DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Cavs (and NBA) Preseason Thread

I think Denver advances in 2010 if George Karl hadn't gotten sick. Might not have gotten past LA but they wouldn't have gotten swept like Utah did.

That's now two dustups in a row that Waiters is one of the first guys on our team to get right up in the opponents face and to stand up for his teammates. He played great defense and took over offensively late in the game. He's a great 6th man for this team.

Supposedly we wanted to trade Josh Gordon, and I think that we all agree that it's a good thing that we didn't.

While probably not to the same degree, I think that it's likely that we will be glad that we didn't trade Waiters either. He has been playing great basketball since the locker room confrontation. I was, and probably might still be, one of only a very few who are glad that he's on the team, and who think that he has a bright future.

It is weird how our guys are so up and down from game to game though.

People just didn't know if he would accept being a bench guy. After that team meeting, it seems Dion has come to grips with playing off the bench. It just took forever for Brown to get a rotation down, and for the guys to learn his defensive scheme.

Dion played great defense too.

Also a comment about Bennett - he has an NBA offensive game. He can shoot from anywhere. His problem is that he's a finesse player built like a guy who should be more physical. If he lost fat I wouldn't mind him trying to space the floor.

Dion has found his groove. Just an FYI he denied that garbage bleacher report rumour.

We got anihalated on the boards tonight. Tristan was no match for Aldridge.

That was a hell of an effort last night. I'm really happy that this team is getting better as the year is going on. I think that's all we really wanted to see.

The way the season is going so far, the NBA playoffs are going to be pretty awesome, and I would love the Cavs to be a part of it.

Yep. With the usual caveat of "as long as we stay healthy", this team could be really interesting by the time the playoffs roll around. Considering that we started out ..... what ...... 4-12? ....... now being 9-15 is rather amazing, and the team has played much better against some high quality teams.

I like the direction we've been going, and I think that we're finally starting to see results on the court.

That's what I'm saying, Golden State makes the class of the conference 4- deep and even the other 4 teams will be watchable first round matchups.

Aside from a possible Cavs playoff series, the first round of the East is going to be boring for me. Pretty much boring until the most likely Indy/Miami final.

Portland and Phoenix definitely are the 2 surprise teams of the league. Everyone thought the suns were tanking once they traded Gortot. I think they have 4 1st rd picks next summer. Dragic and Bledsoe have been a deadly 1-2 punch. I think the Clippers probably regret only getting Reddick and Dudley for him.

I'm watching the Spurs and I'm convinced Greg Popovich is the GOAT coach. I'm dead serious. We will never see a coach like him again.

Man, HUGE game by Kyrie tonight. We were missing Waiters with a sprained wrist, and Kyrie was sick, but he owned this game with 39 points and 6 assists! Tristan had 10 points and 15 boards, and Andy was also a beast on the boards with 13 rebounds. Jack, Clark, and Miles all contributed double digit scoring.

Tough game against a lesser opponent, but they held on for the win.

We're now up to 10-15, which doesn't sound like much, but we have won 6 of our last 9 games, and the games we have lost were to Atlanta, (currently 3rd in the East) Miami, (currently 2nd in the East) and Portland. (2nd in the West)

Considering how top heavy the East is, with only 3 teams having winning records, if we continue to improve, we should be able to make a run to get into playoff position.

The past two cavs games have been the most entertaining for me in 4 years, even with 1 win and 1 loss, good times. I'm glad I finally shelled out for the league pass.

Amazing how we let Carlos Boozer beat us up inside. Chris freaking Bosh makes him look soft for goodness sakes.

Tough night on the back end of 2 in a row. Kinda glad I missed all but the end.

The weird thing is that Bynum looks like he had a great game. It sure looks like he was the only one though.

The Celtics should give me a call.

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ktv75ae

Just don't show them "Hollinger's Analysis" of your trade, lol.

I swear to Moses Kyrie turns the ball over like crazy late in games.

It just baffles my mind.

Nobody will talk about it though. They'll just point out his 40 points and blame the loss on Dion.

I'm so freaking sick and tired of watching these clowns choke away leads at the ends of games.

not to mention his total disregard for playing defense.

it's too much 1-5 basketball. even though Kyrie hit most of his shots in ot, it's not the right way to play. this guy just refuses to get his guys involved late in games. He just seems like another Carmelo, where he will put up great stats, but never win anything.

We definitely need to play better team basketball in key situations. I agree that this has to start with the team leaders, especially Kyrie.

I think this is alot of mike brown's doing...its the same basketball that was played when lebron was here. Problem is kyrie is more mo williams than lebron james

Igor Kokoskov was brought in to essentially be the "offensive coordinator", and he is supposed to be a really bright offensive mind.

