A twenty-seven point home victory, when Kyrie, Tristan, and Dion combine for 58 points on 78% True Shooting? Thirty-three assists, leading to 57% field goal shooting, with only six turnovers? Holding the opponent to single-digit offensive boards and scoring twenty-three points off their turnovers? Regardless of the foe being the Bobcats, those outcomes impress.
Soon Kyrie AND Dion will need to thrive off the ball - next year, I expect to see Tristan running the point.
The team started fast, with Kyrie and Dion combining for thirteen points in the first five minutes. Waiters tossed a sweet transition oop to Gee, Tristan threaded an interior dime to Zeller; the starters forged an early 19 to 13 lead. Inspired by the return of The Luke Walton, who pitched in four points, the bench extended the margin to thirteen as the first frame ended.
Early in the second, the subs flexed the ball-movement-heavy offense they now exhibit regularly; for the game, Walton, Livingston, and Ellington combined 14 assists without a turnover. Cleveland lead 43 – 29 when Charlotte called timeout with eight minutes remaining in the half. Tristan Thompson flashed his entire arsenal, scoring thirteen points on a variety of strong post-moves and nifty finishes, as he, Dion and Kyrie combined for 22 points in the final eight minutes of the quarter; Charlotte scored twenty during the full twelve. Cleveland cruised to a 65 to 41 halftime lead.
The dominance continued in quarter three; Tristan hit a hook, Dion scored six in ninety seconds, and Kyrie needled a three-quarter frozen-rope to Zeller for a dunk. Eventually Kyrie nailed three triples in quick succession, the starters began ambling to the bench with over three minutes left, and they never returned. Cleveland led 100 to 67 heading to the fourth.
And then it was garbage time. Everyone got to play and score…except Casspi, who missed both shots; oh Omri. There was a Boobie Gibson sighting; what does his future hold? Byron Mullens padded his stats with ten garbage time points. Anyways, not much to say about the fourth quarter.
Cleveland won walking away, looking like the fearsome juggernaut they have become.
Onto some bullets:
- Cleveland scored their first four points via Kyrie and Dion post-ups. Recently while watching Rodney Stuckey destroy Waiters this route, and also Russ Westbrook create back-to-the-basket, I hope the Cavs do spend some time focusing on this aspect of the game for their young guards. Particularly for Waiters, as strong as he is, this could constitute a minor, yet effective scoring means.
- This was a strong game from Dion. He made his first six shots, including the aforementioned back-down, but also a nice tear-drop floater, and one emphatically dunking drive. He finished with 19 points and 5 assists.
- Kyrie made all five of his three-pointers. Relatively speaking, it was a quiet, highly efficient, team-leading 22 points.
- Marreese Speights finished with 11 & 10, while Ellington added 16 & 5 on 67% true shooting. Jon Leuer posted perfect 100% True Shooting for Memphis tonight though; who wins the trade now?
- Tristan kept making his righty-hook…it’s unstoppable. Later, after a ten-foot push shot, Austin Carr screamed “He’s right-handed! He’s right-handed!” Thompson must have heard him though, because next he hit the left-handed hook. Colin tabulated some back-of-the-napkin math, and extrapolated that TT will average 45 points per game on the 2015 – 2016 champions. I think he forgot to carry a number; it’s got to be 55. Thompson posted 17 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 blocks, while missing only one field goal for the evening.
The Cavs emerged victorious in six of their last nine, and recently surpassed Orlando in the standings. Watch out Toronto; with five straight upcoming home games, we’re gainin’ on ya.
Am I the only one who isn’t against bringing Luke Walton back next year? I mean obviously on a minimum deal but he seems to really help out some of these younger guys especially with his passing.
If this game doesn’t get the juices flowing about our future, Chris Grant’s plan and drafting prowess, and all thing Cavs, then God help you! Great recap. Go Cava!
I agree with J Hill. Funny that I was actually thinking about it earlier today. I’m an advocate of team continuity from year to year. At the right price, I would absolutely entertain the idea of bringing back Walton.
Also, we have won six of our last eight. Not sure why Kevin went back one more game to state we won six of our last nine. Also, 5-2 since the trade.
Oh Joy! This game was a treat to see! Lovin the bench!!
J Hill is just right.
Luke had 5 assists tonight in limited time.
Everything flows with him and Livingston in the game.
Pardon my optimism, but I think this team can be a playoff team next year.
