Center for American Athletic Progress

Just a reminder, we're over here most of the time now:

CFAAP.COM

Thanks!

Ryan

Cavalier Thoughts on the NBA Draft, starting with the second pick...

I’m re-upping the Cavalier Thoughts of an Overreative Realist blog…because I’m admittedly about to go way overboard. (I also posted it on the new picture blog — Center for American Athletic Progress.)

Thoughts on the NBA Draft, starting with the second pick.

What I think happened:

I think that Chris Grant wanted to add both Jonas and Tristan, and I think he picked the wrong one first. Toronto was universally considered a lock to pick a point guard by the high-profile NBA punditry…and I have no idea why. (Of greater concern is that Chris Grant may have been listening to them.) Toronto desperately needed a big, and they just hired the preeminent defensive assistant in the league to be their coach. Not every team can be counted on to make the shortsighted, asinine pick…and I suspect that’s what we were counting on. Either that or we got scared of Jonas’ buyout, which would be perhaps even more asinine. We are not winning the championship next year! We are not winning it the year after! Lay the f’ing foundation!!!

We may have liked Tristan (I even like Tristan), but there’s no way we should’ve liked him more than Jonas. Because you can sign Tristans, you cannot (the Tyson Chandler-fleecing aside) sign Jonas-es.

Making the best of a bad situation:

If Tristan can move his feet and contest at the rim (he can), I’d like him to learn the intricacies of the league—more specifically, of pick and roll defense—from Andy. Thus, Andy must stay another year for the development of our number 4 pick. I want him to stay anyway, but this new wrinkle makes it in my mind essential. We drafted the guy to play defense, now let’s teach him how.

Offensively… Jesus, I don’t know. The guy is minimally talented outside the lane, and doesn’t appear to be on the cusp of harnessing a shooting touch. I don’t mind having a defensive oriented four, but it means we’ll need to hit an interior threat in a subsequent draft and that isn’t going to be easy.

Where we now are in the rebuilding process:

I haven’t lost faith in the front office, but I will say this…today marked the first day that I’ve questioned it. There are more incomprehensibly decisions made in the NBA then in every other sports league combined (take, for instance, the Sacramento, Milwaukee, Charlotte trade—good work guys, now you’re set!), and I felt helpless today waiting for David Stern to announce that fourth pick. Helpless because as my excitement dissipated that Jonas didn’t go number three to Utah (something I was legitimately concerned about), I realized that I was anything but certain the Cavs wouldn’t look elsewhere as well. I’ll go further with this: The Cavs shouldn’t have needed to think about Kyrie vs. Derrick either! The answer was obvious and the answer will become increasingly obvious every game they play after, say, the first 82. I bet Derrick puts up numbers early, but ceases to develop starting early in his second year.

Where we now are in the rebuilding process:

Absolutely step one.

I now think J.J. has to play this year (hopefully well—as in 18 and 10) and then he has to get moved. There’s not room for both of Tristan and J.J. to start, and thus, there’s not room for both of them.

(Let me parenthetically walk this back just a tad — I can imagine a situation where J.J. stays and provides his mercurial brand of scoring, and then Tristan settles into an early-Varejao-esque defensive role off the bench…and truthfully, that’s great. It’s great to have that type of athletic, aggressive, energy off the bench four, and it’s great to have such a strong rotation of guys. But you can sign someone to do that! You pick the guys for such a rotation at approximately the point in the draft that gave us J.J.! The teens! The late-lottery! Not with the fourth pick in the draft. And so ends my retroactively positive statement.)

We may well struggle again next year, although I suspect with Andy back, with Baron aboard, we’ll need a bit more luck to end up in the top-tier of the lottery — where we’ll need to be. We’ve added Kyrie Irving and a really nice energy player, now we need another elite Harrison Barnes, Anthony Davis, Quincy Jones, Perry Jones, or Michael Gilchrist. If we’re in the top-5, we’re alright. If we’re not, at least we have someone waiting overseas. Sasha Kaun.

Check it out

Hey guys,

For anyone who might still be reading this blog, check out the new one (just starting), right here:

CenterforAmericanAthleticProgress.com

It has pictures and stuff.

Thanks,

Ryan

LBJ Return to Cleveland (Idea 1)

IDEA ONE:

That the entirety of Cavalier fans sitting behind the scorer's table arrive equipped with small, yet capable personal fans, unfurling them in unison at the exact moment LeBron's arms rise to throw his chalk in the air.

Just Add Wind...

The result, I'd hope, would be a literal taste of his own medicine.

Thanks for your time

Free Agency 2010 (Spotlight on...Chris Bosh)

I absolutely love the sport of basketball. I adore it, and thus, I can never stop watching. But that said...what the hell is going on here? Chris Bosh woke up this morning and actually typed the following into a computer.

Seriously Chris, I'm glad you enjoyed your belgian waffles, but I'm at my breaking point. It happened somewhere between "belgian" and "stupendous!" How old are these people? This isn't free agency, this is flaunting and preening. And had Chris Bosh ended up in Cleveland with LeBron, I still would've had a problem with that.

On a lighter note, I was an absolute nerd/beta-male in high school, and if Chris Bosh had been in my grade I'm almost positive I would have been able to beat him up.

Free Agency 2010

Of course I want him back, and of course I can forgive this (said the man mulling over Boozer S&T proposals in his head)...but for the first time in his career, LeBron has become a caricature of himself.

Business LeBron

He's not even 'at risk of becoming of caricature.' He leapfrogged that. If the guys who brought you Scary Movie made a parody film on the excesses of NBA free agency, it would end in a 9:00 press conference. I don't know what else to say.

LeBron, I'll see you at 9:00 tomorrow night. Come back, and let's start over.

....................

(Also, watch this. It's a video of Dwayne Wade announcing his return to Miami, and Chris Bosh imitating a school girl.)