End of an Era in Cleveland?

I know, the Cavs are out of the playoffs and there's still more basketball to be played until someone hoists up the Larry O'Brien Trophy in early June, but until then, here's another post on the last Dank Game-endorsed squad to be eliminated from the playoffs. This is a collaboration between myself and guest writer/Dank Game loyalist, Andy Young.

So this is a post I have wanted to make for quite sometime and maybe it’s a bit late, just like the Cavs' performances in the last three games. Enough has been said about LeBron, but now speculations that crazy Delonte West had an affair with LeBron’s mother have begun to surface. The authorities are citing this as the reason why LeBron went from averaging over 30 points per game in the playoffs to just over 21 points and over 6 turnovers for the final three games. I mean really, West having intercourse with Miss James is like Peter and Paul running a train on Mary. (The biblical Peter, Paul and Mary, not the shitty folk band from the 60’s) The “WITNESS” shirts might have to be recalled until this scandal subsides. I’m sure West was too busy freestyling about barbecue sauce to sweet talk Miss James into something that's finger lickin' good, but then again, maybe she is trying to conceive the next greatest thing to ever happen to basketball.

But let's talk about the rest of the team. Shaq Fu, I love you but you're old. Just about as old as the original Aristotle. Like his free throw shooting, Osama Bin Shaq was just too slow to make a difference defending in the paint against Jake Sully (Kendrick Perkins looks like an avatar) and Big Baby, who won’t be crying until he faces Dwight Howard or is yelled at by Kevin Garnett. Speaking of Garnett, let’s not also forget the Big Ticket's fade away jumpers that no one could defend. Not even "Wild Thang" Varejão could stop KG, who did come up pretty big with his frantic offense and constant effort, excluding the time he quit playing because he was bleeding and begging for a foul call. Overall, the Cavs just looked about as pathetic as the Flats in Cleveland.

Fascinating Failure

Another year, another early playoff exit for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. This was supposed to be their year, but they came up short against a wily Boston Celtics team that put it all together after waffling through the second half of the regular season. While the Celtics deserve praise for how they handled the Cavs, much of this epic collapse falls on the Cavaliers organization.

Despite being the best regular season team two seasons in a row with the league's back-to-back MVP, the Cavs' personnel moves have reeked of desperation ever since they pulled the trigger on the Shaq trade this past summer. With the clock ticking down on LeBron's impending free agency, Cleveland's management made decisions that were supposedly meant to put the Cavs over the hump, when in reality they were making decisions in an attempt to appease LeBron James. Of course this is easier said in hindsight, but the Cavs made moves simply because they could, not necessarily because they should. These trades culminated in another heartbreaking season for Cavs fans that was wrought in irony.

In Yer Face Noah!

Lebron played great tonight even though he took some really tough shots. It would be easy to call Lebron out for his shot selection, but I loved his killer instinct. When he drained that 3 pointer over Joakim Noah you could see it in his eyes. It was like his answer to Joakim's comment about Cleveland--a step back 3 pointer over a 7 footer, only Lebron man, only Lebron. The Cavs are rolling against the Bulls and I don't think there is anything Derrick Rose can do to answer.

As Charles Barkley was saying on TNT, they don't care about the Bulls, they're playing for a championship. The supporting cast will need to step up as they get deeper in the Playoffs. Antawn Jamison is going to have to play better defense. There was one play in particular that did not look like Cavs basketball; Jamison was late getting back on defense and was out of position with his back turned instead of playing help D. The play ended with an easy layup by Flip Murray. I don't mean to call him out too much, but I think he needs to play with more intensity. It was good to see Shaq back. Hopefully he'll be able to play more than 15 minutes. I'm sure he will since Mike Brown is probably trying to ease him back in a little bit.

Shaq Hacked!

The hand is part of the ball, right? Unfortunately for the Cavs, Shaq is out 6-8 weeks after thumb surgery. Shaq was injured on a brutal hack by Big Baby, "I wish I was Ochocinco," Davis. Clearly Davis was going for the ball, which includes Shaq's thumb, because there was no foul called on the play. Shaq did tell an ESPN reporter today that he would only miss 6 weeks, which would be the start of the Playoffs.