Tristan’s incredible improvement, Waiters’ continued elevation of his play, and a big improvement by
Tyler Zeller are needed, plus a SF in the draft or free agency.
Will someone please tell Tyler that if your legs are crossed, if you are standing straight up, if you do not anticipate well, then Tyrus Thomas is going to beat you to the bucket.
So will anybody else in the NBA.
You have got to bend at the knees not the waist, keep your feet under you, anticipate, force opponents to their weak side, and grab loose balls with force.
Otherwise, this is not the profession for you.
Tristan also needs a lesson in basic athletic position.
You can’t dominate with size and athleticism alone at this level; you can’t even compete.
Bric, it’s not just optimism. This team SHOULD be a playoff team next year. Period. This should be the last “lottery pick” year. I expect the Cavs to compete for the 8th seed next year. They’ve got to move forward. After this year, no more with the lottery. Can’t become Sacramento…er….Seattle.
And, I hate to open this can of worms, but I wouldn’t hold your breath on the Cavs getting a long term solution at SF this year. I think there’s a reason they’ve repeatedly refused to seriously address the position…
Kyrie is so good that sometimes I just laugh when he starts doing crazy things because I half expect them and THAT is ridiculous in itself. Last night when TT scored all those 2nd quarter points and netted that 10 foot floater I had the same reaction. He is unbelievable right now. Also – I love me some J Hill comments. I’d bring back Sir Luke. My fave play last night was when he jumped up for the steal led the break – stopped when he realized he didn’t have numbers and hit a trailing Ellington for 3.
Spots,
The last nine games are:
Jan 16 – Beat Portland
Jan 19 – Lose to Utah
Jan 22 – Beat Boston
Jan 25 – Beat Milwaukee
Jan 26 – Beat Toronto
Jan 29 – Lose to Golden State
Feb 1 – Lose to Detroit
Feb 2 – Beat OKC
Feb 6 – Beat Charlotte
It’s 5 of the last 7 and 6 of 9.
D – I have been saying the same thing about the SF position for the last year as well. Why use a lotto pick on the position that you are gunning for the FA in summer ’14? If all other 4 positions were locked, maybe they would, but this team has had plenty of needs in the last 2 years.
And, we should be shooting for better than an 8 seed next year. And, if the Cavs kept up the 2 wins, 1 loss pattern (who knows?), they would end up with 37 wins, which could be enough this year. Wishful thinking, yes. However, you never know…
Just because he who must not be named is listed at SF doesn’t mean thats the position he actually plays on the court, its more like a point-power forward at this point. Hes smart and talented enough to make playing with a true SF we draft this year possible.
Would a Nic Batum, Paul George, MKG, Harrison Barnes, Chandler Parsons, Kawhi Leonard, etc. (as different as they all are) really be THAT bad to have on the same team as you know who?
BPA (minus PG) is what I’m saying.
Wait, the Cavs have gotten better? Maybe nobody should’ve panicked earlier in the season.
The turnaround was not pure development and seasoning. Maybe fan panicking spurred Grant’s hand (yeah right but it’s a thought!) Grant made a smart trade, a roster improvement most here thought was needed. The infusion of energy and talent has led to the other players playing a little better. If they had just “stayed the course” I don’t think they win all 6 of those last 9.
The Cavs were 4-12 at the end of November, 7-25 at the end of December (a month where they effectively lost their second best player for the season,) went on to a record of 9-31 midway through January and were projecting a total of 23 wins for the entire season.
1 Win to Portland, and 1 loss to Utah later and we trade a bench man for two players, one with a PER of 22.2 and the other with a 16.2 since the trade. Both players are not the only reason for our recent success but to pretend they aren’t a huge factor is ignorant. Since their addition to the team, Cleveland has gone 5-2
I’m sorry Cols, but you’re either lying or blinded by your homer stupidity if you weren’t at all worried by the start of our season (scheduling rhetoric aside.) No one could have predicted such a meteoric rise from Thompson, nor the amazing success of that Memphis trade before the season. Please drop your holier than thou attitude. We get it, you think Chris Grants shit smells like roses, snd that every
…Draft pick is destined for super stardom. Stop claiming you’re basketball intuition I’d perfect and that no one should be allowed to be skeptical of their favorite team our the players it trots out.
I think you enjoy running your epeen out on these blogs more than you do watching the Cavs
oops. Hit the send button before I was done.
