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Chris Parker/Cleveland Scene answers your questions

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I went to them.

I've had the opportunity to cover some things I've really thought were cool stories as a freelancer and really pick what's interesting to me. Last year I wrote about Net Neutrality, reverse-inversions where companies "move" to Ireland w/o leaving country and realize the tax benefits, and about the then-only-imminent crash of highly leveraged mining and oil exploration companies. I wrote about that cool Cleveland soul label Way Out Records, I've covered the Rock'n'Roll hall of Fame inductions and will do so again for Billboard, I've written about Anonymous and the DOJ's ridiculous war on what they call "hackers" and about how the DOJ screwed pro poker players when they closed online gambling down w/o warning. I've interviewed people ranging from Billy Joe Shaver to Ray Davies to Zac Brown to Schoolboy Q to Mastadon to Ian McKaye and Jello Biafra.

This is without a doubt the most riveting story I've ever been privvy to. The question I asked myself in August was how can I NOT cover this?
Is your DoJ vs Online poker on your personal site? While I wasn't a pro I was affected by "black Friday" for poker players.
 
Chris, thank you very much for doing this.

My question for you is the biggest worry I have with this team heading into the playoffs, and that is the lack of relationship/trust LeBron has with Blatt. Blatt has gone out of his way to never criticize LeBron in postgame pressers no matter what, and he's consistently praised and defended him to you guys.

LeBron on the other hand constantly disagrees with Blatt's assessments and typically abandons Blatt's offense in 4th quarters in favor of slowing it down and running some version of high PnR with either him or Kyrie. Blatt still controls out of bounds plays and plays out of timeouts(in my opinion that trust developed after the out of bounds play against the Clippers when LeBron pointed to Blatt afterwards).

My point is a team's best player and its coach have to be on the same page and have an understanding of each other to win a championship and I just don't see them even talking to each other on the court, let alone developing a bond/understanding. Your thoughts?
 
Chris, what did you think about that ESPN ranking that had Blatt ranked at #19 among current NBA coaches?
 
Chris, thank you very much for doing this.

My question for you is the biggest worry I have with this team heading into the playoffs, and that is the lack of relationship/trust LeBron has with Blatt. Blatt has gone out of his way to never criticize LeBron in postgame pressers no matter what, and he's consistently praised and defended him to you guys.

LeBron on the other hand constantly disagrees with Blatt's assessments and typically abandons Blatt's offense in 4th quarters in favor of slowing it down and running some version of high PnR with either him or Kyrie. Blatt still controls out of bounds plays and plays out of timeouts(in my opinion that trust developed after the out of bounds play against the Clippers when LeBron pointed to Blatt afterwards).

My point is a team's best player and its coach have to be on the same page and have an understanding of each other to win a championship and I just don't see them even talking to each other on the court, let alone developing a bond/understanding. Your thoughts?


Yeah, LeBron a few times lately has praised the "coaching staff" or said that he/the team trusts them but he seems to be unwilling to single Blatt out, which seems like a bit of an insult to me. It definitely leaves the door open for the whole Windhorst type drama stuff. The media can suggest that LeBron only trusts/respects the other coaches, perhaps Lue, or that there's some ill will between LeBron and Blatt. I'd like to see LeBron give Blatt a bit more of a pat on the back. I think he was sort of boxed into having to when asked about Blatt winning coach of the Month. :chuckle:
 
Yeah, LeBron a few times lately has praised the "coaching staff" or said that he/the team trusts them but he seems to be unwilling to single Blatt out, which seems like a bit of an insult to me. It definitely leaves the door open for the whole Windhorst type drama stuff. The media can suggest that LeBron only trusts/respects the other coaches, perhaps Lue, or that there's some ill will between LeBron and Blatt. I'd like to see LeBron give Blatt a bit more of a pat on the back. I think he was sort of boxed into having to when asked about Blatt winning coach of the Month. :chuckle:
Yep and see again, when you listen to any other team, players always talk about things their coach does to help them win, but I can't think of a time LeBron has said anything like that about Blatt.