I think this will probably hurt the Cavs chemistry in the Playoffs because they won't get much time to perfect playing together. Hopefully that transition will be as seem less as Danny Ferry thought the Jamison transition would be. They lost three straight after the Jamison trade. It doesn't matter too much if you loose three straight in the regular season, but you can't do that in the Playoffs.

P. S. Come on Big Baby, you know you want to be Ochocinco, stealing his blonde mohawk, and trying to steal his nickname method. You might as well 'kiss the baby' on trying to change your name cause it ain't happenin' Big Baby.

Jamison Dunks on David West

Off the LeBron assist, Antawn Jamison gets downright dirty with the dunk on David West.

The Cavs Length Issues

The Cavs have had to deal with a couple of transitions since the trade deadline. The Antawn Jamison for Zydrunas Ilgauskus swap is the most obvious one, but the return of Mo Williams and Delonte West in the backcourt is almost as meaningful.

Before their return, the Cavs rotation was heavy on forwards. Mike Brown would often go to a lineup of Daniel Gibson, Lebron, Jawad Williams, Anderson Varejao, and Shaq or Z at center. Heavy on forwards, this lineup provides extraordinary length on the perimeter and really strong rebounding. Delonte and Mo coming back takes away from that length. Jamison instead of Z in the rotation is also a minus in length.

I hate to say it, but I think playing Mo less would help. Mike Brown tried to play Delonte West at shooting guard last year, even having him guard Hedo Turkoglu in the east finals, and it didn't work. I think Delonte is an excellent defensive point guard, which he showed with two key blocks tonight, but he is not a very good shooting guard defender. He just isn't tall enough to hang with most NBA 2 guards. The more Mo Williams plays, the more Delonte is the second shortest guy, thus he would guard the 2.

It's tough to call for less Mo Williams minutes as a Cavs fan, but I think they would just work better defensively with Delonte at the point. Not that I think they should be playing Jawad Williams 25 minutes a game or something, but they need more perimeter defense now that they are getting more scoring from the power forward position with Antawn Jamison.

The Clippers and Wizards' motives in the Jamison trade

You asked for it 'Stache, so I'm giving it to you.

The Clippers got involved in the Jamison trade to dump salaries and position themselves as major players in the big 2010 free agent market. The Clippers know they aren't going anywhere this season, so they've been making moves to clear cap space. They recently sent Marcus Camby and his expiring contract (who they wouldn't have resigned) to Portland for point guard Steve Blake, injured small forward Travis Outlaw, and $3 million. Both Blake and Outlaw have expiring contracts and it is unclear if L.A. will resign either of them or let their money come off the books. Outlaw is a quality small forward, which L.A. will need next season so there's a chance that he will be resigned.

With the Jamison trade, the Clippers ridded themselves of both Al Thornton's $2.8 million salary and Sebastian Telfair's expiring contract, which had a player option of $2.7 million for next season. Losing Telfair's contract is huge for L.A., because that's $2.7 million less that they probably would have had to pay. This leaves the Clippers with just four players under contract next season with Baron Davis at PG, Eric Gordon at SG, injured #1 pick Blake Griffin at PF, and center Chris Kaman, who just made his first All-Star appearance replacing the injured Brandon Roy. This could be an appealing roster for a big free agent like LeBron James or Dwyane Wade, but let's face it, the Clippers aren't getting either of them. The Grizzlies' Rudy Gay might fit in well though, as small forward is the one position they lack in. Regardless, they have a solid foundation and a great deal of flexibility.

Drew Gooden (who's played on just about every NBA team in the past few years) will probably be bought out by L.A. and wind up on yet another team.

As for the Wizards, Gilbert Arenas' season-long suspension for bringing guns in the locker room has forced them to break the team up and start fresh. It will probably be a long rebuilding process, but it had to be done. It started with trading Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, and DeShawn Stevenson to Dallas for Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, James Singleton, and Quinton Ross.

Sending the 33 year-old Antawn Jamison to the Cavs was basically a favor to Jamison, who was a consistent contributor and stand-up guy during his time with Washington. There's a good chance Big Z will end up being bought out and resigned by the Cavs, so the Wizards should have tried to get more than just Al Thornton, Josh Howard, and change for everything they gave up. But they had to move on. They will now have enough cap space to sign a free agent to a max contract, but I doubt anyone is eager to head to Washington right now.

