Links to the Present, the Fun Anthony Bennett Edition
2013-12-20Who’da thunk it – Anthony Bennett can be a charming guy! While he’s struggled…um…mightily on the court, that didn’t stop Bennett from being the inaugural “contestant” on Grantland’s “Tough Calls”
While Bennett may not be very good at basketball, at least we can take solace that he’s got a sense of humor. That’s got to count for something, right?
Elsewhere, the Plain Dealer’s Mary Schmitt Boyer discusses the need for the Cavaliers to get Bynum the ball more often, something I’m sure all Cavs fans can agree on.
Finally, despite struggling mightily pretty much all season, Kyrie Irving was named last week’s Eastern Conference Player of the Week.
The Cavaliers were 2-1 for the week as Irving averaged 29 points (fourth in the league), 6.3 assists (tied for fifth in the conference) and 2.33 steals (tied for third in the conference). He also hit 9-of-22 (.409) three-point field goals on the week.
Here’s to hoping KI is finally back on track!
@rodney – it’s well documented how obsessed I am with a Kevin Love trade – with MINN struggling again, the pipe dream seems a little less pipe-ish. I don’t necessarily think it would take Zeller, TT. AND Dion. But the picks? Definitely.
Someone get on the phone with CG! LETS MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!!
@Jake Right now no way. I’m still hopeful that Bennett will improve. He’s lost weight. Has looked less lost in his minimal playing time of late. It’s a bummer that he’s sick because this is a pretty soft stretch in the schedule.
AB straight up for Giannis? I wonder if the bucks would do it.
Thanks for the shout-out, Kj. I truly enjoy your multi-platform worship of Dion Waiters and your outrage when C:tB fails to meet your need for an echo chamber all your own. I consider it a small honor to be called ‘hack’ by pinheads like you.
We should look on the brith side. If Mallory is ripping a player then there is a good chance he will turn out fine. Mallory and his hack friend scott raab have been wrong about just about everything.
If we traded Zeller Dion, TT, and Bennett for love then traded or released Bynum and Gee we’d be at 44.9 based on my hoopshype estimate. Then if we traded Clark for a pick we’d be at 40.7 which will be plenty of room to sign a Max Player. That’s with Andy picking up his option and not renegotiateing his 9.8 million player/team option for next season. But I suspect he will renegotiate for less per annum more overall. 24 million for 3 years or something like that. We’d be bare bones but having 2 top 20 players even if… Read more »
Question for you guys. If Gasol or Love were to become available how much would you offer. Obviously they’ll have to keep losing and demanding a trade would help but I got to think that especially Minnesota is going to have to consider it. IMO the deal obviously starts with TT and Dion. Then multiple 1st round picks probably 3 of our own and 2 others. That’s one hell of a package. We would be pretty thin but Love, Irving, Andy and Bynum isn’t a bad start. Maybe you can put Jack and Kmart into the trade since there contracts… Read more »
It’s pretty clear to me that Mallory was making an attempt at humor, not analysis, in his AB comments above, so to see him attacked for “ripping our players” is off base, in this case. And it’s not my job to defend the site’s authors, but – in my opinion – they’ve been fair in their criticisms of players, coaches, and management and willing to acknowledge improvement and/or premature judgement when circumstances changed. But again, this post? Why attack the author for some corny jokes?
It’s too early in any 23 year olds NBA career to really make a full judgement. I think all draft picks need to be judged based on commonly ‘known’ or ‘believed’ things about a player at the time of the draft. There are always players who exceed expectations greatly compared to thier draft position (e.g. steve nash/tony parker etc) and then there are always the true ‘bust’ (kwame brown, michael beasely, jay williams) when compared to thier draft position. The real comparison comes down to who would have reasonably been the choice at that time when it comes to judging… Read more »
I’d rather have both.
Giannis is looking quite good . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . now.
Drummond is dominant at the post . . . . . . . . . . now.
Before the drafts, both were physical freaks (a la Christian Eyenga) that had proven nothing.
With the extra minutes, maybe we’ll see if Delly can prove to be more than a spark off the bench.
