KI4MVP
formerly LJ4MVP
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2005
- Messages
- 31,322
- Reaction score
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I have noticed that there is way too much complaining about the Cavs by Cavs fans these days. I've seen it on the various cavs boards, I've heard it on sports talk radio, I've heard it on cavs post game call in shows. I turned on the radio for the drive home after we beat the Miami Heat and wondered just how long it would be until somebody called to complain about something. The very first two callers were people calling to complain. And people complain about everything. Sometimes I wonder if the people complaining even watch the games or listen to what the coach is saying about the team.
The team is in good shape right now and things are developing nicely. Are we where we want to be? Of course not. It is impossible for us to be where we want to be already with the number of changes we made. It's going to take hard work for the full 82 game season to maybe get to where we want to be in time for the playoffs. And that might not be enough time. Does that mean something is wrong? No - that simply means that we had a long ways to go from 42 win team that missed the playoffs to legitimate championship contender. And what I see is that we are clearly going about it the right way.
This team is loaded with weapons. We could take a shortcut and get more early wins by focusing on offense. The result would be last year's suns. Lots of points, lots of wins, bounced out of the playoffs. What did the suns do? They revamped their team because you don't win in the playoffs with offense, you win in the playoffs with defense. Mike Brown understands this and is saying and doing all of the right things. The defense was awful early in the season. He resisted the urge to use gimmicks to mask the problems. He wants the problems out front and center so they can be corrected. Doing anything else would lull the team into thinking things were fine until it was too late to fix them.
The focus is defense, how are we doing? Break the season into 20 game game chunks. Our defense was awful the first 20 games, one of the worst in the league, yet we still managed a winning record of 11-9. Seven games into the next 20 games and we are 6-1. How are we doing it? Improved defense is how. On the season we are giving up 97.2 ppg on 46.4% shooting, 38.6% from the 3. Our last 7 games, those we have given up 93.2 ppg on 45.0% shooting, 34.8% from the 3. Significant improvements across the board. During this stretch, we are holding our opponents 1.6 points below their season averages.
Some will point to our earlier 8 game winning streak. That streak was fueled by the offense, not the defense, which is why we collapsed afterwards when our offense faltered a bit.
As for the complaining, it seems people complain about everything
People complain about LeBron taking too many jumpers. The reality is he is taking it to the hoop more than he ever has and he has a good chance to be the first player since Michael Jordan since Michael Jordan in 91-92 to average over 30ppg while shooting .500+ from the floor.
People complain about Drew Gooden. The reality is that he's doing exactly what the coach asked him to do - forget offense and concentrate on defense and rebounding. And he's doing it while battling a sore ankle most of the year.
People complain about Z. This one I just dont' get. An all star selection last year, a likely all star selection this year. What more do people want? I believe some of the callers after the heat game were complainging about Z. On a night he held Shaq to 10 points.
People complain about Hughes and overlook that he's doing the role he's supposed to do - carry some of LeBron's load to allow LeBron to be more effective, especially late in games. They also overlook he's been playing through both a finger injury and an Achilles issue.
People complain about Snow. The reality is he's not supposed to shot much, other guys are supposed to run the offense. His job is to take care of the ball (3rd in the league in assist/turnover), play defense, and hit the open shot when he takes it (.500 shooting).
People complain about Donyell Marshall. The reality is that while his shot has been off a bit, he's doing other things to contribute - such as leading the league in rebounds by bench player and doing enough that he often gets brought up in sixth man of the year discussions.
People complain about Damon Jones. The reality is he's doing exactly what he was brought in to do - spread the floor, drain the 3s and take care of the basketball. He's first in the league in 3 pointers per 48 minutes. He's on pace to make 176 three pointers. Last year, LeBron's entire supporting cast combined for just 188. Also, people think Damon is causing off court troubles. All you have to do is watch a game and you can see that isn't true. He gets along great with the other players.
One thing people are critical of is that Z/Drew/Hughes/Marshall/Jones are all scoring fewer points this year. It was never expected that they would. That's not why we put all of these guys together. To have them all hit last year's average, we'd have to average 14.5 more ppg than we do now and currently we are the 3rd best scoring team in the league, averaging just 1 ppg behind the #1 team. It was never the plan to have all of these guys hit their averages from last season. The plan is to instead have enough weapons that the floor stays spread, making it easier for LeBron. The result, LeBron is averaging 3.2 more ppg on the same number of shots. He's not shooting more, he's making more.
That's a nice core 7. Ira makes 8, Varejao will make 9. Those 9 can compete with any team in the league when given time to fully learn the system and to all get comfortable with each other.
