On guards, wings, and LeBron week
2010-11-30
– Leading things off with a Cavalier-related thought: This team currently has three wing players in its regular rotation — Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, and Joey Graham. None of them are very good. They also employ three combo guards — Mo Williams, Ramon Sessions, and Daniel Gibson. They are probably the team’s most dangerous offensive players outside of Jamison, with the possible exception of Hickson. It stands to reason that the three guards should be getting far more floor time than the wings, but that has not been the case. I know Scott has been giving a Sessions/Boobie backcourt minutes, but the team should be playing more true small-ball.
– Shaq is having one of the best seasons ever for a 35 + year old, because of course he is. The Shaq debacle deserves a whole other post, but I’ll give you the cliff notes:
– Shaq was completely misused. The team would force-feed him the ball in the post, fail to cut for him, and leave him on a complete island instead of trying to integrate him into the offense. Instead of being used like a functional #3/#4 option, Shaq was used like a #1 option or ignored entirely. Also, it took him a little bit of time to figure out where he was supposed to be in Mike Brown’s system.
– Shaq was actually playing well before he got injured. Putting him back into the starting lineup for the playoffs was unbelievably dumb.
– LeBron’s complete disinterest in moving without the ball in Miami has cast some of Shaq’s ineffectiveness in a new light.
– Speaking of LeBron, it’s LeBron week! Hooray. I have been trying to come up with a “they’re not saying boo, they’re saying ‘boo-urns'” pun for LeBron, and am drawing a complete blank. Help me, commenters. My feelings (hopings) about the return:
– Please don’t run onto the court or throw things. You will lose the moral high ground for the entire city.
– No chants based on The Rumor. There are plenty of confirmed events to chat about.
– Cheer for Z. If Z’s in the starting lineup, this may require some vocal dexterity.
Other than that, I’m prepared for some epic booing.
That’s all I can really think of for tonight. The Celtics tomorrow, and the team’s rival on Thursday. Typing that feels pretty weird.
this Cavs Heat game will be a playoff atmosphere times 10…its gonna be unreal…the fans have been waiting for this day for months and its coming very quickly…Bill Simmons says the Cavs will probably win easily because the Heat wont be able to handle the crowd and insults thrown their way…I kinda see that being the case as well…if the fans were fired up for that Celtics game to begin the season and the Cavs won that one…I dont see how the same thing occurs again…
Silence … booing … who cares? Just cheer for the Cavs. Show him we’ve moved on.
Silence during the announcement is stupid. There is ALWAYS silence from the fans when the other team is introduced, with music playing and the announcer mumbling the other team names quickly and quietly. This needs to be hardcore booing all game long.
i think nothing would be better than for COMPLETE SILENCE, along w/turning of backs, when lebron is announced. if only the crowd could be synchronized. this would be awesome
@Richard
It would be Et Tu, Brute. Brutus is in the wrong case.
Mike Brown was a horrible coach imho…
Glad we have a proper coach, but kinda late for a run at the finals.
Jim, Jamison & Shaq did play a few games together before he got hurt in Boston. But yeah I agree, in hindsight Brown should have tried to play a few more of the regulars at the end of the regular season. Although if someone got injured we’d all be yelling that he should have sat everyone because the games were meaningless.
Laughing for LeBum may be difficult to orchestrate. How about counting 1, 2, 3, … whenever he stops the ball? Silence when he is introduced would also be more noteworthy that booing. Just silence. Maybe everyone could turn their back on him as he did with his team and fans.
As for T-shirts, a knife in the heart on the front and Et Tu, Brutus on the back.
Ah, Krolik, you never did like Shaq in CLE. I would say it did more good than harm and it certainly wasn’t what I would call a “debacle.” It didn’t work out fantastically, but it still worked out well enough. When you say he needed to learn his place Mike Brown’s system, but also that when he’d catch the ball he’d get left out on an island…well that WAS Mike Browns system!! LBJ not being able to move w/o the ball or make a quick move when he gets the ball in his hands is absolutely looking more and more… Read more »
Was it a great idea that Brown put Shaq back in there for the playoffs. Not really, except for the fact he had to get back into shape for the theoretical Magic series. Let’s not forget the real reason we lost that series. It was and will be forever on LeBron and his fake injury to give him a reason why he blew the series on purpose. I am sorry, there has never been such a huge choke as that in sports that wasn’t actually fishy. Dude had already decided to leave and knew that he wouldn’t be able to… Read more »
Shaq was indeed playing well until he got hurt against the Celtics. Then Mike Brown sat him as a “precaution” for the remainder of the season, even though he could have played the last week and a half of the season. He also sat Jamison for the same period, meaning two of your starters never got to play one minute of basketball together until the first playoff game. If you were planning on just throwing Shaq back into the starting lineup come playoff time then he should have gotten some time to play with Twan. This season has confirmed what… Read more »
I see that there is a growing movement to replace all the booing with laughing. THIS WOULD BE EPIC if Cleveland can pull that off. Imagine everytime LeBum get the ball, he runs to the top of the key and sits there burning time like always. But instead of hearing the boos, he hears the whole crowd laughing at him!!! Talk about a concentration breaker! It certainly would be unnerving for any player but especially a player who has prepared himself to be called the villan. Let’s make him the Jester instead!!!!