Tribe Front Office Keeps Improving Team.

The Cleveland Indians aren’t kidding around this winter.

Fresh off an American League championship and a trip to the World Series, the ownership and front office of the team have thrown any caution they have had in the past to the wind, and are hell bent on improving the ballclub

All fans were giddy with the addition of one of the game’s most prolific and consistent sluggers in Edwin Encarnacion. He fits perfectly into the middle of Terry Francona’s lineup.

Yesterday, Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff bolstered the already strong bullpen by adding lefty specialist Boone Logan on a one year contract.

Logan is a prototypical LOOGY (left handed one out guy), holding left-handed hitters to a .142 batting average in 2016. In his career, lefties are hitting .233 against him (670 OPS) and he has struck out 34% of them.

His addition should eliminate any need for Francona to use Andrew Miller early in a game, like the 5th or 6th inning, to get a key left-handed hitter. That means Miller and Cody Allen can be used in the last three frames to get the toughest hitters opponents can bring up to the plate.

The Tribe bullpen is deep and they are good. Besides late inning guys Allen, Miller, and Bryan Shaw, Francona has Dan Otero, Logan, and Zack McAllister to work earlier if needed.

And in reserve, he has young arms like Shawn Armstrong, Kyle Crockett, Perci Garner, Nick Goody, Joe Colon, and rule five draftee Hoby Milner that could contribute during the season.

They say statistically a big league team needs ten starting pitchers to complete a season, and the Tribe has depth there as well.

Besides the five current starters (Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar, Trevor Bauer, and Josh Tomlin), the team has Mike Clevinger, Cody Anderson, and Ryan Merritt who will start the season in Columbus.

Since the end of the season, the front office has also added lefty Tim Cooney from St. Louis, who had made six starts for the Cardinals in 2015 before missing last year with calcium deposits in his shoulder. He will provide depth.

And last week, the Indians traded for Carlos Frias from the Dodgers who has made 15 major league starts in his career.

There is no question pitching can be volatile, and as Francona is wont to say, when you think you have enough pitching, you go out and get more.

The front office heeded his advice.

With an offense led by Encarnacion, Francisco Lindor, Jason Kipnis, and Carlos Santana, the Tribe should score enough runs too. Don’t forget they also have Jose Ramirez, and solid role players in Lonnie Chisenhall and Brandon Guyer as well.

And if Michael Brantley can stay healthy and return to being one of the league’s best hitters? The Tribe might just be the team to beat in the AL.

It’s been a long time, probably since 2001, that Cleveland baseball fans could say that.

But in baseball, there are no for sures. There are always injuries, and that’s why you need depth in the organization, which the front office recognized.

This isn’t 2008 or 2014, the last two times the Cleveland Indians made the playoffs. This winter, the organization didn’t rest on its laurels. They added on to the American League Champions.

Defense Is Cavs’ Biggest Issue

The Cleveland Cavaliers are in a funk.

Perhaps it’s an annual thing, because they seem to go through this each of the last two Januarys, or maybe they are simply bored as the season has just passed the halfway point.

Maybe it’s a hangover from the franchise’s first title last summer, and they will be able to turn the switch after the All Star game at the end of February.

Whatever, it’s not very pretty to watch.

Monday’s loss to Dallas was embarrassing. Yes, they are missing two starters due to injury in JR Smith and Kevin Love, but so were the Mavericks, who were without Deron Williams and Andrew Bogut.

Dallas is the third worst team in the Western Conference at 18-30 and have a below .500 record at home. And they played the night before and picked up a huge road win, perhaps their biggest of the year, at San Antonio.

Still, the Cavs couldn’t take advantage. They continue to struggle away from Quicken Loans Arena, dropping to 11-10 on the road for the season.

And while LeBron James continues to say the team needs a backup point guard, the biggest need for the wine and gold is to improve their defense.

Yes, if you play an up tempo game, you are going to give up points in the NBA, but the Cavs have allowed 100 or more points in 13 of the last 14 games. In the first 33 games this season, Cleveland held their opponents under 100 points 13 times.