I’m reveling in the unbelievable serendipity of the Cavs getting the two best players in the 2011 draft, and the possibility that both these players could be head and shoulders above everyone else who was in it. It’s even more beautiful because no one knew this at the time. The first had his college career cut short by injury, and 13 games wasn’t enough to see how good he was. The second has had a “Ricky Vaughn discovers glasses” moment with the revelation that he’s actually right handed. Love this team.
Call me crazy but am I the only one who thinks that #8 seed is possible THIS year? Look at the standings — it’s not all that unrealistic to think they can, especially if the 5 game win streak the Celtics-sans-Rondo went on is any kind of fluke. The Cavs are only two losses away from being the #10 seed, I think they can keep up this pace and play the Heat in the first round of the playoffs, that’d be awesome!
Richard
Blinded by homer stupidity? The Cavs have a bunch of young highly drafted guys. Of course they were going to need time to figure things out. This was obvious and pointed out here many many times. Yet we got article after article about how we are all doomed.
Turns out the writers were way way way wrong about this team. It needs to be said.
Cols, you’re a broken record. Stop trying to bring everyone down after a feel-good win.
I think people should put more emphasis on the difference bolstering our bench has made in this team. We were routinely getting beaten so badly with our second unit until we brought in Livingston, Speights, and Ellington. They actually play some defense, and the results are what we see here. It is so amazing to be able to watch not only palatable but pretty delish Cavs basketball again!
Cols,
Everyone knew the team was a work in progress. I’m an advocate of patience. I wasn’t worried about the lack of free agent signings in the off-season, or the poor record it propagated early on. flexibility is key, and the more ping pong balls the better. I had my concerns with Thompson early this season when literally everything was getting blocked, but then again I knew he was raw. I was willing to give him about 2 more seasons to pan out before personally judging him as a bust or not, at least wed have a cheap rebounding machine on our hands. Big men take longer to develop anyways. But if you thought he’d be this good right now after the first month he had to this season, i want whatever you’re smoking. In a year, maybe. But after 2 months, no way.
Tristan was shooting 43/0/58 in December averaging 8 rebounds and 8 points.
So far this year, Bismack is shooting 45/0/51 averaging 7 rebounds and 4 points in 25 minutes. As the seventh pick in the 11 draft with a similar draft profile to Tristan, admittedly much more raw, would it surprise me if he started averaging 14 and 10 in a year or two? Hell no, he’s a physical specimen, and he’s young, and was drafted high. But what if he started dropping those numbers next month? You bet your ass I’d be surprised.
The bench is light years ahead of where it was, that’s for sure, Alex. But replacing D-Leaguers like Pargo, Sloan (literally one of the worst players in the league), Samardo, and Leuer with Livingston, Miles, Ellington, and Speights is a massive upgrade. There was a point earlier in the year when the Cavs starters had among the best +/- in the leaue, and their bench had the worst. That’s obviously changed.
Carson,
The Cavs are 10 1/2 games behind Boston for the 8 seed with 33 games to go, but even assuming that Boston regresses and that 40 wins gets in, you’re looking at the cavs needing to go 25-8 to close the season to get there. The team’s improving, but I there’s no way they play .750 ball like that for the rest of the season.
Mentality and intrateam competition is far more important than many people realize. The defensive work by Shaun and the ex Griz guys brings an entirely new feeling to the team. Every practice, that second unit is probably D-ing up the first unit, forcing everyone’s ball movement to improve. Since we have had a relatively light schedule recently, I wouldn’t be surprised if practice (gasp!) actually has helped.
Our first unit with Andy was always among the best in the league numberwise, and naturally it took some time to get adjusted to the loss of his PnR and high post passing. BUT, it has provided Tristan an opportunity to get more touches. Once everyone figured out his touches shouldn’t be the same kind of touches that Andy had, but instead on the actual block, his explosive face-up game has clearly blossomed.
As far as the left handed or right handed thing is concerned, the dude is ambidextrous and that is it. It doesn’t mean he needs to start shooting his Js with the right hand. In my incredibly amateur basketball career I have exactly the same issue, only flip-flopped in that my left handed baby hook has a softer touch than my right. I jump off my left foot better than my right, and shoot the J with the right, but I really don’t consider myself either handed. (I throw a football with the left and write with the left mostly.)
