A Man of Action

The fiddling is over. Let the deconstruction of the move begin.

For those among us practically screaming for Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry to do something to improve the team, his boldness in overhauling half of the Cavs current active roster was a refreshing slap in the face. With the NBA’s trade deadline on the verge of once again setting on Ferry and the Cavs, Ferry’s moves today signal that indeed he well understood that a roster shake-up was needed.

For most, it was enough just to hear that Larry Hughes was traded. You can imagine many, not just me, upon hearing the news that Hughes was traded think (and to paraphrase Lenny Dykstra upon hearing that Von Hayes had been traded), “great trade, who’d we get?”

For the record, the trade is as follows: The Cavs get Wally Szcerbiak and point guard Delonte West from Seattle and Ben Wallace, forward Joe Smith and a second-round draft pick next year from the Chicago Bulls. In turn, the Bulls get Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes and Cedric Simmons from the Cavs, while the Sonics get Ira Newble, Donyell Marshall and Shannon Brown. The Sonics also got Adrian Griffin from the Bulls.

No matter what your definition of dramatic may be, this trade certainly qualifies.

I’ll resist the urge to take credit for goading Ferry into making a move, mainly because that would be ridiculous. And wrong. What isn’t ridiculous or wrong is that Ferry was unquestionably feeling some heat, both internally and externally, to make a move to improve this team. Failing to execute this year probably wouldn’t have resulted in his losing his job, but it would have put him on very thin ice.

As it stood a few days ago, Ferry seemed poised to once again disappoint those within and outside the organization by his inability to pull the trigger on a move. The arguments, as expected, poured in that there just weren’t enough tradable assets to make a difference. Frankly, it’s an argument I never bought and for which I feel somewhat vindicated given today’s trade. After all the Cavs made the NBA Finals last year. It seems incongruous to suggest that there could not be a way to swing a trade in that context.

Indeed it was incongruous. Trades in the NBA are difficult because of the salary cap and its often bizarre exceptions and permutations. Contracts, both in length and value, have to be considered far more in the NBA than any other sport. But other teams always seemed to find a way to make it happen and now Ferry and his counterparts in Seattle and Chicago found a way to make it work. And by making this move right now, Ferry established himself as a credible general manager throughout the league in the process.

This isn’t meant to suggest that to this point he’s been a joke. It is to suggest, however, that he’s been mostly a non-entity, making a lot of phone calls, talking to a lot of folks, not doing much of anything. Despite the relative inaction, he’s mostly been given a pass because when you have a player like LeBron James, it covers up a lot of other sins.

There likely will be plenty of instant analysis to go around as to the merits of this trade in terms of how it improves the team this year and how it impacts its ability to maneuver down the road. At first blush, though, there is no question that this trade gives the Cavs a veteran presence and a toughness that for so long has seemed to elude them. Beyond those broad strokes, trades of this magnitude usually resist quick analysis. Whether or not this was the right deal is something that will play out over the rest of this season and resonate at least into the next one. It certainly is dramatic and has great potential. But for now, the Cavs have at least on the surface given its fans a reason other than whether James will win the MVP to stay engaged for the rest of the season.

This trade also demonstrates a strong commitment by Cavs owner Dan Gilbert. The Cavs have taken on a tremendous amount of salary by consummating this trade and also have limited much of the flexibility they thought they had going into next season. So what? It was going to happen at some point and there certainly was no guarantee that the supposed salary flexibility they had would have yielded any better results in the off season. By signing off on the trade, Gilbert let it be known that the “wait until next year” mentality that so often permeates Cleveland sports is not part of his operating philosophy.

But as with any change, particularly one of this magnitude, questions and more questions arise. Just a few for immediate consideration:

-Can head coach Mike Brown successfully integrate the new pieces with the old parts quickly and efficiently? It’s a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless. Clearly this will be Brown’s biggest challenge in his young head coaching career and will go a long way to determining Brown’s real mettle as a head coach in the NBA.

