Windhorst Radio Show & Updates

[Jack Brickman]

I back Brown being fired midseason last year, and I was for the firing of Byron Scott in the offseason he lost his job (because he'd lost the team). But any calls for Blatt's head are premature; at least, as far as I understand the situation.

Nit-picking here, but it was Grant that got fired mid-season. Brown was fired right after the season ended.

 

[LeShaq]

Listening to the broadcast now. Some highlights through the first 11 minutes or so of the program.

http://stationcaster.com/stations/w..._Brian_Windhorst___Jason_Gibbs-1419605047.mp3

1. Tristan must start at center. Small Ball lineup with Love at center is just too bad on defense

2. Cavs are not running any real offense in the 4th quarter. It's basically just pick and roll for LeBron, and it's not working. This falls on Blatt and LeBron

3. Blatt has not done a good job of integrating Love into the offense. Love is not being "taken care of" in the offense, which means Love can't take care of offensive business

4. Love needs a big center to play with (Pekovic, Dieng) so that he is not guarded by the largest man on the court and does not have to guard the largest man on the court. He's having to do this, and it's affecting his rebounding

5. Cavs rebounding is a real issue now

6. Cavs not going to Love on offense late in games

7. Waiters has 30 more fourth quarter shots than Love does at this point in the season

8. Cavs not calling plays for Love or taking advantage of Love's presence on offense

9. Cavs must fix things with Love. Love must be used more on offense, and used more in late game offense

10. Love is not playing like an All Star right now. Part of this is Love's fault and part of this is how the Cavs are using him

11. Cavs are not impressive. Wrote this in last column, which Cavs fans didn't like. Cavs have championship level talent but the team is not coming together and maturing right now

12. Love and LeBron are not clashing, their differences or frustrations have to do with what is happening in the games (and not because of personality issues or anything similar).

13. Big men must be treated differently than guards. They must be fed the ball, used on offense (so as to maximize them and get full effort from them in all facets of the game). This is not happening with Love, and Windy blames Blatt [coach], LeBron and Kyrie [ball distributors] for it.

That's about 10:45 into the broadcast or so. About one quarter of the broadcast.

 

[theSTEREO.]

Thanks for the recap. And gotta say I don't disagree with a single thing.

Only thing I'm holding on to at the moment is even with our bad start and only playing at maybe 40% of our ultimate ceiling, Cavs are still on pace to win 52 games give or take.

Hope they can get Love involved and start raising that efficiency.

 

[Cayman13]

Thanks for the recap. And gotta say I don't disagree with a single thing.

Only thing I'm holding on to at the moment is even with our bad start and only playing at maybe 40% of our ultimate ceiling, Cavs are still on pace to win 52 games give or take.

Hope they can get Love involved and start raising that efficiency.

So confused on why Blatt is not force feeding Love. They MUST fix this starting right now. Absolutely can't continue. Let him sink or swim.

 

[theSTEREO.]

So confused on why Blatt is not force feeding Love. They MUST fix this starting right now. Absolutely can't continue. Let him sink or swim.

Agree. I put it half on Blatt, half on Lebron. Blatt's gotta call to get him involved, and Lebrons gotta execute the command.

 

[LeShaq]

Thanks for the recap. And gotta say I don't disagree with a single thing.

Only thing I'm holding on to at the moment is even with our bad start and only playing at maybe 40% of our ultimate ceiling, Cavs are still on pace to win 52 games give or take.

Hope they can get Love involved and start raising that efficiency.

I'll be happy to recap the rest later (if Douglar or someone else doesn't beat me to it first), I just have to go to an appointment now.

I agree, Windy is spot on again in my estimation.

 

[MoFlo]

Listening to the broadcast now. Some highlights through the first 11 minutes or so of the program.

http://stationcaster.com/stations/w..._Brian_Windhorst___Jason_Gibbs-1419605047.mp3

3. Blatt has not done a good job of integrating Love into the offense. Love is not being "taken care of" in the offense, which means Love can't take care of offensive business

6. Cavs not going to Love on offense late in games

7. Waiters has 30 more fourth quarter shots than Love does at this point in the season

8. Cavs not calling plays for Love or taking advantage of Love's presence on offense

9. Cavs must fix things with Love. Love must be used more on offense, and used more in late game offense


13. Big men must be treated differently than guards. They must be fed the ball, used on offense (so as to maximize them and get full effort from them in all facets of the game). This is not happening with Love, and Windy blames Blatt [coach], LeBron and Kyrie [ball distributors] for it.

Thank you Windy! I've been saying these things for the majority of the season

 

[Ohio]

Yeah, I've been very critical of Windy lately, but these points are all pretty spot on.

