“You will see the Cavs calling timeouts and playing the so-called “steal/foul game” in the last 90 seconds of games in the preseason. I’ve sat through numerous preseason games just wishing they would run out the clock and instead watched timeouts and 3-for-2 trades and stuff. Then in a regular season against the top rival in the East the Cavs just folded the tent.” [Brian Windhorst's Beat Blog]
”We’re not in the same situation Cleveland’s in. That’s the bottom line,” Van Gundy said. ”Cleveland literally has nothing to gain. We do. It’s going to be hard to get back to the Finals, but if you do, you want to give yourself every chance you can. To know you would have home court at that point would be a big advantage. History bears that out.” [Stan Van Gundy from Marla Ridenour's Article on Rest vs Rust]
“If the Cavs again meet the Magic in the conference finals in five weeks or so, they likely would do so with three different starters than the Magic faced last spring.” [Brian Windhorst on The Cavs Upgrades]
Stan Van Gundy said LeBron will win the MVP every year until he retires. Here is an example of why that is shockingly unlikely: “It’s why he just lost my vote for NBA Most Valuable Player. If he doesn’t think it’s important enough to play all 82 — or at least try — then he isn’t good enough to be the MVP.” [Tim Povtak on The New MVP Requirements]
Charley Rosen as The VOICE OF REASON!
Kevin Pelton not high on any Cavaliers for All-Defense.
“Of course, if this comes to pass, the Magic likely will have to again eliminate the Cavs. Unlike Sunday, at least they wouldn’t have to worry whether LeBron and Shaq would be playing.” [Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel]
This is refreshing: an analyst admitting poor judgement. ”Couldn’t have been more wrong here. Thought the Cavs were destined for one of the longest regular seasons ever. Turns out life is always good with LeBron … even when you’re not sure how much longer he’ll be around.” [Marc Stein's Power Rankings]
There was a strange article written about Brian Windhorst over the weekend. It lead to a lot of noise on twitter. Windhorst briefly “responded” to it. Now it’s being called “tongue-in-cheek”. John Hollinger, a good friend of Windhorst, was not a fan.
Shaq is just a big kid. (who has lost a lot of weight)
Tweets To The Present : (follow me @tompestak)
“RT @Wysocki11: I was at the game, my only cavs game of the year, and I’d rather see lebron sit then roll an ankle and miss a playoff game.” [Rock @ WFNY]
“Just heard the phrase “Cleveland Nation” for the first time” [WayneEmbrysKids]
“Noah has been jawing with courtside fans all night.” [OutsideTheNBA]
“Best moment of the game: Moondog dissing Dwight Howard. LOL. THAT should make ESPN.” [George M. Thomas]
“Now I understand how Vince Carter makes Dwight Howard better. VC takes bad shots and Howard rebounds the misses and dunks them.” [Brian Windhorst]
Tim Potvak is a joke.
Potvak wrote that so he could feel validated. “Hey everyone, I get an MVP vote! And guess what: I have an arbitrary reason, which defies logic, that will make me seem unique by going against the norm.” He’s on just as much of an ego trip as the players he defames.
Potvak’s article shows how little he understands the Cleveland fan. I think everybody I know is okay with, even happy that LeBron is sitting right now. Winning the second to last game of the season versus the Magic is NOT the goal. The goal is a championship, and that’s all Cleveland cares about for now.
The Cavs showed last year that they didn’t care about records or winning after clinching HCA. I remember Delonte being angry that LeBron rested on the last game of the season. Had the Cavs won, they would have set the record for Home wins in a reg. season.
This year they don’t care about anything but the playoffs. I thought LeBron would care about the scoring title or the PER title and he’s really taken his foot off the gas the last 2 weeks other than the Atlanta game and 4th quarter of the Boston game. They are going to be juiced up for the playoffs.
If Lebron played these last few games, I guaruntee those same people that say he’s disrespecting the game now would still be saying it, saying he’s only playing to win the scoring title, or PER record, or whatever.
That’s just how it is when your team has the best player in the world
kevin,
Couldn’t agree more. I felt the same way about people complaining about MIke Brown essentially throwing in the towel in the 4th yesterday by not playing Antawn or Mo. I’m no physical therapist, so taking Mike Brown’s reasoning at face value (they sat out too long and got cold) and thus assuming they had a greater chance of injuring themselves if they played out the end of the game, I bet you if either of them tweaked a muscle those very same people would be screaming about Mike Brown playing two starters at the end of a pointless game.
Any idea what kind of roster the Cavs will be using?? Most teams like to narrow down to about 8 or 9 guys, but it seems the Cavs might have a hard time doing that. And maybe that’s not a bad thing.
Definite players I assume:
Bron, Shaq, Z, Jamison, Mo, AP, Varejao, Delonte <– That's already 8!
The rest:
Hickson, Moon, Telfair, Powe, Gibson, Jawad,
not even going to mention Daniel Green.
Are the Cavs too deep?
Who is Tim Potvik? Clearly, it was a pointless piece that he wrote just to cause a stir. The internet has pretty much killed journalism of all kinds. It’s to bad.