Clearly, my silly uncoordinated body is not the point. The point is that Tristan’s ability to use either hand is making him increasingly impossible to defend. His footwork is lightyears ahead of where it was before and his passing out of difficult situations as drastically changed his shot percentage. My opinion of his ceiling has been TOTALLY altered.
Dion is starting to finish around the rim at a much better rate, especially as he goes to his left. His on ball D has always been pretty solid, but he is getting lost off ball less frequently.
Speaking of which, Kyrie’s didn’t get caught in between in the PnR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (yes that many exclamation points were necessary.)
Gee continues to be a disaster. I’m glad for his sake, he finally hit a three, but the more minutes he spends watching the better.
We had 3 top 4 picks. I am pretty confident Grant killed all 3.
I wish I had all the Cavs games on DVR. I get Nate’s point about “Ricky Vaughn” and I get that young players can and do improve if they work very hard. I also get that it’s possible someone like Big Z came in and really helped Tristan’s footwork or touch or something. All of those are, in my opinion, POSSIBLE explanations for the (unprecedented imo) growth of Tristan Thompson. Actually the most plausible explanation to me is that he was out of shape or battling an unknown (to everyone) ailment – either physical or mental and it went away. Here’s what I DO NOT understand.
Much of my personal hand-wringing about Tristan wasn’t that he was inconsistent, or out of position, or having trouble drawing fouls, or even the fact that he was getting blocked. It was just how he looked. He looked slow and rather unathletic at times – certainly not above the rim. This led to a lot of the blocks. Equally disconcerting was how often he fumbled away passes, lost the handle on a gather (oh my God those GATHERS are GONE!), and how often he went up for a rebound, got his fingers on it, but did not haul it in. I mean, do players “LEARN” how to have good hands? Ben Wallace never did. That’s why even when TT was at his most awful, the (wildly at the time) optimistic “best case” projection I could come up with for TT was unathletic Ben Wallace – guy that can play shut down D but is a liability on O. The only reason for this was that even early in the season TT was playing some pretty good on-ball post defense against guys bigger than him.
Forget the floaters and the double doubles and the improving free throws and the punting off a bridge of his gather and all that. The guy is DRIBBLE DRIVING AFTER GOING THROUGH HIS LEGS! When did he go from terrible hands to above average for a PF hands?? I just do not understand this. Maybe it was mental? He was just terribly nervous all last season/early this season and at some point he got over it? I have no idea. Some of his improvement has been gradual and reflective of hard work (his Free Throws stand out). Defense, drawing fouls, positions, and things like that are susceptible to gradual improvements. But going from terrible “oh no, not an UNATHLETIC version of JJ Hickson” to grabbing everything in the vicinity and taking defenders off the dribble?? (and that TOUCH!?)
It’s one of the more mysterious things I’ve ever witnessed following the NBA. It’s the opposite of the ‘What the HECK happened to LeBron after game 3 against the Celtics’ – it’s a good version of “how is this possible”
Ben
Yep, Grant can certainly draft. I hope he gets a chance to hit on one more top 5 pick.
Tom, maybe he practiced and got better. Or maybe Byron Scott is a good coach who was able to teach him some things.
Cols, you have said it on every single one of those articles, and the articles saying the future is bright but here are some concerns (which far outnumbered the articles with an overall negative vibe).
Its been said, get off your horse, and shut the hell up or contribute to something other than beating the dead horse. Its dead, move on.
As far as waiting on a SF for lebron, its a bit outrageous to think that’s why we drafted Dion or didn’t splurge in free agency. Dion was a good prospect and we were in just as dire of need at SG as we were SF. We didn’t splurge on any centers or a bench in free agency either, the idea was to save cap space and flexibility, while also staying a bit bad this year for another good draft pick. Neither of those decisions had lebron in the equation. If Grant is significantly altering his rebuilding job based around lebron james potential 2014 free agency, that would be incredibly foolish. Especially when Lebron plays more like a PF that SF now anyways.
Also, we should be competing for more than an 8 seed next year. I’m thinking in the weaker east we should at least be pushing for the 4 or 5 seed as long as we are somewhat healthy and have an OK bench. I thought we should have been playing like we have for the last 10 games the whole year and pushing for the 8 seed now, but I clearly thought too much of Alonzo and Boobie, and Verajoa’s health.
2012/11/07 at 7:37 am
Cols714:
Yep.
I agree that Tristan Thompson will never be all that good.
