Maybe Cavs Need Fit More Than Talent.

By the end of this month, it is very likely the roster of the Cleveland Cavaliers will look quite different. The Cavs have the third pick in the draft, and rumors persist of a trade coming involving leading scorer Collin Sexton.

While it may be absurd to many people for a team with one of the worst records in the league over the last three years to move their best player, you have to remember that basketball is not a sport where the best talent wins all the time, there has to be a good fit.

You can’t take players’ statistics and add them together when talking about possibilities. For example, a team made up of Stephen Curry, Bradley Beal, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jayson Tatum, the leading scorers at their respective positions, would not average 146 points per game, which is the accumulation of their scoring averages in 2020-21.

To go really old school, the 1967-68 Los Angeles Lakers won 52 games and went to the NBA Finals behind two of the great players of the era, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. They also had Archie Clark, who averaged 19.9 points that year. Clark was a prolific scorer, with a career scoring mark of 16 points per contest, with a high season of 25 PPG.

That off-season, the Lakers, feeling they needed something to push them over the top, combat Boston and Bill Russell, and win their first title in LA, traded Clark, center Darrell Imhoff and Jerry Chambers to Philadelphia for Wilt Chamberlain, who we still believe is the greatest center in NBA history.

Surely, the combination of three all time greats would lead to a championship.

The addition of Wilt the Stilt got the Lakers back to The Finals, where they again lost to Boston in 1968-69. Chamberlain missed all but 12 regular seasons the following season, but was back for the playoffs, where again LA lost in seven games to the New York Knicks.

After a loss in the conference finals to Milwaukee in ’70-’71 (Baylor was injured and retired early the following season), the Lakers inserted Jim McMillan in the starting lineup for Baylor and the team became unbeatable, going on a 33 games winning streak (still the all-time record), and won a then league record 69 games and won the title.

McMillan was a good player, not a great one (18.8 points, 6.5 rebounds in the championship season), but was a perfect fit for that team.

The Cavaliers are a losing team, winning 19, 19, and 22 games the last three seasons, and although Sexton was the leading scorer the past two years, he wasn’t the Cavs’ leader in win shares in any of the years he has been on the team. The first two years it was Larry Nance, and last season it was Jarrett Allen.

Based on this, we can see why the Cleveland front office is hesitant to give Sexton a contract extension, and may feel moving him now to bring in some pieces who might fit better with guys like Darius Garland, Allen, and whoever the wine and gold take with the third overall pick.

Although it is difficult to believe, it isn’t always about the talent in basketball, it’s about how that talent fits and the combination of players can play off of each other.

Look at the transformation Chris Paul made with Phoenix. His presence changed the dynamic of the roster.

That happens a lot in the NBA, and could be the answer in Cleveland. We understand that thinking.

Personal List: Our Top Ten NBA Players

Since we are without live sports and we are reduced to watching old games in each of our favorite sports these days, we have seen a lot of lists, trying to generate some conversations.

We recently wrote a piece about the way players seem to be evaluated in basketball these days, and whether or not you regarded that as “old man ranting” or not, we think many of the ways used by younger fans isn’t correct.

All that said, we decided to put together our list of the best ten players in NBA history.

1. Michael Jordan. For much of our life, we regarding Wilt Chamberlain as the best ever, but watching Jordan win six titles in eight years won us over. We know this isn’t a popular opinion, but Scottie Pippen was a very good player, but he isn’t a Top 50 All Time player without being on the same team as Jordan.

Remember, in the second season Jordan was away playing baseball, the Bulls were slightly over .500. They won three more titles when MJ returned.

2. LeBron James. First, it is not a disgrace to be the second best player of all time, and we can understand people thinking getting to nine NBA Finals is a greater feat than winning six championships.

James is probably the greatest athlete to play in the league, and he certainly has dragged his share of poor supporting casts to The Finals (2007, 2018). And remember, he may wind up as the all time scoring leader, and still is regarded as a playmaker, first and foremost.