Favorite line “Does he respect the game?” Ahh, so because a guy sits out for a few games that must mean he doesn’t respect it? Everyone who is on his case, listen closely, it’s VACATION. Do you ever take vacation time at work. Aka, do you get paid to not be at work? Hmm…even when you aren’t sick? We all do. Tim Potvik does. Stunning Timmy boy thinks what LeBron is doing is any different.
I sent that Pothack guy feedback. It was well written though so he probably won’t comprehend it. I also *went* to the game on Sunday (drove up from Cincinnati even!), and I let him know that he may want to solicit feedback before he goes speaking for us fans considering that we actually prefer a rested LeBron for the playoffs in exchange for missing seeing him in a meaningless game.
Dylan
I’d add Moon and possibly Hickson to make it 10 strong for the Cavs. I doubt they go higher. It depends how the series’ go as Powe and Gibson might get some time. I wouldnt be surprised if Hickson gets limited time though unless foul trouble is really plaguing the Cavs.
I just love the notion that Povtak has towards athletes. That they should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us humans, when in fact, they shouldn’t. We don’t elect them. They aren’t working for the public good. They don’t take some sort of solemn oath upon joining a team…they are just like us when go to work. The problem is to many of us share his thoughts, just not about our favorite player.
If you work at a job where you get vacation leave and you use it, then you can’t agree with Povtak, period. If you work at a place where everytime you miss, someone in someway gets hurt (whether it’s a co-worker covering for you, or your job just not getting done) and you still get paid, you cannot agree with Povtak. Period. You see, everytime you use a vacation day, everytime you get paid when you miss and something doesn’t get done (like a journalist taking a vacation day and subsequently his article not getting published for that week) and you DONT give the money back to the company, you can’t agree with Povtak.
So I would ask this of Povtak. Has ever went on vacation? Has there ever been a week where he hasn’t submitted an article due to being away? Does he still get paid for this time? If the answer is yes, then, my friend, Povtak is simply a hypocrite. I’ll treat him as such.
Rich,
I’ll briefly play devil’s advocate (and then refute the point):
One way that an athelte’s job differs from a regular working person’s job (with the exception of educators) is that the athlete’s job lasts for less than the full year. So for a basketball player, you could consider the time between April/May/June and September/October to be their vacation time. Technically they are getting paid to not work for 4-7 months of the year depending on whether they make the play-offs and when they start gearing back up for the season. Since they’re not expected to work a full year, they should not be taking vacation days during that portion of the year when they are not at work.
HOWEVER, most athletes don’t just take the summer off. They may not have to “punch in” every day like they do during the season for games and practices, but dedicated athletes hook up with coaches to drill specific aspects of their games, go to summer camps, continue to work out every day, and, in some cases, represent their country in high level basketball competition. For a player like LeBron, who is expected to engage in all four activities a basketball player may hypothetically be engaged in over the summer, the dude just doesn’t have a vacation. Don’t begrudge (@ Povtak et al) him a weeks worth of missed games while he rests his body for the most intense competition he will face all year.
It really doesnt matter how Lebrons days off are interpreted as ‘vacation’ or ‘rest’…its the dude’s choice along with coach’s approval and he isnt the only player or athlete in general to do such a thing.
The author of that article had a bone to pick and decided to chide Lebron. The man immediately went to Kobe and Jordan for comparisons sake to drive home a point. It wasnt working. He didnt use any study of a population (specific Cavs fans). He basically assumed that the fans were completely unhappy, even though it was a sellout and the crowd was into the game nearly the whole time.
I don’t mind reporters, journalists, analysts, etc criticizing Lebron, he does have some flaws. But articles like these are so dumb and devoid of logic and reasoning it destroys the idea and aspect of journalism.
You have to wonder how this guy has a job in the first place…hopefully his superiors put him on ‘vacation’ after that travesty of an article.
Totally agree ben. I read a column by Whitlock today…terrible. Taking cheap shots at whoever he can. I read a column by Reilly today…terrible. Somehow acting as if a guy that is married “deserves” to win more than a guy who doesn’t. Somehow acting as if he personally knows that the Mickelson’s marriage is all wonderful and that he is the true family man. I’m not casting anything on Mickelson, but Reilly. I read this column by Potvak, totally making no sense whatsoever, and I’m left to wonder about the state of sports journalism. In my opinion, the internet has basically lowered the overall quality SUBSTANTIALLY. People seem to say anything and everything JUST so they can make sure their article gets linked to as many places as possible. If that means saying stupid things, then so be it. But it seems very, very hard to find a good sports writer these days. It’s probably why Windhorst is the best, he refuses to get involved in anything other than the actual sport. Take a hint Jason Whitlock and Rick Reilly. Stick to sports, get out of the all the psuedo stuff…it makes you look foolish.
I just have to counter with one point, Rich: would a source of information like Cavs the Blog or WFNY exist without the internet? I think in most ways, the internet drastically improved sports journalism. However, its had the residual effect of making traditional sports media outlets so desperate for readers that they resort to total BS to cause controversy and drive eyeballs to their websites. Fortunately, folks like us can see these guys for what they are and make our way to where the quality information is.
It depends on how you view improvement. If availability of information is improvement, then of course it has. However, quality of writing has unequivocally taken a nose-dive.
I’m sure people said the same thing when the printing press came out, Rich.
And they were probably right, no?