The starters killed it this game and earned a well deserved 4th quarter off. But it’s so nice to finally have a bench that doesn’t me want to cover my eyes as they blow decent leads. It’s already been touched on quite a bit, but the new guys have completely elevated the level of play and confidence of the whole team. That said, I don’t think there are too many FA big men off the bench I like better than Speights, or 3 and D FAs I like better than Ellington. For that matter, not that many FA backup PGs I like better than the rejuvenated Livingston. Re-sign em all Grant! And maybe, just maybe Luke too. On a side note, just watching Speights play the other night against OKC, I started having flashbacks to when a young Cavs team in the late 80s brought in a veteran big man who could rebound a ton and had great outside range on his j. Not saying that Speights is as good as Larry Nance was, but there are moments of his game that harken back. While on the subject of the late 80s team, it was constructed much like this current team. Smart draft picks, shrewd trades and pick ups. Was hard to believe the Cavs guessed right on Daughtery, Harper and Price all in the same draft, but it’s already starting to look like they guessed right on KI and TT in one draft and then Dion in the next. We’ve got our Price, Harper and Hot Rod equivalents or better, now we just need our Big Brad in the middle. An improved Tyler? A healthy Oden? Nerlens Noel? Exciting times!
Tristan is an athletic specimen with rare quickness for a man his size and the work ethic to improve his game.
Which is why all the doom and gloom over his play was premature. He looked like a deer in the headlights last year and clearly it affected his play. Not every rookie comes out playing gangbusters like Kyrie.
Oh, and wait until he busts out his jumper. You know he already has one, he almost put up a J during the 2nd quarter last night. Still reluctant due to confidence issues I suppose.
I understand why people tell Cols he is beating a deadhorse, but I think it’s unfair. Cols’ makes an important point: many of us foresaw this success awhile ago, while a lot of the writers here did not. How is that not a relevant topic for this blog?
As an example, I posted the following back in December in response to a “doom and gloom” post about a road loss to Brooklyn. The recent ascendance of the Cavs makes perfect sense to me, and, as evidence below, seemed obvious months ago, even when we were struggling.
“Hot Sauce says:
December 30, 2012 at 5:15 am
For a young team starting 2 rookies and 2 second year players, I thought playing a solid veteran team close on the road was a step in the right direction. If Kyrie makes the shots he normally does, we win this game. I can’t remember the last time I saw Kyrie miss so many open looks.
The Defense still needs a lot of work, but I see this thing coming together in the next few months. Cavs will end up with a lousy record, but will probably be a .500 team for the last 20-30 games of the season. And then will be a playoff team next year. Each loss teaches them the importance of 48 minutes, defense, and execution. They will get there. Great pieces in place.”
Just wanted to point out that the schedule may also be a huge factor in this, the cavs still have the least favorable home/away split in the league, and, if my count is right, as of Jan 19 they’d played 10 more away games than home games, that’s down to about 6 now, but still, that has a huge effect on the players’ level of play, on practice time, on how the team looks. Part of what we’re seeing now is the schedule evening out a bit…this isn’t to lessen the players’ improvement, but just saying that some of it has to be chalked up to an easier and more favorable schedule (especially because young teams are often much more vulnerable to playing worse on the road).
“Just because he who must not be named is listed at SF doesn’t mean thats the position he actually plays on the court, its more like a point-power forward at this point. Hes smart and talented enough to make playing with a true SF we draft this year possible.”
- There are more SF’s than scoring than PF’s, which makes his value more at PF, but still, if given a competent supporting cast, he can destroy SF’s easier (in my opinion, but I wonder what the stats say). And on offense, who cares it he a “point-forward” or whatever. It’s more important on defense – he will be guarding the 2 or the 3 most of the time, as those are the typical alpha’s when the game matters.
“Would a Nic Batum, Paul George, MKG, Harrison Barnes, Chandler Parsons, Kawhi Leonard, etc. (as different as they all are) really be THAT bad to have on the same team as you know who?”
- No, but having two legit starters at one position (SF), forcing one off the bench, when you can upgrade another position is a much better decision. Don’t get me wrong, but would I rather have Zeller, Dion or TT than the ones you named, yes. Because, they are still upgrades when we shoot for the one that shall not be named and give him a stronger supporting cast (assuming they all continue to improve).
