It’s quiet time in Cleveland at the moment. That’s a good thing for it means the Browns’ season and attendant drama is behind us, the Indians season is still a little too far away to get excited about and the Cavs, well, they just keep on winning.
But just as losing brings a whole set of issues, so too does winning. Perhaps the biggest issue at the moment is whether the Cavs should try to improve their odds by further deepening an already deep team.
To do that, though, requires all sorts of manipulation with the current roster because of the intricacies of the NBA’s salary cap. Just know, though, that most scenarios involve parting with Zydrunas Ilgauskas because he has an expiring contract that is attractive to teams looking to build for the future and needing the salary cap space to do it.
That’s a major hard spot for almost any Cavs fan, and I include Danny Ferry in that statement. Ferry hasn’t said much but cutting ties with Ilgauskas would likely be the most difficult decision, by a large margin, in his front office career. Ferry and Ilgauskas were teammates at one time. Beyond that, Ferry has great respect for Ilgauskas and made signing him to his last contract a priority.
Then, of course, is all the internal politics of what an Ilgauskas-less Cavs team really means. Owner Dan Gilbert has repeatedly said that he is “all in” for this season, meaning he’s willing to do what it takes to bring a championship and, by extension, convince free agent to be LeBron James that this is the place where he wants to finish his career. But exactly what does “all in” really mean?
Ilgauskas is certainly still a valued contributor to the Cavs. But at this stage in his career and, objectively speaking, there are others out there, some of whom are available, that can potentially make a larger impact in the stretch run.
But Ilgauskas brings the intangibles of history and association with him. He has seen every high and low in his 12-year career with the Cavs. He’s been on 17-win teams and 66-win teams. He’s packed early for the offseason and also stayed late. He’s fought injuries, some career threatening, and worked as hard as any athlete you’re ever likely to meet to rehabilitate. His jersey will hang from the rafters at the Q no matter what happens.
In a city where this kind of devotion to one team is rare, Ilgauskas stands out the same way Andre Thornton did. He may be a player on the last lap of his career but he’s not exactly hanging from the bottom rung physically or emotionally just yet. His minutes are still meaningful. Cavs finds still identify with and respect him greatly.
Then there is the issue of how parting with Ilgauskas could affect how people view James or even how James views himself. Whether fair or not, if Ilgauskas is traded James won’t be able to escape responsibility for it because if done it will be in the name of winning a championship now and not as most of these kinds of partings are done--in some sort of late season salary dump.
Theoretically every team is in it to win a championship. But the urgency in Cleveland stems from James’ contract status. Thus, the decision on whether to trade Ilgauskas becomes as much moral as practical. What do the Cavs and James stand for?
Most of this would probably be moot if James had already committed to the Cavs beyond this season. But that isn’t going to happen. Something that could happen would be for James to meet privately with Ferry and Gilbert immediately and tell them that Ilgauskas needs to finish out the season here. James has to let them know that he believes the Cavs, with Ilgauskas, can win now and that he won’t hold them responsible if it doesn’t quite work out that way. That would give everyone involved the right level of cover should the Cavs ultimately fall short in June.
That course of action ultimately is also the safest. As the Cavs have seen in the past, late season trades aren’t necessarily the answer anyway. Fitting new players into a team in late February in the NBA is far more difficult than fitting new players into a team in late July in major league baseball.
Baseball is a team sport in name only but functions more as a group of affiliated individuals. Cliff Lee pitched just as effectively for Philadelphia as he did in Cleveland and it didn’t really much matter who else was on the field. An NBA team on the other hand, is most effective when the players are working as a team. Allen Iverson is a great individual talent but he really didn’t make the Denver Nuggets a better team.
A NBA team, particularly one legitimately vying for a championship, already has a chemistry built by the time a deadline trade gets made and it generally doesn’t respond well when disrupted even with players that may objectively be better.
Indeed, the Cavs are a prime example. It’s not so much that their late season trades have set the team back in that season. It’s just that most of these trades worked in the subsequent year better, after an intervening training camp.
That’s why I was so unsure of how the Cavs would have fared last season had they made the trade for Shaquille O’Neal in February instead of the off-season. O’Neal was having a good season in Phoenix, but he’s not exactly a hand-in-glove fit for every team. It’s taken nearly half of this season to truly find O’Neal’s niche as it is.
The one sense of comfort you can get from all of this is that it’s the Cavs dealing with this issue and not either the Browns or the Cavs. In fact, that holds true for the even bigger iceberg heading their way with James in the form of what will surely become known, for good or worse, as “The Decision.”
There may be a Cleveland curse when it comes to sports but much of that curse is traceable to raging competency within the ownership and front offices of those two franchises for all these years. The Cavs used to be in that same boat, of course, but then Gilbert bought the team and systematically went about changing all of that, proving that it can be done.
That doesn’t guarantee that the decisions the Cavs will make will be right, but what it does guarantee is that the decisions being made will be made on the best information at the time, which is all you can ever ask and more than fans usually get.
