The Point Four-ward: What Is And What Should Never Be

Four points I’m thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers…

1.) Not long after Steve Nash announced his retirement last week, this story broke: had Nash asked for a buyout from the Lakers around the trade deadline, the Cavs had interest in bringing the 18-year vet on board to spell Kyrie Irving for limited minutes. The move made some sense because a.) LeBron James has always been a big Nash fan b.) both Cavs GM David Griffin and Director of Player Administration Raja Bell are close with Nash from their time together with the Phoenix Suns and c.) the Cavs, at least at the time they were considering this move, were looking to shore up their backup point guard spot.

Nash, however, chose to stay a Laker, the organization with which he wanted to end his career. And, really, you have to wonder if Nash would have been able to give the Cavs even the 10-15 minutes a night they were looking for, as he has not played in a game all season and has only played 65 games for the Lakers since they acquired him prior to the 2012-13 season.

2.) Still, this is one of those rumors that — even if it makes no good basketball sense — makes the brain do crazy things. So, just take a second and think about what a Cavs lineup that plugged Nash in beside James, Irving and Love could do.

No, don’t think about the defense. The defense will scare you. In fact, run as far away as you can from thinking about the defense. But think about the amount of passing on the floor, the amount of spacing, the ridiculous basketball IQ on top of ridiculous basketball IQ.

Would the presence of Nash convince James to part with some of his ball handling responsibilities? How much, if anything, would  Nash still have in the tank? How many eye-popping passes would Cavs fans have been treated to in this small sliver at the end of Nash’s career?

The answer, clearly, is that none of those good things would happen because Nash hasn’t been able to get back on the court this year.  But darned if the chance of it… the idea of somehow getting to see a few minutes of Steve Nash in a Cavs uniform playing with LeBron James — heck, even Steve Nash circa 2012 — isn’t a barrel full of fun to think about.

3.) I was clearly riding the high of the Cavs 108-90 win over the Bucks in Milwaukee — a game that the Cavs won despite being outshot (54.3% to 50%), out rebounded (39 to 36) and topped in assists (23 to 22) — when I tweeted this:

With #Cavs win and #Hawks loss, Cleve is 8 games back with 10 to play. Could they? Nahhhhh. (But, seriously, could they??)

— Robert Attenweiler (@Cadavalier) March 22, 2015

The Hawks have actually played two fewer games than the Cavs at this point, making them nine games better in the loss column. Since the Hawks own the tiebreaker against the Cavs, Atlanta’s magic number to clinch the top seed in the Eastern Conference sits at three (not to mention that they have a home game against the New York Knicks in the season’s final week… making their magic number basically two).

I still think that David Blatt will rest James (and others) over the last four (or so) games of the season. By that point, the Cavaliers will have likely locked up the number two spot in the East and the lessened consequence of those end-of-season wins and losses makes it difficult to see the Cavs fighting and scrapping for every win just to chase the faint hope of topping the Hawks, even if the chance of that topping still exists.

Still, stranger things have happened even this late in the season…

4.) To follow up on last week’s point about the 2015 Chinese Basketball Association Finals match-up pitting former NBAers Stephon Marbury and Lester Hudson against each other —which, in hindsight, probably should have been touted as “The Battle of the Binge (Scorers)” — it was Marbury and his Beijing Ducks who took home the trophy beating Hudson’s Liaoning Hunters 4-2 in the best of seven series.

“Establishing a dynasty has always been my goal and my motivation,” the former Georgia Tech guard said after the win. This was Marbury’s second consecutive championship with the Ducks, who erected a statue of their star player outside their Beijing arena after last year’s championship.

But it was Marbury’s tweet-out about the win that was possibly his best offensive move in years. “Keep talking behind my back,” he posted, “and God gone keep blessing me in yo Face! (sic)”

Good one, Steph. Buuuuuurn…

No word yet on whether any of the CBA’s bevy of former NBA players will be making their way back stateside in time for the playoffs.