Chris Parker/Cleveland Scene answers your questions

[cavsfever]

Frickin' awesome thread. Jason Lloyd was my favorite Cavs writer but now he's number two. I remember reading Chris on music a while ago and he's even better on the Cavs.

Chris, when you return -- what do you think about these ongoing questions about whether Lebron is encountering new physical limitations? I have followed him closely throughout his career and I see him having more fatigue problems this year then I can ever remember. He is obviously still superb in bursts picking his spots, but he seems to wear down more quickly and sometimes his legs seem to tire out on jumpers. I see his own uncertainty about the gas he has in the tank contributing to his bouts of offensive indecisiveness out there (dribbling inconclusively for 15 seconds trying to figure out whether to take his man and then just heaving up a jumper). Do you think there's anything to this? Do you think he will have to retool his game in coming years, and do you think there's been an extra level of frustration for him trying to deal with these issues this year?

 

[cavsfever]

Chris' latest column -- "Hawks Circling Overhead While the Cavs Look For Love". Another great one.

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and...ircling-overhead-while-the-cavs-look-for-love

First paragraph:

"If there are two things that keep Cavaliers fans reaching for the Xanax (beyond an inbred tendency to expect the worst), it’s the Atlanta Hawks’ trapping defense and Kevin Love’s integration into the offense, which pretty much requires busing at this point." Ha!

 

[natedagg]

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. (I've got a semi-functional clip site at chrisparker.contently.com where you can find most of these stories.)

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?

(Link)^10? Do share - if eyeballs help your biz, I have 3 of them. Yes, 3...

Thanks for all of the insight. Welcome home! RCF is the home of the stat-nerd, the x's and o's tactician, the optimistic novices (like me), and the Israeli Blatt Brigade, to name a few. I suggest you poke around every thread, but if you are short on time, recent awesomeness can be found in the JR Smith thread (an informed fan won a dinner with him).

I think Horford is the match up nightmare. Like you said, anything that pulls Mozgov farther out to expose his foot speed, but also because it takes away from him helping on the drives.

Your job is an exercise in patience. You have these idiots vying auction style to ask really dumb questions, and it's no wonder that Blatt is always salty when they try to bait him. I think he is genuinely disappointed in the quality of the questions and it's hilarious to me.

We really appreciate your work. You have stumbled upon something special here, and you have made your own luck. Bravo, Chris, bravo!

 

[Chris Parker]

Don' know if this is the appropriate spot for this, but I thought I'd post this link to the interview I did with Blatt about 2 hrs ago as part of post-practice presser.

His answer begins right around the 4 minute mark - I asked how much of a game's possessions against playoff teams were part of the gameplan and how much were adjustments. I think he gives a very detailed and thoughtful answer that for me anyway offered a bit more insight into the nba game. I honestly would've thought it was more gameplanned but he suggested it's a lot of both and then said something very poetic about the nature of the game.

http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/video/2015/04/07/150407BLATTmov-3566499/

I also asked Campy about the side vs high pick & roll esp. w/r/t the Hawks trapping D -- he suggested a lot of playoff game-calling is trying to throw your opponents' rhythm off - saying given enough time you'll figure out how to beat the D, but in the meantime your rhythm's disrupted.

I'll have a post about this and Blatt tomorrow...

 

[Chris Parker]

Frickin' awesome thread. Jason Lloyd was my favorite Cavs writer but now he's number two. I remember reading Chris on music a while ago and he's even better on the Cavs.

Chris, when you return -- what do you think about these ongoing questions about whether Lebron is encountering new physical limitations? I have followed him closely throughout his career and I see him having more fatigue problems this year then I can ever remember. He is obviously still superb in bursts picking his spots, but he seems to wear down more quickly and sometimes his legs seem to tire out on jumpers. I see his own uncertainty about the gas he has in the tank contributing to his bouts of offensive indecisiveness out there (dribbling inconclusively for 15 seconds trying to figure out whether to take his man and then just heaving up a jumper). Do you think there's anything to this? Do you think he will have to retool his game in coming years, and do you think there's been an extra level of frustration for him trying to deal with these issues this year?

