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The Cavs have an incredible opportunity as they face the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals starting tonight. It’s an opportunity to achieve greatness, and this is what most athletes crave more than anything. Forget the 52-year championship drought in Cleveland. Forget about what happened last year. This is about an extremely talented Cavs team led by one of the all-time great players going up against another great team chasing history. Cavs win 10 straight and conversation changes How things have changed. Several weeks ago we had guys like Colin Cowherd stating that Kevin Love would be leaving Cleveland, that Lebron James had to be reconsidering his decision to return and that David Blatt was a dead man walking. Bill Simmons seemed to lose all perspective as he questioned whether Lebron was still the same player and whether this team could ever play together. He freely took shots at Love and Kyrie Irving. With Love there were obvious struggles (hardly surprising) while with Irving he was completely ignoring how Kyrie had embraced playing defense along with Blatt’s leadership. Smart analysts, however, looked at the trades made by David Griffin and realized that they had made some very smart adjustments. Posted in: Cleveland Cavaliers Tags: Colin Cowherd, David Blatt, David Griffin, JR Smith, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, Timofey Mozgov Cavs land Anthony Bennett and Sergey Karasev
The Cavs shocked almost everyone when they took Anthony Bennett in the first round, disappointing some fans but also letting the rest of us breath a sigh of relief. I wanted pretty much anyone other than Nerlens Noel, so I was fine with this pick. The the Cavs pleased most of their fans as Sergey Karasev fell to them at #19 and they pulled the trigger. Here are some initial observations: – I’m thrilled that they went with two guys who know how to score and can shoot. The Cavs desperately needed offense, and I didn’t want a project like Noel who only brought defense and dunks. – Most experts believe Bennett will be a real force with the pick-and-roll, so he can be a perfect fit with Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters. – Karasev is also an excellent compliment as he can shoot well from the outside, so he can be a great outlet for Irving and Waiters when they drive to the rim. – Bennett looks like a beast; a little like a Charles Barkley or Larry Johnson type player. Who knows if he’ll approach their level of success, but the guy looks like a baller. – Both players have very high basketball IQs. They know how to pass the ball and involve teammates. – I’m not worried about their defense. Mike Brown will make sure they learn how to play, and defense is all about effort and can be taught. – Noel was a major risk, and he’s a much better fit for a team like Philly that is tanking now for next year’s lottery. The Cavs are too far along in their rebuilding process to wait for a player coming off a torn ACL. Overall, I like what Chris Grant is doing. Let’s hope the team can stay healthy and we see real improvement this season. Sergey Karasev could be option for Cavs at #19 With the Cavs coming away with the #1 pick in the draft again, there will be plenty of debate as to who they should take at the top of the draft. But they also have the 19th pick due to the relentless philosophy of stockpiling draft picks. If they go with Narlens Noel or another big man at the top of the draft, I’d love to see them grab a shooter like Sergey Karasev with the 19th pick. Watch the video above and you’ll see a pure shooter and natural passer. The Cavs desperately need wing players that can knock down threes to compliment Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters. Karasev could help fill that need. I have no problem with this. Here are some initial observations: – As I said before, it’s hard to say that Byron Scott had to go. The Cavs were very young and suffered a ton of injuries. That said, there was clearly something missing and I can’t get too upset that Dan Gilbert decided to make a change. The rumblings are that Scott really didn’t work that hard, and they’re clearly happy getting a “grinder” like Brown back in the fold. – The only reason Brown was fired the first time around had to do with LeBron James, who was sulking like a baby and refusing to give the Cavs any idea of his plans before he took his ego and talents to South Beach. Gilbert rolled the dice, hoping that a coaching change would convince LeBron to stay. But the big baby was gone anyways and he didn’t have enough class to let the Cavs know before they dumped Brown. – Mike Brown reminds me of Marty Schottenheimer and Mike Hargrove – an excellent coaches who can’t seem to adjust their regular season formulas to the postseason, so perhaps we’ll be screaming about Brown in the future. But Brown will get the most out of his talent by stressing defense so like those guys he’ll at least get decent teams to the playoffs. Brown was outcoached several years ago against Orlando, but I still think LeBron James deserves much more of the blame for the failure of the Cavs to win a championship during his tenure. The world saw LeBron’s weak character when he let the Heat wilt against the Mavs, but we saw previews of that here in Cleveland. He had a meltdown versus Boston, and if you go back to that Orlando series you’ll see plenty of pathetic plays from LeBron, like chucking up lazy threes at the worst possible time. – I don’t buy the argument that the Cavs have been waiting for LeBron to come back in 2014. They went young because that’s what made sense. They are set up nicely again with this draft and with the cap, so now Chris Grant has to earn his money and put some talent around Kyrie. – Mike Brown will teach Kyrie how to play defense, and if Kyrie resists, we don’t want him around anyways. In the end, Brown wants to be in Cleveland and he’s a very solid choice. They can now focus on building a contender for the long haul. |
