cavs

[jd jr]

i have never seen a team quit like this one has. it starts at the top with mike brown. they dont run any off sets , and D no help side what so ever . no heart.

[swerb]

I heard an interview with Brian Windhorst about a week ago on WKNR. Windhorst is the Cavs beat writer for the Akron Beacon Journal, and is very good. Knows the game well, good writer, very knowledagble.

He said he sits about 15 feet from the Cavs bench every night, and that the Cavs are running the exact same offensive plays they were on opening night. No new tweaks or adjustments. No change to the offensive sets after Hughes got hurt.

[buddycowley]

Is there a "YAWN" emoticon?

Playing strong so far tonight without Gooden.

Buddy

[Lebowski]

Gilbert took over last season and made his first big splash by firing Silas. Nobody knows for sure why Gilbert wanted to ax him so badly (during the season), but its apparent that they are two totally different kinds of people. Silas is the soic, hardass, who never sugar-coated a thing (Am I speaking Chinese? Jesus!). Gilbert is a multi-millionaire who built his corporation and isn;t used to having such a volatile personality under him.

I supported the firing at the time because I thought Silas lacked the creativity to get the most out of his players at the offensive end. He was brutal with his sets, and was notorious for getting out-coached after timeouts and late in games.

I dont want to get into the whole Gilbert-Silas mess...but looking back, firing Silas during the season was a mistake. It basically signaled the end...as lame duck Malone was out of his element ala Donnie at the bowling alley. The team knew he was a substitute teacher...and treated him as such.

We went into the offseason needing a coach. There were whispers about Larry Brown and Flip Saunders among others.

I wanted Flip. He had proven that he could work well with a great, young talent from his time with Ticket. I also thought he was highly underrated. He looked like the best that was available.

Most people remember where they were when they heard Kennedy was shot. The same with 9/11.

For some reason, I remember where I was when I heard Mike Brown was named head coach. I was listening to WTAM, pulling into my driveway. Its such a vivid memory because I was like...WTF? Who? Why?

Bubba came in with good credentials. Tutored by Pop and Carlisle. Worked for two model franchises. I started reading all these glowing reports in the papers and became convinced that it was a good move. He could be the next good, young coach. I totally forgot that I didn't know who the hell he was a week earlier. I totally forgot about Flip.

So, over half a season gone...what do we have in Brown? To me...a disappointment. Gilbert went from a hardass (silas) to a softass. This could be the worst possible coach for Lebron. Think about it...he's never had a person of basketball authority put him in his place. At St. V's, Joyce Sr. never had to scold LBJ, because he was so good in high school. Plus, he was his buddy's dad.

Now he has a coach who is too afraid to reprimand him. Brown acts like a fan in his pressers when he talks about Lebron ("sometimes i find myslef watching instead of coaching"). He never bitches at him for lack of hustle or lack of defensive effort. In additon, his coaching has left some to be desired. A big thing for me is seeing how teams come out of timeouts or other stoppage of play. I continually see the Cavs' opposition go on long runs after such a stoppage. Plus...if Windhorst is right, that is just flat out appalling.

Maybe Gump gets better...but maybe not. I am likely to give him a lot of time to figure it out, because a young player like LBJ can't be going on another head coach in his young career. Maybe Gilbert takes the Rooney approach and sticks with Brown ala Cowher.

One thing is certain...this team needs to improve, and that includes the coach.

(maybe change the thread's title?)

[buddycowley]

Something to consider though...

Isn't the coach in Washington the longest tenured coach in the East at three years? Look at the kind of stability the exists in the Eastern Conference right now. After Detroit, who does have a rookie coach on, but on an inherited team, and Miami, no one truly stands out as a consistent team.

If the coaching carousel continues to run in the Eastern Conferfence, then the same kind of stability will exist.

Team was 18 and 10 before losing Hughes, and has still performed well in some stretches. Inconsistency is something that plagues most of the teams in the East right now, so it isn't fully feasible to just blame the coaching and demand a change. Too many people already seem to be on that train.

Buddy

[furls]

I am not an active paticipant in the cavs locker room, so I cannot speak intelligibly about the authority that Brown does or does not wield, nor can I speak intelligibly about the coaching that he does or does not do. All I can do is state my case based on empirical evidence:

1.) This team cannot finish a game.
2.) This team is undisciplined
3.) This team plays bad defense
4.) This team does not seem to adapt it game plan (if one exists) based on personnel on the floor.
5.) This team is soft.
6.) This team has regressed through the season.
7.) The team stands around alot
8.) The team runs no discernable set offense in the 1/2 court set
9.) The team is slow on defensive rotations
10.) The team plays NO interior defense


The net sum of all of these points is that coaching is a very VERY large part of the problem. Were the Cavs better with Larry Hughes? Yes. Even then though, I made the same case: The Cavs were basically trying to "out talent" the opposition. Apparently with Hughes they were able to do that 64% of the time. Without Hughes the results are not as good. Good TEAMS seem to win inspite of their talent. This folks, is not a good team. They are currently using the Washington Redskins approach to winning, just keep putting more talent on the floor and you will be fine regardless of your broken system.

There is no way that you can convince me that last night's win was a "victory" the truly deserved to lose that game and had they only had a 22 point lead they may have.

[furls]

I encourage you to print my list of observations and look at it as you watch your next Cavs game. Use it as kind of a "check list". Hell, use it as a drinking game. See how many of those 10 items the Cavs can do in a certain amount of time, say 3 "game" minutes, then drink that many shots. Hell if you started at the beginning of the 4th quarter you may be thrashed enough by the end of the game to not care about the 15 point lead the Cavs blew.