DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum *** Cavs January Thread ***

Iggy would be amazing in our system, but I dont see it realistically happening.
Infiltrating OKC and trading for Durantula would be awesome, (just wanted to say durantula, my new favorite nickname in the NBA.)

I would think we'd have a better chance at getting Iggy, Amare and Jamison COMBINED than we would getting Durant from OKC.

We have a better chance at winning the next NBA Title, next World Series and this Sunday's Super Bowl than getting Durant from OKC.

He's a gamer though. I almost feel bad for Portland for passing on him for a guy that's barely played a minute (and may never again).

J/C..

Very big challenge tonight.. For anyone who has watched the Grizz in the past month, you know what I mean..

They have 4 guys who can score the rock in bunches..

They are coming off a big win against LA last night, but they are a young team so I still think they will have a lot of energy, and I don't envision them "not showing up"...

We need to come out with a lot of energy and look for revenge for the loss in Memphis earlier this season..

Bench needs to be solid tonight..

Grizz have been one of my favorite teams to watch this season. Great young ball club similar to OKC only with less defense. Their problem is they dont have a bench to speak of.

I'm going to game tonight. I think the Cavs will win by 6. Memphis on the road for the second of a back to back. All signs point to C-Town victory, but I think Memphis makes a good game of it until the 4th.

On another note: I like this article. Its about the Cavs and pushing the ball up the floor for faster play.

http://www.cavstheblog.com/?p=1300

Austin Carr Article from Sports Illustrated circa 1971

For the young pups out there:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1084542/index.htm

An Irish Carr Moves Into High Gear
And mighty UCLA thought it had been hit by a wild dump truck
Curry Kirkpatrick

t was almost as if he had been lying in the weeds, just waiting for this moment, as if he had been pacing himself all these days, measuring the time before he would show college basketball what he was really like, that what it had been hearing for three years now was true. It was a propitious occasion, naturally—his school's football team having successfully concluded its chores against a No. 1 opponent; his own abilities having been questioned due to two subpar, losing performances in the last 11 days; the big game being on national TV. It was, finally, a simple case of Austin Carr against UCLA—towering, omnipotent, No. 1 UCLA—and of Carr throwing his head back, his chin out and admonishing his past tormentors in the manner of that eminent philosopher, Flip Wilson. Bruins? "What you see is what you get."

Oh, there had been other games when Carr had felt possessed enough to turn it on for Notre Dame. That one against South Carolina in the finals of the Sugar Bowl tournament last year, for instance. "The perfect game," his coach, Johnny Dee—among others—called it then after Carr had made 19 of 24 field goals, scored 43 points, had six rebounds and 11 assists, played strong defense on John Roche and did not commit a single turnover. There was that 61-point thing he laid on Ohio U. in the NCAA tournament last March, the one that broke Bill Bradley's single-game tournament record. "I gave him a free hand; maybe he overdid it," said Dee that time. Then, too, there were those matches against Kentucky: last season, when he scored 52 and 43 in two losing games; this year, when his 50-point spree at Louisville was enough for the Irish to win 99-92 and enough, also, to show that he could be at his best against the best. Or was it enough?

Was Carr's grand junior season—in which he averaged 38.1 points a game, shot 55% from the floor and once, in an eight-day period, scored 110 points against the three best teams in the land—really enough? Or did Austin Carr need something else to finally accomplish what he wanted most, something a man could really sink his teeth into: say, a 46-point wrecking job that would fire the Irish to an 89-82 victory over UCLA? Something like that.

"We really had them scouted," said Carr after last Saturday afternoon's show in South Bend. "They did all the same things we thought they were going to do. Our fans helped, of course. They whip it up pretty good."

Carr did much of the whipping-up on his own, and did it with a touch of everything: breaking the fearsome UCLA zone press, hurling baskets in from outside, flipping them up from inside, throwing some while turning and falling out of bounds, driving for others through the trumpeted UCLA front line. He sprung loose on that jettison move of his off the break, hitting open men when he himself was swarmed under. He got rebounds, made steals, embarrassed four defenders, fouled out Sidney Wicks and finished with 15 of the last 17 Irish points. What Austin Carr did, as any old Golden Domer could have told us, was wake up the echoes and shake down the thunder all by himself.