Just remember, though, that even with having the best information at hand, it’s a huge gamble with an uncertain outcome. But if the Cavs really are in an “all in” mode, they knew that already.
Showing posts with label Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Show all posts
Monday, February 01, 2010
Friday, June 01, 2007
Witness
You’d have to go back to Tiger Woods’ chip shot on the 16th hole at Augusta in 2005 to find anything close to the perfect marriage of marketing and reality that occurred Thursday night at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
LeBron James, whose Nike slogan is “Witness” made everyone do just that, particularly a tired and frustrated Detroit Pistons team, as he single-handedly gave the Cavaliers control of the Eastern Conference Finals with an adrenalin-pumping two-point double-overtime victory. Those lucky enough to witness one of the great performances in NBA playoff history, whether in person or on television, will forever be able to point to James’ career-defining performance as the singular reason to forever silence whatever critics might remain of James.
The statistics, as they often can be, were head-shaking. James played nearly 51 minutes, meaning he sat for only about seven. He was 18-33 from the floor, which would be special if most of the shots were of the 7-10 foot variety. Instead, they were an amazing array of lay-ups, dunks, three-pointers and fade-away 20-footers, proving that James has every shot imaginable in his personal arsenal. He scored the team’s last 25 points and 29 of their last 30, and it wasn’t out of selfishness, either. The team had a total of 13 assists, seven of which were from James. It was simply that James was in the kind of zone that only the rarest of athletes can attain and his teammates and opponents knew it. James was double and triple-teamed repeatedly. Pistons head coach Flip Saunders said that they tried all manner of traps and defensive schemes to stop him, but nothing worked. Indeed, the Pistons had no chance.
We noted before and will say it again, even if the Cavaliers find themselves coming up short in this series, the Pistons know their run is about to end. While many see James and his performance in the last three games as nothing short of the international emergence of perhaps the best player in the NBA, what really is being witnessed is the sea-change of transition in the Eastern Conference. The Pistons are the aging giant trying to hang on to one last moment of glory before they are forced to reload their roster with enough youth to take on James and the Cavs for the next several years.
There have been any number of moments in this series that underscore that point. Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace provided his own private catalogue in game four alone, from throwing his headband in disgust and earning a fifth technical foul to the jersey toss in the tunnel to the visitors locker room after the game.
But for a real signature moment, look no further than Antonio McDyess’ clothesline takedown of the Cavs Anderson Varejao at the end of the first quarter Thursday night. Varejao is a handful, to be sure, and has a tendency to infuriate the opposition in even the most insignificant of regular season games. But the McDyess flagrant foul, borne out of the frustration that comes when a series isn’t going the way it should, in the end played more like pathetic attempt to intimidate the Cavs early and take them out of their game.
But where the Pistons were able to make that tactic work last year when Wallace took an elbow to Zydrunas Ilgauskas and drew blood, this year was different. No one, including James, seemed to come to Ilgauskas’s defense at the moment of impact last year, but as soon as Varejao went down, James literally jumped him and into the face of McDyess. That action cost McDyess his evening, cost James a technical, and sent a message to Wallace and the others that this isn’t last year, as if they didn’t know that already.
For all the swagger and pomposity that can be the Pistons, they seem, frankly, toothless in this series. Though they have won two of the five games, they have not dominated the Cavs at any point. In fact, it’s really been the opposite. The Pistons have had trouble finding any traction in any game that would take them on an insurmountable run. The Cavs, feeding mostly off James but displaying on a team level the kind of tenacity that makes Varejao such a pest to his opponents, have refused to be run off the court. Even during those miserable third quarters, excluding Thursday night, the Cavs have still managed to keep it close enough to put themselves in a position to win at the end of each game.
In some ways coincidental and in other ways ironic, it is nevertheless fitting that James’ signature game came at the same time as all manner of controversy is swirling around Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant, who at various points has been the best player in the game, is frustrated and lonely and can’t seem to figure out where he wants to be and what he wants to do next. James, on the other hand, looks like the model of consistency and decorum on the court and off while singularly ensuring for David Stern and the rest of the NBA that as long as the Cavs are in the playoffs, good ratings likely will follow.
And while there is always a larger context to everything, for the local fans this is nearly as good as it possibly can get. Right now, in LeBron James, Cleveland sports fans have in their midst the opportunity to watch and appreciate as one of their own one of the top two or three greatest basketball players in the world. Clevelanders have had their share of superstars in a variety of sports, but you’d have to go back to Jim Brown to find the last time any Cleveland team had one of the greatest players in the game. That isn’t necessarily an indictment on the mediocre teams fielded by the various Cleveland teams in the ensuing years as much as it is an emphasis on the fact that the truly greats are in short supply.
If the James and the Cavs are not able to finish off this series, a smattering of critics will re-emerge, just as they did when James passed to a wide-open Donyell Marshall in game one of the series. If James and the Cavs advance to the Finals, those same critics will nit-pick if they can’t get past San Antonio which, for all intents and purposes, are the New England Patriots of the NBA. That kind of scrutiny comes with the territory and is something James has faced since his sophomore year in high school. But a performance like Thursday night’s can’t be denied and while it may not lead to the ultimate prize right now, it leaves no doubt that James has the ability to bring this town the championship it so desperately craves if not sooner, then soon anyway.