2012/11/08 at 8:27 am
Hot Sauce:
I was at the game and couldn’t disagree more with Jimbo. I also love Cols comment about emo-blog. Totally agree
Ok great, we get it, Sauce. You’ve won. You won in late december when the Cavs started looking not atrocious and we all shrieked with glee. (read this recap from NOVEMBER and tell me we’re all doom and gloom and never saw any potential) You won when you criticized the “tone” of a sports blog and the tone changed (because you wanted it of course). You won because you knew TT would be a 16-10 animal if he could ever “figure it out”. (basically, you realized that if he was ever good he’d be good. I’ll try: Dion Waiters, he of the 12.5 PER can be explosive and can fill it up. If he learns how to consistently finish around the basket and how to play off the ball he could be an all-star.) You won because all anyone ever does around here is talk about superstars and future MVPs and HoF ceilings and future DWades and “Tyler Zeller leads the league in charges!” and Thunder Model 2.0. You’ve WON the blog. What you are doing, is akin to 2013 environmental advocates hyperventilating because in 1984 people were concerned with littering and not recycling. PEOPLE RECYCLE NOW. IT’S THE NORM. BE HAPPY. How much vindication do you need? What is it going to take for you to move on and live in the present with the quiet, humble satisfaction that you were right all along? What is it going to take for you to understand that while people were concerned and potentially “negative” and unhappy and skeptical, and whatever – that no one was like “I hate TT. Trade him now. JV is an MVP right now and top 10 player of all time and TT will never amount to anything. FOREVER. SO IT IS WRITTEN.” This didn’t happen. Go re-read everything that’s ever been posted. Kevin already did it once a few weeks ago when he’d had enough. No one is operating under the pretension that what we are seeing now from TT is in line with the writing about him in November/early December. How could we? He looks different, he’s playing differently, he’s producing differently. That you apparently knew all would be well? Great job, man. Feels good to be right about something positive doesn’t it? Here’s your prize. [golf clap] You’re a great contributor and post tons of thoughtful stuff. You really wanna hang out in emotional solidarity with cols? I’d prefer taking you seriously.
If it appears that I am trying to prove that I am right and you are wrong, I apologize. What I am trying to do is battle hard for a philosophical position.
Specifically, my critiques are aimed at illuminating proper inference. If someone flips a coin and it is heads, it is not a proper inference to predict heads for the foreseeable future. In fact, any inference about the future is incorrect. The event of one coin flip tells us nothing about future coin flips.
My comments here are aimed at deconstructing and discouraging reasoning of this form. There has been a tendency to over-react to small events, and impose them on the future with too much gravity. I do not refer to my old comments to show I am “right,” but to demonstrate that it is possible to have accurate opinions that acknowledge the limitations of forecasting future production. If truth is the ultimate goal, then we should strive to form opinions that don’t overstate things.
My belief is that if people focused more on the logic and factual basis of their opinions, they would advance more refined arguments and elevate the dialogue. That is a relevant critique for the FUTURE of the blog. It is not about living in the past, it is about improving the analysis moving forward.
That is all I seek. I am but one man. And that is all I seek.
(And I should note that when such reasoning is demonstrated here I am the first to applaud it. This happens quite frequently. But when such reasoning is violated, I will state my opinions.
I hope I contribute more than I detract.)
Hot Sauce -
I really do appreciate your comments, because I think they’re largely constructive not mindlessly critical. But I think your comparison to a coin flip is off. Coin flip indication is luck (unless you’ve taken a statistics class, but whatever) – you’re taking a shot in the dark.
However, watching the way an NBA team plays now does have some baring on the future. The future itself is a coin flip – Waiters COULD put it together or he could not. Truthfully more times than not the players don’t put it together – it’s just a sad fact of the NBA. Remember when people thought Sebastian Telfair’s future was bright? Or the amazing potential of Wesley Johnson? Guys like Jeff Green often don’t reach what’s expected of them.
We’re not in the business to write feel-good pump up stories 24/7. When teams are bad it’s the nature of a blog to cover that. Obviously none of us were under the impression that the future held NOTHING but disappoint – we were just realistically calling it as we saw it – bleak. If we had gushed about how great the future was and had never reached that potential, would you have called us out on that? We’re going with what we see, that’s all.
The tone has changed as we’ve got better – now that the potential is being somewhat realized (we’re not there yet, but it’s coming closer) we’re willing to let our guard down more. But to act like this is an exact science is to ignore the disappoint that’s often realized.
