A bunch of things that need to get better that have nothing to do with an elbow
2010-05-06
Lots of talk about the elbow today. Cavs: The Blog’s official position on the elbow is “screw the elbow.” Allow me to elaborate on this. I am not saying the elbow is or is not injured. It may well be killing him. All I know is that it was healthy enough for LeBron to go off in game one of this series, and I don’t think LeBron got healthier in between the third and fourth quarters of game two.
I may well be wrong about this. I am not a doctor. But here’s what it boils down to: if LeBron’s elbow is really, really hurt and keeping him at 70-80% or lower, the Cavs are screwed. No chance of a championship. It’s done. Not even worth worrying about, in a strange way.
The elbow is beyond everyone on the team’s control. Other things the Cavaliers are doing poorly are not. Here are some of the non-elbow things the Cavs need to improve upon if the Cavs want to make it out of this series, let alone win a championship:
1. Defense
Defense used to be this team’s backbone. Shaq actually improved the team’s interior defense for much of the year. LeBron was just made a first team all-defense selection. Varejao made the all-defensive second team. Mike Brown is a defensive wizard.
In seven games against the Chicago Bulls (#28 in offensive efficiency this season) and the Boston Celtics (T-13th in offensive efficiency this season), the Cavs have given up 100 or more points in three of their seven playoff games. They haven’t held an opponent to under 90 points since game one of the Chicago series. That is ridiculous and unacceptable. (By the way, Orlando has allowed 90 points once in five playoff games.)
It’s not just teams getting hot or exploiting a mismatch or two — the Celtics and Bulls have gotten way too many easy baskets. The Cavs are relying on their offense to bail them out instead of making life miserable for opposing offenses on every possession like they’re capable of doing. That’s not a winning formula, especially not for this team.
2. Lack of inside scoring
This team has become increasingly reliant on its offense, and said offense has become increasingly reliant on jump shots. That’s not ideal. The Cavs have surrounded LeBron with outside shooters, but they’ve left themselves without enough players willing to take the ball strong to the basket. Delonte filled that role last season; he’s been replaced by AP in the starting lineup, and isn’t nearly as aggressive as he once was when he is in the game. Many of Andy’s minutes have gone to the more jumper-inclined Jamison, and Varejao hasn’t looked aggressive when he is playing. No more settling for contested jump shots early in the shot clock. That goes for everyone. Run the offense, move the ball and take it strong every. Single. Possession. Of course, part of the reason there isn’t enough inside scoring is…
3. Shaq
He’s looked terrible. It’s one thing to be struggling against a post defender like Perkins. It’s quite another to have struggled against Chicago’s post defenders. I don’t know how healthy his thumb is, but he looks as out of rhythm in the post as he did at the beginning of the year. He needs to figure it out or sit down.
4. Failure to play the full 48
The pre-Mo Cavs kept the score close out of necessity and went to LeBron late in the game. Last year’s Cavs obliterated the teams that were worse than them, had LeBron bail them out against teams on their level, and got outclassed by elite teams, particularly on the road. This year’s teams plays to the level of their competition and counts on LeBron to bail them out nearly every night. They need to take care of business for the entire game if they want to beat Boston, Orlando, or whatever team comes out of the West. All the talk before the playoffs was about how the Cavs are in such a better mental place this season than they were last season. Well, last year’s team went 8-0 in the first two rounds. This year’s team is currently 5-2.
5. Play the game, not the scoreboard.
Getting a good possession is always the best option. This team seems to be ignorant of that. When they start a run, they go for the quick three instead of running the offense and continuing to do the things that started the run. It’s what kept them from putting away the Bulls in a few of those games, and it’s what happened when they began to threaten the Celtics in the fourth quarter of game two. Never stop attacking. Never stop looking for the best shot. Stop trying to be the hero.