Waiters is only like 5 months older than Oladipo. If rather have Waiters also.
Sadly Dion and Bennett will be out tonight. Looks like Delly will get some extra grind. The Cavs should be able to win their next 5.
I’ll certainly give AB15 more than 20 games. It’s going to take longer than I hoped but I still think he’ll figure it out. (He’ll never be able to defend the 3, though.)
I’d take Waiters over Oladipo . . . especially after watching him go off against Portland. It looked like the only guy that could possibly stop Waiters – was Waiters. His defense is coming on, too. But Oladipo going to be an upper echaelon player – no doubt.
Nupe think of a line up with Irving, Victor, Gee, Thompson and Bynum. Defenses would play a Triangle and 2 against us. And the 2 would both be covering Irving.
Nupe, he has been wrong before about two of our other young players! Did ya miss that part of my post? This is my main beef; no accountability. He was wrong on TT and Dion and so he should shut up for a while about any other draft picks.
And yes, this blog should be half-glass full. I mean, look how stupid all those panic posts in the first two weeks look now. I am not asking for much. Some effin self-awareness would be a welcome start for the writer’s of this blog…
HoopsDogg, Olidipo went 1-13 the other night…
I’m going tonight to see the Greek Freak. 3rd row baby!
Also in defense of The Dion pick. I still think there’s a chance that eventually he’s the second best player in the draft. Drummond is #1 in my mind and right now Liliard is 2. But I’m not sure if he isn’t just on a crazy hot streak. Can you really keep shooting sub 40 on 2’s and shoot 46%from 3. That to me seems like a crazy outlier that should regress to some sort of normalcy. He’s also 23 and unlikely to improve much more. Davis to me is 3 because of the health concerns. He’d probably edge out… Read more »
Can’t wait to see who the cavs should have drafted… GIANNIS!
Oladipo would suck? Worse than jack or gee have?
I’m not sure why any Cavs fan would not be ripping a #1 overall pick who’s been so terribly bad through the first quarter of the season. As a fan, I have every right to rip him for his performance to date. As a fan I have every right to praise him when/if he improves and plays worth to his draft spot (similar to TT). As a core author of a Cavs blog, I expect nothing less than to call it like they see it when it comes to a rookie or our young star(s). I don’t come to the… Read more »
I’m actually hoping that Bennett and Zeller could get a little more run tonight against the Bucks. Giving Andy or Bynum a night off here and there isn’t a bad thing. This playing 6 minutes a night thing isn’t helping. Bennett has lost weight and looked less lost in his playing time of late. Getting his confidence back should be a primary goal of the franchise. Either use them or send them to the D-League. In Mallory’s defense Bennett has be terrible for the season as a whole. Not that the organization has put him in a position to succeed… Read more »
Of course Bennett is good at basketball. The worst player in the nba is still one the 500 greatest players in the world. However, Mallory has his own opinion. We don’t censor it. As for TT, I love him, but sometimes he is (NBA) mediocrity incarnate.
KJ I kind of agree with you. What I hate most is when people start with considering he’s the 1 overall pick. Really, who would you have taken. Honestly the best rookie for this team would have been Tim Hardaway and he almost lasted till the 2nd round. Olidipo would suck on this team. If Olidipo and Irving were on the floor together with this cast we would truly see disfunction. The biggest problem with the offense is spacing and they want to add a 6’1 2 guard that can’t shoot. Otto Porter has been a bigger disaster than Bennett,… Read more »
Kj, he’s just telling it like it is. Gum Drop Bear! has been terrible in the early going considering he’s a #1 overall pick. If you want someone to blow smoke up your butt, go to other Cleveland web sites that do just that. I’m sure that when (not if) AB15 begins to show signs of life that he will get his due on this blog. In fact, the bloggers already point out some of the (few) improved showings from him in recent game recaps. You may believe that he will one day be worthy of the Cavs #1 overall… Read more »
I really wish a blog that is obstensibly a Cavs fans meeting place would stop ripping our players esp rookies who’ve played 20 some games. One would also think the author of this post would be less inclined to make such judgements about players after being proven so wrong in his early judgements about both TT and Dion.
Sheesh…