|
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. Are the Cavs shopping Mo Williams? We all know that Delonte West won’t be back in Cleveland next season. Putting aside the off-court rumors, Delonte was inconsistent last season and his contract makes him a very valuable commodity to teams looking to dump salary, given the $500,000 buyout clause. The real issue involves Mo Williams. Brian Windhorst is reporting that the Cavs are exploring Mo’s trade value and are open to trading him. That shouldn’t be a surprise givens Mo’s struggles on defense and in the playoffs. Naturally, it’s hard to figure out where the Cavs are heading without word on LeBron’s decision, but it seems clear that Dan Gilbert and new GM Chris Grant are looking to shake things up. It’s going to be an interesting summer. UPDATE: Bob Finnan has some interesting tidbits on possible moves.
I wonder if the Cavs would be interested in Hedo Turkoglu? He’s another scorer and ball-handler who could compliment LeBron. The NBA is loaded with great point guards, and Rajon Rondo showed again tonight that he’s one of the best. He led the Celtics to a Game 4 victory over the Cavs and LeBron James. The Cavs were in the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter when the Celtics went on a run and the Cavs kept giving away the basketball. On the Cavs side, Mo Williams is showing that he’s not one of the best point guards in the NBA, and he’s not the #2 superstar that the Cavs need. Fortunately, the Cavs have Jamison and Shaq to help out along with a very deep team. That said, the Cavs are coming home, and they will win the series if they take care of business on their home court. Here’s a great photo of LeBron James blocking Boston Celtics’ Glen Davis during the second quarter in Game 3 of their NBA Eastern Conference series on Friday night. Big Baby is a punk, and it was fun to see LeBron stuff him. Most of us were shocked to see LeBron and the Cavs play so well after looking so bad in game 2, but perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised. Sure, it helps that LeBron seems healthy now, but even great teams have bad games, and it was up to LeBron to take charge and show that he’s the best player in the world. He did that. The shift in defense also helped. Having Anthony Parker guard Rajon Rondo was a great move. Parker pressed him and then dared Rondo to shoot jumpers in the half-court game. Delonte West and Mo Williams then shifted to Ray Allen, and they hounded him and dared him to drive to the hoop instead of shooting jumpers. It worked. Mike Brown has taken some serious heat, but even with a superstar like James he deserves some credit for the game 3 performance. Now it’s time to keep up the pressure in game 4. After watching games one and two vs the Boston Celtics, it’s pretty clear that LeBron James is not 100%. Tonight was particularly bad, as LeBron wasn’t aggressive at all for most of the game. The rest of the team didn’t pick up the slack. Mo Williams was terrible. He had one great quarter in game one, but other than that he’s been terrible. Mike Brown needs to think about whether Mo should be getting all those minutes against Rondo. Meanwhile, the defense has been terrible as well. Without LeBron being 100%, it’s hard to see how this team wins it all, let alone this series. Hopefully three days of rest will give LeBron a boost. |