6. Mo Williams
He needs to find a groove. He’s pressing right now. I will say that I feel like a lot of Mo’s struggles have come from Cleveland’s refusal to run their offense. Where have the back-screens been? Where have the corner dives been? They’ve run one or two scissor-cut plays. Where is the decoy pick-and-roll? Maybe Boston’s scouted their playbook, but they need to get back to going to Mo as a solid 2nd option on a given play rather than ignoring him and subsequently watching him try to force his way back into the offense.
All of those things and more are what the Cavs need to do to make it out of this series. Win in Boston or live in infamy. It’s about much more than the elbow.
Kevin Garnett is really destroying Jamison with his otherworldly 42% FG shooting.
42% is bad for Monta Ellis, and that guy was only considered to be the least efficient player in the league.
Yah, it definitely has nothing to do with the Celtics being the better team now that they’re interested. When one team dictates EVERYTHING in the series, even their game 1 loss, then you can’t say it’s the other team that’s the issue. Boston is just better. Cleveland has a better bench, but Boston is better in 4 out of 5 starting spots. Rondo over Williams is a joke – Mo will never see another all-star game as long as Rose and Rondo are breathing. Of course, LBJ over The Truth. Ray Allen over Parker 8 days a week. Perk owns… Read more »
Here’s what the Sports Guy said about Steve Nash, “Steve Nash isn’t wired that way. He’s loyal. He’s Canadian. He’s old-school. He believes in things like, ‘I am the leader of this team, so as soon as I say that I might want to leave, I can’t lead anymore.’” LeBron needs to learn that lesson. Even if he’s lying, he needs to say he’s staying in order to lead this team.
You are right, enough about the elbow I believe in Bill Belichik’s mantra that, “if you give a player an excuse, then he will take it”. The more the elbow is talked about the more it is OK for Lebron and the Cavs to lose.
I agree that shaq has pretty much sucked (outside of game 1 vs Chi) but is anyone else getting pissed about the way they are calling offensive fouls on him? he is doing everything he has always done and now he is getting into foul trouble extremely quickly. Im watching game two of orlando v atlanta right now, and they have give howard two callsthat should have definitely been offensive fouls but went the other way. I get that he is the young gun center now, but it pisses me off Shaq is no longer getting the calls and that… Read more »
Rich… I know we all love Lebron, but you have to be completely blind to think Kobe doesn’t make his teammates better. Before joining Kobe, Odom hadn’t shot better than 43.9% for a season since his second year in the league. He has been in the 47%-53% since. Also, those Kobe teams without Pau or shaq… Consider this… With a starting lineup of Brian Cook, Smush Parker, Kwame Brown/Chris Mihm, and Odom playing along side him, they went 45-37 (in the tougher western conference) and took Phoenix to 7 games. If not for Kwame falling off a cliff after being… Read more »
I haven’t commented on this board before, but am a huge Cavs fan and normally an enormous Lebron supporter. But Rich, you’re absolutely correct with that last comment. It was almost eerie watching Lebron out there, in the playoffs, clearly not giving the type of focused, high-effort performance that he has always given come springtime. Personally, I think two plays showed how off he was. First, the play right at the start of the second half, when Lebron had a fast-break (just LBJ vs. two defenders, but still, that’s usually 2 points for him) and the man between him and… Read more »
Brad i normally don’t delve into things like lack of effort. You can’t really measure it so it is kind of acheap way out when trying to determine how a team is playing. However, you can tell when a great player isn’t playing up to his level greatness. Just let me give you an example. When the Cavs were trying to make a run and get back into the game, LeBron had a turnover that I don’t think anyone made a big enough deal about. He ran the pick and roll with Hickson..and decided to throw a behind the back… Read more »
I’ll read the rest of this later, but to me the Cavs have the offensive talent this year to score more than 86 points in a playoff game. It rests on the shoulders of Mike Brown that he can’t figure out ways to get other guys involved without having to have LeBron dominate the ball day and night. And to the guy talking about Kobe, what? Kobe was very quick to blame other people when things weren’t going well for him. Forget this leader stuff, he was demanding trades because he said he didn’t have enough help..how is that putting… Read more »
You mean when Kobe volunteered to guard Westbrook in Game 5? You know, when they had already dropped 2 games? Some leader.