-To whom will the fans now direct their enmity? Stated differently, with both Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall toiling elsewhere, who’s left to underachieve on such a grand scale? That’s actually hard to say. Hughes has been mostly a disappointment irrespective of his contract. Factoring that in, he’s been justthisshort of awful, always seeming to pull out a game or two that makes you think that he’s on the verge of breaking out, a sort of Kordell Stewart of the hardwood. Marshall never did provide much to get anyone excited about. In the pantheon that is the Cavs history, he’ll go down as one of the least memorable players of all time. Quick, what was his jersey number?

-What’s the impact on James? This will be hard to judge because almost nothing seems to impact James’ ability to perform on the court, no matter who he is surrounded by. Still, there is no question that James is more than just another player on this team. Virtually everything this franchise has done in the last few years has been with one eye on keeping James enthused about the team’s short, mid and long-term prospects. The strong guess is that while James had no official say in whether this trade got made, it was done with his tacit approval.

-How many air balls will Ben Wallace offer up from the free throw line in the post season? It was almost comical watching Wallace the last few years during the playoffs struggle with free throws. But he is an enforcer and does bring an attitude that the Cavs have had trouble projecting in the past. Put it this way, teams will now think twice about abusing James knowing that Wallace has his back.

There is no way to know whether this trade will make Cavs fans happy come June. Too many variables are at play, not the least of which is an incredibly strong Western Conference where there is every likelihood that a 50-win team won’t make the playoffs. But the Cavs are legitimately part of the conversation again, even if they weren’t very far outside of it in the first place.

Getting Whacked

Well, that happened.

Feel free to apply that to any one of the three events of Sunday, none of which could have made anyone very happy: the Indians extra-inning loss; the end of The Sopranos or the Cavs deer-in-the-headlights performance against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

It’s hard to draw any cosmic connection between the three events beyond the obvious disappointment underlying each. Still, if bad things happen in three then that quota was certainly reached yesterday, which mean that things are looking up for Tuesday.

At last look, the Indians, entering game two of their own version of the neverending story with the Seattle Mariners, had lost five of their last nine. There certainly is an ebb and flow to the season and sometimes a team wins when it should lose and vice versa, which is why it is often better to not get lost among the trees that represent each individual game and just take stock of the forest. But every once in awhile there is a game that demands strict scrutiny, Sunday’s game with the Reds being a prime example.

Manager Eric Wedge called it one of the worst offensive efforts he could remember. Who’s to argue? Outside of pitcher C.C Sabathia, who had two hits, one would be hard pressed to find a quality bat among the 27 outs made. It’s not even so much that the regular hitters appeared to have no approach toward any of the Reds pitchers, it’s that they didn’t even look like they were trying. As Wedge noted (courtesy of Paul Hoynes game story) “you can't allow a game like that to happen . . . not collectively. There are going to be individuals that struggle, but you can't have a total breakdown from the entire ballclub.”

But a total breakdown it was, which is why, in the end, a stellar effort by Sabathia was wasted. For those keeping track, the Indians offense has turned pathetic with Sabathia on the mound. In his last two starts, he’s been the recipient of exactly one run. Amazingly, he’s 1-0 in those starts, which pretty much is all the evidence that is needed to place Sabathia on the All Star team.

Part of that may be due to the fact that when Sabathia is on the mound, the Tribe is usually facing the opposition’s best pitcher as well. But that just further fuels the urgency for the hitters to ensure that they remain disciplined and focused at the plate because the opportunities are likely to be fewer. For whatever reason, though, the Indians hitters were neither disciplined nor focused on Sunday. Perhaps they, too, were waiting for the finale of The Sopranos to begin.

But no such excuse could be made for the Cavs. They were actually playing opposite of Tony and the crew, which was probably a good thing if you care about the team’s reputation nationally. It’s easy enough to record one show and watch another in this day and age, but hopefully most decided against it and tuned into The Sopranos instead. At least then those viewers would have missed one of the most miserable halves of basketball the Cavs have played all season.

It’s true enough that the Cavs also, naturally, played a miserable third quarter Sunday night. But by the time the third quarter rolled around, the Cavs were already pretty much out of the game due to, as Wedge might say, a total breakdown by the entire club.