3. Wilt Chamberlain. The most dominant force ever. Averaged 50 points per game in a season, 44 per night in another, and over 35 a game in three more. And led the league in assists in 1967-68.

As for comments that he played against plumbers? Take a look at the careers of players like Walt Bellamy and Nate Thurmond. And he more than held his own when he was in his mid-30’s vs. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

4. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The all time leading scorer and played effectively in the league into his 40’s. His sky hook might have been the most unstoppable weapon in league history. However, didn’t average over 10 rebounds per game after the ’80-’81 season.

5. Bill Russell. Greatest winner in NBA history winning 11 titles in 13 seasons. But, let’s not forget he had a lot of great teammates: Bob Cousy, Sam Jones, Tom Heinsohn, John Havlicek. He changed the game though, by showing defense and shot blocking can be as important as scoring.

6. Oscar Robertson. The “Big O” had five seasons in his career where he scored 30 points and dished out 10 assists per game. And at age 35, still scored 14 points a game and dished out 9 assists for a Milwaukee team (with Abdul-Jabbar) that lost in the NBA Finals.

Of course, had the first “triple double” season his second year in the league.

7. Larry Bird and 8. Magic Johnson. We put these two together because they ushered in an era where it was cool to pass again. We put Bird slightly ahead because he was the better scorer (four seasons over 25 per game).

Johnson was the first big guy (6’9″) to play the point, and he controlled the game for the Showtime Lakers. Bird averaged 10 boards and 6 assists, Johnson 11 assists and 7 boards. And they were the greatest rivalry in the NBA over a half dozen years.

9. Tim Duncan. The greatest power forward ever, and the best player on four of the Spurs’ five championship teams. Averaged 16 points and 9 rebounds a game in the playoffs at age 37 for championship #5. Did it in just under 33 minutes per game.

10. Jerry West. The guy is the freakin’ logo for the NBA. Four seasons of over 30 points per game, three seasons over 8 helpers. At 33-years-old, led the Lakers to a 69-13 record (then the best ever), scoring 25.8 points and passing out 9.7 assists.

The next ten in no particular order would include Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Bob Pettit, Kevin Garnett, and Julius Erving, Karl Malone, and Rick Barry.

Being an experienced NBA fan, we’ve seen all of these players in action. It has been a great league for a long time, not just the last 20 years.

Evaluation Of NBA Players Is Different Today.

With “The Last Dance” airing on ESPN the past two weeks, the age old who’s better, Michael Jordan or LeBron James, has reared up once again.

Our opinion is Jordan, but we don’t dismiss the James argument, as LeBron might be the most gifted athlete to ever play in the NBA. And although Jordan has won six titles, James has been to The Finals nine times.

Only three players have been to more: Bill Russell, Sam Jones, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

What we have thought about is the way evaluating great players has changed in the last 20 years of professional basketball.

Keep in mind, we’ve followed the NBA since the late 1960’s.

Too Much Emphasis On Rings. Ring counting has been en vogue since Jordan started winning them, but it doesn’t seem fair anymore.

First, the player movement is greater than ever particularly among the league’s best talents. Could Oscar Robertson have won more rings had he decided to sign with the Celtics in his prime?

Or let’s say Wilt Chamberlain went to the Royals when they had Oscar and Jerry Lucas. Could they have knocked off the Russell-led Celtics?

This isn’t to criticize today’s players it is just to point out free agency wasn’t available in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s, and it is more prevalent that it was in the 80’s and 90’s.

The other part of the ring debate is the Draymond Green/Charles Barkley argument. Green is a very good player, and a key piece of Golden State’s three titles in four years.

However, there is no universe around where Green is a better player than Barkley. End of discussion.

Besides, how do the ring counters evaluation players like Robert Horry (7 rings) and Steve Kerr (5 rings)?

