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Joined: Sep 2006
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Legend
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Legend
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yeah, from game one against boston, the cavs have to be on a mission...
no more taking games off, and playing down to our competition, this team can legitimately win 60 games and the eastern conference home court if they played properly, they certainly look like it in the playoffs.
we've played 2 game 7's and lost both, but both were on someone else's court...
that's the kind of thing that has to get in your head now, so that you realize when you play bad teams, like milwaukee, and new jersey, and charlotte, you have to stomp them, don't let them get any thoughts past halftime, stomp them.
and then you take your chances with the better teams, the bostons, detroits, san antonios, lakers, etc...
if this team comes out hungry, and inspired, and they take care of their business, 60 wins is going to happen.
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Joined: Nov 2006
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Dawg Talker
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Dawg Talker
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Believe me, I know what Sasha's issues are... Sasha is definitely frustrating to watch..
The reason I like it though, is that unlike some of the mental blocks (which he may never get over) he can control how hard he works and prepares for the season, and obviously he took this offseason seriously. Keep in mind how explosive he was 15 lbs heavier than he will be. Plus he was already an above average defender.... Let's hope that losing a few lbs makes him a bit more slippery and CONFIDENT out their...
I heart winning
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Joined: Nov 2006
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Dawg Talker
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Dawg Talker
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I hear ya LB, but 60 is a lot. I think if everything goes well and we have a killer attitude, that would be something possible. My goal is 55. Anything over 55 and its GRAVY..
Gotta stay healthy and hungry, just like you said in your post..
I heart winning
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 3,639
Hall of Famer
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Hall of Famer
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Quote:
Plus he was already an above average defender....
When he wanted to be, lets hope the dedication in the off-season to lose weight translates to all parts of his game.
Eat it Phil...
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 14,248
Legend
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OP
Legend
Joined: Sep 2006
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ESPN had an article today about guys out on the trading block: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=TradeTalk-081015Most of the guys I'm not really interested in, but the first guy listed makes you think: Here's a look at 10 or so players (in no particular order) who could be on the move before the February trade deadline:
1. Shawn Marion, Heat
Marion will be a free agent after the season and he's not happy about it. After he brooded in Phoenix because he wasn't feeling the love financially, the Suns moved him to Miami in a deal for Shaquille O'Neal last season. The problem now is that Marion doesn't appear to have a long-term future in Miami. The team is going through a rebuilding process with Dwyane Wade and rookie Michael Beasley as the cornerstones. Marion, who turns 31 at the end of the season and plays the same position as Beasley, doesn't appear to be a great fit.
He has been dangled to the Lakers and Jazz, and more recently the Heat tried to work out something with the Bulls that would have brought them Ben Gordon and others.
If Marion plays well early in the season, his value will go up for contending teams that need defense, rebounding and athleticism. But I'm not sure how much the Heat will actually be able to get for Marion. As talented as he is, I've yet to come across a GM who wants to give him huge dollars next year.
I didn't know that he was on the trading block, and I'm not sure how well he would fit into a Mike Brown/defensive oriented team ... but could you imagine the "8-second" offense we could run with LBJ, Mo, Gibson and Marion? 
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Hall of Famer
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Marion is very overrated, in my opinion. He isn't good enough to play SF, along with having that man named Lebron there, and He isn't big enough to play PF.
Pass.
you had a good run Hank.
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Joined: Sep 2006
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Legend
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Legend
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Another good article from ESPN/Brian Windhorst: These Cavs have King James' seal of approval
By Brian Windhorst
Special to ESPN.com
As the lights came up and the credits rolled at the conclusion of the premiere of a documentary about him and his lifelong friends at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, LeBron James openly admitted he had to wipe away tears.
It was the first time, LeBron said, when he'd allowed himself to cry since he was in eighth grade and his AAU team lost in the national championship game when his game-winning shot attempt rattled out.
Hard to dispute him, but there was no doubt some water in his eyes as he slumped in front of his locker at the TD Banknorth Garden in May. Exhausted physically and mentally after a tight Game 7 loss to the Celtics, it was a difficult conclusion to what was truly the best individual season of his five-year career. It was an emotional time for James, who nearly had carried his team to a stunning playoff upset for a second season in a row.
An hour later, he arrived at the podium in the news conference room and, with Cavs general manager Danny Ferry and owner Dan Gilbert standing in the back, openly said the team's roster needed to be upgraded. Not unlike, it was assumed, how the Celtics remade their roster to become a champion.
Over the summer, Ferry traded for point guard Mo Williams, re-signed guards Daniel Gibson and Delonte West to balloon Gilbert's payroll to more than $90 million and drafted two promising big men in J.J. Hickson and Darnell Jackson. Most of it took place while James was in China with the Redeem Team.
It was hardly a Celtic-esque makeover, yet when James arrived home with gold medal in hand, his attitude was markedly different. Without much prompting, he was effusive about his excitement for the season.
"This is the deepest and most talented team we've had since I've been here," James said. "This is the most excited I've been going into a season. We have a great chance to compete for a championship."
Are the Cavs really that much better than the 44-38 outfit that was knocked out in the second round last season? Or is it simply a case of preseason euphoria combined with the natural high of having Olympic gold put around your neck? Maybe a little of both.
The Cavs were plagued by an array of misadventures last season, some of their own doing and some not. The holdouts of Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao a year ago completely robbed the team of any mojo it had coming off of its first Finals appearance in 2007.