LeBron is def. facing more physical limitations, and each summer he adds things to his game. For some reason this summer he added a jump shot he shoots going sideways out of the lane that looks more suited to winning a H-O-R-S-E championship than the NBA one, but I suppose the other things he's worked on may be more subtle. I hope.

James is def. going to have to face his physical limits like other players and compensate. I think moving to PG (so to speak) is one of those adaptations. I wonder that he may not close his career a lot like Magic Johnson, a decent shooter who more keeps people honest to set up guys than dominate so much himself. When I talked to Dambrot a few weeks ago he said he thought James would turn out like Magic Johnson, but wound up a lot more like Michael Jordan -- "shows how much I know, and I was right there" -- which he says is an indication of how much and what that man's capable of.

that's why i think he'll def. adapt. I think this is the first season he really saw his explosion etc. begin to ebb, tho' the loss of weight could very well be a response to his knee & back that just didn't help enough. This is one of the most savvy ballplayers we've seen. He's got a Bird-mind. I think he'll figure it out and get at least two more top level years out of his body before it begins to betray him.

 

[Marcus]

Awesome thread. I feel like we are looking at what could be an entirely new facet of journalism - fan-driven journalism, with guys like @Chris Parker asking questions that fans without the media credentials would ask if we could.

I'm a little late to the party, so this may have already been asked, but what in the Cavs' gameplan do you think needs to change in order to get Kevin Love to produce at a more consistent level than what we have seen this year? Obviously his back has been an issue (certainly more so than he or Blatt will say to the media), as well as not being the focal point of the offense anymore like he was in Minnesota, but a few other posters and myself have been clamoring for Love to get more touches on the elbows every game, where he has been very effective throughout his career.

Thanks a ton for doing this. It's great to see someone from the notoriously shitty Cleveland media who is capable of asking solid questions instead of the gossip/drama spew that we are subjected to on a daily basis.

 

[Cayman13]

Hi Chris, I have a question if you wouldn't mind answering...

What does the camraderie look like between the players and Coach Blatt? Do they seem to enjoy being around each other, or is it more professional? Just wondered, as I am a big Blatt fan and just wondered how the guys see him.

Thanks again for taking the time to do this- I know we all appreciate it.

Stacy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ssopata]

This thread is all kinds of greatness. I would love to see either Fedor or Vardon attempt to come into this forum and answer the questions that have been thrown out in this thread. We'd have a 24-48 hour window while they perused the Internet for detailed articles in order to answer them.

Chris, off topic, who in your opinion was the most influential
hardcore band of the late 70's/ early 80's that isn't Flag or DK's and why?

Also how do you observe the relationship between Lue and Blatt? Is it as has been perceived by the media or does Blatt have an ally in Lue?

 

[Jon]

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.

I'd appreciate if someone would ask Thompson if he was actually offered that rather than having to rely on "league sources". Ahh, what passes for journalism these days.

I'd also love to see the Kyrie fighting through screens topic explored more, because it's not something that's strictly necessary unless you're running a very old school style defense. Paul Silas used to grind our guards down by demanding that they fight through screens and the result was JMac getting hurt just as we were making a push for the playoffs in LeBron's first year. Mike Brown came in with the show & recover D and the problem shifted to building defensive chemistry, cleaning up the rotations, and 5-men on a string.

 

[Benedict_Boozer]

Late to the party but this is pretty great stuff. Always stood out to me the intelligent questions Chris asked of Blatt in post game media sessions - especially relative to some of his unnamed peers who would trot out fluff softball questions or ask stupid non-basketball questions fishing for drama.

 

[GaryBriggs]

most excellent.