Style Over Substance. Today’s game seem to be more about the spectacular play rather than the winning play. There is room for both in the game, but since this is professional sports, shouldn’t the emphasis be on team success?

Early this year, we saw repeated replays of Memphis rookie Ja Morant trying to dunk on the Cavs’ Kevin Love.

First, we love Morant’s game, and think he will be a great player in the league for many, many years.

However, A). He missed the dunk, and B). The Grizzlies lost the game.

When was the last time a player on a team with one of the five worst records in the NBA was voted as a starter in the All Star Game? Prior to Trae Young being voted in this season, that is?

There used to be discussion that certain players probably should be in the game, but their teams weren’t any good. And maybe they did get a spot, but they didn’t start.

That’s changed now.

The Past Is Forgotten. Actually, baseball is the only sport where fans embrace the history of the game as much as they should.

So when the subject of the greatest players ever comes up, heck, sometimes even Larry Bird and Magic Johnson get omitted, so guys like Rick Barry, Bob Pettit, West, and Robertson have no chance.

Even ex-players do it. This past week, Kendrick Perkins said Kevin Durant is the greatest player ever to wear a Warriors’ uniform. The same Warriors who once employed Wilt Chamberlain and Barry.

The “It Happened Once” Theory. We find it amusing when fans cite things that happened once to predict the future.

A couple good examples relating to the Cavs were accumulating lottery draft picks worked for Oklahoma City, when they drafted Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden as high picks. Tell me where else it worked?

Also, the Cavs can play Collin Sexton and Darius Garland together because it works for Portland with Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. Again, tell me other teams having success playing two small guards.

What is sad is so many truly great players are forgotten in today’s day and age. Are the size and physical attributes of today’s players greater? Of course. But the way the game is officiated today is more advantageous to smaller players, and the truly great players would have adjusted, the same as today’s players would have adapted to the way things were.

It’s been a great game for many years, not just since 1995.

Cavs Defense Might Need A Legitimate Center.

It is no secret that the NBA is going small.

In the 60’s and 70’s, it was thought that you couldn’t win in the league without a dominant big man.

The Celtics were led by Bill Russell, and the only man who could challenge him in those days was Wilt Chamberlain. Then came Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton. Even in the late 70’s when the Washington Bullets and Seattle Supersonics were exchanging titles, the Bullets had Wes Unseld and the Sonics had Jack Sikma.

The only anomaly was 1975 when the Warriors led by Rick Barry won the title.

Yes, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird dominated the 80’s, but those teams still had Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Parish manning the middle. And the Isiah Thomas led Pistons had a very good center in Bill Laimbeer.

It wasn’t until Michael Jordan won with the Bulls was the center not a factor, but the Rockets won with Hakeem Olajuwon, and after Jordan retired, Shaquille O’Neal was the dominant force in the sport.

Despite all this history, the Cavs seem to have no desire to have a true center on the roster.

Even Golden State, the poster boys for today’s NBA have centers on the roster with Zaza Pachulia starting and JeVale McGee backing him up.

Cleveland has no seven footer on the roster. Their tallest players are 6’11” Channing Frye, who is really a stretch four, and rookie Ante Zizic, who has garnered just 21 minutes on the season, mostly in mop up roles.

Tristan Thompson plays a lot of center, but he is just 6’9″ and not really a shot blocker. Kevin Love, ideally a power forward, also gets some time in the pivot.

By contrast, Pachulia and McGee log about 22 minutes per night for the Warriors.

The other elite teams in the NBA also have centers. Houston has Nene (6’11”) and Clint Capela (6’10”) who averages 1.6 blocks per night in 24 minutes.

Oklahoma City has seven footer Steven Adams, and in the East, the Wizards have Marcin Gortat and Toronto has Jonas Valenciunas.

And we haven’t mentioned Marc Gasol (Memphis) and Pau Gasol (San Antonio).