That’s why in today’s “tryout camp” for veterans that the Cavs are having today, we would look for defense first.

Now, that being said, we don’t want players who don’t have any ability to put the ball in the basket, like say DeAndre Liggins. Those players become liabilities when you have the ball and allow teams to double on James and Kyrie Irving.

However, we would look to sign players who can defend, but also have the ability to score. We understand that sounds like an oxymoron, but Tyronn Lue has players who can shoot at his disposal, guys like Smith, Channing Frye, and Kyle Korver.

But outside of Smith, they are not strong on defense.

What is really needed though is an accountability from the current players on the defensive end. We have seen too many opposing players getting by their defender, which causes someone to help, and that leaves someone wide open on the perimeter.

If the help doesn’t arrive, then it’s a lay up. That is happening far too often, and it isn’t just elite players causing problems. Heck, Dallas had Yogi Farrell, currently on a 10 day contract, and Seth Curry, not Steph Curry, parading to the basket.

That just comes down to personal responsibility. Keep your man in front of you. We know they are capable of doing that, which plays into our boredom argument.

We understand there probably isn’t a real threat to the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference, but that doesn’t mean if these bad habits aren’t curtailed soon, other teams might feel like they have a shot.

Part of the Cavs’ mystique is many other teams are defeated before they take the floor. That’s something they don’t want to lose, and stepping it up on the defensive end is a step in that direction.

Our Annual Plea…Take Best Player With First Overall Pick.

Many people call the period between the college all-star games and the actual NFL draft the silly season because of all the rumors and draft speculation that is posted and talked about.

In Cleveland, the silly season usually manifests itself in many media members talking about getting a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And if you think the Browns should not take a QB with their first pick, which this year happens to be the first overall choice, then you are supposedly kidding yourself because the Browns will never win unless they get the franchise signal caller.

So, we would like to debunk a few myths.

First, we would not pick a QB with the first pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, but there is no question the Browns need a quarterback. Our premise is the same as it has always been, if you have the first pick, you should take the consensus best player, which by all accounts is Texas A&M edge rusher Myles Garrett.

By the way, Cleveland has needed a pass rusher for virtually 50 years. So, you can’t go wrong there.

Second, while it is true that outside of Houston, all the teams that made the playoffs had very good passers, having a good QB doesn’t get you into the playoffs.

New Orleans has Drew Brees, did they get in? What about the Giants, who have Eli Manning? The Chargers have Philip Rivers, surely they got in, right?

The answer in every case is no.

Again, we aren’t saying having a very good quarterback isn’t important, we are simply saying that you need to build around the guy too. So, you need to have other good players besides a QB to win in the NFL.

The most ridiculous argument we hear is that if the Browns really like a certain player, then they should just draft him first overall. They forget that the draft is like a game. You judge where a player may be available, and take him as close as you can to that pick.

We are sure that the Patriots liked something about Tom Brady, otherwise they wouldn’t have selected him at all, but they didn’t take him with their first round pick.

Besides, the Browns have a ton of draft picks to move up if they get nervous about the player they want being chosen.

For example, we happen to like Deshaun Watson from the national champion Clemson Tigers as a QB. No one has him being the first overall pick, so it would be a mistake to take him there.

All you are doing is pushing good players down to the better teams.

Maybe Sashi Brown and Hue Jackson can take him at #12, we would be alright with that. But if they see or hear a team at #9 or #10 is interested, they have the picks to move up to #7 or #8 to select him.

And they would still have the consensus best player coming into the NFL this spring.

Perhaps their intel says Watson would be taken at around #25. Then, they could take the best player on their board at #12, and then move up from the first pick in the second round to grab Watson at let’s say, #23.

You just don’t go crazy and pick the 25th best player in the draft with the first overall pick because you need a quarterback. That’s a recipe for staying mediocre.

How many teams move up to a spot early in the draft to get a top notch quarterback anyway?

We know that Brady with a sixth round choice. The Steelers got Ben Roethlisberger with the 11th overall pick, they didn’t trade up.

Matt Ryan was the third overall pick, but Atlanta didn’t trade up for him. And the fourth team in the conference championships, Green Bay, got Aaron Rodgers because he famously fell to them in the draft.