It may come that Brown has to be told to work the offense into the plan more. I understand that he wants to get his defense in place, and frankly, his defense has been very good over the years, but he has to let go of the reins a bit on the offensive side and let his assistants do their thing on that side of the court. (much like an offensive minded head coach would rely upon a defensive coordinator and would have more input on the offensive side of the ball)

thats the problem too, the so called "defensive" focus hasn't worked either, we allow 46% Shooting from the field..I wouldn't call that a defensive juggernaut. This team has some serious fundamental and identity flaws. Its not all Mike, but he's a huge reason why. I mean if there is even a glimmer of a chance lebron would come back..I can't see him coming back to this staff the way they are right now..this isn't a very well put together team. The fact that Grant still has a job baffles me. He should have been fired for the bennett pick alone, then again for not sending him to dleague to play his way back into shape and help his confidence..If a front office could have handled a rookie more wrong than we did with that kid, I don't see how. We have some pieces, but I expect ALOT more from a team that has won the lottery as much as we have. You have to start looking at coaching and scheme if you know you have talent. I think Bynum needs to snatch kyries scrawny ass up and say GIVE ME THE BALL. You have a dominant center but yet it seems they have NO CLUE how to get him the ball right.

I think that the fact that they have not yet learned how to get Bynum the ball is a huge problem. Unfortunately, they had no preseason to learn, and so they are, essentially, learning on the job. I would hope that they would be improving by now, but they have actually been getting worse.

I don't see Lebron returning to Cleveland .... no matter how the team does. I think that he sees himself as bigger than Cleveland.

As far as Grant, I think that he has done a decent to above job of picking players for the team. If you look at positions individually, I think that this team has talent.

Unfortunately, I think that a lot of players we have duplicate one another too much, Both Irving and Waiters want the ball. Varejao and Thompson want to play under the hoop. That's fine as long as we can split them up on separate units, but playing them together is problematic.

We added in Bynum and didn't have a preseason to work him into the offense. His 1st real time with the team was in game 1 of the regular season.

I do think that the reason we drafted Bennett was because he wasn't a duplicate player. He was comfortable playing away from the basket in college,and the team hoped that he would be able to do so for the Cavs. That would help with their spacing, and allow players like Waiters and Irving to have lanes to drive. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case, yet anyway. Maybe he works out, and maybe not. I really don't know. However I see the reasoning behind the pick.

I agree with you on Bynum. The team had literally no preseason with him though, so they are learning on the fly.However, even with Brown's devotion to defense, the team still needs time committed to learning the offense, and how to play with a true Center.

I dunno. I want to see how the rest of this season plays out before I make any major decisions on Grant or Brown. I don't think that Lebron is coming back, and I really don't think that he has any real intention of even considering it. We'll have to see what happens though.

Bynum suspended..


Cavaliers suspend Andrew Bynum indefinitely for conduct detrimental to the team


Brett Pollakoff
Dec 28, 2013, 11:08 AM EST

1 Comment

Andrew Bynum
AP


The Andrew Bynum experiment may be nearing its end in Cleveland, as the Cavaliers announced on Saturday that they have suspended the former All-Star big man indefinitely for conduct detrimental to the team.

The official release in its entirety, from the team website:

“Cavaliers center Andrew Bynum has been suspended for conduct detrimental to the team, Cavaliers General Manager Chris Grant announced today. Bynum did not travel with the team to Boston last night for the team’s game this afternoon at 1:00 p.m. vs. the Celtics and has been excused from all team activities indefinitely. His status will be updated as appropriate.”

There are no other details at this time, but as is usually the case in these situations, we’ll find out exactly what went down soon enough.

Bynum has been hit and miss for the Cavaliers on the court this season, at times looking like the dominant center he used to be. But he’s also struggled, including recently going 0-for-11 from the field with zero points in 22 minutes in a loss to the Pistons.

It’s worth noting that if Bynum and the team don’t resolve their differences, it’s more than likely he’ll be unemployed sometime in the next seven days. That’s because Bynum’s contract, a two-year deal worth close to $25 million, is only guaranteed for $6 million through Jan.5.

If he’s waived before then, the Cavaliers aren’t required to pay him the remainder of his deal.

Well doesn't that suck ........

My guess is he feels he still has something to offer a team in the NBA but doesn't see the Cavs going anywhere. Wouldn't surprise me to see him go to Atlanta or Brooklyn.

So another big free agency signing doesn't work out for us, nothing new.

Given the way he's been used, and the fact that he seems frustated by his lack of touches/PT, i can see him wanting out..not the first superstar to want away from Mike brown

I honestly don't know what it is.

However, this was a great opportunity for him. and he could find himself without a team ... or without a nice contract. The Cavaliers could drop him and save every penny of his guarantees going forward for conduct detrimental to the team. I doubt that he wants that.

I think he's shown enough that someone would pick him up pretty quickly