When Timofey Mozgov departed via free agency after the 2015-16 championship season, so did any interior defensive force Tyronn Lue had at his disposal.

To be fair, the Cavs did sign Chris Andersen and Andrew Bogut a year ago to play that role, but both were injured shortly after arriving in town.

We understand Lue wants his squad to play with pace and be able to spread the floor to open up driving lanes for LeBron James, Derrick Rose, and Dwyane Wade.

That seems to negate the need for a traditional center, however, there are times when you have to put a legitimate rim protector on the floor.

Right now, opposing teams know there is no penalty in getting to the basket against Cleveland.

We know James is a master at the chase down block, and Wade is a very good shot blocker for a guard, but it’s not quite the same.

If there is one thing that should be on GM Koby Altman’s “to do” list, it should be to get a legitimate inside defensive force.

Thompson is more known for his ability to defend away from the basket on pick and rolls, and his offensive rebounding ability than as an interior defender, and Lue doesn’t seem to want to develop Zizic.

The Cavs need to improve their defensive schemes and principals for sure, but getting someone who can clog the middle and discourage a parade to the rim for the opponents in needed too.

The wine and gold seem to have forgotten that fact.

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.

Why Can’t Some NBA Players Finish the Season?

The NBA season is no doubt a marathon. It starts with training camps in October and if a team is lucky enough to get to The Finals, it doesn’t end until the end of June.

The eight months of traveling, and unlike baseball, the trips are just in and out of a city. They don’t allow players to stay in a city for three or four days, depending on the length of a series.

However, like they usually do, the star players are making the last few weeks of the season a joke, in that many of them take the last few games off. Just the other day, LeBron James said he was going to take the balance of the regular season off, to order to rest up for the playoffs.

James took time off here at the end of the season too. Apparently, he will be joined on the bench by Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, his teammates on the Heat.

We aren’t picking on them, because you will see a great many all-star caliper players missing games throughout the last week of the campaign.

And if the playoffs started tomorrow, they would be able to go. They aren’t injured, they are resting.

David Stern, the ~~dictator~~ commissioner, in a high-profile move (the kind he loves) fined the San Antonio Spurs $250,000 for telling Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker to go home at the end of a road trip, therefore missing a game against the Heat.

Why no action here, Mr. Stern?

The NBA season used to be much shorter, and players didn’t miss the last week of action.

In 1966-67, the season opened on October 15th and the regular season ended March 19th, cutting at least two weeks off the span in which the season is currently played in. However, of the first team All-NBA team that season, which included Rick Barry, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, and Jerry West, only West missed games toward the end of the year, and he played the last game, scoring one point.

The current players don’t want to have reduced minutes, because it will hurt their statistics, and they certainly don’t want that. Guess West didn’t care about his numbers.

In 1976-77, the season started about a week ahead of where it starts now and ends about a week sooner as well. Four of the league’s first team all-NBA players (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, David Thompson, Paul Westphal, and Elvin Hayes) played more than 80 regular season games. The other, Pete Maravich played till the end, but missed time in March with an injury.

Ten years later, 1986-87, the league was on its current timetable of starting around Halloween and ending around April 20th. The first team stars that year were Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Kevin McHale, and Hakeem Olajuwon. McHale did miss some April games, but returned to play the last couple of contests. Jordan and Johnson each played over 80 games, with Jordan playing them all.

In 1996-97, the least amount of games played by the best players, who were Jordan, Olajuwon, Tim Hardaway, Karl Malone, and Grant Hill, were the 78 played by Olajuwon. Even Hill, whose career has been destroyed by injuries, played in 80 contests that season.

So, when did this sitting out the last couple of weeks start? It’s a slap in the face to the ticket buyers around the league that the stars aren’t playing the late season games.

Why doesn’t Stern do anything about it. The first round of the playoffs has a tremendous amount of days off built in, so players certainly are able to rest during this time.

It doesn’t help that most of the playoff spots have been decided in each conference for several weeks.