The Redskins gave up a king’s ransom to get Robert Griffin III in 2012. How did that work out for them? The Rams and Eagles moved up to get Jared Goff and Carson Wentz last year.

The jury is still out.

The Vikings (Christian Ponder), the Jaguars (Blaine Gabbert) and the Bills (E. J. Manuel) all reached for quarterbacks in recent years, trying to get “the guy”. How has that worked out?

We have every expectation that the Browns’ front office will upgrade the quarterback position by the end of the NFL draft, whether by taking a guy they really like, or trading for a young, up and coming player, like Jimmy Garoppolo.

They don’t need to use the first overall pick to do it. In fact, in this year’s draft, it would be the dumbest thing they could do.

January = Drama Month For Cavaliers

It’s the first month of the new year and once again there is drama and anxiousness regarding the city’s professional basketball team.

When you think about it, this has become an annual rite of passage.

In 2015, the team endured LeBron James missing two weeks to basically refresh his body. The Cavs actually dropped below the .500 mark at one point (19-20), and then GM David Griffin traded Dion Waiters and some draft picks for JR Smith, Iman Shumpert, and Timofey Mozgov and the team took off.

Oh, and there was the team bonding bowling trip then coach David Blatt took his squad on.

That team went on to win the Eastern Conference and ultimately lose to Golden State in the NBA Finals.

2016 brought the blowout loss to the Warriors on Martin Luther King Day and the shocking firing of Blatt with the Cavs sitting at 30-11 for the season.

It was a bold move by Griffin, and it turned out to be the right move as well, as the wine and gold went on to win its first NBA title.

So why would you think 2017 would be any different? Apparently, the title doesn’t change everything.

The Cavaliers are going through their first rough patch of the season, losing three of six on a west coast trip and then losing to New Orleans and Sacramento.

The defense has been non-existent and the foul shooting deplorable.

And then LeBron James made comments about the roster and it has been reported that he and owner Dan Gilbert are at odds about the money being spent on improving the roster.

Yep, it’s January alright.

We understand James’ comment about the roster and we believe he is talking more to his teammates than he is to the front office. He is saying that the players can’t continuously look to himself, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love to get things done.

The rest of the team has the ability to make some things happen and they need to step it up.

James keeps talking about another point guard, or playmaker as Griffin says, and we feel another inside defensive presence is a more pressing need. Right now, Tristan Thompson is the only quality interior defender on the roster, and the team certainly could use another big man.

As for the discussion with the owner, we are sure James wants to make sure the luxury tax, of which the Cavs are paying a ton, isn’t a deterrent to defending the title.

James has to believe that the Warriors, Spurs, and any other contenders will add to their roster by the trade deadline, and to be sure, he wants assurances Griffin will not be hamstrung by tax concerns.

But the current roster has to play better too. It seems like a little complacency has set in and right now, the wine and gold have been playing sloppy–too many turnovers and laziness on the defensive end.

They are getting every team’s best shot as the defending champions, and they aren’t responding.

That’s not something Griffin and/or Gilbert can fix. It must come from within the locker room.

We would start by putting Kyle Korver in the starting lineup and putting everyone else back into the roles they were in before Smith went down with his injury.

We would also start giving some minutes to Kay Felder and Jordan McRae, thus cutting back on playing time for James, Irving, and Love.

We may see that as soon as tonight.

Right now isn’t the time to panic. It’s just a normal January for the Cavaliers.

Can NFL/NBA Go Back To Thinking Defense Is Important?

Somebody once said about sports that you never hear crowds chanting for offense, but Defense…Defense is heard many times at the end of both NFL and NBA games.

We realize that this will make us sound like “get off my lawn” guy, but really haven’t things gotten out of control in favor of the offense in both professional football and the NBA?

Watching last weekend’s AFC and NFC Conference Championship games, we realized that these offensives are basically unstoppable and the only way to stop a top notch NFL quarterback is to force him to throw quickly by pressure.

The final score in the NFC was 44-21, while the AFC score was 36-17, a total of 118 points between the four teams.

