Links to the Present
2013-12-12
Kyrie Irving appears to be on his way to an all-stardom, again. In fact, he’s on his way to starting. Irving is currently second in all star votes among Eastern Conference guards, with 365,712 votes, trailing only Dwayne Wade. Proving that the player who’s having the best season doesn’t always get the love, Uncle Drew leads John Wall by almost 140,000 votes. (It’s also a brutal year for Eastern Conference guards).
Ken Berger from CBS Sports writes about how the Lakers changed their players’ eating habits, and how the “paleo” diet helped Dwight Howard regain his “Superman” form. This is some fascinating stuff. Someone get this article to AB15’s chef, stat! (Note, the article does not specifically refer to the diet as “paleo,” but if it looks like a fish and acts like a fish…)
Speaking of food, Matthew Dellavedova has been writing for the Bendigo Advertiser. He reflects on Chris Paul, Jamaal Crawford, and Brazillian cuisine.
Andy Varejao took Sergey Karasev and I to a Brazilian restaurant. The other people were joking that we would get sick of it because he likes to go there so much. We thought they were joking about that. I think we have eaten there about three or four more times since then, but Sergey and I still aren’t sick of it, it’s great.
Brian Spaeth appears on the WFNY podcast. After a eulogy to Paul Walker, he and Craig Lyndall reflect on… Who is number 9 for the Cavs? Is Kyrie Irving the next Steve Francis? Is Dion Waiters the next Vinnie Johnson? Is Tristan Thompson the reincarnation of John “Hot Rod” Williams? Who eliminated the center? The joys of quitting Twitter… The awesome power of Candy Crush…
Sergey Karasev, Carrick Felix, and Henry Sims were assigned to the Canton Charge last night, and helped the Charge to a win in overtime versus the Tulsa 66ers, 94-91. Those players took a back seat to Kevin Jones, though.
Jones led Canton with 24 points, including 10-of-10 from the foul line, with nine rebounds in 43 minutes. In his first-ever NBA D-League game, Cavs assignee Sergey Karasev scored 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting with three rebounds in 30 minutes. Henry Sims added 12 points, nine rebounds, one block and one steal in 24 minutes… Carrick Felix added five points, five rebounds, and three assists in 19 minutes.
I’m hoping to catch them all, Friday or Saturday, against the Erie BayBawks. Friday is Zombie Night, and Saturday is Ugly Sweater Night. I plan on wearing a white sweater and a black dickey à la Cousin Eddie. Hope to see you there.
TT isn’t even in the top 35 of that list. What a joke. It is based on potential down the road as well but he should definitely be in the top 35.
Ya how in the world is Barnes on that list. The dude sucks. I’d actually put Jonas higher but that’s 100% based on speculation that if his team had any shooters he’d be better. I’d definetly take Heyward and Batum before MCW. And that’s some serious love for the Greek.
AV for Asik makes zero sense. AV is better at everything except straight man-on-man defense. The Cavs better get some real talent in return for swallowing Asik.
Jonas in the top 25!! LOLOLOL.
AV for Asik may not be as comical as you think, Nate. Even though Asik’s deal is backloaded, the cap hold for next season is only $8.3M. I’m not saying I want the deal, but it’s not ludicrous like it would be if the cap hold was for the full $15M.
The list I posted may be insider so feel free to monster it.
Barkley thinks Washington with a healthy Beal could be a 3rd team in the East. Shaq then questioned Barkley with “Even better than Cleveland”? And Chuck then stated “Cleveland’s not any good!”
Not that it means much but ESPN recently put out an article of top 25 under 25 and KI was the only player from the Cavs to make the list. He was ranked 8th I think… Behind Wall which I disagree with. It’s funny he was overrated by ESPN earlier in the year, and now I think he’s a bit underrated on this new list. I also think TT maybe should be on this top 25. Some of these players have too small of a sample size to make this list. I don’t get the Harrison Barnes love. Here’s the… Read more »
Good post, Rodney. Obviously zero chance we would have taken MCW, Burke, or Hardaway at #1-4 (I watched a lot of Michigan basketball and I thought Burke would never make it in the NBA and Hardaway shouldn’t have even been drafted). But if we had, and they had performed just as well as they are performing now, I think people would still be criticizing the pick based on the perceived ceiling of those players vs that of the players we’d passed up. That said, Bennett right now is showing no sign of a ceiling higher than mine. But no one… Read more »
There is no way Asik would play for us either. He’s throwing a fit about playing behind Howard. how do think he’d enjoy playing behind Bynum
AV for Asik is comical on its face. Chris Grant isn’t going to grab a guy who’s due $15 million next year.