And whatever else you said is nonsense, but LeBron DID get the heat for the Magic loss. Mo Williams got some, but the talk about LeBron only being a regular season player and can’t get it done was around plenty last year. He got almost all of the blame even though he averaged 39-7-7, so the reason his teammates get the blame is because they stop hitting shots.
The problem is NOT Mo, or MB, or AP or Shaq. I hate to say it, but the problem is Lebron. Perhaps he’s not as great as we all think he is. It’s Lebron’s job as the superstar to make his teammates perform. He gets all the credit in the regular season for making his teammates better, but his teammates get all the blame when Lebron fails to make them better in the playoffs. This kind of mentality puts ALL THE PRESSURE on his teammates because they know they will get ALL the blame if Lebron fails to deliver. Sounds… Read more »
Apparently he was going for the Tupac look in the hat picture…didn’t work out so well.
Man those pictures are so disturbing.
But Kobe has a better wardrobe than Damon Jones or Mo Williams.
http://www.latimesmagazine.com/2010/05/kobe-white-hot.html
“Damnon Jones has a better wardrobe than Mo Williams.”
FACT.
(Also had the greatest coat of all time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eyY2_6_fbU)
people blame everybody bu Lebron the regular season is different from the playoffs, during the first 82 games lebron rarely gets shaded or trapped, teams let him run the pick an roll from the top while the rest of the team shoots jumpers…..then the playoffs start, teams practice ball denial, court shading, and trapping. The rest of the Cavs have no clue what to do, the whole season he has been pounding the ball and passing to get assists, no they have to create…and they can’t do it. Lebrons great, the Cavs should win, but nobody complains while he is… Read more »
Damnon Jones has a better wardrobe than Mo Williams.
I think my uncle Chris is a better defender than Damon Jones was.
Damon Jones was an even worse defender than Mo is… so, yeah.
Damon Jones has more playoff clutch shots than Mo Williams.
I stopped reading the post by Thoughts when he asked why Ferry signed Mo Williams.
Ferry didn’t sign Mo Williams. He traded DAMON JONES for him. Who would you rather have: Damon Jones or Mo Williams?
I don’t care how poorly Mo has played in the postseason, he’s still worlds better than Damon freakin Jones.
The case for playing Gibson is there because Mo’s D has been so bad. Gibson is not a great defender, he is only above average, but Mo’s D has been that bad. He hasn’t done anything to slow point guards AT ALL, letting them by with one mediocre move. Gibson can at least stay in front of rondo some of the time and since the offense isnt working he hits outside shots half of the time. at least he would be able to put up numbers in the failure that the cavs are putting out right now.
Bradley, the overall lack of effort shows in things like not rebounding or closing out on shooters. The Cavs had stretches this year when their defense was fantastic, and while I agree that they don’t have a good answer for Rondo, they’ve shown that they’re capable of defending very well. In game one, you could see a totally different level of play when they decided to start playing active defense in the second half, and Rondo’s production slowed. That just wasn’t there consistently in game two.
When you think about last year’s defense, Ben Wallace’s arm bands can defend better than Jamison or Hickson. That’s huge. Z was still alive and 7’3″ is good for protecting the rim. Delonte was much better last year and he played 35 minutes a night. Parker and our new PF combo is a significant downgrade. Therefore, it shouldn’t be this astounding to people that we were one of the absolute best defensive teams last year and now we’re a level below the Magic and Lakers and Celtics. Yeah we’re still good at it, but we’re not great.
When I say ‘he’s been efficient’ I mean Jamison even though it sounds like I’m talking about KG. Pronoun error.
