Recap: D Leaguers/Geriatrics: 98, The Greatest Team EVER (according to the Spurs announcers): 114
2012-04-22
This was a pretty close one (albeit pretty boring with a lot of terrible shots). Â It was basically exactly as you’d expect: Jamison shot a lot, Kyrie played well, blah blah blah. Â I will say this: I’ve seen a lot of regression (and very little forward progress) from most of our young keepers. Â That’s a pretty worrisome sign.
The Good:
Jamison – Scored 21 (on 8-20, but whatever). Â An audition for next season?
Kyrie’s 3rd Quarter (on offense) – ‘Rie started pretty slow, but picked it up in the 3rd and brought the game pretty. Â Also, a quick note – Kyrie’s athleticism was on full display in this game. Â He had a monster block in the first quarter that was negated by a Manny flagrant foul and even dunked the ball. Â Awesome.
Manny Harris – Oh Manny, if only you could play like this every day. Â 5-10 shooting and was actually +4 for the game (he and TT were the only ones with a positive +/-). Â He even played some decent D.
Danny Green – He was +16, shot 5-8 (3-5 from downtown) and played great D. Â WHY THE Â ^%#$ DID WE LET HIM GO?!?!? Â I realize Grant got us Kyrie, but the Green move has to be one of the more boneheaded ones in recent memory. Â Let a talented guy go for no reason when you have so little talent on your team. Â Yeah. Â Great idea….
Casspi’s D – I actually liked what I saw from him on D for a lot of the game – he was rotating off his guys nicely and played pretty tough and close. Â Maybe we’re finally going to get something out of him?
The Bad:
Our 4th Q Lineup – At one point in the fourth, when the game was within 7, the Cavs had a lineup of Walton, Samuels, Gee, Sloan, and Casspi on the floor. Â I’m assuming I don’t have to say how that worked out…
Gee – His play has really fallen off of recent. Â He was 3-7, played average D, and was MINUS 23 for the game. Â I realize this is one of the best offenses in the NBA, but isn’t this guy supposed to be our defensive stopper?
TT – He still can’t finish (other than one monster dunk) and had an especially difficult time with Dejuan Blair. Â How such a big (in terms of body mass) guy can’t just slam it home every time is beyond me. Â He was getting pushed around by guys substantially weaker than he is.
The Spurs announcers – These guys are such absurd homers it’s disgusting. Â I actually muted the game pretty early because I could tell they just wanted to gush about their team – that’s fine, but doing it at the expense of a very bad one (“The spurs really haven’t had a challenging games in weeks, which is something they badly need and likely wont get tonight” is an approximation of something I heard very early in the broadcast) is pretty low.
San Antonio Advertising – One ad had a local injury lawyer reciting the NBA recording laws. Â Really FS Southwest? Â There was another laughably bad one about cars or something, but I forgot to write down what it was.
The Rest:
Adding insult to injury, the Austin D league team killed the Canton D League team in the playoffs today (90 to 68) to advance in the playoffs. Â Screw you Texas!
Did I mention that TP and Manu only played for a combined 43 minutes? Â And Duncan sat the entire game??? Â Yeah, we’re not very good…
Seriously, the Spurs announcers have to be the most annoyingly cocky announcers in the NBA. Â I turned the sound back onduring the game just in time to hear them say, verbatum, this quote, as the Spurs took a 20 point league late in the 4th quarter after keeping it close most of the game: “Oh, I wanted to say earlier, it was only a matter of time, you just knew..It’s just an onslaught.” ARGHHHHHH
Well, three games away from what is likely the most important offseason for this iteration of the Cavs team. Â Tomorrow the Cavs face the playoff bound Grizzles. Â This is my recap of the season, so I just wanted to say it’s been a blast. Â Keep on the lookout for a whole bunch of podcasts in the upcoming weeks and months. Â Until then my friends…
Tom, I didn’t know we were destroying Mallory? Just a difference of opinion on how feasible DG’s ascension would have been with this team. Dude got cut and seemingly grew up a lot. Happens all the time. Also, the major difference between JJ and TT is that one tries hard on defense and over rotates while the other has lead feet about 95% of the time. Even now, the Blazers are getting shredded fairly frequently by competent 4’s. It would have been nice to trade back and pick up Kawhi or Markieff Morris but it was a buyers market as… Read more »
I think you should stop writing about TT. You should a remarkable lack of understanding basketball when you do. The last 3 games have shown a drastic improvement in TT’s game. Look at the 2 really, really good assists he had last night. From a backhoe to that in less than 2 months. Improvement. He is already a Andy-level offensive rebounder. And many of the baskets Blair had that you put on TT came on pick ‘n rolls where the weak side didn’t rotate at all. I also never see anyone mention that TT’s first step is so explosive that… Read more »
Also, the Cavs said very early on they would not draft KI without taking a running mate for him in his rookie season. Grant stated that he wanted another rookie alongside KI to experience that first year with him.