I rarely choose to wade in on this issue, but, I will counter, Hot Sauce, that the blog has evolved into more of a chorus of writers, and less of a single voice. Given that, we will all have different opinions with varying degrees of zeal when it comes to expressing those opinions. Furthermore, with a chorus, it is often necessary to take on, for the sake of argument and variety, a viewpoint that is not 100% representative of the authors’ personal viewpoint. I posted a definition of “schtick” the other day to hint at that. In this vein, a writer must project a narrative voice that is a characterization of his or her own personality, but it is exactly that, a character. Arguing with a character can seem very silly and slightly schizophrenic, and having characters argue back with readers can be counterproductive as well. There’s a hazy ven diagram separating discussion, performance art, petty bickering, and mental illness.
Blog and opinion writing, for it to be interesting and not a series of qualified hedges, requires a writer (or the characterized version of the writer) to take a stance on an issue and follow it to its argumentative conclusion. Sometimes (often) that stance is proven to be decidedly wrong. I take issue when those stances become hyperbolic, and we try to avoid that, but no one writer or character can be correct all the time, and none want to be. Omnipotence is impossible. It would also be incredibly boring and wasted on NBA basketball.
Hot Sauce: thanks for the response. Here’s a few things:
-Using logic to predict the future in a “what is the road map for this team” is a little bit different than “just because it was heads now doesn’t mean it will be heads next time”.
-Apology accepted. Obviously I was going to assume that you were trying to prove you were right when you post a comment saying that you were right and “here’s the proof”.
-Consider me unimpressed that by Dec 30th, you saw potential in the young Cavs. We saw potential in Waiters in early November. (Some of us have been raving about him since before the draft) We were all on the TT bandwagon after like his 2nd straight game where he looked NOT AWFUL. (this was mid December)
-Consider me thoroughly impressed that you predicted that Chris Grant would acquire 3 guys to completely fix the bench so that the Cavs would go from being destroyed in 4th quarters to executing offense at a high level. Good call on that one.
-If you are trying to discourage hyperbolic statements about recapping sporting events – that’s nice.
-You do contribute – very well in fact – which is why I almost lost my **** when I saw you taking the time and effort to defend dead horse beating. That’s not you. That market’s cornered anyway. (Don’t wanna lose you, man)
I wanna know who has the balls (besides my buddy Wes, for whom I have timetagged documentation) to say they KNEW C.J. Miles would be a productive starter/6th man that has almost single handedly won the Cavs like 2 games. That the signs were there and we were all being so negative back when he had a -5.2 PER. Any takers? FWIW, Nate comma Kevin, I SO called that Luke Walton would invigorate the 2nd unit and generally be awesome. [Of course this is patently false]
Tom -
Who cares? Lets move on.
WE WON, BABY! WE WON!
Who else loves Shaun Livingston? Give ‘em $2 mil a year to lead our D. PLEASE CHRIS GRANT! PLEASE!
Sorry Mal, not in the mood for haters anymore. Every single game I watch Tristan with glee and like 2 to 3 numbskulls (yeah I said it) have to ruin it with some tweet resembling something like this “BUT JONAS IS SO AWESOME” It’s insufferable at this point.
There’s like 80 super serious Cavs fans in the whole world right now and half of them frequent this blog. STOP TURNING ON EACH OTHER
All the Tons have been great lately. Livingston, Ellington even Walton. Resign them all CG! And Speights too!
Separately, IMHO, as one of the 80 super serious Cavs fans (one of I’m sure only 3 that live in the Greater LA area), I would much rather read the stimulating analysis and prognostications of the writers of this blog than the frequently baseless tripe that spews from the keyboards of most ESPN “writers.”
Keep up the great work fellas! H8rs gonna H8, let’s hope they don’t procreate.
Evil Genius – Silly, stupid question, but a fun one – which bench guy is most valuable?
My vote goes to Livingston (for leadership/D) or Speights (for scoring ability)
I could see Walton, but I’m not sure he’s as valuable as the others.
It’s close between Livingston and Speights. I love Speights’ inside/outside game and the confidence and swagger he brings, but Livingston really brings not only leadership and d but also great floor vision and spacing. I’d agree with you and give the slight edge to Livingston as I think he helps make things happen for Speights, Ellington and even CJ.
I honestly can’t believe Washington cut him. Crazy.
