...the heart, soul and brains of the Cavs. They are a top 3 lottery team without him. The lack of fortitude on that team (including the coach) without LeBron is disgusting. The Cavs front office, coaching staff and team (except LeBron) should be blown up and rebuilt from scratch. That franchise is a borderline trainwreck that, by pure luck of the lottery in 2003, is being salvaged by one player. When Tracy went down against the Lakers, even our soft Rockets responded with some heart. When LeBron went down against the Pistons, the whole Cavs organization was indicted by their effort. Effective last night, I want LeBron to leave them when his contract allows. The Duke Blue Devils wouldn't have been outscored 61-31 in one half. professorjay, I continue to empathize with Cleveland fans of all sports, especially the NBA fans.
Agreed 100%. I looked at the score and figured something must have happened to LBJ. The Cavs were only down by 5 or 6 at the half, and completely imploded when he sat out the second half. It's sad that the best player in the league has to carry the WHOLE team for 82 games. They have absolutely no offensive weapons. Take LeBron off the team and you get a 30 point blowout - in one half. The team should be completely rebuilt (if that means exceeding the luxury tax, so be it) while LeBron is young. Or he could just opt out, which is what I hope he does. There is absolutely no reason he should stay. The coach is utterly incompetent. The front office is incapable of surrounding LBJ with decent players. And Varejao is a little b*itch.
Cleveland has very poor management. They lost Boozer the first time and Varejao this time. They failed to bring Lebron ANY help, and the only decent Lebron has is Daniel Gibson, which was by pure luck! I agree Cleveland would be a top lottery pick w/o Lebron but that's what happens when you lose one of the best players in the league. Tmac's Orlando would have been just as bad without McMCgraDy.
The big problem with the Cavs isn't not having Boozer or Varejao. Their bigs (Ilgauskus, Howard) are actually pretty good. It's the horrid guard play that's been hurting them. All that money they paid to Larry Hughes is the big blunder.
Cleveland is actually in pretty good shape as far as rebuilding, if they play their cards right. http://www.hoopshype.com/salaries/cleveland.htm They don't have salary committed to ANYBODY after 09/10, except for Cedric Simmons's rookie contract. Here's what I think the Cavs should do: Next season, Try to parlay Eric Snow's, Donyell Marshall's, and Damon Jones's expiring contracts into a halfway decent point guard or a shooter that can feed off LeBron's penetration. Re-sign Drew Gooden. He and Big Z are the only two semi-productive players on that team besides LeBron. Get on their knees and BEG Lebron to use his player option for 10/11, with the promise of either trading Larry Hughes or using his salary to sign a free agent. Draft a center to replace Ilgauskas.
Preach on, brother. What's scaring me is that Lebron looks like he's headed down KG's path: years of carrying your team w/ marginal improvements in the roster, only to leave after years of loyalty because the team still couldn't get it's **** together. Last night in chat someone mentioned how Lebron wasn't half the passer Tmac is. They're in the same league at the very least. Case in point - Lebron gets 13 assist and his teammates put up 24, 16, and 15 pts in a win over the Boston Celtics who at the time had only one loss. Fast forward to the Detroit game, a team probably not as good as the Celtics, Lebron gets injured, and he's STILL the leading scorer w/ a measly 15 points. They get blown out by 35 points. The next highest scorer is Pavlovic w/ 13 points. The Cavaliers as an organization would be at the bottom of the league filing for bankruptcy if it weren't for Lebron. You can hate on him for all the money he makes, but he's saved an entire franchise from being wiped off the map to being in the spotlight every night on Sports Center. And he's given die hard Cavs fans something to cheer for since the Price/Daugherty days. I CAN'T BELIEVE WE TRIED TO BUILD AROUND A 400 LB SHAWN KEMP AND FINANCIALLY HANDCUFFED THE FRANCHISE FOR THE NEXT FEW YEARS.
