| Magic Man (?) Authored by Keith Berzanske - April 7, 2005 - 1:20 pm
| Current Featured Columns | | The First Three Weeks of 2008-09 Now that we’ve had a little time to watch free agency unfold, along with the usual accompaniment of trades, let’s look at some of the key moves and how they impact the teams involved.
Grading The Deal: W's Sign Maggette And TuriafThe Boom Dizzle era is over, and the Warriors quickly recovered by signing two nice pieces to complement their young core.
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Here are the current standings in the Eastern Conference:
56 19 Miami
47 27 Detroit
41 34 Boston
42 32 Chicago
41 33 Washington
40 34 Indiana
38 36 Cleveland
37 37 Philadelphia
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36 39 New Jersey
35 40 Orlando
30 44 Toronto
29 44 New York
28 46 Milwaukee
15 59 Charlotte
11 63 Atlanta
In what was the season's key game to date, at home the other night against the Nets, the Cavaliers not only came out terribly flat, but lost Zyrdunas Ilgauskas to a finger injury for at least a few days. Drew Gooden also banged up his shoulder, and LeBron has been playing with an assortment of injuries.
This was a golden opportunity for the Cavalier to, for all intents and purposes, eliminate the Nets and solidify their own spot. Indeed, had the Cavaliers won the game, the standings 5-10 would look like:
41 33 Washington
40 34 Indiana
39 35 Cleveland
37 37 Philadelphia
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35 40 New Jersey
35 40 Orlando
which would have left little doubt about the Cavaliers playoff chances. We'd be sitting here today talking about possibly moving to 6th or 5th instead.
My, how one game makes a difference...
The Nets and 76ers each hold the tiebreaker over the Cavaliers as a result of each team's record head to head. So the Cavaliers need to finish at least one game eahead of one of these two teams. I'm going to write off Orlando for now. They are not only in disarray, but now it appears that they've lost Grant Hill for th rest of the year.
The Cavaliers haven't exactly inspired confidence lately that they can win a few games and stay ahead of the Nets and 76ers. The benching of Jeff McInnis for a few days has really thrown off team chemistry. LeBron said it best himself when he said, "...we've got 15 points and 5 assists sitting over there on the bench...there was never a reason why Jeff wasn't playing...we never got an explanation."
Since McInnis was benched, the Cavaliers have gone 4-7, despite LeBron's best efforts. They dropped a game in Toronto when he poured in 56, and lost another in Chicago despite an improbable three point shot at the buzzer that forced overtime. James singlehandedly won the game in New Orleans, where the Cavaliers were smashed by an inferior squad for 3 quarters, and also against Dallas, after Drew Gooden and Tractor Traylor were ejected, another game where McInnis did not even see the floor. There were several games where the Cavaliers apparently just decided not to show up at all - they were smoked at Houston, Dallas, and Indiana, and more significantly, at home against New Jersey and Sacramento.
It was during the blowout against Sacramento, however, where the Cavaliers discovered something they may want to make a note of. LeBron James can play the point, and with success, and the team may be better for it on certain occasions.
The Cavaliers were down 31 against the Kings but managed to cut it to 10 a couple of times before Mike Bibby stepped it up. They made this run with an 'energy lineup': James, Welsch, Pavlovic, Gooden, and Varejao. James ran the offense and got everyone involved, and the other attacked the rim for baskets and rebounds. This happened again against Dallas, in the 4th quarter, after the ejections of Gooden and Traylor, except that Ilgaukas and Newble were in rather than Gooden and Welsch.
No matter where James plays, he is going to score 25-30 points. But when he runs the point, he tends to get his points more in the flow of the game, and he's more likely to take advantage of his passing skills and keep everyone else involved. LeBron was never meant to be one of those off guards like Paul Pierce, Kobe Bryant, etc., where you throw him the ball and let him isolate one on one. He can score that way, but it's a waste of his skill set. He should be used more like Larry Bird, or Scottie Pippen, or hey, maybe even Magic. Then in crunch time, he can be the one to take the big shot, like MJ did. It makes more sense for the ball to be in LeBron's hands as much as possible - good things happen. Why have Eric Snow dribbling for 15 seconds of the 24, or Jeff McInnis creating floaters, when LeBron's passing can find easy baskets for everyone?
When LeBron was drafted, I thought that his best position was point guard, or at minimum a point forward who creates the offense. To have him off the ball and then having to race the shot clock - that's not a recipe for success. There's talk about having a traditional point guard, but wouldn't that player be asked to all of the things that James does best? The only real liability is that James may have a problem guarding small quick point guards, but I think he'd cause them nightmares at the other end. For example, I think Steve Nash would have a tougher time guarding LeBron that LeBron would guarding Nash. Of course, acquiring a point guard who both had range and could play scrappy 'D' would be a plus. Dan Dickau might be an option where the shooting is concerned. Maybe Jiri Welsch will come around - he is certainly tenacious on defense, although I question his pure shooting ability. Free agent possibilities, besides Dickau, include Bobby Jackson, Jon Barry, Earl Watson, Keyon Dooling, and Travis Best.
The Cavaliers have been trying to find a swingman who can shoot, and that's still a good idea. But getting a point guard that can shoot, like John Paxson and Steve Kerr did for the Bulls, would help. Whatever free agent the Cavaliers get, whether it's Michael Redd, Ray Allen, or whoever, that guy and James should be handling the ball most of the time, just like Jordan and Pippen did. Everyne else is a secondary option. They should run plays for Z when he has an advantage. Gooden and Varejao should get all of their points off putbacks and hustle plays. Next year when Luke Jackson returns, James may have the sidekick that he needs. Losing Luke really hurt the team this year. He'd just be coming into his own by now, 74 games into the season.