LeBron James, whose Nike slogan is “Witness” made everyone do just that, particularly a tired and frustrated Detroit Pistons team, as he single-handedly gave the Cavaliers control of the Eastern Conference Finals with an adrenalin-pumping two-point double-overtime victory. Those lucky enough to witness one of the great performances in NBA playoff history, whether in person or on television, will forever be able to point to James’ career-defining performance as the singular reason to forever silence whatever critics might remain of James.
The statistics, as they often can be, were head-shaking. James played nearly 51 minutes, meaning he sat for only about seven. He was 18-33 from the floor, which would be special if most of the shots were of the 7-10 foot variety. Instead, they were an amazing array of lay-ups, dunks, three-pointers and fade-away 20-footers, proving that James has every shot imaginable in his personal arsenal. He scored the team’s last 25 points and 29 of their last 30, and it wasn’t out of selfishness, either. The team had a total of 13 assists, seven of which were from James. It was simply that James was in the kind of zone that only the rarest of athletes can attain and his teammates and opponents knew it. James was double and triple-teamed repeatedly. Pistons head coach Flip Saunders said that they tried all manner of traps and defensive schemes to stop him, but nothing worked. Indeed, the Pistons had no chance.
We noted before and will say it again, even if the Cavaliers find themselves coming up short in this series, the Pistons know their run is about to end. While many see James and his performance in the last three games as nothing short of the international emergence of perhaps the best player in the NBA, what really is being witnessed is the sea-change of transition in the Eastern Conference. The Pistons are the aging giant trying to hang on to one last moment of glory before they are forced to reload their roster with enough youth to take on James and the Cavs for the next several years.
There have been any number of moments in this series that underscore that point. Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace provided his own private catalogue in game four alone, from throwing his headband in disgust and earning a fifth technical foul to the jersey toss in the tunnel to the visitors locker room after the game.
But for a real signature moment, look no further than Antonio McDyess’ clothesline takedown of the Cavs Anderson Varejao at the end of the first quarter Thursday night. Varejao is a handful, to be sure, and has a tendency to infuriate the opposition in even the most insignificant of regular season games. But the McDyess flagrant foul, borne out of the frustration that comes when a series isn’t going the way it should, in the end played more like pathetic attempt to intimidate the Cavs early and take them out of their game.
But where the Pistons were able to make that tactic work last year when Wallace took an elbow to Zydrunas Ilgauskas and drew blood, this year was different. No one, including James, seemed to come to Ilgauskas’s defense at the moment of impact last year, but as soon as Varejao went down, James literally jumped him and into the face of McDyess. That action cost McDyess his evening, cost James a technical, and sent a message to Wallace and the others that this isn’t last year, as if they didn’t know that already.
For all the swagger and pomposity that can be the Pistons, they seem, frankly, toothless in this series. Though they have won two of the five games, they have not dominated the Cavs at any point. In fact, it’s really been the opposite. The Pistons have had trouble finding any traction in any game that would take them on an insurmountable run. The Cavs, feeding mostly off James but displaying on a team level the kind of tenacity that makes Varejao such a pest to his opponents, have refused to be run off the court. Even during those miserable third quarters, excluding Thursday night, the Cavs have still managed to keep it close enough to put themselves in a position to win at the end of each game.
In some ways coincidental and in other ways ironic, it is nevertheless fitting that James’ signature game came at the same time as all manner of controversy is swirling around Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant, who at various points has been the best player in the game, is frustrated and lonely and can’t seem to figure out where he wants to be and what he wants to do next. James, on the other hand, looks like the model of consistency and decorum on the court and off while singularly ensuring for David Stern and the rest of the NBA that as long as the Cavs are in the playoffs, good ratings likely will follow.
And while there is always a larger context to everything, for the local fans this is nearly as good as it possibly can get. Right now, in LeBron James, Cleveland sports fans have in their midst the opportunity to watch and appreciate as one of their own one of the top two or three greatest basketball players in the world. Clevelanders have had their share of superstars in a variety of sports, but you’d have to go back to Jim Brown to find the last time any Cleveland team had one of the greatest players in the game. That isn’t necessarily an indictment on the mediocre teams fielded by the various Cleveland teams in the ensuing years as much as it is an emphasis on the fact that the truly greats are in short supply.
If the James and the Cavs are not able to finish off this series, a smattering of critics will re-emerge, just as they did when James passed to a wide-open Donyell Marshall in game one of the series. If James and the Cavs advance to the Finals, those same critics will nit-pick if they can’t get past San Antonio which, for all intents and purposes, are the New England Patriots of the NBA. That kind of scrutiny comes with the territory and is something James has faced since his sophomore year in high school. But a performance like Thursday night’s can’t be denied and while it may not lead to the ultimate prize right now, it leaves no doubt that James has the ability to bring this town the championship it so desperately craves if not sooner, then soon anyway.
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