If fans of The Sopranos were disappointed in how writer David Chase chose to end his opera, at least they can take solace in the fact that it was, after all, only a show. The Cavs, on the other hand, were real life and whatever one might think of Chase’s final Sopranos script, it still ran rings around whoever scripted the Cavs first half approach.

At this point, the conventional wisdom is putting the blame on head coach Mike Brown and his decision to continue to start an injured Larry Hughes. His inability to guard Tony Parker has created a sort of domino effect that seems to have taken the other four, including LeBron James, out of their rhythm. There is a fair amount of validity to that wisdom, but it misses the point. It’s unlikely that a healthy Larry Hughes would be faring much better.

It’s pretty likely at this point that Brown is merely trying to protect rookie Daniel Gibson, preferring to bring him in off the bench rather than place undue pressure on him by starting him over Hughes. While it’s hard to argue with a coach when he is in a much better position to know his players than the average fan, nothing in Gibson’s make up even whiffs at him being intimidated by the enormity of the situation. Brown’s caution seems, at the very least, unnecessary.

In this regard, Brown should take a page from Mike Hargrove’s handbook when he started rookie pitcher Jaret Wright in the fourth and seventh games of the 1997 World Series. Wright was a much more heralded rookie than Gibson and, consequently, had more pressure on him. But Wright also had the kind of swagger and bravado that allowed him to easily handle the situation. And handle it he did, winning game four and giving up only one run in 6 1/3 innings in game seven. Not only was Wright not the reason the Indians lost that series, he was the reason they almost won it.

Gibson is in much the same situation. Though seeming to lack the overt swagger and step of Wright, he doesn’t lack for confidence either. Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals proved that. He doesn’t seem to need Brown’s paternal approach, particularly when he has James covering his back on the floor. The guess is that Brown will give in and Gibson probably will start on Tuesday night. If not, then Brown will have exhibited the true flaw of the inexperienced coach: stubbornness. It was on full display Sunday night and if Brown, like the rest of his team, is going to take the step to the next level, then he has to have the courage to admit when something’s not working and try something else. If not, then the Cavs in this series will quickly find themselves suffering the same fate as The Sopranos: canceled.

All is Well

At least the Spurs don’t represent the state of Florida. Otherwise Cleveland fans would have one more paranoid thought on their minds as they ready themselves for the Cavaliers first appearance ever in the NBA Finals later this week.

For most Cleveland area sports fans, this is really the third crack they have at national glory in just the last year. The Ohio State Buckeyes went to the National Championship games in both football and basketball this past season, only to fall short to the Florida Gators. Indeed, the last Cleveland professional sports team to play for the championship was the Indians who lost to, who else?, the Florida Marlins when Jose Mesa melted down in Game 7. But the Cavaliers are facing the Spurs, who reside in San Antonio, and thus from that perspective alone one has to like their chances for getting a local team over the hump.

With the first game still several days away, there will be plenty of time for analysis. But one thing is probably for certain, it’s unlikely that Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, or Manu Ginobili will melt down like the Pistons Rasheed Wallace did several times against the Cavaliers. In fact, it’s fair to say that it was Wallace’s raging frustration, as much as anything else, which cost the Pistons their chance to return to the NBA Finals and an opportunity to claim their fourth NBA title.

But feel not sorry for the Pistons and the aging, toothless loudmouths they literally transformed into over the course of the last week. The Pistons found themselves up two after the first two games of the series and displaying the kind of false swagger that comes with failing to acknowledge that in each game they were nonetheless outplayed. After each loss, with the roar getting louder and the on-coming rush taking form, Pistons guard Chauncey Billups sounded like Kevin Bacon’s character in “Animal House,” telling Pistons fans to essentially remain calm and that all was well.