Thornton has shown upside but seems like he isn't much of a game changer. Josh Howard was an All-Star not but a few years ago, but he has become inconsistent as of late. He has also had off-court issues that made him fall out of favor with the Mavs, such as admitting he smoked weed in the offseason and making a comment on video about not celebrating the Star-Spangled Banner because he's black.

Now the Wizards biggest priority is trying to void Gilbert Arenas' absurdly huge contract. If Arenas is sentenced to prison time it might help them get it done, but a team has never voided a contract so it remains a long shot.

There's definitely a lot more to it than all of this, but I've already been writing posts that are too long for Dank Game's half-assed standards. Writing about trades is too much work.

Does that help, 'Stache?

Ferry Lands Jamison

Danny Ferry you sly dog, making us all think Amare Stoudemire was your target, then swooping in on Antawn Jamison. I can't believe he got Jamison without giving up Hickson. Make no mistake, Jamison will make the Cavs a better team. The Cavs biggest weakness before the trade was the fact that their only consistent scorer was Lebron. Shaq could only give you half a game (by the way, Jamison averages 38.9 MPG) and no one else created their own shot. I thought that was their biggest problem in the playoffs last year, Lebron just couldn't be the only scorer.

Jamison is a legit NBA scorer, shooting 45% and getting to the line 5.3 times per game. He can do some heavy lifting on offense and he gets 8.8 rebounds per game too. He is not a great defender, it's true. The Cavs have a plethora of good defensive forwards, especially with Leon Powe coming back. And it's not like Amare Stoudemire would be much different from a defensive standpoint; he'd still be a liability.

It will be interesting to see how Jamison will integrate once they get on the court. Hopefully it will go something like the 03-04 Pistons after they acquired another former UNC Tar Heel, Rasheed Wallace, right before the trade deadline and went on to win the title against the Lakers.

If Amare goes to Cleveland, how will it affect 2010? (UPDATE)

With the NBA trade deadline quickly approaching, rumor has it that the Cavs could be on the verge of trading J.J. Hickson and Zydrunas Ilgauskas to Phoenix for Amare Stoudemire. The Suns have been actively shopping Amare in fear of losing him for nothing in free agency. If the trade goes through, Big Z would likely be bought out by the Suns, probably because he'd be unable to keep up with their run and gun offense. Then again, Shaq somehow managed to keep up. Once Z is waived, he would likely be resigned by the Cavs. These types of moves have always seemed fishy to me, but the NBA allows it.

The Cavs have also been linked to trade rumors with Washington for Antawn Jamison and Indiana for Troy Murphy AKA Big Ugly (props to my homeboy Ryan Hubbard for coming up with that nickname). It has been reported that LeBron prefers Stoudemire, so there's a good chance that these trade talks have died. After all, keeping LeBron happy so that he'll resign in 2010 is Cleveland's biggest priority outside of winning a championship.

There is also word that the Heat have been actively pursuing Stoudemire, but it seems that the Suns have no interest in Miami's players. Because of this, I'm assuming the Heat haven't offered Michael Beasley, unless his off court issues have made the Suns weary.

So how might these potential deals affect the much hyped 2010 free agent market? I have my own theory, however it is highly wrought in hypotheticals. But hear me out.

If Cleveland does pull the trigger to bring Amare to Cleveland, I think Chris Bosh will realize the Raptors don't have what it takes to be true contenders, especially with Hedo Turkoglu making big money past his prime. In realizing this, Bosh will look to sign elsewhere in the offseason, with South Beach being his most likely destination. If Bosh signs with Miami and Pat Riley is able to put together a quality roster around Bosh and Wade (assuming he resigns), the Heat and Cavs would both be contenders for years to come.

UPDATE: Cleveland has acquired power forward Antawn Jamison in a three-team, six player trade. Zydrunas Ilgauskas is headed to the Washington Wizards along with a first-round draft pick and the draft rights to Emil Preldzic (whoever that is). Washington will also get Brian Skinner and Al Thornton from the Los Angeles Clippers. Cleveland will also get point guard Sebastian Telflair from L.A. and the Wizards will send Drew Gooden to the Clippers.

So, um, yeah. You can kinda disregard most of this post now.