Barkley On The Cavs

[Karma]

Barkley's comments ring true​

Former star suggests Cavs are too offensive

By Brian Windhorst
Beacon Journal sportswriter

LOS ANGELES - A week and a half ago, basketball analyst/realist Charles Barkley delivered a stinging backhanded compliment to the Cavaliers.

After watching them play a half against the Indiana Pacers, on the TNT halftime show he surmised: ``They have a nice little offensive team.''

By ``nice,'' he meant a team that is probably going to win a lot of games this season. By ``offensive,'' he meant with LeBron James, Larry Hughes and other weapons, the Cavs can score points and are fun to watch.

By calling them ``little,'' though, he was acutely cracking their standing and mentality.

So far, Barkley has been on target.

The Cavs have been offensively good, posting huge numbers and rattling off eight consecutive wins at one point. And they've been little, especially when faced with trying to play consistent team defense on the road.

The latter has been obvious for the past 10 days as the Cavs (10-6) have dropped three consecutive road games looking meek on defense. Especially out on the West Coast, where they've allowed the Seattle SuperSonics and Los Angeles Clippers to shoot 52 percent as they've given up 217 points in the two games.

It has frayed some nerves. The players know they're not living up to the defensive standards set by coach Mike Brown, yet fail to routinely execute them.

``You have to want to stop people,'' Hughes said after the 102-90 loss to the Clippers on Saturday. ``You have to want to figure it out. You have to want to find the angles on the court. You have to want to play defense and not let that guy score.

``If your guy scores, that should make you mad.''

The Cavs' usual answer to that anger has been to try to make up for it on the offensive end. They have the ability to simply outscore opponents. They've done it all year at home and have even done it occasionally on the road. But they're all aware that isn't the way they need to play to maintain success over the course of the season.

``Our defense has to fuel our offense,'' Brown said. ``Our offense cannot fuel our defense. When we believe and understand that we can be a pretty good team, especially on the road, and right now it is not happening.''

Specifically, the Cavs defensive issues can often be tied to not making the extra effort, whether it is bringing help defense, rotating to the weak side, getting around a pick, or even getting a hand up.

They often are caught a step behind or a moment too late. This is an issue to every team at one point or another. The reaction to the problem defines seasons.

The Cavs took Sunday off after playing three games in four nights and traveling more than 3,000 miles, but their defensive fortitude will be tested again Tuesday in Sacramento. The Kings are below .500 but can dominate when their offense is clicking.

``I feel what coach is saying,'' said James, who has averaged 30.2 points in the Cavs' four losses in their past five games.

``We're not getting enough stops. That's not what our motto is. We need to clean some things up.''

Beacon Journal

 

[Karma]

Brown pushing Cavs to raise D

Monday, December 05, 2005
Branson Wright
Plain Dealer Reporter

Los Angeles- Coach Mike Brown's worst nightmare has transpired during the first two games of the Cavaliers' three-game West Coast trip.

Sustained defensive effort is the backbone of Brown's coaching philosophy. He loves nothing better than to watch what he is trying to burn into the fabric of this organization. But the Cavs' past two outings have been a far cry from what Brown desires.

"Until we understand as a unit and believe our defense has to fuel our offense, we'll have a chance to become a pretty good team, especially on the road and right now it's not happening," said Brown, whose team's scoring average of 101.8 is third in the league. "Playing good defense is a mind-set and right now we don't [have that mind-set]."

The Seattle SuperSonics and the Los Angeles Clippers combined to shoot nearly 52 percent from the field and more than 40 percent from beyond 3-point range. The Cavs, one of the top rebounding teams in the league, were outrebounded, 90-72, in those two games.

After 16 games, the Cavs lead the league in 3-point shooting percentage allowed at 42.4 percent, and opponents are shooting 46.7 percent against the Cavs, and that's the fourth worst in the league.

Something has to give.