Before Saturday, UCLA had won 14 straight games, 19 in a row over two years, 48 consecutive nonconference battles and, of course, those four consecutive NCAA titles. But the weekend, obviously, was not made for the Bruins. Their trip into South Bend was hardly the relaxing type of journey a team would need to combat what Carr had waiting. The Bruins came by bus from Chicago after a sloppy win Friday night over Loyola 87-62. But the bus driver got lost ("Somebody said we went 45 miles out of the way," said Coach John Wooden) and the team, sleepy and angry, did not arrive until 3 a.m. More important, Wooden knew, UCLA was just not ready. "We're not sharp and we're not hungry," he said on the bus. "We'd better be against Notre Dame or we're going to lose. Ours is a veteran team, and with so much success it's hard to talk to them about winning more. I feel like I'm talking to a stone wall."

Dee, meanwhile, was having his own problems. Notre Dame, with an 8-4 record, had been defeated by Marquette and Duquesne on the road in two of its last three games, and Carr (who made only 13 of 36 shots against the Dukes) had been pressing. The coach realized, however, that UCLA had not been shooting well from outside either, that the Bruins had been winning with Wicks, Curtis Rowe and Steve Patterson crashing the offensive board and outrebounding their opponents by an average of 15 a game. "We only need help in the trenches," he said. "If Pleick [John] and Catlett [Sid] show up to play, we'll be all right."

The Irish held a team meeting Friday, each man having his say about what was wrong. "I thought I was handling the ball too much," said Carr. "I told the rest to just play their games, to take their shots. UCLA outscored us 11-1 in the first two minutes last year [when Notre Dame lost in Los Angeles 108-77] and we were embarrassed. This time we just wanted to start fast and keep our concentration."

The Irish streaked to a 10-3 lead, starting almost as fast as their followers in the crowd, who held up the banner of the week—"Rowe, Rowe, Rowe Your Wicks, Gently up the Bibby"—and roared constantly as the pep band played the Notre Dame fight song 17 times.

With Carr smoking and the unheralded Pleick battling for his life underneath, Notre Dame pushed its lead to 13 points, 37-24, with about five minutes to go. Wooden had long since abandoned the press, which the Irish had shredded by flooding the deep zone against Wicks. ("I'd hoped they'd use it the whole game," Dee was to say later. "We'd have killed them.") But UCLA came back on some jumpers by Henry Bibby, cut the deficit to 43-38 by halftime and then tied the game at 47-all with 16:40 left.

y then, though Collis Jones was doing a magnificent job keeping Wicks away from the basket, Notre Dame's other big men, Pleick and Catlett, had four fouls apiece. But it was time for Carr to go into his specialty act—two magical mystery tours down the lane for layups after steals. Notre Dame led by five then, and the Bruins never caught up as Wooden—bereft of Terry Schofield, the defender who had injured an elbow after doing the best job on Carr—threw a whole bunch of Kenny Bookers, Larry Hollyfields and even one Sidney Wicks at Carr in an attempt at cloture.

Ultimately, it was the Bruins' inability to handle the elusive Carr that cost them the game. After Carr had been carried away on several hundred shoulders to cut the nets down, Wooden spoke. "There is no one to compare with him man-to-man," he said. "They outplayed us, they were more spirited. But we are a better team."

That may hold for later, but a more accurate appraisal of the day came with 1:07 left in the game when Wicks—saddled with four previous fouls and now guarding Carr outside—slapped at the Notre Dame star's dribble from behind. He missed the ball, hit Carr's arm and was out of the game. "I told you, Coach," Wicks screamed at Wooden as he came to the bench. "I told you not to put me on him. I told you." What Sidney saw is what he got.

it amazes me that 2 of the teams noone really wants to play in the 1st round are Memphis and Charlotte.

Imagine saying that even just last year.....



from watching Grizz games the past few weeks...I suggest keeping your eyes on Rudy Gay. For as much as Randolph is getting credit for having a career year (and he is), Gay is still the straw stirring the Memphis drink. He does so much with and without the ball for them.

