Just general notes and errata for today:
Again, it is with heavy hearts that I go on with this blog. I shall recover, but the waiving of Tarence Kinsey has hit Cavs: The Blog hard.
Schedule came out today: Celtics for the season opener, and Lakers on Christmas Day. It’s a coincidence, like how Santa gives rich kids more presents.
Shaq has challenged David Beckham, presumably at something other than which one is more overpaid. Can we please keep Beckham from ever being relevant in America ever again? I don’t like when soccer tries to sneak into my country by using pop stars and heart-warming independent films with Keira Knightley in them. And, in all honesty, it’s not really a contest of who’s more overpaid between Beckham and Shaq. Bernie Madoff deserves his money more than Beckham deserves what the Galaxy paid him. For any NBA star thinking of going to Greece when the 2011 labor dispute hits, look at Beckham and feel the fear of God.
Two ultra-ultra quick thoughts on the trades:
I can’t believe Nellie let go of Marco Belinelli. He can really, really really shoot the ball. It sounds massively hyperbolic, but he’s one of the better “pure” shooters in the game today: whichever way he’s moving when he goes to shoot, he squares his shoulders and tucks his elbow like you’re supposed to. .502 eFG% on jumpers with only 63% of them being assisted is impressive. He’ll replace a lot of what they lost when we got AP.
When they were drafted, wasn’t Emeka supposed to be a dominant defender and Ty Chandler supposed to mature into an unstoppable offensive force? Now they’re being traded as very good role players, with Emeka a stronger offensive player while Chandler is mainly a defensive guy. Law of unintended consequences.
What do you think of Bill Simmon’s Part 2 of Almost Famous quotes? What do you think about the possibility that Lebron could go to LA, for a similar market to New York, and a better team? Do you think it would be too much NBA excitement for one city??
Simmons was only half serious. Clippers certainly have appeal, except for the part that they are the Clippers. Even though Gordon and Griffin have upside, they will still be too young and inexperienced to be 2nd and 3rd options on a championship team in 2010. Not to mention the Clippers will always be to the Lakers what the Mets are to the Yankees. And they have the worse owner in the NBA. It would make for a hell of a story though
They do have Baron Davis and Marcus Camby, veterans. And if the cavs lose this year, i think lebron will wanna go somewhere else. New York hasn’t gotten anything to lure him, and the Clippers have. Just because the Clippers have a bad history doesn’t mean Lebron couldnt succeed there (btw, did the cavs have any respect before lbj?). If Blake Griffin plays well in his rookie year, and I mean very well, and Eric Gordon too, then i’d think it would be a possibility at least. All I’m saying is I can’t think of another team that Lebron could benefit from moving to. Not that i think he would anyway, but its a maybe
On the one hand, I could see LeBron going to LA because he would go up against Kobe four times a year, and playing in the same arena would be a big deal.
On the other hand, as long as Kobe is with the Lakers, he will be the #1 draw. Even if LeBron went to the Clippers, they would never be anything more than “the other team” as long as Kobe is playing with the Lakers.
>Even if LeBron went to the Clippers, they would never be anything more than “the other team” as long as Kobe is playing with the Lakers.
That would be a perfect fit, seeing as he will always be “the other guy” as long as Kobe is playing.
Yeah, he’ll be the other guy in the eyes of Kobe homers….. Not for anyone that knows the game.
Oh, from a strictly basketball point of view Lebron is the better choice, and will only get better as time goes on. No one can truly argue otherwise. If I had to choose who to build a team around though, I’d still choose Kobe, because he brings a lot more than pure talent to a team(He does bring quite a bit of that too.)
For the record, I’m not a Kobe fan so much as a Lakers fan, and as long as he will be a Laker, I’ll have his back. Of course that might mean I’m a little biased(Ok, a lot), but when I take a step back I still see him as the better franchise player (Maybe not a Cleveland franchise player though — L.A. is a much bigger market than Cleveland, and from an article I read a while back having Lebron in Cleveland has helped out the city a lot — Something I’m not sure Kobe could do) . Just compare Lebron, and Kobe… If you had to label each, Lebron is the “fun” guy, while Kobe is the “assassin”(At least through the media’s/fan’s eyes.. Off camera they both may be very different.) I remember an article on ESPN about team USA saying that both Lebron, and Kobe were the leaders — Lebron being the vocal leader, and Kobe leading by example.