Ten years ago, still in the era where virtually every rule is in favor of the passing game, the scores were very similar. Indianapolis beat New England 38-34, although it was a battle of all time great quarterbacks in Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, while in the NFC, Chicago (behind Rex Grossman?) beat the Saints, 39-14.

Twenty years ago, the Patriots beat the Jaguars 20-6, and the Packers beat the Panthers 30-13. That’s a total of 69 points.

So, almost 50 more points were scored this weekend in conference championship games! These are supposed to be the best of the best teams.

Thirty years ago, the NFC title game was a shutout, the Giants beat Washington 17-0. It was the third consecutive whitewashing in the NFC. Since then, there has been just one shutout in a conference title game, in 2000, when the Giants beat the Vikings 41-0.

It simply has gotten too easy to throw the football in the NFL. Granted, we had four of the best QBs in the game playing last weekend, but the four combined for 68% completion percentage on 172 throws with 11 touchdowns and just two interceptions.

Do you realize that four of the all time leaders in passing yards are playing right now? They are Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Eli Manning, and Ben Roethlisberger. Add in Peyton Manning, who retired after last season, and that’s half of the top ten.

Two more passers, Philip Rivers and Carson Palmer, are in the next five in terms of yardage.

In basketball, the NBA changed the rules a few years to encourage offense, as the games were beginning to have scores with both teams in the 80s, and it wasn’t an enjoyable game visually.

So, they basically said you can’t hand check the point guards. So, now the sport, once dominated by George Mikan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaquille O’Neil, is controlled by point guards.

Currently, four of the top ten scorers in the NBA are point guards (Russell Westbrook, Isaiah Thomas, James Harden, and Damian Lillard), and two more (Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving) rank 11th and tied for 12th.

Quite frankly, these guys are too quick to guard out of the floor, and with the ability to “carry” the ball, when the opposing team needs a stop, they put it in the hands of one of these guys and they deliver.

To that point, the four guys in the scoring top ten are also in the top ten in terms of free throws attempted, as is Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has the ball in his hands a lot at crunch time.

FYI, twelve players take more free throws than LeBron James. Take that for what it is worth.

We aren’t suggesting going back to the way things were 20-30 years ago, but perhaps the rules restricting defense can be relaxed in both sports, especially in the NFL where the quality of play has declined in recent years.

It used to be said that defense wins championships. Right now, that can be crossed off the sports cliché lists.

Changes, Injuries Hurting Cavs Right Now

The Cleveland Cavaliers still sit at the top of the NBA’s Eastern Conference standings at 30-12, but they’ve hit a little bit of a slump.

They have split their last eight games, six of those coming on a long trip that spanned from Brooklyn to Golden State.

It appears the changes that have occurred to the roster have caught up a bit to Tyronn Lue and the guys in wine and gold.

First, they lost JR Smith to a thumb injury that will keep him out of the lineup until the middle of March at the earliest. That led Lue to replace him with DeAndre Liggins, but he is not a very good outside shooter, and the league figured that out pretty quickly.

That forced Lue to start Iman Shumpert in Smith’s usual spot, which takes away from the defense on the second unit.

For example, Lue started newly acquired Kyle Korver, Channing Frye, Richard Jefferson, and Liggins with LeBron James at the start of the second and fourth quarters, and San Antonio went on runs both times.

Getting Korver is another change for Lue to handle. He doesn’t seem to know exactly how he fits right now, mostly because of the very little practice time the team has had since he arrived.

Perhaps the best thing to do is to start Korver in Smith’s spot and put everyone back in their accustomed spots, the way it was early in the year when the Cavs were rolling.

Another complication has been nagging injuries to two of the “Big Three”, an ankle problem for Kyrie Irving and a back issue for Kevin Love.

Irving is shooting the three ball like he did two years ago, and his assist numbers are the highest since before James returned to the team.

In the seven games right before he hurt his ankle vs. Boston, Irving averaged 24 points and 10 assists per game with slightly less than three turnovers.

Since returning to the lineup, he has played eight games. His scoring is fine at 23.5 points, but his assists are down to 4.5 and his turnovers are over three per night.