The team doesn't need more changes. It needs stability and time to gel. The elite teams in the league have had stability in personnel and the players have had time to learn to play together. THe teams below them try to revamp each year. That's what I question about the Heat's offseason moves. They made too many changes to a team that was already on the verge of the finals. They didn't need the drastic changes, they just needed a little tweaking.
The team is in good shape right now and things are developing nicely. Are we where we want to be? Of course not. It is impossible for us to be where we want to be already with the number of changes we made. It's going to take hard work for the full 82 game season to maybe get to where we want to be in time for the playoffs. And that might not be enough time. Does that mean something is wrong? No - that simply means that we had a long ways to go from 42 win team that missed the playoffs to legitimate championship contender. And what I see is that we are clearly going about it the right way.
This team is loaded with weapons. We could take a shortcut and get more early wins by focusing on offense. The result would be last year's suns. Lots of points, lots of wins, bounced out of the playoffs. What did the suns do? They revamped their team because you don't win in the playoffs with offense, you win in the playoffs with defense. Mike Brown understands this and is saying and doing all of the right things. The defense was awful early in the season. He resisted the urge to use gimmicks to mask the problems. He wants the problems out front and center so they can be corrected. Doing anything else would lull the team into thinking things were fine until it was too late to fix them.
The focus is defense, how are we doing? Break the season into 20 game game chunks. Our defense was awful the first 20 games, one of the worst in the league, yet we still managed a winning record of 11-9. Seven games into the next 20 games and we are 6-1. How are we doing it? Improved defense is how. On the season we are giving up 97.2 ppg on 46.4% shooting, 38.6% from the 3. Our last 7 games, those we have given up 93.2 ppg on 45.0% shooting, 34.8% from the 3. Significant improvements across the board. During this stretch, we are holding our opponents 1.6 points below their season averages.
Some will point to our earlier 8 game winning streak. That streak was fueled by the offense, not the defense, which is why we collapsed afterwards when our offense faltered a bit.
As for the complaining, it seems people complain about everything
People complain about LeBron taking too many jumpers. The reality is he is taking it to the hoop more than he ever has and he has a good chance to be the first player since Michael Jordan since Michael Jordan in 91-92 to average over 30ppg while shooting .500+ from the floor.
People complain about Drew Gooden. The reality is that he's doing exactly what the coach asked him to do - forget offense and concentrate on defense and rebounding. And he's doing it while battling a sore ankle most of the year.
People complain about Z. This one I just dont' get. An all star selection last year, a likely all star selection this year. What more do people want? I believe some of the callers after the heat game were complainging about Z. On a night he held Shaq to 10 points.
People complain about Hughes and overlook that he's doing the role he's supposed to do - carry some of LeBron's load to allow LeBron to be more effective, especially late in games. They also overlook he's been playing through both a finger injury and an Achilles issue.
People complain about Snow. The reality is he's not supposed to shot much, other guys are supposed to run the offense. His job is to take care of the ball (3rd in the league in assist/turnover), play defense, and hit the open shot when he takes it (.500 shooting).
People complain about Donyell Marshall. The reality is that while his shot has been off a bit, he's doing other things to contribute - such as leading the league in rebounds by bench player and doing enough that he often gets brought up in sixth man of the year discussions.
People complain about Damon Jones. The reality is he's doing exactly what he was brought in to do - spread the floor, drain the 3s and take care of the basketball. He's first in the league in 3 pointers per 48 minutes. He's on pace to make 176 three pointers. Last year, LeBron's entire supporting cast combined for just 188. Also, people think Damon is causing off court troubles. All you have to do is watch a game and you can see that isn't true. He gets along great with the other players.
One thing people are critical of is that Z/Drew/Hughes/Marshall/Jones are all scoring fewer points this year. It was never expected that they would. That's not why we put all of these guys together. To have them all hit last year's average, we'd have to average 14.5 more ppg than we do now and currently we are the 3rd best scoring team in the league, averaging just 1 ppg behind the #1 team. It was never the plan to have all of these guys hit their averages from last season. The plan is to instead have enough weapons that the floor stays spread, making it easier for LeBron. The result, LeBron is averaging 3.2 more ppg on the same number of shots. He's not shooting more, he's making more.
That's a nice core 7. Ira makes 8, Varejao will make 9. Those 9 can compete with any team in the league when given time to fully learn the system and to all get comfortable with each other.
The team doesn't need more changes. It needs stability and time to gel. The elite teams in the league have had stability in personnel and the players have had time to learn to play together. THe teams below them try to revamp each year. That's what I question about the Heat's offseason moves. They made too many changes to a team that was already on the verge of the finals. They didn't need the drastic changes, they just needed a little tweaking.
) they've been down between 10-20 points in each game. 