But anyone watching this series knew that this was an act. At every key turn, it was the Cavaliers, not the much more experienced Pistons, which remained calm, repeatedly finding a way to finish what they had started. The Pistons, on the other hand, seemed to take their cue from Wallace and as he panicked as the series deepened, so too did the Pistons. In Saturday night’s fourth quarter, the house finally collapsed on Wallace and the rest of his team and thus, as Sunday morning dawned, a new pecking order had clearly emerged in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

In many ways, this series was actually won over a year ago. When the Cavaliers advanced to the conference semifinals last year, they were given no chance whatsoever against the Pistons and indeed a 27-point loss in the first game seemed to confirm those predictions. But then as now, the Cavaliers found a way to survive, inflicting enough body blows on the way to a Game 7 loss to take the fight out of the Pistons in their match-up with Miami. It was those same body blows, however, that never did sufficiently heal and with the Cavs constantly pounding at their kidneys throughout this series, the Pistons never found their sea legs. As a result the Pistons never did find their rhythm as well, either offensively or defensively, and when the final horn sounded Saturday night, the Pistons knew that this was not just another loss but the end of an era that was never fully realized in the first place.

Because LeBron James is, well, LeBron James, he will always be the focus of this team. But for whatever rarified accomplishments James might achieve next, it’s still a team game and there is simply no way to get to the finals in any sport without having enough supporting players around you to make a difference. That, in the end, is what really cost the Pistons this series. Their bench was horrible, to put it charitably. Other than Jason Maxiell’s performance in Game 2, Pistons fans would have a hard time finding any Pistons reserve that made a meaningful contribution in this series.

The Cavs, on the other hand, got significant minutes, as they usually do, from Anderson Varajeo. But he was hardly alone. With Larry Hughes nursing a sore ankle, Cavs coach Mike Brown was forced to improvise. That led to some meaningful minutes for Damon Jones who played better defense in the limited time he had in this series then he’s ever played while in a Cavs uniform. But the biggest assist of all goes to the youngest player on the court, Daniel “Boobie” Gibson. Looking like he should be attending his Senior Prom rather than playing in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals, Gibson made the Pistons pay dearly for their one-note defensive scheme in Game 6 that seem designed solely to keep James from again lighting up the scoreboard. James repeatedly found a wide-open Gibson who calmly knocked down five three-pointers on his way to a game high and career high 31 points.

Perhaps what is most amazing about the fact that the Cavaliers are headed to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history is that it was hard to see this coming. Though the Cavs did win 50 games this season, it often seemed like a struggle. At no point did they find, let alone maintain, the kind of consistency they have found in the playoffs. In fact, when owner Dan Gilbert told reporters at halftime of the final regular season game that it was important for the Cavs to take another step in their growth by reaching the Eastern Conference Finals, no one disagreed but the optimism was hardly universal that this growth would actually be achieved this year.

But James never has followed the more typical path, which this year would have been a good showing in the Eastern Conference Finals. Like he’s been doing since junior high school, by force of will he literally accelerated his personal growth and that of the team as a whole during the Pistons series, not allowing either himself or his teammates to be satisfied with just showing up. With his performances, particularly beginning with Game 3, James seemed to say, if we have to play, we might as well win and his teammates followed suit. It’s a mentality that will serve them well when they take on a vastly more experienced team in the Spurs in the Finals.

But again, there is plenty of time between now and Thursday to analyze the Spurs series in mind-numbing detail. Today is for the long-suffering fans of Cleveland sports, one of whom is James himself, to relish. Like the Indians pennant in 1995 or the Buckeyes National Championship in 2002, the Cavs victory over the Pistons represents both a historical footing and a context for all that comes next. Hopefully what’s next is a victory celebration on Public Square in about two weeks.

Hughes Disappointment

If only the weather outside really did match the calendar. Then the Cleveland Cavaliers miserable loss on Thursday night to the Miami Heat would not seem so significant. But unfortunately for the Cavs, it’s April, not June, the playoffs are around the corner and the nagging tendencies that have kept this team from fully achieving all season take on an added significance.

Back in mid-February, just as the NBA All Star break was approaching, we noted that the Cavs were on pace to win 48 games. With just six games left, the Cavs need to go 3-3 to make that happen. In other words, the Cavs haven’t put on the late season surge that many expected. As a result, they will end up slightly worse than last season when they won 50 games.