He just hasn’t found the groove he was in before the ankle issue.

Love’s back has been bothering him since the New Orleans game the day after New Year’s, and his production has dropping off dramatically.

He has scored over 20 points just once in that span and hasn’t shot over 50% in a game since the Cavaliers beat the Lakers on December 17th.

Besides the back issues, it seems like the Cavs have gotten away from getting Love touches near the basket, as he is relying more and more on three point shots.

In last night’s loss to the Spurs, Love took 15 total shots, 11 of those from behind the arc.

The team needs a healthy Kevin Love to succeed, but the lack of depth at the #4 and #5 spots in the lineup make it tough for that to happen.

We know James has lobbied for a back up point guard, but right now, the weakness that needs to be addressed is interior defense, which hasn’t been good as of late, and really the only player who can be counted on the contribute there is Tristan Thompson.

GM David Griffin needs to get another big, and the sooner the better.

We have faith that Lue will get the rotations down quickly and when Korver is more acclimated to the team, the Cavs will start playing well again soon.

We know what this team is capable of, and the talent is certainly there. They are simply going through a period where a lot of players are nicked up and others have had to change their roles.

Lue and Griffin have earned the trust that they will take care of this. With three home games following Monday’s game in New Orleans, and then five out of the next six on the road, it might be time to right the ship.

Thome In ’18, And Other Hall Of Fame Thoughts

A year from now, Cleveland Indians’ fans will be waiting for the results of the Baseball Hall of Fame voting with great anticipation.

Jim Thome will be eligible for the first time and with over 600 home runs in his career and not even any anecdotal connection to performance enhancing drugs, he should be a strong candidate to get elected next year.

He would be the first player to play the majority of his career in a Cleveland uniform since Larry Doby was inducted in 1998, and we believe he would be the first Indians to be elected by the baseball writers since Lou Boudreau in 1970.

It says a lot about the state of the franchise from 1960-1994 that it has been 46 years since the Tribe had a Hall of Famer that played to the Indians in the prime of his career.

Thome played 55% of his games with Cleveland, and coincidentally hit 55% of his 612 home runs in an Indians’ uniform. He also played every one of his games with the Tribe through age 31.

He belted 200 more long balls with the Indians than he did with any other team.

Omar Vizquel will also be eligible for the first time, although he likely will not get in on his first year on the ballot.

The shortstop, best known for his defense, won 11 Gold Gloves and managed to get 2877 hits in his long career. He was a solid offensive player through age 39 with the Giants when he hit .295 with a 749 OPS.

With Trevor Hoffman and Vlad Guerrero just missing enshrinement this year and Chipper Jones being eligible for the first time along with Thome, it may be tough for all four to make it into the Hall.

That makes it doubly tough for Vizquel in 2018.

As for yesterday’s results, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens received over 50% of the vote for the first time, and only three players who attained that level did not finally get into Cooperstown.

Many experts are saying the increase is due to younger voters, who didn’t cover the game in the “Steroid Era”.

Our opinion is they should talk to the writers who did cover the sport then and talk about what happened. This is a situation where the statistics do not tell the entire story.

We weren’t alive when Lincoln was assassinated, but we know what happened. Not doing the research is not doing your due diligence.

Those players blatantly cheated, and we understand some players who used may already be enshrined, like Ivan Rodriguez and Jeff Bagwell. We would not have voted for Pudge, who was mentioned in Jose Canseco’s book.

There is nothing that concrete on Bagwell.

After watching the last installment of Ken Burns’ documentary on the game, which addresses the best hitter and pitcher of that generation using PEDs, we can’t understand how anyone could vote for either after watching.

And yes, they were great players before they took performance enhancers, but that doesn’t mean you should overlook that they used.

What they did wasn’t fair to the players who didn’t use, and their accomplishments have hindered the candidacies of players like Fred McGriff, Jeff Kent, and Mike Mussina.

Hopefully, a year from now, we will have cause to celebrate Jim Thome, the first true Tribe player in a generation to make the Hall of Fame.

Another thing many of us have never seen in our lifetime.