That makes it much easier to love Lebron, and is GREAT for the fans, the team, and the NBA as it draws people who might not be totally interested in the basketball to the games. I’m sure being this type of person also helps team Chemistry a LOT. On the flip side Kobe goes into the playoffs answering reporters with short responses, and gets right to the point. Before games you never see him in the circle, it’s always Lamar for us… And that’s the point. Finding a vocal leader is much easier than finding an intense leader who gets to the gym first and leaves last — Even harder to find a superstar to do so. When a superstar does all he can to get better, as a teammate YOU have to follow by example, and that’s invaluable. As a teammate it makes you think — “This guy is in the top 3 players in the WORLD, and he still does all he can to be better.” Just look at Trevor Ariza;He made the jump to an amazing role player this season, and his three point shooting helped a lot in that regard — Kobe was the one that initially helped his shot, and I’m sure that Kobe’s work ethic had something to do with Trevor’s improvement in such a short time. Before this last season Trevor was bounced around the league as a bench warmer — This last year he started on the championship team, and made key plays to help the Lakers win it all. Still not convinced? Ask ‘Melo and Lebron himself — After team USA both said that Kobe helped their games immensely. Now, that could be just being politically correct, I don’t know. Although you do have to look at both of them from the start of this season. Lebron came out with amazing defensive intensity, something that spread to the rest of his team. I guarantee that had Kobe not been on the same team as him in the summer, Cleveland would not have had the best record in the NBA. Same thing with Melo… Part of it is Billups for sure, but until this year the Nuggets were an amazing offensive team with no defense. He played with Kobe, his defense improved, and it spread to the rest of the team.
The other thing Kobe has going for him is his intensity, and it rubs off on everyone around him. I remember a game in the playoffs where for the last five minutes Lebron would drive, and either dish it to andy, or finish himself while everyone else was just standing around. Yes, this was only one game(I admit I haven’t seen enough Cavs games to know if it was just an off night, or something more); Still this was one PLAYOFF game. How can you not keep up the intensity in the last 5 minutes of a close playoff game(And a key one at that)?
I’m pretty sure no other team in the playoffs had their offense based on two guys.The Cavs offense was so good last season because everyone was moving. This was how they won 66 games. It might have been the coaching staff… I don’t know what happened in that game, but frankly it doesn’t matter. Lebron should have got them off their asses. That’s his Job as the leader of the team. He dropped the ball in that game, just like Kobe dropped the ball three years ago when our offense reverted to the same thing — Kobe taking on the whole team while Lamar sometimes made a cut to the basket. Kobe had no trust in his teammates, and that’s the downside of his intensity but when they showed him they can handle it, he stopped going into hero mode — And this was BEFORE the Gasol trade; Yes, without Gasol we don’t win a championship this year, or maybe even get to the finals the year before, but we had a great team before that trade too — Had Bynum not gotten injured I’m not sure we wouldn’t have gotten just as far in ’07-’08(Gasol had to learn the triangle, which forced the coaching staff to run a much more simplified version of the triangle. That, and Bynum this year wasn’t close to 100%… He was still after two big knee injuries.)
Lebron on the other hand had a team that got 66 wins — I don’t care how great a player you are, you don’t get 66 wins by yourself. They proved themselves to him, but when push came to shove he either didn’t trust them, or didn’t make them do what they are supposed to do.
Oops that came out a little longer than I thought it would… Anyway, what I was trying to say, is that I saw that comment and couldn’t resist. I’m sorry for it, but you gotta admit, it was set up beautifully.
P.S. Since I’m already posting, I thought I’d mention that I love this blog. Kudos. :)
i’m farily grumpy about the like of updates.
LeBron may come off as the “fun guy” when you watch a couple of his games a year, but for people that watched the Cavs all season, they know LeBron has no problems being the intense leader. There were numerous games where LeBron’s competitiveness put us over the edge. Hell, do you think Andy Varejao would be making 7 mil a year playing with anyone else? I dont think so, especially if it were with Kobe. And this is no knock on Kobe. He is a great player, one of the greatest of all-time. But, and there are numerous people who can back this statement up, he is not the greatest teammate. I think LeBron has done a great job of finding that balance between being the jovial teammate and the forceful leader.
And as far as your statement of building a franchise around one of them… I mean, if you were playing to win one game, you could argue for Kobe. But if you are going to build a franchise around one of them, it would have to be LeBron. The guy is 6-7 years younger than Kobe, and has already shown the ability to take a TERRIBLE team (07) to the brink of a title. I assumed the question of who to build a franchise around, was a no-brainer.