Overview: The Cavs ended their season by picking up their 19th win of the season. Ramon Sessions led all scorers with 27 points, and J.J. Hickson added 15 points and 13 rebounds.
So Long, and Thanks For All the Swish:
The season’s over. It doesn’t really feel right, does it? For the last five seasons, this is the day where the real fun started. Not so this season. It’s over, and there won’t be any more Cavs basketball until the start of next season, and we don’t even know when that will be.
All we know is this: the worst is over. LeBron left. The process went poorly. The team got bad. The team got very bad very fast. The team lost more consecutive games than any other NBA basketball team in the history of the universe.
As much as I’d like to say they were fighting hard during that stretch, the truth is they were not. Everything has to go wrong to lose 26 games in a row, and everything did. There were injuries. There were important role players missing. But most importantly, the team just didn’t seem to compete on most nights. Maybe they didn’t know how to, maybe they didn’t want to, but the fact is that they did not play like anything resembling a basketball team on a lot of those nights.
Slowly, something happened. The light bulb finally went off for J.J. Hickson. Ramon Sessions played like an All-Star in February, and after an adjustment period, he started to look good as a scoring threat off the bench. The team started to care about defense, if only a little bit. Ryan Hollins looked like a competent offensive center when he could dunk at the rim. Baron Davis, to my utter surprise, gave the team a huge shot in the arm and the on-court leadership it needed.
All those players will be back, and more are coming. Varejao will be healthy. The team will, hopefully, have learned from last season’s training camp and focus on implementing a solid defensive system from day one. Two lottery picks are coming. There is something here. It won’t turn around overnight. It might not turn around in one season. It might not turn around for two seasons. But there is something here.
This team is not going anywhere. These fans are not going anywhere. The season is over. The worst is over. There are better times ahead, and the journey to them will be so much fun.
The hopeful Krolik. We hope it will be fun. Even if it’s not, we probably will tune in anyways. Go Cleveland! Happy retirement, Joe Tait.
the team was very young and had no leadership until baron davis arrived….along with not trying on most nights which most NBA teams do and you have a season like the Cavs. There really shouldn’t be any reason to lose that many times but players get away with no hustling and ignoring coaching for as long as possible. I mean how many times did Scott say he was pissed about lack of effort it was practically every other game and even went the whole season.
if this team tries and plays smart basketball even with two or more rookies on the roster next year they should easily make the playoffs even if its the 7th or 8th spot. its all about effort and it took i think 34 or 35 wins to get into the post season in the East. so its not entirely difficult. I mean we won 19 games were 16 or so games off from playoffs and Im sure someone could take the time and find 16 or so games we should have won but didn’t due to lack of effort and giving up.
Also thanks to Joe Tait for being a great announcer. Its pretty rare for professional teams to have one guy the whole time and those announcers should be held to high regard. He will be missed.
GO CAVS!
This team has the pieces to get much better sooner rather than later. It will take luck but if the Cavs nail their picks, this could be an up and coming team:
- 4 first round picks in the next 2 seasons.
- the trade exception from the Decision.
- Jamison’s expiring deal.
- Andy as a trade chip.
Don’t cry because it happened, smile because it’s over.
We’ve also got Antawn Jamison’s expiring contract next year. Maybe a team like the Hawks would be willing to trade us one of their players since they’re paying Joe Johnson 90 katrillion dollars.
I think the Bulls proved with Noah that you don’t trade a guy like Noah/Andy, you build around them.
As nice as it would be to make the playoffs next season, the reality is that this team HAS to stay near the bottom of the league for the next 2-3 years if they want to accumulate enough talent to become title contenders again. Making the playoffs next year would severely hinder the team’s ability to take the next step. In fact, it could close the window before it even opens. Right now, the window has been unlocked, but the team has to open it up, and that starts with nailing these picks.
That’s a nice thought, but something tells me that if the Bulls suddenly lost Derrick Rose in two years without a replacement, the Bulls might feel differently about Noah.
They aren’t building around Noah, he’s a piece used around Rose. Without Rose, Noah becomes an overpaid role player.
You know what’s disappointing about the last few weeks of this season? A few weeks ago it looked like the Heat would need to win series’ against Boston and against Chicago without home court advantage. San Antonio, LA, and Dallas loomed as teams that would have home court over the Heat in the Finals.
Now the Heat have the third best record in basketball. They may only not have home court advantage for one series and that is against a young Bulls team that hasn’t been tested deep in the playoffs. Thanks for nothing Boston, LA, and Dallas. Someone needs to beat the Heat in the playoffs.
John, Thank you so much for your blog. It was tough to read sometimes as I’m sure it was tough to write. The season was a long one and quite hard to stomach at times. We all knew that. I loved all your comments and even though as a journalist, you tried to just report, you also are a true Cavs fan and it was difficult at times to hide your pain.
Joe Tait’s voice will be missed. He was up there with the legendary Chick Hearn.
The season’s over and I think the franchise needed to go through this in order to become the team they are meant to be.
As Chick Hearn used to say: “This game’s in the refrigerator! The door’s closed, the lights are out, the eggs are cooling, the butter’s getting hard, and the Jell-O is jiggling….”
Thanks John.
How can we utilize Eyenga more? Is he a piece we can build around in the future?
Well, the season’s over and I’ll miss the Cavs. Even losing, I enjoyed watching my favorite team play. The team has some decent and good peices, but nothing ‘great’. As we all know, we have to draft well if we want to improve. This is the time for Grant to really shine by showing he can evaluate talent and negotiate deals. It’s time for Gilbert to further show his commitment to building a championship franchise and continue to reach into those deep pockets.
Honestly, even if we had the #1, 2 and 3 picks in this draft, it wouldn’t be enough to make this team a contender. I like Irving, Barnes, Williams etc, but even with all 3, we wouldn’t shoot to the top of the league like we were prior to this season. So, yes, I exepet we’ll be better next season, but we’ll have to count on players improving (e.g. JJ, Eyenga, Gee, Samardo (assuming Gee/Sam still on team) as well all the new talent coming in and we’ll also have to count on everyobody coming back having a much better understanding of the offensive and defensive schemes. We were a team of athletic youth that didn’t really understand the system, next year we’ll still be a team of athletic youth, but hopefully with better understanding and improved talent/skill all the way around.
Next season we’ll win more than 19 games and we won’t have a 26 game losing streak (which I don’t think of as a big deal because we didn’t set the record for most losses in a season. I don’t care if you lose all your game in a row and then win all your games in a row, the record is for the season, not just a sub-secton of games).
Anyway, I’m looking forward to this off-season and the trades, drafts etc. Go Cavs!!!
I want to say thank you Krolik for the blog, it definitey kept me going during those difficult times.
Also, thanks to all the regulars who always add their bits of wisdom and keep the conversations intriguing.
I’ll be around and we will all talk around draft time.
God bless Joe Tait!!
It’s over. The good, the bad and the ugly. And Krolik chronicled every bit of it in a wise and funny way even during the 26-game losing streak.
I just hope there IS a season next year.