Cavs Loss Last Night? Not A Huge Deal.

If you are a fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers, you have to be disappointed in last night’s 126-91 defeat at the hands of the Golden State Warriors.

There were some things to be concerned about for GM David Griffin and coach Tyronn Lue, but not to be simplistic, but when you shoot 34% and your opponent shoots 53%, you will probably lose.

As LeBron James says, it’s a shot making league, and last night Golden State made theirs, and the Cavaliers did not.

The schedule also didn’t do the wine and gold any favors. The home team was really the home team as Steve Kerr’s team hasn’t left the state of California since they lost in Cleveland on Christmas Day.

On the other hand, the Cavs were on the last game of a six game trip that started in Brooklyn. They didn’t have their legs and it showed.

That doesn’t mean the Cavaliers should be happy this morning, but they shouldn’t be overreaction either.

One of the ways the wine and gold have played well against the Warriors is they have been able to control the tempo, and they have done this by making shots and not letting Golden State get out and run.

When the Warriors fast break, they take a lot of three point shots in transition, and they did that with a few minutes remaining in the first quarter, when Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant started draining threes in transition.

So, not only did the poor shooting kill the Cavs offensively, which is obvious, but it also hurt them defensively, which was a hidden problem.

And though it will sound like sour grapes, the Warriors continued their habit of fouling virtually every time down the floor, hoping the referees will not call them all, and that influenced the misses of many shots, particularly those near the basket.

The other thing in Cleveland’s favor is they did not have JR Smith, and we know that Griffin is not done tinkering with the wine and gold’s roster. He understands his team needs another big man and another playmaker, and we have all the faith in the world that the GM will solve both of those needs.

To be fair, we are sure the Warriors will make a move to add to their roster as well.

Remember, the Cavaliers got blown out at home on Martin Luther King Day a year ago. What happened at the end of the season? A championship. That’s why no one should overreact to what happened yesterday.

If you feel the need to be concerned, worry about the injury to Smith, and getting Kyle Korver up to speed both offensively, but also in the team’s defensive concepts.

Be concerned that DeAndre Liggins’s usefulness is becoming lessened by the game. He cannot shoot, and the opposition knows it. They aren’t guarding him. He also struggles defending players without the ball.

On the other hand, the season is far from over. The playoffs don’t start for three months, and there is plenty of time to improve.

Last year, the Cavs found out after game two of The Finals that they needed to make some adjustments. They did and they won the title.

So, excuse us if we aren’t worried about a game in January against a team the Cavs defeated four consecutive games before yesterday.

In Public, Cavs Take The High Road

Tomorrow evening, the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers take on the Golden State Warriors in a renewal of the rivalry that has developed since the two teams met for the NBA title in 2014-15.

Steve Kerr’s Warriors won that one in six games, and immediately after Draymond Green commented before their victory parade that the Cavs “sucked”.

Before the Warriors played their regular season game in 2015-16 at Quicken Loans Arena, Stephen Curry said he hoped the visitor’s locker room still smelled like champagne.

Did we mention that when Golden State won the championship, they defeated a Cleveland team without Kevin Love for the entire series, and without Kyrie Irving for all but the first game.

We believe that anyone would rank those two in the top 30 NBA players currently in the league.

Then in last year’s Finals after taking a 3-1 series lead, Klay Thompson of the Warriors commented that LeBron James may have gotten his feelings hurt in Game 4, won by Golden State.

Klay’s squad never won another game in the series.

Thompson commented this week that the Cavs’ actions after coming back to win the title last summer were childish.

Reportedly, at a Halloween Party thrown by James, there were cookies with tombstones with Warriors’ players names on them, and you had to walk over a doll in the likeness of Curry to get through the entrance.

On the other hand, publicly, you never hear a Cavalier player say anything bad about the team they played in each of the last two Finals.

James went out of his way after Friday night’s win over Sacramento to say Golden State has been the best team in the league over the last two years, and the Cavs were just trying to get better.

Some joy from the Cavaliers gets out every once in a while, like Thompson mocking Green’s comments the year prior during the Cleveland victory parade, but for the most part, the Cavs give the Warriors the respect they deserve as a great team.

