Wednesday, April 18, 2007

cavs question

so, ben -- i remember you saying that repeating a 50-win season would be a disappointment for cleveland. what are your thoughts now, knowing that 50 wins is only 3 wins behind Detroit, that it (just barely) got them a sweetheart schedule in the playoffs, and earned larry hughes his million dollar bonus ?? bulls/heat is going to be an incredible rematch from last year...

2 comments:

datageneral said...

It's still a disappointment overall. Sure, the Cavs have the best of all possible scenarios in this year's playoff, but that outcome was largely fortuitous, depending as it did on the Bulls' improbable loss.

The big picture of this season, regardless of what happens (and I would include a finals appearance and exempt ONLY a championship, which is so outlandish as to be completely dismissable), is that the Cavs kind of max out at 50-53 wins with their current lineup. Lebron is great, but he ain't Jordan.

I was hoping at the beginning of the year that Hughes or someone would really step up and that Brown would get a little more inventive with the offense (I just don't think he has it in him, and perhaps neither does the team).

The improvement on defense was nice, but it didn't translate into more wins in the end. There is a certain transcendental quality still deeply lacking.

ted said...

Yes, it's a disappointment. Because clearly as we stand we have reached our ceiling. Which obviously isn't good enough. I think we might even make the finals (unlikely, but possible), but I wouldn't give the Cavs a chance at all against not only the West's big 3, but probably not against Utah or Houston either. Hell, Denver would give them a run for their money in a 7 game series.

I think after last season our ceiling wasn't apparent. Maybe Hughes was going to get past his injuries and be the player we supposedly signed? Nope. Maybe...I can't really think of anything else that could have gotten significantly better...Eric Snow would have a career-ending boating accident? Nope.

Anyhow, I also have been a big Mike Brown detractor since about halfway through his first season. Yeah, maybe he was brought in to improve the D, which I guess has happened. But the Cavs literally don't have an offensive gameplan. Seriously. Do not. How is that possible? I remember watching a recent game, I belive the last regular season game against the Heat, and on their first offensive play they attempted to run a high screen (seriously the first time I've seen that all season) and I'm not joking when I say two players fell down. Then they didn't run an actual play for the rest of the game.

But we have no chance of improving the roster in the next couple years (what would we really get back in a Varejao or Pavlovic trade?) and I don't foresee a coaching change. Even that would probably yield only 3-5 more wins. Which would not make them a good enough team to win a championship.

It's a disappointment because this season showed that this team is what it is, and that LeBron ain't brining a championship home to Cleveland before he departs for greener pastures. Maybe if we had any draft picks or our payroll wasn't completely fucked for the foreseeable future...But, nope.