 

[citizentino]

Just to clarify: The Cavaliers can use the disabled player exception acquired because of Anderson Varejao's injury to sign a free agent through the end of the season, right?

I just find it to be an amazing coincidence that as soon as the Cavs have more money available, Ray Allen suddenly "is leaning toward retiring," according to Windy. No way that could just be a thinly veiled negotiating tactic to grab some of that extra money available... right?

 

[gourimoko]

Just to clarify: The Cavaliers can use the disabled player exception acquired because of Anderson Varejao's injury to sign a free agent through the end of the season, right?

I just find it to be an amazing coincidence that as soon as the Cavs have more money available, Ray Allen suddenly "is leaning toward retiring," according to Windy. No way that could just be a thinly veiled negotiating tactic to grab some of that extra money available... right?

Let him retire. I don't like the idea of bringing him in mid-season anyway. We need to build continuity, not have a major 25mpg disruption with a guy who may or may not be here next year.

 

[gourimoko]

Nit-picking here, but it was Grant that got fired mid-season. Brown was fired right after the season ended.

You misread my post; I said "I backed Brown being fired midseason." Or to rephrase: I wanted Mike Brown fired after it became apparent that he wasn't right for the job. That took 35-42 games, hence, midseason.

There were lots of guys who still wanted Brown coaching the team at that time.

 

[Mr. Orange]

11. Cavs are not impressive. Wrote this in last column, which Cavs fans didn't like. Cavs have championship level talent but the team is not coming together and maturing right now

Good thing for the Cavs it's still... y'know...December.

 

[Anglefan]

Good thing for the Cavs it's still... y'know...December.

Yeah and they had won 12 of 15 coming into the game yesterday. The vast majority of fans and analysts make the mistake of thinking each game is the total reality of what a team is. In actual reality, the Cavs have gotten a lot better, but they still will have games or parts of games where they look awful. People try to find answers in just one game and you can't do that. It's a long season.

 

[LeShaq]

Here is the second quarter of the 12-26-14 show. I'm running though the rest of the show now and will post the last two 10 minute segments as soon as I'm finished. The numbering below picks up from post #167 above.


14. If Cavs give Love more opportunities in the 4th quarter, Love's history says he will deliver

15. Cavs bigs don't have much athleticism except Tristan, who is undersized

16. Cavs get "rebounded over" all the time because of their lack of big man athleticism

17. Cavs aren't using the positives of Kevin Love. So all we are seeing are Love's negatives

18. Some of LeBron's turnovers are just from volume. Because he handles ball so much

19. LeBron is basically running the team by himself. As point guard, running plays he wants and so on

20. LeBron does not have a great working relationship with David Blatt

21. LeBron does not have a regard for David Blatt. Does not mean LeBron does not like Blatt (but just that LeBron does not value Blatt's judgment yet)

22. Because LeBron does not regard Blatt highly, LeBron is taking on things that should be up to the coach to decide (running plays, running team)

23. Even with no 'symbiotic relationship' (give and take) between Cavs and their coach and Cavs players and their teammates, Cavs still have a top 5 offense

24. Cavs could not score in half court on offense in 4th quarter versus Heat. That is why they lost the game

25. Luol Deng had his best game in about a year against the Cavs. This helped Heat win.

26. Heat fans complaining about Deng's lack of production, so Deng's performance out of character in Cavs game

27. Cavs have feeling of "inmates running the show." It's good LeBron is the 'inmate' in question, but (things work better when coach leads and players buy in to coach)

28. Ultimately, I think there is a problem between the coach and the players. Not a symbiotic relationship there. Not sure if it's fixable.

29. I don't know if Blatt/Players issue is something that needs to be addressed now. I know that team is thinking about it and worried about it.

30. But, I have often seen teams who did not have their stuff together in December look great later in the year. So don't want to jump to conclusions.


[NOTE: After the Magic win, LeBron said the team took a step forward in terms of chemistry with Love sacrificing by sitting out the 4th quarter because the team was doing well. So maybe things are looking better now than Windy felt before the Orlando game]

 

[Phills14]

Admittedly I did not follow Lebron much while he was in Miami but I sure as hell followed him in his 1st Cavs stint. Back then it seemed like Lebron scrapped whatever Mike Brown told him to do and he did what he wanted to on offense. That led to a lot of Lebron at the top of the key and the other 4 players spread out to create room for him to do his thing. It wasn't a designed offense it was hero-ball and Lebron didn't care what Brown said.

It seems like it's happening all over again with Blatt.

From the little I saw of Heat-Lebron it appeared that he was playing in a system and his efficiency went absolutely through the roof.