Cavs v. Clips- Don't Mess it Up Now

[motherscratcher]

Hollins - 5 fouls in 16 minutes. Are you kidding me? Tell me at least two of them were deliberate. This guy can't get out of his own way.

Well, to be fair, Hollins is there for the intimidation factor. He's our enforcer. Other teams are terrified to come inside when he's there patrolling the paint, so he's bound to pick up a few fouls.

[Orenthal]

JJ, more athletic but raw. Drew, marginally smarter and more polish.

[peeker643]

Extremely entertaining thread, even if I didn't get some of the early references.

IMO a couple wins like this won't affect the quality of the draft pick (wherever, and however good it was going to be).

And they pump up trade value of some of these guys. In the meantime, the fans get excited- there's value there. And the cult status of a guy like JJ is fun.

JJ's blocks are in the highlight video of the game on the CBS Sports site.

Hey, heard Joe Tait on TAM Fri morning, being interviewed. Didn't sound all the way back to normal, but he had some of his feistiness. Targeting his return sometime in March.


EDIT: I don't get to watch a lot of Cav games. Can someone compare the dumbness of JJ to the dumbness of Drew Gooden? Thanks in advance.

JJ was awesome last night. Honestly, that's as good as it gets at the position and even though Griffin scored 32. JJ's had a a 10-14 day period of lucidity apparently (with a couple shitty efforts thrown in as well).

The Drew Gooden comp has been made here. They're equally dumb. JJ might be dumber but Gooden still is the career leader in taking passes off the hands and face. JJ haa a wee bit more awareness than Gooden and JJ is also a better physical specimen. Neither are marquee, franchise-leading type guys.

JJ is as likely to disappear for two weeks now as he is to be mediocre. The problem is after this time you should be able to count on him for a consistent effort and production.

You can't and the issue is you may never be able to.

I love last night's JJ. My issue is you see him just 12 times a year. Foor that we should call him 'Cramps'.

[Prosecutor]

Looking at JJ's game logs from earlier in the season it's easy to see the Jekyll/Hyde disappearing act. But lately I'm seeing him string together a few more decent games amid the clunkers.

Last five games, points and rebounds:

2/11 27/14
2/9 18/15
2/7 26/12
2/5 11/6 (against Portland - what happened here?)
2/4 31/15

Over the five games he shot 58% from the field.

That's four good games out of the last five. If that's what we get from him over the course of a season, I'll gladly take it. That's 22.6 pts and 12.4 rebounds per game. Those are All-Star numbers for a 4.

I'm hoping this stretch of five games gives him the confidence that he can be a factor night after night and not just 12 times a year. The next few games will be critical as to whether he can maintain the intensity or whether this was just an anomaly and he slips back to what he was for the first 40 games or so.

I understand those numbers don't reflect turnovers and defensive lapses leading to easy buckets, so it's not a complete picture by any stretch. But it does look like his consistency is improving a bit, at least in terms of scoring and rebounds.

[leadpipe]

Everyone wanted more minutes for JJ LAST year.

If you look at his minutes, on this team, among the worst in NBA history, you'll find several 15-20 minute nights.

A guy with his athletic ability etc. to not even get on the floor - there's a reason for this. The same reason he, like Drew Gooden, will be on about 75 teams.

Enough raw talent to fool people. Not enough brains to understand schemes, follow programs or make enough good decisions.

Last year he couldn't follow Brown's defense, this year he was in Scott's doghouse etc. Next coach, next problem.

Despite his issues in understanding what the coaches want, he had time to "design" some nice yellow kicks.

Type of guy found on losing teams.

By the way, he should name those shoes "fools gold," cause that's what this type of guy is.

Lastly, kudos to him for being a freakish athlete, and lighting a fire under himself lately. But I'm lookin' for improvement in SKILLS. Is he shootin' the ball better than years past? Is he making free throws? Can he help defend? Is he making better cuts and catching the ball? Not sure you could answer yes to any one of them. If that remains, WHAT can you ultimately expect of him? Taking the "lazy" out of "lazy and dumb" only gets you so much.

Unless he wises up and works (if that's possible) someone else can have him.

[googleeph2]

Yeah... but maybe taking 'lazy' out of 'lazy and dumb' might land more in return from some GM who eg. sees those blocks from last nite on the highlight shows...

Because really, the Cavs FO isn't thinking any of these guys are untouchable, are they? I guess JJ was last year when Stoudemire was on the market- but now?

This is one big, long showcase- I hope.

[CAVSTRIBEBROWNSin07!]

Asshole Peek. You had to go and fuck it up. We were thisclose.

Well at least we still have the haven't-won-a-game-in-regulation streak going on. That one's gonna hit 40 once Kobe passes through town on Wednesday.