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Chris Parker/Cleveland Scene answers your questions

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@Chris Parker Awesome that you said you were open to asking our questions. That's incredible.

Rather than taking a specific question though (that would cause a feeding frenzy) just see if you can gauge the general vibe of RCF before/during/after a game and ask one that pertains to that. (if you're open to it, of course)

Stay out of the game threads after a game though...gets rough in there :chuckle:

Thanks again for chiming in, this has been FANTASTIC.

EDIT: Check the sig....
 
@Chris Parker

Have you seen a different level of leadership from lebron throughout the season?

First round here, his leadership was strong for his age and role, but obviously maturity was still a factor.

When he was in miami, his leadership seemed to go to a next level playing alongside veterans like wade and bosh etc..

Here in cleveland for the second time, this is truly his team. He's defiantly more mature but he is leading a group of young guys with little to no playoff experience. Do you see a new level of leadership from lbj? Being inside the locker room etc. how does he lead? Sometimes it feels like he gets frustrated and kinda hides in a corner (especially earlier in the season prior to the trades).
 
Well I'm not usually such a homer, but I don't think they are there w/o LeBron. I don't know if anyone caught my earlier reveal about LeBron but his buying in made this team. So in some essence I don't see how this ISN'T LeBron's award.

But I also know that's not how this is every voted on/decided. I like Curry and I think he's been great. how do you dis the best record in basketball? Harden has been unstoppable and improved his D. But I guess I don't really buy Houston the way I do the Warriors. So if I were going purely traditionally I would go Curry but I think quietly the best player in the NBA this year might have been Chris Paul. For a stathead I really go with my gut on these things.

Thanks for the answer, I really enjoy reading other opinions on the MVP because it's so subjective. I also think there's a case for LeBron winning the MVP as well, even in a down year his numbers are close to what is most likely going to be Harden's career year.

Harden: 28/7/6 on 44/38/87 splits, 27.0 PER, 15.7 win shares (HOU 53-23 with, 0-1 without)
LeBron: 26/7/6 on 49/35/72 splits, 26.0 PER, 10.0 win shares (CLE 48-18 with, 2-9 without)


There doesn't seem to be any talk about his candidacy though, I've seen more about who his best friends are rather than him nearly tying Kareem for most MVPs of all-time.
 
Another great question. What fun! Yeah I've thought about this a bit. The problem for most Eastern conference teams is they lack quick enough bigs to be able to accomplish this kind of a D. If you think about it, Miami also likes to blitz the pick & Roll and we've had trouble with them as well. I probably don't need to tell you the issue is the ability/willingness for Ky and LBJ to give up the ball.

I think we'll see that and what Chicago did - which was sag into the lane to prevent completed drives and force the Cavs to hit jumpers. If you think about it, it almost worked if you take away 3 miraculous shots.

The key is the Cavs ability to find weakside guys. Sometimes LeBron throws bad passes (hence the high TO rate) right across the lane to the weakside. I think WFNY had a column recently showing West grabbing one of these.

But I've also -esp. in Chicago game - noticed Ky and LeBron not taking it all the way into the lane - but passing just as they entered.

The Hawks on the other hand are about forcing the Cavs to make the extra pass. We can do it. I don't see it as a strategic problem so much as a practical one, esp if Love/Shumpert/Smith don't hit their open 3s.

the other real issue for me as I alluded earlier is that Horford has been able to exploit Mozgov's weak lateral quickness and force Blatt to remove him, which makes us much more vulnerable to penetration. Seems to me they need to make Carroll and Teague to complete plays. But that's just my take, I'm not sure exactly how it will play out when they've played each other a couple times and know each others sets

I think the other thing with the Hawks and honestly we could say this about most teams going against Lebron, him working in the post is going to cause havoc, especially with Love drawing the 4 out to the 3 point line.
 
@Chris Parker

Have you seen a different level of leadership from lebron throughout the season?

First round here, his leadership was strong for his age and role, but obviously maturity was still a factor.

When he was in miami, his leadership seemed to go to a next level playing alongside veterans like wade and bosh etc..

Here in cleveland for the second time, this is truly his team. He's defiantly more mature but he is leading a group of young guys with little to no playoff experience. Do you see a new level of leadership from lbj? Being inside the locker room etc. how does he lead? Sometimes it feels like he gets frustrated and kinda hides in a corner (especially earlier in the season prior to the trades).