He's made a huge jump in his development this year, which is one of the many reasons I do not think they trade him (earlier in the year, I thought it might be possible).

just bought an autographed rudy gay rookie card on ebay last week. love his game.

Mark Price works for his hometown Hawks.

Maybe he can ship us Josh Smith?

I'd gladly take Joe Johnson off their hands, a true legit scorer at the SG? Take him over any other of their players. Still can't believe that deal the Hawks got for him.

Al Horford please.

Just bouncing trade ideas. Bad, good? thoughts?

- Cleveland: Gets Troy Murphy, and Andre Iguodala. We get our stretch 4, and LeBron's #2 without sacrificing any relevant depth.

- Philly: Gets Daniel Green, Zydrunas, Delonte, and Anthony Parker. They really wanted Daniel Green, and Z + Delonte's expirings in 2010 total $15.7 million because Delonte's final season isn't guaranteed, along with a momentary replacement at SG in Parker. They also unload Kapono's atrocious contract.

- Indiana: Gets Jason Kapono, and Lou Williams. Kapono's contract is expiring in 2010, and unload Murphy's longer contract, they also get Lou Williams, a young talent with possible long-term contributions to the team.

Our rotations:

- PG: Mo Williams, Daniel Gibson
- SG: Andre Iguodala, Jamario Moon
- SF: LeBron James, Jawad Williams
- PF: Troy Murphy, JJ Hickson, Leon Powe
- C: Shaquille O'Neal, Anderson Verajao

Not a bad rotation, but most likely a pipe-dream.

noone does that trade besides the Cavs.....

That's what I thought until the Pau Gasol deal a few years back. Our draft picks are basically useless to us at the moment, making them expendable, and giving us more trade leverage.

I have no interest in trading Z, I don't care how much "better" it might make us, because how bad would he feel if we go on and win the title In what may be his last year?

A few years back when Dallas got Kidd, Dallas was going to send someone to NJ, and he basically told reporters NJ was going to cut him and hed be back in Dallas.

Stern didn't like that, I'm not sure if they made any new rules about it. I just don't wanna use one our greatest players as a tool.

I'd also like to say, with all the press going to us getting Shaq, I'd like to give props to Danny Ferry for making the little moves that are making the differences.

I hadn't heard of Anthony Parker or Jawad Williams before this season, but for them to come in and be key pieces shows Ferry knows what he's doing.

Add to that younger guys like JJ and Boobie playing great, and were getting back to how dominant we were last year, and it seems like everyone else but the lakers and hawks got worse. And neither of them really scare me, especially the lakers.

I hate optomism.

for all the out of towners, the cavs are on nbatv tonight.

I don't know how much better we can be right now.

Say you get Jameson, he pushes JJ to the bench, and now offensivly were great, but the two 7 footers that destroyed Gasol and Bynum are down to one.

I'm alright with staying with what we have, is basically what I'm saying.

my 2 cents on the cavs trade issues remains the same, i do nothing unless i get something for nothing.

i mean, unless okc wants to give up durant, then they can have z, boobie, delonte, our 2010, 12, and 14 draft picks and even the quaker steak in the q.

I agree ... no need to blow up what's working to possibly get marginally better. We should make it well known that we are more than happy to stand pat. Let those teams that are hemmoraging money sweat it out up until the trade deadline, and they'll be offering *us* the draft picks to take on their bloated contracts.

I am of the camp to make a move with the uncertainty surrounding some of our players. Namely West and Powe, Will West be able to play any more this season and will Powe be able to get beack healthy and contribute?

is it me, or do you find it refreshing to see teams like charlotte, memphis, and okc turning it around? all three teams have a shot at making the playoffs this year, or at least going .500. in the west, the only bad team is really the 11-38 twolves...in the east we have the nets.

it seems like every nba team nowadays is .500 or better.

it is nice to see, however, this is still a 3 or 4 team race.

the nba's problem is that a 7 game series makes it extremely tough to have an underdog win..

it's not like baseball where you have different pitchers and who knows how they are feeling when they take the mound, or hockey, where motivation and emotion can carry a team, a hot goalie, etc... basketball, about 90-95% of the time, the better team wins out.

if the nba did a 1 and done just like the ncaa, it would be unbelievable. you'd see a team like okc as one of the scariest teams in the league. instead, okc has very little chance of upsetting the lakers or another top team spread out over 7 games, which also, by the way, takes about 3 freaking weeks to complete.

i'm tellin ya tho, minnesota? sleeping giant. i really like their talent.

