Cavs 40 Greatest Personalities, according to the Plain Dealer.
“Forty years ago this month, the Cleveland Cavaliers hired 36-year-old University of Minnesota basketball coach Bill Fitch to lead the city’s NBA expansion team.” [Dave Davis - The Plain Dealer]
“Looking back, that whole notion seems laughable, if not downright quaint … yet we’re falling in the exact same trap. Jordan, remember, didn’t win a title until his seventh season. As luck would have it, James is in his seventh season, and his odds of winning a crown have never looked better. With the Lakers faltering down the stretch and the Celtics succumbing to age, only James’ nemesis from a year ago — Orlando — would rate as an even-money proposition to stop him from winning the trophy.” [John Hollinger on LeBron's Historic Season]
“Ilgauskas provides an excellent case study for a number of salary cap nuances.” [Larry Coon - NYT]
“I’m having some serious laughs about this whole production. “Z’s-land” instead of Cleveland is pretty clever. “J.J. Zickson,” not so much. But it is funny, even if Anthony Parker(notes) is a bit of a party pooper for not getting Z-afied.” [Trey Kerby - Ball Don't Lie]
Waiting for Next Year with a Varejao Enthusiasm Meter. They forgot “Andy Putback Dunk over Chris Bosh” David Wesley’s enthusiasm meter was off the charts on that one.
“The Nets know it will be a long shot to sell LeBron James on two seasons in Newark before the new Brooklyn Arena is done. Yet, the possibilities with a playboy billionaire and rap mogul are still intriguing. Even so, the most realistic play for the Nets would be for James to sign another short, three-year contract with the Cavaliers and revisit free agency once the Nets have moved to New York.” [Andrian Wojnarowski on the Net's future]
The NBA Four Factors – The Home Stretch
Carlos Boozer thinks LeBron will stay. Shouldn’t we just have someone poll ever single player and release it like a Fantasy Basketball magazine?
Fun Tweets:
“LOL RT @rickwfny: So Boozer says LeBron is staying. Course, he also said he was staying… http://bit.ly/9HOR9q” [Rock @WFNY]
“Doesn’t my new teammate fransisco elson look like frozone from the incredibles??? Someone pls send me a pic of they faces side x side!” [Andre Iguodala]
“http://bit.ly/c4ROxX O my laff people” [Shaq] (IS VERY BORED)
Someone needs to send the pictures of the Nets celebrating their 10th win like they won the championship to LeBron just to reinforce.
I just have a minor nitpick. It’s kind of frustrating when you link an ESPN (or more specifically, a Hollinger) article and it’s an Insider article. I’m sorry, there’s no way I’m paying for that kind of stuff. I mean, I’d love to read the article, but having to pay extra for it is bullshit.
Yeah unfortunately, lots of Hollinger’s article require insider.
I pay. Its pretty good value, you get the espn magazine subscription as well, so when my sub to that ran out I just subscribed to insider and carried on like that.
I was arguing in the comments section of the Hollinger article (always a waste of time) and I’m really amazed at the % of comments that completely dismiss hollinger’s article and get into a shouting match over LeBron being the “jim kelley” of the NBA.
I read at least 30 comments saying LeBron is not clutch. I really don’t understand how anyone can think that. There is so much overwhelming evidence to the contrary and yet people use that as their go-to case against LeBron, right after (he has no rings).
But Tom, we all know PER is just a BS statistic that Hollinger invented to screw over [insert overrated player]. It only follows that LeBron must then be the “Jim Kelley” of the NBA.
A philosophy professor could teach an entire Logic course using the logical fallacies culled from the comments of one ESPN article.
I’ll second what Isaac says about Insider. It’s worth it.
trolling the comments section of that article is painful on my brain.
i know i’m preaching to the choir right now, but it pains me how often people forget that basketball is a team sport – there are FIVE players on the floor. winning rings is an indicator of team success, not individual success. i.e. the best player of all time on a bad team and the best player of all time on a good team is still the best player of all time, the difference being that one will have some metal to show for it and one won’t.
just for fun i trolled http://alleyoop.com/prates.htm to see what Pippen’s PER was like during the bulls championship runs.