If what Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich did early in the year bothers the commish, so should this. If the players aren’t going to play, then the regular season should be shortened.

Passin’ Pat Ignores the Run, Which Was Working.

Cookie Monster loves cookies.

Wilt Chamberlain loved the ladies.

Pat Shurmur loves the forward pass.

Earlier during the high school football season, St. Ignatius coach Chuck Kyle said his best defense against Mentor QB Mitch Trubisky was the running game because if his team had the ball, it would be difficult for Trubisky to operate.

Perhaps Shurmur should have heeded Kyle’s advice today against the great Peyton Manning, because Manning put on a passing clinic, going 20 of 43 for 339 yards, starting from the opening drive of the game until he was mercifully taken out of the game with the Broncos well in command 34-12, which was the final score.

Judging by the score of the game, you would think the Browns needed to play catch up all day long, and although they did trail from the first drive of the game on, it was still a two score game at 21-6 heading into the fourth quarter.

Cleveland’s best chance would have been to control the clock with the running game, mixing in the pass, and the Browns did run the ball effectively when they put it into the hands of Trent Richardson and Montario Hardesty. They averaged five yards per carry as a team and even if you take away Colt McCoy’s 15 yard scramble at the end of the game, Richardson still picked up almost six yards a pop (9 carries for 53 yards), and Hardesty toted the pigskin three times for 14 yards (4.7 per rush).

Unfortunately, they only ran the ball 18 times for the game and only 14 of those were by design.

We get that it’s a passing league, and the most successful teams have explosive passing attacks, but think about this–the Broncos have a guy going to the Hall of Fame in Manning, and their running back, Knowshon Moreno carried the football 22 times.

Passin’ Pat and his aerial circus. That’s what the Browns should be nicknamed.

Instead, the coach decided to let Manning run 75 plays from scrimmage and have the ball seven more minutes than his team, exposing a secondary depleted by injuries to T. J. Ward, Tashaun Gipson and Sheldon Brown, and the odd release of Dimitri Patterson during the week, to his sophisticated passing attack.

After watching this game, does anyone still want to address the quarterback situation in the 2013 draft?

It is obvious that the Browns need help in the secondary because Manning pretty much stayed away from Joe Haden most of the time and instead looked where Brown was lined up before the veteran was injured in the second quarter.

The defense also needs another pass rusher because they couldn’t get near Manning hitting him only a couple of times on the afternoon.

Besides forgetting about the run, the defense couldn’t help the offense get the ball back, allowing 9 of 15 third down conversions, and two of those stops came with back up QB Brock Osweiler in the game.

And for those who predicted the Denver pass rushing duo of Von Miller and Elvis Dumervil would dominate, the Broncos only recorded two sacks while the game was in doubt, before they were able to tee off on McCoy, who replaced starter Brandon Weeden, who left with an injured shoulder after the second of those sacks with the score 21-6.

Weeden played well for the most part, particularly on the first two drives of the game, in which the Browns mixed in the run, hitting on 12 0f 19 throws for 104 yards. The Browns used a bootleg pass in which he completed a pass to TE Benjamin Watson, but that play (unlike the Redskins last week) was never seen again.

This ignorance of the run didn’t start last week. If the Browns did an internal audit, they would see their best games were the ones where they had a balanced offense. But too many times, Passin’ Pat goes back to what he loves, throwing the short pass.

It was funny that one of Weeden’s long completions to Greg Little, a 21 yard strike in the second quarter came off play action. However, if you stop running the ball, using play action has no effect.

Next week, the Browns will likely end the season without Weeden and Richardson, who injured an ankle late in the game (why was he in?), so critics of the two rookies will get what they want, a lot of McCoy and Hardesty.

After a three game winning streak, the Cleveland Browns have laid two gigantic eggs. It makes the decision that Jimmy Haslam and Joe Banner will make after next Sunday’s game a little bit easier.