Will LeBron be willing to trust Blatt enough in the playoffs to let him make big decisions? That is not something I can answer definitively right now.
 
but I can't think of a time LeBron has said anything like that about Blatt.

Because Blatt is a rookie NBA coach that hasn't done anything. Wait until the playoffs if you want comments like that.

But here's an example of one. When LeBron fist pumps and then points, he's pointing to Blatt for drawing that Thompson play up in the huddle.
 
Because Blatt is a rookie NBA coach that hasn't done anything. Wait until the playoffs if you want comments like that.

But here's an example of one. When LeBron fist pumps and then points, he's pointing to Blatt for drawing that Thompson play up in the huddle.
I know all that, I even mentioned that play in my previous post before the one you quoted. It's just worrisome that we have to wait until the playoffs for him to start building trust in Blatt.
 
I think the Chicago game was a sort of test for his now standard rotation. Dave at FTS pointed out the two best 3-man squads were Iman, LeBron, TT and Love, Ky Tmo. No coincidences those correspond to the first two rotations.

I honestly would like to see him play Marion and get him ready for playoffs because I think he will be really useful. But Blatt doesn't seem to agree. If you check my column a couple days ago, I note that Blatt put the ixnay on Marion saying "we've been successful with this squad and there's not reason to change that."

I'm sure he will spot Perkins, Jones and Marion, but it certainly looks like he's ready to play potentially entire series' w/o them seeing more than garbage time minutes.

I wish I understood that, esp. w/r/t Marion who he had so much faith in heretofore.

You want some speculation? I wonder if Marion said something to Blatt, pissed him off. This is a guy who started all last season. Not only has he not come off the bench in years, but now he's not even playing --- in his swan song season?? That's pure speculation, but it's very very weird to me that Blatt had such confidence in him, and then suddenly he's getting DNPs like he's Dead-wood.

I think for a while, Marion was the only guy who could provide decent perimeter defense besides LeBron, who's offensive burden is so high that he can't/doesn't give 100% on defense for all 36 minutes per night in the regular season.

So, while his other limitations kept him in the 16-20 minute range early in the year, that perimeter D at least earned him those minutes, if nothing else out of necessity.

When Smith arrived and Shumpert got healthy, all the sudden you had too very active perimeter defenders, who are both so much more versatile on offense than Marion.

So I think that sealed it for Marion moving out of the rotation. He simply couldn't do enough on offense and his defensive help was replaced by Shump and JR.

Also, agree with everyone else who has expressed their gratitude and excitement for this post and what you've had to share.

It's amazing that Cleveland Scene can have a beat writer with personality AND actual basketball knowledge or interest in learning the nuances of the game while Plain. Dealer/NE(OMG!) has Haynes who is fairly good and then two jokers who reduce their contributions to the level of TMZ "reporting" but who get a large voice through their platform
 
Yep and see again, when you listen to any other team, players always talk about things their coach does to help them win, but I can't think of a time LeBron has said anything like that about Blatt.

Will LeBron be willing to trust Blatt enough in the playoffs to let him make big decisions? That is not something I can answer definitively right now.

Has LeBron ever done this though? I'm pretty sure that how he answered things about Mike Brown and about Spo. Referring to the "Coaching Staff" or the "Coaches".
 
Now that we have bagged our own personal Cav's reporter what do we do with him?
Keep him below decks and bring him on deck for the play offs?

Bring out the gimp? :fight (9):

But seriously Chris, how in hell does Thompson turn down that 52 million for 4 years deal?
Who is going to offer him more than that for what he does?
In my mind he is a niche player and his niche is offensive rebounds/high energy play.
 
Chris - great to have you on the site, this is the best forum around, hands-down. These guys here know their stuff!

I'd like to follow you on twitter, but....that background picture is killing me. HA!
 
I can't tell how much of it is because he's the anti-Fedor, but I'm totally crushing on Parker now. I hope RCF can help increase his Twitter followers and give his articles more attention.
 
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