with the Heat for the championship this season and more than likely not next season either. After being one of the focus points of the NBA since making the Finals in 2007, the national television games and late postseason runs are done for now.”

This is where the Cavs have to get it right. They now have an opportunity to rebuild the team in a way that will allow them to be competitive long-term, rather than worrying about appeasing one player. And it seems as if Dan Gilbert has seen the light, telling Sports Illustrated in this week’s issue:

“It’s kind of a relief on the organization,” he said. acknowledging that the franchise had made trade after trade with the short-term goal of convincing James to to re-enlist. “People have to understand this was a LeBron-centric situation. We haven’t experienced trying to do it the right way, and in a way it’s exciting for us to move forward without that kind of weight on us.”

Building a winning team in the NBA takes patience, smarts, good management and luck.

The Cavs have the first three pieces in place. Hopefully they didn’t squander all of the fourth piece over the past seven years.

Posted in building a winner, Cleveland Cavaliers, hard work, NBA | Leave a comment

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