Rich, I’ll take the title captain of statistics. This is true. I love them. But I never said anything about KG, I know he’s not shooting well. He’s been efficient this playoffs, but I don’t trust his jump shot that he falls in love with. And when I say create, I mean how often you score off the dribble, in isos, etc. Even in Washingtong Jamison had a very high number of assisted baskets (70%), which also backs up his low-turnover rate, because he hardly dribbles. Jamison isn’t proven to create his own offense, besides cutting and spotting up. Rich,… Read more »
Correct me if I’m wrong, but a large component of all 6 of those categories comes back to coaching. Defensively, that is squarely on Mike Brown. If the Cavs aren’t going to play defense under him, he might as well pack his bags. Lack of inside scoring has to do with this to. MB has to play guys willing to take it to the hole, and run backscreens and offensive sets conducive to this. Shaq is equally on Brown. If he is playing poorly, sit him. That’s the coach’s job. Same goes for Mo. Gibson played GREAT this year when… Read more »
I co-sign on any post that expresses general frustration about anything Cavs related. Whether it’s Lebron dominates the ball too much, or the other Cavs can’t create. The truth is somewhere in between, so I agree with it all.
My one caveat is that it’s hard to fault Jamison for the fact that the Cavs haven’t really made an effort to run plays for him. I think that’s the point Rich always makes, and he’s right.
Defensively, I think the Cavs need to just bite the bullet and put Lebron on Rondo, as much as possible. Parker/Moon guarding Pierce is not a bad matchup; Mo guarding Allen is, but it’s better than Mo guarding Rondo.
And as folks have noted, Delonte is capable of fighting through Allen’s screens pretty well.
Offensively, if the Cavs don’t run substantial plays for Mo and Jamison in Game 3, especially in the first half while Lebron is (apparently) waiting for his elbow to warm up, someone will have to take my remote before I throw it at the TV.
And another thing.. Look at how lakers integrate Kobe into their offense. He’s basically like a very good spare part for that team, a turbocharger if you will. The engine runs well without him, and even sometimes when he plays poorly, but if he plays well it’s just a big bonus for them. Lakers offense does not rely on Kobe to carry them every single possession. They have a solid system in place. They probably do have a better starting five, but compare Fisher to Mo — I’d take Mo right now. They have a lot of ball movement. Now… Read more »
@thoughts: Devin Harris? Who had slightly better numbers than Mo on a 12-win team? Gilbert Arenas is a better “scorer” than Mo, but a worse “point guard.” Baron Davis is more talented, but a flake who just finished essentially tanking the season for the Clippers (according to Bill Simmons and a look at Davis’ stats this year). And I second the above point on Brandon Jennings; you saw how many shots he missed in Game 7, right? For the rest of those names: when were they available to the Cavs, exactly? Because if there was a league-wide auction on All-Star… Read more »
Nice post and some good replies. Besides some points that you guys brought up (poor play by mo/shaq/etc), I think the the way Cavs finished regular season mentally screwed them up. Look at how Orlando has been playing and look at the end of their regular season. They’ve started all their guys every game and played to win. Cavs let it go and lost the last couple games on purpose, hoping to turn it on for the playoffs. Actually, for the good second half of the regular season, the pattern was that they play lazy for the first 3 quarters,… Read more »
Not trying to defend MB because I do find some of his decisions questionable, but to be fair, the depth of the team makes second-guessing very easy when things don’t work out right. I think this team is unusual because you have Lebron and probably Jamison who most would agree should get minutes, and then NINE guys you can argue should be getting more/less minutes. Of course, it is the coach’s job to put the most effective lineups on the floor and he may or may not be doing that well, but the depth gives critics ammo they didn’t have… Read more »
Chanes thoughts=Facts? PRetty good I’d say. Brad, you are looking at this totally wrong. Do you think Jamison just suddenly lost his ability to create? Or..could it be, and yes I’m saying it, LeBron dominating the ball 24/7 kind of takes away from other guys who can create? Could it be that handing the ball to LeBron all the time doesn’t allow other players, who are capable, to make plays? No one wants to say that maybe LeBron playing the way he does might actually hurt some players, but I’m saying it. Instead of LeBron catching, turning, and then taking… Read more »