@Chris Parker so true that this forum is like S.O.S.H. - but before the Sox won a chip! I used to go there just to read what those guys thought about the Indians players/prospects, there were so many intelligent, funny, thoughtful dudes writing there. I believe there was even a rumor that one of the stat nerds was hired by the team and had a hand in some of the team's bigger moves. can't remember the details, but 'twas good lore.

i made the following observation earlier this month, may be of interest to you: Joe Vardon's job is literally to cover only Lebron James this season, and he has not shared a single interesting or insightful thing. Not an iota, not even a tidbit. That seems like it should be impossible. haha. no need to respond to that.

 

[crabbyshark]

View: https://twitter.com/CRS_1ne/status/585831085033914369

 

[Chris Parker]

Very cool of Chris to do this. I got my journalism degree and I'm unemployed right now so I got mad respect for a writer who I feel does it for the sheer graduation of writing and not selling out to get ahead.

Couple tips -- in the end 75% of my work has come from people I've had long relationships with; remember everyone you do work for will potentially be at a better place. A person I first wrote for 16 years ago is now the editor of Billboard. Another guy I've known 20 is an editor or Rolling Stone.

You'll hear this, but it's true -- read, maybe even for yourself, list the stories your target mag has run in the last six months and see if you can identify a theme. I'd pick out a few and see if I had some story ideas over a week. But see my first statement. Most of your pitches to people that don't know you will go answered.

This is also how you will make all of your first contacts so get used to rejection it's the only way to get past the rejections. And believe me I was still VERY upset when two papers in TX passed on my story about the end of the facking boom in October. They feel stupid now, but I had to get it published in a small paper to do it. Of course, they will think about passing next time.

Keep in mind that story subjects are somewhat renewable. I did a story on Anonymous which led to a story on Matthew Keys. My story on Medicaid fraud gave me insight to pitch & write several other health care system related stories.

While I did spam out a lot of email clips I would read what an editor had written and see if I couldn't slip a sentence in the first graph like "By the way, you're right about that Green Day album" or whatever, so they know you did your homework.

Finally, in anything that you research to anyone you pitch, know there are organizations, from coalitions that support poker (who helped me find poker players) to publicists who hand, say poker players, to online sites for helping poker players. All these are great places for sources. Also for targets. like the American Association for Newsweeklies (aan.org) has man of the country's alt-weeklies, their info and their circulation. Below a certain number they won't be able to pay anything, but if the idea's good enough they might go for it. I did a story for the Mizzoula Independent when Pussy Riot got convicted where I talked with Igor & the Red Elvises who were playing in Missoula, MT two weeks later, about the plight of the Russian band. Editors love when you can think out of the box and give them something timely with a peg already associated.

Anyway those are a few helpful general purpose things I've found about freelance writing..... hope they might help at least a tiny bit...

 

[Chris Parker]

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?

How much have you seen Blatt talk to ANY of his players? I don't think you can judge much by what you see on the court and in public. Evidently Blatt's a strong believe in team and family, which is reflected in a public positivity that offers little insight into how he is behind closed doors. From talking to a couple former players he pulls those aside that need it and leaves those that don't alone. I saw him and LeBron talking during practice as it let out yesterday, I think there probably is a lot of communication because they are both great basketball minds. But like people comparing After Hours to Holy Grail, maybe it takes some to find common ground -- but I believe LeBron is into what Blatt is doing. You don't think LBJ likes that they're 31-7 in the last two+ months?

I think anything negative about chemistry right now trying to make a story rather than follow one, as we saw a week or so ago.

Everyone wants Blatt to be on the King's instagram when Blatt barely believes in cell phones (metaphor only)
I think basketball headz fighting for a championship are united -- now when hardship comes and maybe they're behind in a series, that will be telling, but for now, I think fretting about the coach/LeBron relationship is media-inspired fretting and unwarranted. But that's just like my opinion, man....

 

[Ohio]

@Chris Parker , how many drugs was Q on when you interviewed him?