"You have to have the attitude of wanting to stop people," guard Larry Hughes said. "You have to want to stop people. You have to want to figure it out and play angles on the court. You have to feel like you don't want the other guy to score. If he does score, that should make you mad."

Brown is seeking consistency.

"We might play two or three possessions well defensively, but then we'll turn around and play two or three straight bad ones," Brown said. "I've said since day one it's about 48 minutes. Good teams [give a sustained effort] as close to 48 minutes as possible, and right now we're not close to doing it for 48 minutes on the defensive end of the floor. We have to get to that."

LeBron James said the team is aware Brown is concerned about the team's recent play and they understand what will happen once the team becomes better on defense.

"When we're getting defensive stops, we're at our best," James said. "That gives us an opportunity to get out and run and get easy buckets. When we don't get defensive stops, we have to set up our offense, take long jump shots and get out of our comfort zone."

James remains optimistic the team will turn things around because he's seen enough flashes of how good things can become. "If you look at the fourth quarters [of the past two games], we've been right there," James said. "That just goes to show that if we clean up some things on the offensive end and clean up some things on the defensive end, we'll be good."

The Cavs are off today. They face the Kings on Tuesday night in Sacramento.

Plain Dealer

 

[ootbttnlagitnbasf]

Lebron sounds like he is in denial when he says that all we have to do is clean up some things on the... and then mentions both the offense and defensive ends. the problem is defense. we have enough offense.

brown has his priorities straight but does he have enough support to sit players who do not play defense they way they can? can he pull a larry brown and sit Lebron and hughes and jones to prove his point?

barkley feels that the only people that can comment on pro sports are people that have played professionally themselves. that leaves me and most others out of the loop. he has a history as a prognosticator of being wrong more often than he is right. like when he said that the lakers would have no trouble whatsoever with the pistons. oops.

 

[LyXo]

"When we're getting defensive stops, we're at our best," James said. "That gives us an opportunity to get out and run and get easy buckets. When we don't get defensive stops, we have to set up our offense, take long jump shots and get out of our comfort zone."

I don't really like this comment by LeBron. He's stating that the problem is that we run well, but we suck at the offensive sets... This is very true, but his improvement? Get more stops and run more? I don't think that's the best way to go about it.

We have the necessary tools to be good at all of these things, we need to improve each area so that we can utilize them, rather than patch up weakness.

We really need to start making our offense flow better in the half court. More ball movement, more off the ball movement, more post plays. Set plays for players, run them, get things flowing. The thing is, all of our players are offensive minded. That's where their energy comes from.

Brown is right when he says we need to get angry, mad, because of defensive things. But can you really change someone's mentality? What if he applied this in the inverse? Get things flowing on offense, then the players will continue that flow to the defensive end.. I know he completely disagreed with it already.

We run. We love to run. And when we run, we get to the 8-2 spurts, the 15 point runs, etc. That's because of the electrifying dunk, the turnover forced, the trey to follow, the block created, and more scoring. It seems that everything is started on the offense, for our team, then defense follows. This concept helps when we're able to run.

But if we have no offensive concept, our defense will stagnate to follow in slower games, games where we're forced to do so because the other team plays good transition defense. We have to adapt if we can't force the running game. Adapt and dominate. We have all the necessary tools. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the league's most complete team. Better than we were before. Better, stronger, faster.

 

[jason436]

I think Lebron is referring to the fact that if they play good defense they're going to get easy baskets. If we force our opponent to take tough shots and make tough passes then sooner or later we're going to get some fastbreak points. Most teams love to get points in transition because they're easy baskets and it helps get players in the game.

As far as the half court offense we have to remember that Brown hasn't worked on that much. With the players we have though our halfcourt offense should be pretty good, especially when they've played together for a longer time. We have two players in Lebron and Larry who can create for themselves and other, we have Z in the post plus he can pull the oppositions center away from the basket opening up the middle for Lebron and Larry. Gooden provide a low post threat plus he has a decent midrange shot, he just has to know his limits. I really think that when our offense is in full gear we have players that complement and should be able to feed off each other.