You just don’t hear that out of the Golden State players, and even Steve Kerr mocked the Quicken Loans Arena scoreboard last week. (NOTE: We think “The Diff” is stupid too.)

On the other hand, James talks up the other players in the league a lot. Perhaps he is using it to soften his opponents, but we genuinely believe he is a fan of the game, and respects the talents of other great players.

When asked earlier in the year about averaging a triple-double, James said he doubted he could do it now, but quickly added that Russell Westbrook could.

Granted we get more coverage of the Cavs than the Warriors, but when was the last time you heard Curry or another Golden State player comment about how good another player in the NBA was?

We also believe other people involved in the NBA are getting tired of the hype surrounding Golden State. Recently, Clippers’ coach Doc Rivers reminded the press that the Warriors have only won one title.

Some of this stems from ESPN’s continuing coverage of anything blue and gold, despite “defending champs” missing from the Golden State story. Some of that is due to the high profile free agent signing of Kevin Durant this summer.

And of course, the four letter network loves to climb on a bandwagon.

If the Cavs win tomorrow, we are sure the players will talk about a great win against a great team to finish off a long trip.

If the Warriors win, we are anxious to see if there will be any humility after losing the title last season. Or will they trash talk some more giving James and his teammates more motivation if the two teams meet for a third time in June.

Either way, the newest rivalry in professional basketball writes another chapter tomorrow. It’s not just another game.

Is LeBron Getting Enough Rest?

The Cleveland Cavaliers seem to be conducting an experiment with LeBron James this season.

With James turning 32 years old at the end of December, one of the favorite things for fans and media alike to debate is rest for The King.

LeBron is currently third in the NBA in average minutes per game, behind only Toronto’s Kyle Lowry and Minnesota’s Zach LeVine, playing slightly over 37 minutes per night, an increase of about a minute and a half more than a year ago.

On the other hand, James doesn’t rank in the top 20 in the league in minutes played for the season, as a result of sitting out three games already this season, and we are sure there are more to follow.

The experiment is this…what is better for the athlete, reducing minutes on a nightly basis, or having the player just not play on certain nights. That way, he doesn’t warm up, doesn’t get mentally prepared to play. It’s just a complete day off.

We understand that Tyronn Lue has said all along that a reduction in James’ minutes would occur in January and February when the schedule got a little contracted, but on this current trip, the least minutes in a game for #23 was the 35 he played in Brooklyn on the first game on the roadie.

Right now, James doesn’t show any signs of fatigue and the guy is obviously a physical freak. He doesn’t seem to get tired, even at the end of games.

While San Antonio is famous for starting the concept of giving players game days off, sitting Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili when the schedule got heavy, Gregg Popovich also cut the players minutes per game.

At age 32, Duncan played 32.7 minutes per night, while at the same ages, Parker played 28.7 and Ginobili also spent 28.7 minutes on the floor per game.

Obviously, the goal is to have James fresh through the middle of June as the wine and gold defend their championship. The concern is with The King getting older, can he take on the heavier minutes per night, and still be his dominant self throughout the playoffs.

We are sure there are constant conversations with Lue, James, and the training staff about how the player feels, and the organization has done studies on what is the proper way to keep a high caliber NBA athlete fresh after they have reached the age of 30.

We also know that LeBron James doesn’t care about chasing a regular season win record. He understands the ultimate prize is winning another title, and he knows the most important thing is to be healthy and strong in April, May, and June.

We should have learned by now that comparing LeBron James to other athletes doesn’t make sense. He is a freak of nature. As someone once said about guarding him, “if you are big enough, you aren’t quick enough, and if you are quick enough, you aren’t big enough”.

We also believe the Cavs will have the first overall seed in the East wrapped up sooner than they did this year, which should mean a lesser load for James toward the end of the year.

That should get James some fresher legs heading into the post-season.

If James appears tired in the playoffs, then the Cavaliers will have to adjust their plan going into next season. However, if he is dominant through the last game of the season, then it will be even more evidence that The King is incomparable.