Pavlovic, for all his faults, should probably be on the floor more. He is a threat to shoot, and even if he's not hitting, teams still have to respect him, which opens up the floor for LeBron and Z. Teams are backing off Ira Newble, Eric Snow, Jiri Welsch, Lucious Harris, and Tractor Traylor, daring them to shoot, and for good reason. Harris really shouldn't play much at all any more. McInnis has shown that he can be effective as a spot up shooter as well, and unless he's getting lit up on defense, he needs to be out there instead of Snow.
Z, Gooden, and Varejao make and excellent three headed monster in the frontcourt. Two of them should be playing at all time - minutes could be split 36, 32, and 28. There's no reason for Traylor to get more than 5-6 minutes. He just doesn't play well for long stretches.
The only positive to come out of all of the blowouts is that LeBron finally got some rest. Let's see if he has enough left in the tank to carry the Cavaliers to their first playoff berth in 7 years.
Here is the remaining schedule for each team:
CLEVELAND
at Philadelphia
Milwaukee
at Orlando
New York
at Washington
at Detroit
Boston
at Toronto
The good news is that 2 of the 4 road games, at Toronto and Orlando are very winnable, and the there's also a chacne against Philly. I'd mark down losses for the games against the Wizards and the Pistons, and if we happen to win those, that's a bonus.
The game against Boston may be tough, but the Cavaliers should have more to play for than the Celtics. And if the Cavaliers can't beat Milwaukee and New York, they probably don't deserve to go to the playoffs.
NEW JERSEY
New York
Boston
at Indiana
at Toronto
Philadelphia
Washington
at Boston
The Nets schedule is a bit easier than the Cavaliers' schedule. The Nets have been streaking, so the Cavaliers would be best off taking care of their own business and winning games. I could see the Nets winning at least 5, maybe 6 of these games and finishing with 41 or 42 wins, meaning the Cavaliers need 4-5 more victories themselves. The Nets also currently hold the tiebreaker over Philadelphia, although the 76ers can reclaim it by beating the Nets in their head to head matchup still forthcoming.
PHILADELPHIA
Cleveland
at Washington
Boston
Miami
at Indiana
at New Jersey
Milwaukee
Atlanta
The 76ers end the year with a gimme against the Hawks, which is good if they are in a must win situation.
What can really help Cleveland is if they take care of business Friday and defeat Philadelphia, who will be playing without Chris Webber. Also, since the Nets and 76ers play each other, one of those teams is getting another loss right there.
It should be an interesting race down to the finish. It's another chance for LeBron to defy the critics and show them that he can take a team to the next level, a la Magic Johnson. Willing this team into the playoffs in its current state of chaos would be a great achievement. And even if we limp in, you can bet that no one wants to play the Cavaliers. James is that good, scary good.
AWARDS
These aren't given out for a few weeks, but it's not too early for me to hand out hardware:
ALL-NBA
1st team
G Steve Nash
G LeBron James
F Dirk Nowitzki
F Kevin Garnett
C Shaquille O'Neal
2nd team
G Allen Iverson
G Dwyane Wade
F Amare Stoudemire
F Tim Duncan
C Yao Ming
3rd team
G Gilbert Arenas
G Ray Allen
F Tracy McGrady
F Shawn Marion
C Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Guys considered but injured too much:
Kobe Bryant
Brad Miller
Jermaine O'Neal
Andrei Kirilenko
Larry Hughes
Jason Kidd
Pau Gasol
Honorable Mention
Paul Pierce
Elton Brand
Chris Webber
Mike Bibby
Vince Carter
Emeka Okafor
Chris Bosh
Manu Ginobili
Lamar Odom
Defensive Player of the Year:
this should go to Kirilenko, but he missed too many games, and it's hard to give it to Shawn Marion, since the Suns give up so many points, and I can't give any award to Marcus Camby ever, and Ron Artest was suspended so...
I guess I'll give this to Ben Wallace. The Pistons are still the league's best defensive team, and he is the key to their defense.
Rookie of the Year:
Emeka Okafor
This is a tough call - Dwight Howard has had a fantastic year, and Ben Gordon has been a major part of the Bulls' resurgence. But what Okafor has done on such a bad team merits attention. Normally I'd penalize guys for racking up numbers on an expansion team, but he's helped them win 15-17 games with a roster that should have won maybe 8-10, and they'd likely have gotten 20 had he not missed a couple of weeks. Good rookie class though. Andre Iguodala also deserves mention.
6th Man of the Year:
Ben Gordon
Gordon deserves this for leading the entire NBA in points scored in the 4th quarter. He's won several games for hte Bulls and given them a winning attitude.
Runners up for this award include Donyell Marshall, Antonio McDyess, and the entire benches from Memphis and Dallas.
Comeback Player:
Grant Hill, if you are talkig about injury
Vince Carter, if you are talking about just a general malaise
Most Improved Player:
LeBron James
For the same reason that Tracy McGrady won the award a couple of years. Also consider the extra pressure on LeBron, who is basically the savior for an entire franchise and city.
Other players deserving consideration:
Dwyane Wade
Bobby Simmons
Gilbert Arenas
Chris Bosh
Drew Gooden
Manu Ginobili
Udonis Haslem
Dan Dickau
I'll come up with some 'anti-awards' for a later column, as there are definitely some candidates for 'least valuable player', 'most overrated', 'most underachieving', and 'worst free agent acquisition'.
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