Sometimes it seemed like LeBron was the only one who realized how hard what they were trying to do really was. I was thoroughly demoralized watching Dion attempt to play defense and do whatever that was that passed for offensive decision-making, I can only imagine the impact on a real ballplayer. Dion Waiters is a less talented Isiah Rider at this point and I don't see a real lot of improvement, but I digress.

I think LeBron had a lot of trouble deciding how to lead. When he was first here it was follow me, but I think he realized there was a limit to how useful that was. Also -- and here's the big thing -- I don't think HE was full committed. No surprise right? you could see it in his defense. He had to BELIEVE.

I've talked to over a thousand musicians and one of the best things I heard was "how are you ever going to convince someone to buy something your aren't utterly sold on yourself?"

that was the big issue for LeBron and he struggled until he took some time off, talked to some people and came back recommitted to the program in its entirety. the only hint we have really is Mike Miller's comment that he's never seen LeBron work so hard during his rehab.

I think for some reason LeBron thought these guys were going to find their way and elevate to Wade level or something. But if they could've, they would've already been in the playoffs, amiright?

So I think he learned that it was part him going all out, and part -- and here's the part that's really a guess, but an educated one with what's come out -- him going to his teammates Ky and Love and laying the responsibility on their laps. "these guys will help," he might've said, "but it's on us." at least that seems to be the substance of what Haynes got in his recent article on this.

In the locker room he's usually besieged by reporters so its a little different. esp. the last half of the season it seems. early on, before the injury he seemed to cut up and kid with the guys more, but it's pretty subtle and I may be off. I didn't go into every postgame locker during the yr. I don't use quotes a ton, and I can get the substance from either the postgame show or the other reporters articles.

Now that we're to the post-season I will be there all the time. I probably frittered some chance to get to know the guys, tbh, and that's on me. It's been a hard transition at times to the workload and my expectations of myself. Not much to do about it but go from tomorrow.
 
Please tell me sometimes to get a random WTF look you twist the ends of your stache and laugh maniacally under your breath?
 
You got to get a white fluffy cat with a permanent pissed off look on its face
 
Out of curiosity do you feel any semblance of joy when in a presser the interviewee just gives an honest, politically incorrect answer despite if it causes awkwardness? I do, I love when James does it.
 
Sometimes it seemed like LeBron was the only one who realized how hard what they were trying to do really was. I was thoroughly demoralized watching Dion attempt to play defense and do whatever that was that passed for offensive decision-making, I can only imagine the impact on a real ballplayer. Dion Waiters is a less talented Isiah Rider at this point and I don't see a real lot of improvement, but I digress.

.

Well this is obviously a fake. He doesn't realize Dion is a sure-thing future all-star like a good portion of our fans.
 
Here's a question I've been wondering since I've started following your work this season. Did you go to the Scene and ask to cover the Cavs or did the Scene approach you?
 
Out of curiosity do you feel any semblance of joy when in a presser the interviewee just gives an honest, politically incorrect answer despite if it causes awkwardness? I do, I love when James does it.

Yes and no. I do love when they actually are very honest. I don't know how many people know this. The press rarely talks to him, but Iman is an incredibly articulate very sharp basketball mind. So a lot of these guys are capable of giving non-canned answers, but they just don't get much opportunity, which I believe may make them feel like they don't need to answer challenging questions. Then again, sometimes they get asked the same questions three times phrased differently. I swear that drove me from the locker room at first. Couldn't stand listening to that shit at first. SOOOOO Boring.

But I know the trouble that LeBron causes when he does shit like that, whereas Love only gives the "right" answer and it's so much simpler. Because even if they give a truly "honest" answer, you can count on at least four reporters misinterpreting it and turning it into something else.

After a while I assume it's "why bother"
 
Here's a question I've been wondering since I've started following your work this season. Did you go to the Scene and ask to cover the Cavs or did the Scene approach you?

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?
 
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I know I'm preaching to the choir here but if any of you haven't watched the Q&A w/ Blatt after the games I really urge you to do so on the Cavs webby just to get a clear idea of what the difference in Chris' questions and Blatt's reactions are to say, Joe Vardon's. It's literally night and day and you can really see how Blatt himself appreciates some good, sound, intelligent questions as opposed to the garbage in, garbage out snark of Vardon's.
 
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