Here’s the issue no one is talking about, but is probably a major issue: The Cavs don’t know how to play with each other right now. Jamison and Shaq have played 8 games together, 7 of which have happened in the last couple weeks. Shaq has played 7 games with the Cavs in the last 10 weeks, all of which happened in the last two weeks. The rotations are screwed up because of it, and it’s affecting everyone else. The best thing that could happen is that they took these 3 days off to figure out what the rotation is… Read more »
Thoughts- 1. While I agree with you the Mo has been extremely frustrating for me during the playoffs, and I’m not a huge fan of the guy, I think you’re overstating the case. You said, “Brandon Jennings (kid played better last series in big games than Mo ever will)”. Really? The “kid” shot 41% from the floor, and below 30% from beyond the arc. Mo’s numbers? 41% from the floor and 33% from 3. Now, with Jennings being a rookie, I’d say he’ll be better than Mo moving forward, but I don’t think actual statistics back up your “thoughts” as… Read more »
I’d like to see Boobie at least get a shot to disrupt Rondo. We’re going to have the same penetration issues in the next round against Nelson if we get past Boston. That said… I’m in Las Vegas for work this week… and noticed one thing that all the depressed Cavs faithful can look to as a sign of hope. The dispassionate men who are paid to know still think Cleveland is the favorite to win it all. MGM sportsbook has the Cavs at 1:1 to win it all. Lakers are 9:5. Keep the faith Cavs fans. The team senses… Read more »
Rich, this is why I hate this team. Everything John mentioned. It’s been pretty evident for awhile that these guys can’t make plays without LeBron, and it’s all cool when we win 61 games, but these playoffs have been excruciating. And with Jamison, I’d love him if he’d come in and do what he was brought in to do. But he tricked all y’all into thinkin he was gonna be able to create his own offense and do it well. The fact is he doesn’t create his own shot and he doesn’t hit anything.
I’ve been harping on point 3 for a while now. Boobie is a MUCH better defender than Mo and if Mo isn’t creating off the dribble anyway there is no reason not to start or at least play Boobie more.
John, re; the 5-2 vs. 6-0 last year. To be fair, they were playing the Zombie Pistons and an Atlanta team that was in over their heads last year. This year we got a Chicago team that was not playing like an 8 seed when we faced them and a Boston team that apparently is able to turn it on for the post season and now has an extra large chip on their shoulder because everyone was doubting them. That being said, they’ve only really looked great in the first quarter of the first Bulls game and most of the… Read more »
John I co-sign big time on your point #5. All year one of my pet peeves with this team (and Lebron especially) has been the attempted dagger threes in critical situations when the Cavs have a small lead. No matter what it seems like if the Cavs miss the attempt in said situation 99% of the time the ball caroms off the rim for a long rebound and is essentially the first pass on the fast break for the opposition and inevitably they get an easy bucket. Unacceptable. Run the offense, if a good three point opportunity opens up take… Read more »
Nicely said John. I’ve noticed that when Shaq isn’t hitting his shot around the basket it’s usually because he isn’t forcing his way to it but instead is letting himself be kept more than 2 feet out. I’m no expert but it looks to me like he’s setting up too far out and being asked to pound his way to the hoop but rather than doing that he’s settling for the hook. I’ve commented before that they run too little offense. You are dead on about them devolving to the quick 3’s which aren’t hitting as much and are wasting… Read more »
Thoughts: (1) Mo Williams sucks. That is the truth. The Cavs pay the guy like he is a star, but he has NEVER put up all-star numbers and he has been terrible in the playoffs the last 2 years: 40 %FG, 35% 3pt FG, 76% FT, 3.7 Asst/game – these are terribly inefficient numbers for a supposed #2 man on an elite team and are MARKEDLY worse than his (not even so great) regular season averages. And he has been even WORSE on defense. Rose and Rondo are eating him alive and, if the Cavs get that far, Jameer Nelson… Read more »