This is troubling for any number of reasons. First, it contrasts sharply with last season. As most will recall, following last year’s All Star break the Cavs were a very streaky team that ultimately became a good team. They had a five-game losing streak and another three-game losing streak. But they also had a four-game winning streak and an impressive late-season nine-game winning streak, something they haven’t achieved this year. Moreover, they were 19-10 after the break last year and need to go 5-1 in their last six games this year to equal that mark. In their final 17 games last year they were an amazing 14-3 and were clearly headed in the right direction come playoff time.

This season, they are a very average 14-9 since the All Star break and need to go 5-1 in their last six games just to equal both last year’s post-break total and last year’s season win total. It could happen but the signs don’t look encouraging. With just a handful of games remaining, unless they win them all the Cavs enter the playoffs on much different footing than a year ago.

Another reason all this is troubling is that it is an almost total repudiation of GM Danny Ferry’s off-season strategy to stay the course. The thinking was that a healthy Larry Hughes and another year of seasoning for a young team coming together were bound to result in more wins. Hardly. While many want to point to LeBron James’ numbers being slightly down from a year ago as the culprit, the real problem has been the poor play of Larry Hughes, a high-priced free agent from Washington who just hasn’t panned out.

While Thursday night’s loss to the Heat was a team effort, the final play in overtime told the story. Needing a three-point shot, head coach Mike Brown had Hughes throwing in the ball from the sideline. As expected, the Heat was playing tight defense and Hughes had trouble finding an open man. With the five-second clock in his head ticking down, Hughes panicked and threw an ill-advised pass completely across court that was easily intercepted. Game over.

In Brian Windhorst’s game story in the Akron Beacon Journal, he rightly notes that James once again had the ball in his hands at the end of the game and couldn’t convert. He also rightly notes that it’s hard to pin the blame on James considering his 35 points and 9 rebounds as well as his 9 clutch free throws in the fourth quarter that helped key the comeback in the first place.

Strangely, though, Windhort never mentioned the terrible inbounds pass by Hughes or the fact that, once again, Hughes was generally a non-factor. While James is clearly the engine that drives this train, Hughes is a key piston who has been misfiring all season.

For example, Hughes is only shooting 39% from the floor this year, down from his career average of 41%, which itself isn’t all that impressive. James gets criticized repeatedly for shot selection but he looks positively Larry Bird-like in comparison to the junk that Hughes consistently attempts. Hughes’ three-point shooting percentage is 33% this year, up from a career average of 29% but for his career he averages about 2 three-point attempts per game so this statistic is relatively meaningless. But where Hughes is really hurting the team is at the free-throw line. Much has been made about James’ troubles, but it is Hughes who is hurting the team more. Hughes is hitting only 68% of his free throws, down from his career average of 75%. Contrast that with James who is hitting 70% this year versus a career average of 73%. Moreover, since March 1, James has raised his average, hitting 76% from the free throw line while Hughes is hitting only 69%, essentially the same as he has been doing all year. James has clearly turned up his game a notch and Hughes continues to founder.

Certainly the Cavs problems this year shouldn’t all be pinned on Hughes, but it should be remembered that in a way he, more so than James, was counted on to help get this team over the hump. James has played at a consistently high level for all four years of his career. Although there is still room for improvement in his game, it isn’t that great. For the golfers out there, it’s like trying to go from a 1 handicap to scratch.

Hughes, on the other hand, is like the 8-handicapper that everyone thought would become a scratch golfer. Instead he’s turned into a 14-handicapper at a time when the Cavs need him most. Instead of validating a stay the course strategy, Hughes play has highlighted a gaping hole that needs to be filled if this team is ever going to contend for a NBA championship. This is perhaps is really why his play is most troubling. Hughes has thus far demonstrated that that any faith in his ability has been misplaced, which more than anything, spells trouble heading into an off-season where the Cavs have no draft picks and precious little cap room.