Last two times I can think about a team beating out a team that is better than them is GS Warriors over the Mavs, and Cavs over the Pistons to get to the finals. Seriously go back and look at the Cavs team then, Sasha Pav and Drew Gooden were starters, Amon Jones (doesnt get the D in his name because he doesn't play any), that team is awful. Perhaps the Heat the year that they won, I remember being unimpressed by their team the whole season and didn't give them much of a chance of making the finals.

dallas lost because of their refusal to adapt. that was a really fun series though.

the cavs and pistons you can argue that it was coming, because of how they almost did it the year before. that was the coming of age of lebron AND the cavs' team defense. (i love how everyone points out to game 5 and lbj's performance, but completely overlooks the defense they played in that game, and in that series as a whole)

and that series could have easily been a sweep too, the cavs had chances to win games 1 and 2 and because donyell marshall couldn't knock down a wide open shot, and because the referee let rip hamilton do everything but take lebron's shorts off, they lost.

don't get me wrong, upsets happen in the nba, 8 has beaten 1 two times (gs and denver) and you can go back and look at other upsets, but when the season is over and done with, it's usually a high seeded team that wins it. in baseball and football you have had wildcards win it all. 7 or 8 seeds simply don't win nba championships.

I won't say that that is how it should be, but, well... that's kinda how it should be.

The team that wins it should be the BEST TEAM, not a team that just had a good day here and there at just the right times to steal it from a better team. Doing a Series of 7 gives the best opportunity to ensure that the team that wins really is the best team.

Doing a 1-n-Done goes to great lengths to ensure that just the opposite will happen.

the fact that they have a good chance at a high lottery pick, coupled with rubio getting into town within a year or two (i think he is slated for 2011, but i wouldn't be surprised if they found a way to make it happen next yr)

they have good talent, im not saying championship, but i can see them becoming a really good western team

maybe it's just that I don't trust their FO at making the right decisions....

1. that they'll bypass Turner at SG and pickup another PF when they need a guard/wing who can shoot.

2. that they'll continue to messup the Rubio situation and end up trading him away instead of getting him to play for them (2011 season is the earliest he is even allowed to consider a buy-out and many think he'll wait until 2012 when the buyout can be completely picked up by the team).

3. that unlike the Thunder (defense) and Memphis (offense), they just don't have a team identity. Half their team can play defense but not offense (Wilkens, Brewer) and half can play offense but not defense (Love, Jefferson, Flynn, Ellington).


but, like I said...I do see the talent and the great thing about the NBA is if you strike gold with 1 player, he can make everyone else on the team better.

Ok, enough on the Twolves I think.....

Interesting note from Hollinger that sums up the feelings of Cavs superiority posted here the past week or so....



I wrote about the Spurs' recent spinning of their tires on Monday, but it's amazing how many contending teams I can say the same thing about. The Spurs are a disappointing 8-8 since Jan. 1, but so is Dallas. They have company: Orlando is 10-9 since Christmas, and Atlanta is 10-9 in its past 19 games as well. Phoenix is 15-18 after starting the season 14-3, and Portland is 8-8 since Christmas. Even the Lakers are a very mortal 9-6 in their past 15 contests.

http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-100202/daily-dime

j/c

Cleveland gets:
G Brandon Roy
F LaMarcus Aldridge
F Travis Outlaw

Portland gets:
F Lebron James

Sadly the NBA Trade machine doesn't want to cooperate with my blackberry, so I'm not sure how the money works, but I think we could throw someone in to make it work.

Yay, nay?

you don't trade lebron james. you just don't.

brandon roy? good player. love his game

you don't trade lebron james.