All of training camp was conducted under a black cloud and that was before a 10-day trip to China disrupted the body clocks just two weeks before the season began. The Cavs then played perhaps their toughest November schedule ever with 10 road games. It was followed by James' finger injury, which caused him to miss five straight games, kicking off a skid from late November to early December. Overall, James missed seven games and couldn't finish two others due to injuries last season, and the Cavs lost them all. It was the most games James had missed in a season due to injury.
It added up to a 9-13 start the team never fully recovered from. Especially considering once Pavlovic and Varejao finally signed, both were knocked out for huge chunks of the season with injuries. Center Zydrunas Ilgauskas missed the most games due to injury in six seasons and the Cavs dealt with some more schedule quirks that bothered them. One was that 17 of their 21 back-to-backs put them on the road the second night, the worst ratio in the NBA last season. They went 5-12 in those games.
Add to that several weeks of instability that followed February's team-rocking, 10-player trade that brought in West, Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak and Joe Smith. (I've been saying this all off-season. We really had the deck stacked against us last year, and we STILL almost knocked off the eventual champs)
So perhaps they didn't deserve better than the East's No. 4 seed in the postseason, but the Cavs felt they were better than their record. That seemed to be reinforced when they dispatched the Wizards in the first round and gave the Celtics their stiffest test in the postseason.
With significantly more roster stability this October, no 15-hour plane flights or six-game western road trip set for the second week of the season, the Cavs feel they are destined for a smoother start. That says nothing of what they really hope to correct, which is their massive offensive woes over the past several seasons.
With Williams, the Cavs believe they'll be able to transform themselves into a more up-tempo team that can get two things they desperately lacked: a second scoring option and some easy baskets in transition.
He may not be Chris Paul or Steve Nash, but Williams is the best offensive point guard the Cavs have had since they traded Andre Miller for Darius Miles back in 2002. Plus he fills another hole that was rather glaring. Other than James, who won the scoring title last season, the Cavs really didn't have anyone who could create his own shot.
This, as frustrated fans and analysts have lamented for years, made the Cavs easy to guard in half-court settings as teams just shaded everyone toward James and things stagnated.
"My job is to come in here and push the ball and get things moving," Williams said. "That is what I do. I have been doing it my whole career so it isn't new for me."
Though he's coming off two offseason surgeries, one to his thumb and another to repair a sports hernia, Williams has been a highlight of the preseason. With the encouragement of coach Mike Brown, he's been pushing the ball at every chance in games and practices. He even caught a few teammates by surprise by starting fast breaks off of made baskets, an unheard-of technique in Cavs-land recently.
Combined with West, who is an above-average ball handler with quickness, and Gibson, who has improved his athleticism after undergoing surgery on a chronic ankle problem in the summer, the Cavs feel like they'll have a new offensive dynamic this season.
Brown has even adjusted his defensive principles by planning a three-guard lineup that will press -- a tactic he has rarely used before. That includes some plans to use James at power forward in a small lineup.
"I'm not saying that we're going to try to be the Suns or the old Kings and get a shot up in seven seconds," Brown said. "But we have some different personnel now and this suits them and we're trying to take advantage of it." (And with Marion on the trading block .... just saying) 
What it seems is that the Cavs are trying to take advantage of more of James' talents. Playing power forward and having a pushing point guard better resembles the style he excels in while playing with Team USA -- a style he enjoys but almost never experiences during the NBA season.
Whether it will actually work is a matter of conjecture. Brown has gotten his teams to play championship-level defense but has not excelled as an offensive instructor. Williams had some chemistry issues playing alongside star Michael Redd in Milwaukee and has admitted that he has not devoted himself much to defense in recent seasons. The Cavs' two starting big men, Ilgauskas and Wallace, are both well over 30 and don't seem suited to run.
Nonetheless, James is in the best shape of his career, the schedule is more favorable, and there is no shortage of optimism around the team.
"There are no excuses for us now," James said. "We should be able to go out and dominate."
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Legend
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Legend
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Quote:
Marion is very overrated, in my opinion. He isn't good enough to play SF, along with having that man named Lebron there, and He isn't big enough to play PF.
Pass.
He may be over-rated, but we don't need him to be a superstar. He's a bonafide scorer, and that's what we need. We could put James at power foward if needed (heck he's as big as Karl Malone, I've heard) and run Marion at SF. With Mo and Gibson (and West), we could run teams to death, and then play defense when needed. The problem with Phoenix is that they could never fall back and play defense when they needed to ... I think we could.
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Joined: Oct 2006
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Legend
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Legend
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 13,882 |
Quote:
Quote:
Marion is very overrated, in my opinion. He isn't good enough to play SF, along with having that man named Lebron there, and He isn't big enough to play PF.
Pass.
He may be over-rated, but we don't need him to be a superstar. He's a bonafide scorer, and that's what we need. We could put James at power foward if needed (heck he's as big as Karl Malone, I've heard) and run Marion at SF. With Mo and Gibson (and West), we could run teams to death, and then play defense when needed. The problem with Phoenix is that they could never fall back and play defense when they needed to ... I think we could.
I'd agree with Excl on this one. I wouldn't say no to his talent (depending on price).
Remember, I'm not worried about longterm. I just want ONE title for this team. Anything more than that is gravy.
![[Linked Image]](http://www.dawgtalkers.net/uploads/Punchsmack/punch.gif) “...Iguodala to Curry, back to Iguodala, up for the layup! Oh! Blocked by James! LeBron James with the rejection!”
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