90-91: 20.21 *
91-92: 21.50 *
92-93: 18.81 *
93-94: 23.24
94-95: 22.66
95-96: 21.46 *
96-97: 21.63 *
97-98: 20.85 *
* = championship
avg = 21.9, avg during * = 20.47
the second highest PER on cleveland this year is shaq with 18.11.
in other words, if lebron can win the championship this year, LEBRON IS NOT HUMAN
Apologies for re-posting this – the last thread was abandoned and I’d love to get some feedback:
What is you guys’ opinion of Channing Frye? He’s a guy I’d like the Cavs to target with their mid-level exception this offseason.
The Cavs have 11 guys under contract for next year, with Bron/Z/Shaq FA’s and Jawad restricted. If the Cavs win the title, I could see them being able to bring back Bron and Shaq, while Z and Jawad go other directions. That leaves 1-2 open roster slots.
To me, Frye is the best FA fit, because he’s another stretch big – 6′11″, top 10 three-pointer shooter in the league – who helps the team get younger (27). As Shaq and Z fade into the sunset I could see Frye being a nice rotation piece for a while.
i think frye is a good player for the cavs but i think his skills may be a little redundant with jamison on our team now. in other words, i think he doesn’t fulfill any of our pressing needs. personally i think we need to target a 2-guard or a center. we can’t rely on shaq and Z going forward at center, and AP and delonte are both iffy @ the 2-spot going forward as well (AP’s pretty old, and as much as i love delonte, he is… delonte…)
I think the Cavs need a solid 2 guard. I love Delonte off the bench, but they need someone of a higher level starting.
I agree with Chris – I like Frye but I’m not sure he’s the best fit since the Cavs have so many frontcourt players and now have Jamison, who can stretch the floor as a 4.
re: Channing Frye. I think that people are getting carried away with the whole “stretch 4″ thing. Frye is too weak a rebounder for the Cavs… defense and rebounding has made these Cavs what they are and Frye would hurt that since he’s so one-dimensional.
I think we need a young 5, since Shaq and Z aren’t getting any younger. Between Varejao, Hickson and Powe, the 4 spot will be fine next year.
If Antawn helps the Cavs win the title this year it will because he’s the consistent 2nd scorer that we have needed for so long, not because he’s a “stretch 4″.
@TVWOC
while i don’t think we need frye, i think it’s because jamison (and sometimes Z) basically act as our stretch fours, not because we don’t need a stretch 4.
having a stretch four or five (basically any big that can shoot really well) is now a pretty key element to a good offense. This is why andy + Z works, why Z + shaq works, but why andy + shaq fails. the stretching doesn’t have to necessarily come from the 4 position, but having a big that can shoot makes a huge difference in spacing and overall offensive efficiency. you’d be hard pressed to name a highly effective offense without a big that can shoot.
Part of the Hollinger article was put into the Daily Dime and so I’m copying it here for the rest.
Normally at this time of year, we would be writing breathless articles about the MVP race, rallying our support behind one candidate or another and sifting through torrents of angry e-mails supporting that player’s rivals.
Not this year.
The MVP race has been over since about mid-January. LeBron James has run so far away from the pack that he could shoot 0-for-100 from the field over his final eight games and still win the award going away. (For fun, I fact-checked this: Even with 100 straight misses, no assists and no rebounds in his next 200 minutes, he’d still lead the league in PER.)
Only two items of interest remain. First, will some sycophant homer screw up what should be a unanimous decision with a completely indefensible vote for his local guy? And second, is this the best individual season a player has ever had?
As you might suspect, today’s topic deals with the second of those questions. Some of this may sound familiar, as this time a year ago I mentioned that James was en route to one of the best statistical seasons in history.
Here’s the thing: This season, he’s been better.
Once again, a hallowed record (at least in my world) is in play for James as we enter the final eight games: He could surpass Michael Jordan’s 1987-88 campaign for the greatest single-season PER in the modern era. I have to add the “modern” qualifier because the league didn’t keep track of things like blocks and individual turnovers before 1973-74, rendering the PER exercise a guessing game for players from previous eras.
James’ current PER of 31.81 is second best in “modern” history, and with eight games left (of which he’ll probably play only five or six), he retains an outside shot at breaking Jordan’s all-time mark of 31.89. At the very least, he’s going to be within hailing distance.
Not exactly sure how significant breaking jordans record PER is but I hope he does. Just to follow in his foot steps is good enough for me. I’d much rather see him break his championship record but that might be impossibile even for Lebron.