Hey Tom stop berating your readers. You write a blog. dont like criticism? A) stop writing. B) stop reading the comments and participating in the discussions.
Yes you guys call it as you see it. You’ve been wrong about several things and as readers it would help us to trust what you’re saying now, if you would be honest about what you’ve been wrong about and what you’ve learned from it going forward. Acting butt- hurt about it and attacking readers is not the way to go.
I think the blog as a whole has not shown the patience that rebuilding with 20 yos takes. Lots of people pointed out that we’re young and not to rush to judgement and now some of them feel vindicated when our kids are starting to get it. I’m worried that many of the writers have come to a premature judgement of coach Scott and may be proved wrong in the future as well.
But it’s ok to be wrong. If we don’t like it well leave. If we didn’t find any value in the blog we wouldn’t be here. Even cols comes back everyday
Ctown – ok, I don’t think you understand my point, but in an attempt to not “berate” you I’ll just sigh, say “thanks for reading” and move on. [Kidding! Why would I do that?]
I enjoy participating in the comments section. There is a subset of commenters that are so far outside any reasonable “criticism” that I do not even take them seriously. It’s just wasted bandwidth. It doesn’t bother me, per se, it’s just pollution, noise, whatever. Look you hated my snarky comments about waiters the other day right? (Or maybe that was someone else.) That’s fine – I don’t mind the criticism – some people liked it, a bunch hated it. I meant for it to be funny, some didn’t find it so. I don’t mind that I was dead wrong about Tristan. Actually, I LOVE that I was dead wrong about predicting his ceiling – and I’ve stated as such about once a week since January. I’ve made peace with some of the most ardent pro-TT anti-JV supporters on the internet. I didn’t mean to “berate” Hot Sauce because I just can’t bear another negative comment about our writing – it’s because I ENJOY Hot Sauce’s commentary (even though I often disagree with him). He makes great points. So when (it seemed like) he wanted to jump in on the “you guys and your narratives/hyperbole” I just got sick of it. It’s unreasonable. The most basic reading comprehension can verify that. Hetrick’s “schtick” as Nate pointed out, is to be the more wonky, non-emotional, “cautiously reserve judgement until appropriate sample size has been reached” dude around these parts. last week? HE’D had enough. So maybe we just enjoy participating and discussing and having this water cooler talk with you guys and get annoyed when it seems like people just have an ax to grind for no reason. Why are you “worried” that people have come to prematurely judge coach Scott? All the “fire Byron Scott” posts? Or is what you really mean “you disagree with Mallory and Dani and Scott Raab about how valuable on-court enthusiasm is for a coach” or “you disagree with Hetrick that Scott has some serious black marks in his past” or “you disagree with Tom that it’s hard to tell what Scott is trying to accomplish as far as an identity/system”? Let’s TALK about that. Let’s discuss and disagree if we must. But why does it have to be “the fact that you guys MIGHT be a little down on Byron Scott (but it’s hard to tell) is indicative of some failure of blogging ethics” or something?
Or would you have preferred I just apologize?
People point out that the writers here were way way wrong about everything at the beginning of the season so we can have a moment of accountability and all we get is a bunch of rationalizations.
Wow, we gotta get rid of Byron Scott. I mean did you see his rotation in the fourth quarter? Kyrie Irving wasn’t even on the floor! Scott was just standing their on the sidelines with his arms crossed! Ugh!
Man, the comment section has been crazy here lately!
FWIW I think a lot of the TT anger comes from the fact that this blog was EXTREMELY negative about drafting him over JV. And really they were kind of arrogant about their negativity basically saying anyone who wanted TT over JV was kind of clueless. Honestly I don’t even remember which of the writers who are here now were even there then, but I think it left a lot of people with a bad taste about the whole thing.
Other than that I enjoy most of what’s written here. I enjoyed it a lot more before you guys started antoganizing certain commentors in your stories. But still for the most part enjoyable. I wish Mallory didn’t find causes for concern every game, but he seems like a good dude. I obviously disagree with a lot of you about whether the Cavs should “tank” this year or not, but the disagreements are what make it fun. The comment section doesn’t exist if everyone just tells everyone else how right they are.
I think people asking for an “apology” from you guys for being wrong about TT is stupid, just like I think you guys calling them out in your stories is stupid. As you said above, there about 80 Cavs fans left. No need to spend time bickering over this garbage.
Alright Josh, I’ll stop policing the comments.