Bob Finnan recaps the Cavs’ futility, report card style:
C Ryan Hollins, 7-0, 240, 5th year: He went from an end-of-the-bench guy to being the team’s starting center. That shows just how bad this team really was. His play did pick up considerably after Davis arrived on the scene. He started looking for Hollins in the post, especially on alley-oop dunks. He shot a team-high 59.8 percent from the field. His lack of rebounding – 2.7 per game on the season – remains a sore spot with Coach Byron Scott. He wants his bigs to hit the boards. That point was pounded over J.J. Hickson’s head. He never really got it through to Hollins, who owns a player option on his contract for next year. He’ll undoubtedly pick it up. Grade: C-
Let us never speak of this season again.
Funny thing is we had more wins this year than in 2002 the year before Lebron and the worst year ever was the expansion season. There were a number of factors that played into this tumultuous season but hindsight is 20/20 and we can play the coulda woulda shoulda game as well. I really thought the Cavs had to clean house once Lebron was gone, having Mo and Jamison try to lead was a horrible idea. I think some fans thought the Cavs would somewhat weather the storm and be halfway decent considering the East was still pretty shitty. Despite the brutality the Cavs were only 16 games from the playoffs which sounds like a lot, but how many games were we pretty close to winning or had a lead in the 4th and then blew it badly?
Breaking in a new coach and having zero leadership along with losing your best player is a horrible combo that not many teams deal with. The Bulls were a team that went through that and it took them few years to get back to respectability and they actually won championships.
For next year regardless who they get in the draft, there cant be any excuses. Lebron is long gone and pretty much forgotten and the focus needs to be on playoffs. There’s no reason with the nucleus comign back along with Andy back from injury that this team cant win at least 30 some games. There has to be some motivation from this futile season and having a second year of getting the offense down under Scott.
We have multiple draft picks along with trade exception and an owner who will spend to win. Some on here will say we still dont have the talent, but I think we do we need more conistency and growth.
Maybe the Cavaliers could keep an eye out for whatever talented but misaligned player Donald Sterling is heckling next year, and trade Jamison for him and another unprotected lottery pick. Maybe he’ll get pissed off at DeAndre Jordan or something. Can we get a Stepien rule exemption here?