Giving out grades: Daniel Gibson
2011-07-19The biggest win in the history of the LeBron era will forever be known as “The Daniel Gibson game.” It’s easy to forget just how desperately the Cavs needed shooters once upon a time, and just how much of a blessing Boobie’s three-point stroke was when he worked his way into the rotation late in the Conference Championship season.
For the first few years of his career, that’s what Boobie was — a good, mobile shooter who was deadly accurate from three-point range, was quick enough to get into his spots when LeBron was improvising in the lane, and was never afraid of the big moment. Every off-season, people expected Boobie to develop his passing skills or his game inside of the three-point arc, but it never really happened — in fact, when Boobie did try and incorporate a floater into his game to become more of a complete scorer, it was an unmitigated disaster.
Of course, while the team fell completely to pieces last year, Boobie quietly had a breakout couple of months to begin the season. After an off year in 2009-10, Boobie looked great at the beginning of the season. Not only was he making his threes, but the lightbulb actually seemed to come on for him as a playmaker and he wasn’t horrible when he put the ball on the floor — unsurprisingly, Boobie crushed his career-highs in both FTAs and assists per game last season. On top of that, Gibson has always been a much better defensive player than Mo Williams, and the gap between him, Williams, and Sessions defensively was fairly easy to notice. Boobie, who was once a pure three-point specialist, was all of a sudden looking like a very poor man’s Chauncey Billups.
Then Boobie got hurt (and, like Anthony Parker, wasn’t rescued by a contender at the trade deadline), and his numbers fell off a cliff. Such is life in the NBA.
Boobie, like Ramon Sessions, puts the Cavs in something of a bind. If he can re-gain his early-season form, he’d be the perfect point guard or backup point for a team that doesn’t really revolve around its point guard. The Cavs’ two best players are point guards, Boobie’s contract is too big to get a good asset in return for him, and Boobie is too good to simply dump for the sake of dumping. It doesn’t look like Boobie will still be with the team when his contract runs out, but I have no real idea how the Cavs are going to manage to move him. If nothing else, Boobie, thanks for the memories. Oh, and feel free to discuss whether or not Boobie should have gotten a lot of Mo Williams’ minutes in the 2008-09 or 2009-10 playoffs.
2010-11 Grade: C Plus
Outlook for next season: Try to trade him, but to who?
I like John’s analysis, but I think he leaves out the biggest plus on Boobie: he’s probably the best locker room guy on the team. He always says the right thing, he hates to lose, and he always plays hard. His attitude is great, he never badmouths a teammate, and it was Boobie that really HATED the way the Cavs rolled over for LeBron in his first game back. He was one of the few people that played hard in that game (21 points) and the second Miami game (26 points), and let’s face it, those were our playoffs. We… Read more »
P.S: Boobie shot more threes in that video than he did in the entire 2010 playoffs.
Read: Daniel Gibson should have received much more playing time than he did. Mo Williams was, statistically, a better point guard than Gibson. However, the disparity in minutes from Mo to Delonte to Boobie was atrocious, most notably during the 2010 playoffs. Mike Brown mishandled that team so badly that it cost him his job. Seriously think about this. Lebron, Mo, Jamison, Shaq, Hickson, Varejao, Big Z, Delonte, Boobie, AP, Jamario Moon. That rotation is 11 deep. No jokes, no crap. Mo Williams averaged almost 38 MPG despite shooting 17-52 (.327) from three and not being able to guard Rando… Read more »
The Cavs need to commit to trading both Sessions and Gibson, preferably before the season starts (whenever that is) and preferably for young talent and/or picks. It doesn’t matter that they may not bring back full value. The Cavs are not going to get full value from them on the floor either given the limited playing time both of them will see.
Much like Justin and The Nupe, I remain a big Gibson fan. I don’t want to see it happen but I think Boobie would look great on Chicago or Miami. I truely hope they keep Gibson at least until they see how things play out with Sessions and even Baron Davis (at his age you have to consider the injury possibility, God forbid.)
Keep now, trade later
I like Bobbie, strong perimeter defender and very good shooter – I don’t care that he’s “only 6’1” or so. He was effective and thats what mattered to me. Unless we use our TPE (assuming it’s extended) on a SG, he’s our best option. Manny, Sessions, Eyenga and Gee may all get some time there (with Casspi as our SF Eyenga/Gee could bck him up as well), but Boobie as of now is our best option for SG IMO. None of our other options shoot or defend as well. So I say, don’t trade Bobbie… yet. The only other scenario… Read more »
Mo should have been on a much shorter leash in the playoffs. Too many times he would shoot 60% in one game and 20% in the next. On an off day, Mo should not be heaving up 20 shots in a game. Obviously it would be best to trade Boobie, but I do think there will be a market for him come the trade deadline. Dallas’ sharpshooters were a huge advantage throughout the playoffs and Gibson’s shooting could really have opened up the lane for a player like Derrick Rose. I still don’t think Ramon will want to play as… Read more »
I am personally a Daniel Gibson apologist. In the right system he can be an extremely effective player being able to play both the 1 and 2 well. The problem is that mike brown didnt like small players playing 2 guard and really wanted someone who was at least 6-5 when our rotation was boobie and delonte. To be honest, that was our best team and we got wrecked by orlando for no reason. (other than the stupid decision by whoever it was to not have lebron drive the lane until howard fouled out every game. but, you know, whatever)… Read more »
I agree with Vesus. With Baron, Kyrie, Ramon… there’s just too many PG’s on this roster anyway. There’s no spot for a player like him on the Cavs this year. I think we should focus on keeping Ramon until Baron leaves and keep him as the instant-offense backup to Kyrie. Which means there’s going to be a lot of minutes at the guard position coming from PG’s. I like the plan to play 2 point guards at one time whether it is Baron/Ramon, Ramon/Kyrie, Baron/Kyrie. So, I say deal him for what we can get. Also, I don’t think he… Read more »
2007 was a great year, Lebron showed he could carry a thin team to the Finals, we defeated Detroit a few years earlier than anyone expected us to…and we found a clutch, sharp shooting PG that would be a fixture of future playoff teams. Except that Gibson NEVER became that fixture. His game never improved, and by 2009 we were still in desperate need of a starting PG. Not only did he not improve, he regressed. I would argue that Gibson never again made a positive impact on this team…and certainly not in the playoffs. Trade him. Release him. Anything… Read more »
I think it’s hard to argue with giving Mo Williams’ minutes from the 2008-09 playoffs to Boobie. Mo was the new toy. He could shoot, he would get hot and then he could really shoot, and we hadn’t even seen him get his now infamous playoff jitters. Besides, Mo was the starting point guard on a team that won 65 (?) games that year. Our defense was top 5 with him starting too. So I think it’s excusable.