They made it very clear that they wouldn’t take Jonas if he couldn’t join the team. Gilbert and Grant did their best to get all the info and passed to pick a player to join KI right away.
If you look up old Windhorst articles, he talks about how horrible Danny Green was when he first arrived for the Cavs. He couldn’t stay up with the rest of the players and we couldn’t wait around for him. Windhorst has tweeted about how simple a decision it was to let Green walk. Mallory, you get ZERO hindsight on decisions like this. GMs make a call based on POTENTIAL more often than not. There are many cases were TONS of GMs make mistakes. We had tons of players in front of Green at the time and we let him walk.… Read more »
Also, how excited would you be about Chris Grant if the stars hadn’t aligned, Gilbert hadn’t opened up his checkbook, or if we didn’t get the number 1 pick with that 1.8% chance?
We’d have either drafted a pick 2 of: B Knight, TT, Derrick Williams.
Like Kevin and Mallory, I find myself wondering how effective Chris Grant has been. We really have to give Gilbert credit for KI, since he opened his checkbook to take on BDiddy’s salary. Picking KI wasn’t a no-brainer, but it was close. I’ll give him credit for that. As far as Gee, he’s an above average 6th man or a slightly below average NBA starting SG if he keeps up this year’s production. Just remember, for one and a half seasons, a lot of us though Sasha Pavlovic was a championship piece. Lock-down D, 3 point range, and some pretty… Read more »
Kevin, I completely get it. When stated that way I see the measure in the approach. I sometimes wonder what the measurable alternatives should be to what Grant’s done. I see the last two seasons as Grant sifting through a bunch of crap in hopes of finding two rotation players for an above-500 team. People are prone to hyperbole when talking about GM’s and if you look at Grant’s moves in context there’s plenty of promise as opposed to the first two years of the Raps, the Suns or any other rebuilding team after a big FA loss. It’d have… Read more »
and for anyone wondering where all this “TT is terrible at finishing” talk is coming from, here is come evidence :
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7824733/kenneth-faried-isaiah-thomas-best-year-nba-rookies
I am not that worried about it. They guy is scoring 12 a game in the bottom 18% as a finisher. He won’t be that low next year, I promise. Doest that mean we can expect a big jump? If the guy hits the bench press a bit he could jump to a 15 ppg and 52% shooter pretty easily.
Kevin, I definitely get your point that some of us (myself included) have unfoundedly decided Grant was some kinda talent evaluating messiah sent to rescue our team. So far his decisions have been for the most part above average – he “won” the Omri trade, knocked the Baron trade out of the park (with some help from lady luck), but prob “lost” the Sessions trade if we’re honest with ourselves (but he did the best he could have under circumstances), found a gem in the d-league and lost a D-leaguer that became someone else’s gem. Picked a no brainer in… Read more »
D, I won’t try too hard to second guess the decision to cut a seemingly random 2nd round pick a couple of years ago. My main point relates to something that isn’t even specifically about Danny Green. A decent amount of people give Chris Grant great credit for personnel evaluations. I’m not sure where the evidence is though; for one Alonzo Gee, there’s a Danny Green. In your own opinion, Manny and Samardo are gone next year. TT being picked #4 was a surprise to most and he is definitely a project. It’s too early to call him a success… Read more »
@Mallory and Kevin; DG was a second round pick right? It seems that nba teams are much more beholden to trying to give minutes and on-court dev time to the guaranteed contracts they have. Eyenga was of course going to get more time because of his contract. Also, it was pretty evident that DG wasn’t working as hard with the Cavs as he is now. Like a lot of players on those last two Bron teams he was having fun and eating off of corner threes but he wasn’t doing it well. When he was released he was shooting 37%.… Read more »
TT’s tools are rebounding, defense and hustle. Since when is his game predicated on strength around the rim? He’s not nearly there yet, physically or mentally, and that was expected. The number he was picked is irrelevant as far as his development is concerned going forward. The only guy really pushing him around was Blair, who is a beast and pushes nearly EVERYONE around. Why do you think he is successful as a 6’6″ F/C? Why no mention of the areas TT has vastly improved in? You’d think that would inspire at least a little optimism, even for the most… Read more »
@Mallory: I’m pretty sure Green was a mid-second round pick.