Watching Houston at Portland and the announcers bring up the Cavs as a potential trade partner with Houston. They’re suggesting an AV for Asik swap.
I agree with Raoul. There is the risk of further damaging Bennett’s fragile ego, but him getting inconsistent minutes with the Cavs isn’t helping him either. I’d be fine with Bennett, Felix and Karasev being sent down to Canton for an extended stay or until a injury strikes. The rotation is too deep. Without the rookies you’d still have a seasoned backup at every position. Zeller won’t be as bad as he was last year as a backup. Perhaps you’d just rotate the guys in Canton with two being there at a time and one being in Cleveland. It’s not… Read more »
You’re forgetting Nate Wolters. Gobert has not played much, but I liked what I saw. Oladipo would be much better if not for his turnovers, which are the result of playing him at point guard when he’s not a point guard.
Rodney’s definitely right about how bad this draft is turning out to be. But Bennett is still a whole other level of bad. The other picks wouldn’t have helped much, but Jesus, Bennett is historically bad.
I am totally for putting Bennett in the D League for an extended stay. What is the downside? Hurt his confidence? Zeller can take his minutes for the Cavs, and he might also develop. Right now, neither is getting any better.
You forgot McLemore (the next Ray Allen): 9 pts / 3 reb in 25 minutes on 35.7% shooting.
The consensus of Cavs fans was probably Noel, Porter, McLemore, Oladipo, Bennett, Len, Burke. Probably 95% of the fan base would have chosen one of them. A few liked Cody Zeller. One liked Olynyk.
Outstanding post, Rodney.
Ok AB15 has been horrible but it might be time to stop blaming Grant. The entire top ten has been terrible. The best player in the top Ten right now is… Trey Burke. A shoot first pg who shoots 38% from the field has been the most productive top ten player. Sure Len has only played 2 games dealing with his 2nd foot related injury of his pro career. And C.J. McCullom and Noel have yet to play a game. Otto Porter has been awful in his 21 minutes this season. Kentavius-Caldwell Pope has been aweful on Offense but shockingly… Read more »
I would not trade Bennett for Carmelo. Bennett is at least a zero. Carmelo is the poster child for supposed superstars who will rarely win a playoff round.
Just for kicks and giggles, because this would never actually happen, but if it was guaranteed that Carmelo would sign a long term deal in Cleveland after this season would you part with Andy, Waiters, Bennett, and the Memphis pick to get him?
Wow. Yeah, that’s an awful article, Not sure… Fortunately, the Cavs aren’t dumb enough to do that for a player who wouldn’t stay in Cleveland, anyway. As for changing the division structure, it doesn’t make any sense when 60% of the population lives east of the Mississippi. Perhaps it makes sense since Memphis, New Orleans, and Minnesota are all in the West, but I don’t see the NBA re-aligning to accommodate those small markets.
And there’s CBSTV’s discussion on the NBA losing divisions- Let’s have the Heat play IN Cleveland 4 times a year! http://screen.yahoo.com/nba-considers-losing-divisions-045344498-cbs.html
They don’t seem to be aware that there’s only 82 games in a season.
I know Yahoo sports sucks, but this one takes the cake. I looked at it and I might have a concussion from the facepalms I gave myself one about every other sentence. It goes from Yeah, trade for Carmelo and give up Waiters, Bennett, Andy and the Memphis pick and you’ll get home court adv in playoffs! To no, don’t do it man, it won’t fit.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-cleveland-cavaliers-try-trade-carmelo-anthony-144200217–nba.html
Am I wrong in thinking a fan vote is the only way for Kyrie to make the All-Star team this year? Granted the east is featuring some lackluster guards thus far, but he has rarely looked like an all-star this season.