I went last night and had the opportunity to watch this team live finally. I have just a few observations, nothing surprising:
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Kyrie looked energetic all night, he clearly had more gas left in the tank when he was taken out and
DJ Augustin was trying to keep up with empty points.
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Kyrie was also in position to gather a few more rebounds, but chose to play the point and allowed the bigs to take them.
- At some point, this team cannot depend on out-running teams, but it is helping them now.
- The team seemed to play pretty darn good defense all night, Kyrie included; however, they are vulnerable on defense when they have just finished a big offensive score.
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Tristan Thompson was in pretty good position all night to gather rebounds. I am surprised that he has good mechanics under the hoop to move around without traveling.
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Samardo cannot guard big centers. He also has a tough time getting comfortable in the paint with those tall guys as well.
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BJ Mullens is not as bad as I had anticipated.
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Boris Diaw is fat and worthless.
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Kemba Walker will begin to hit shots as he gets more comfortable, but he doesn't seem like much more than a good shooter with below average defense (Damon Jones, anyone?). Definitely not afraid to take the shot, it just looks forced at times.
- I really hope we find a way to justify keeping
Varejao. He is just good and looks like a good teammate to have both at the Q and in Independence.
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Alonzo Gee looks like a keeper. He is a good teammate although he needs to work on his passing a bit. I still like his attitude at the bench, something you don't get to see much on TV.
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Kyrie has some extremely good ball handling skills and simply put, he has a very bright future (if he stays healthy
ray
. I felt like I was at an And 1 game when he broke Maggette.
- Speaking of
Corey Maggette, I am as happy as anybody could be that we didn't trade for him in the #6 days. He yelled at teammates and got ignored and he literally takes every shot.
- The bench celebrating stayed in Cleveland. This is moving on, I hope we can all stay the path.
Other than that, I am not sure what lies ahead for the Cavaliers, but I know for certain that I will be going to more games. We need more fans.