Haha Kevin I’m assuming that was sarcasm. Those guys are a bunch of bully jerky jerk faces. Jerks! Kevin really nailed what I was going for on the Green front. Guys, I love this team as much as the next guy, but I can’t understand how anyone can give Grant so much support thus far. As Kevin said, we’ve had a huge rotating cast of young guys, and the fact that we got only ONE keeper out of them doesn’t exactly scream praise for Grant’s talent evaluation, especially since he went in favor of those said young guys over Danny… Read more »
Mallory, I may have missed it, but what do you think about the Spurs announcers? Everyone, Regarding Green, obviously hindsight is 20/20. When the Cavs drafted Green46th in 2009, I was relatively happy about it, as he was someone I was interested in with the 30th pick. Obviously no one was outraged at the time, but cutting him was a curious decision. He had only played 100 minutes for the Cavs’ 2009 – 2010 contenders, and the Cavs went into 2010 – 2011 with Joey Graham, Jawad Williams, Manny Harris, Christian Eyenga, etc filling the wings. It seems like they… Read more »
How reactive is this discussion? Can we focus on the future? Sacramento and the tank masters in golden state won last night. The cavs can still finish between 3 and 7 in the lottery. Let’s focus on that
I like the intensity of the debate. IMO It was an entire front office and coaching effort that saw green out of Cleveland. I also watched and didn’t find him too impressive during that time. All of that said, who cares. Since then the front office has been good if not great, and we have an unreal amount of picks in the next few years to pair with loads of cap space! I think we need to focus on the positives and the future, starting with the fact that the tank masters in golden state won last night. I want… Read more »
I understand the Gee for Green line of thinking, but the choice at the time was really Green or Eyenga. Eyenga is the better athlete, but Green was supposed to be the polished player coming out who had a great skill set. A lot of that is being shown now that he is in the singularly BEST situation in basketball, but he was playing at a similar level as Eyenga, only without the theoretical upside, Another thing lost in this, is that it is clear that Green is Ferry’s guy. It’s funny that no one seems to mention this but… Read more »
AlexS, you could not be more wrong. I hate the Spurs as well, but they have a huge following. I’m from Lakewood, but have lived in Austin for past 7 years due to work. They have a freakin’ huge following here, and when my work takes me to South Texas, along the border, its all I see. No Mavs or Rockets gear. I never new how big the Spurs were with the Hispanic community down here! Gawd, can they just get swept out of the first round again please!
Did you even watch Danny play when he was with the Cavs? Even though he got limited minutes he looked like a timid rabbit every time he came into the game and was horrible at shooting 3s which is probably his main asset at this point. It is not so much that everyone is quick to defend Grant, it is just ignorant to think that the Cavs wouldn’t have kept him if he showed any modicum of talent or progression while he was with us. And in the end; I think we got the better switch of players in Gee.… Read more »
Tristan has had consistent problems finishing strong at the rim. For a guy with few tools on offense, finishing is basically his greatest supposed strength. Yet he constantly gets blocked. He gets fouled a lot, but again, because he’s so strong he should be finishing these shots. I do agree he has to go up with more authority, and that this offseason is critical to his development. But for now, it’s been a problem. As for Danny Green, can anyone give a reason why we cut bait on this guy? He barely played his rookie year, and the Cavs weren’t… Read more »
Tristan didn’t finish that poorly last night, and i don’t see how you can say TT is stronger than Dejuan Blair, or any of the Spurs bigs. TT’s is not that big, nor is he built yet. Once he fills out and puts on some muscle he’ll be a much better finisher. He’s also got to learn to go up faster and more explosively with the ball, but I’m pretty confident he’ll improve quickly. This summer should make a big difference for TT. So don’t go too overboard on the worrying about him.
I agree with everyone else here about Danny Green. In addition Mallory, if you were in Chris Grant or Byron Scott’s shoes, debating weather or not we should waive Danny during the same timeframe that he was let go, you would have done the same thing and wave him as well. So you can stop with the “Nerd Rage because a player got better after he was waived” rants. They won’t change the past.
Glad to see Danny making good, but it’s not like Danny Green was a playing up to his potential when the Cavs waived him. The spurs waived him once last season too and even considered waiving him in training camp again this year. I like to view Danny Green’s departure from the Cavs as round about trade for Alonzo Gee, who the Spurs had to waive to make room for Danny.
I’m pretty sure everyone hates the Spurs, even in Texas. Their only fans are in San Antonio; everyone else can choose the Mavs or Rockets. And I’m getting seriously fed up with all of this “OMG I can’t believe we let Danny Green go!! Grant is such a dumb@$$.” In the only season he ever played for us, he averaged 2 whole points on 38.5% shooting (27% from 3) in 6 minutes per game. It’s a small sample size and he was bound to get better, but seriously, was anyone actually upset at the time he was released? I bet… Read more »
Danny Green only recently found that fire for defensive rotations and he didn’t tighten his shot up till last summer when he was long gone. You also have to take into account that he’s playing on a team with amazing spacing and generally spending his time on the floor with good-to-great defenders and ball movers. None of these things were true when the Cavs let him go. I completely understand the frustration with watching Omri meander around but at the time, Omri was much more highly regarded league-wide than Green.
Am glad someone else was muting the Spurs announcers. They were absolutely terrible. At one point the said something to the effect” The Spurs need to shake this bunch. Push the lead up to 15 then 20 and that will be it”. I hate lots of opposing teams announcers. The Spurs announcers have taken the crown. Not only do i say screw them, i hope they crush and burn into tiny little pieces. Like being swept in the first round. Or somewhere. Just go away. Aaaarghh!!!