I gotta imagine it hasn't been very easy to get outta bed if you are LeBron James, Mike Brown or Danny Ferry. This is a trying time for the Cavs. Like I wrote last week, the fortunes of a professional sports entity can change very rapidly.
Mike Brown won Coach of the Year this season. Now, his status for next season is a talking point.
Danny Ferry was, in many circles, the executive of the year. He made great moves and created a team that had the league's best record. Now he is looking at a roster that has to be completely blown up and tinkered with. His best move, Mo Williams, is now more or less expendable after a post season in which he failed to get it done. And with every decision he has to make for the 2009 season, he has to keep the date of July 1, 2010 very much in his mind.
LeBron James put together a Hall of Fame season, won his first MVP and was the toast of the league. He was a changed man. He had watch Kobe Bryant perform and train all summer in Beijing. He took all that data that he had around him, whether it be from Coach K, Mike Dantoni, or Melo--and molded himself into a new man for the 08-09 campaign. You saw a new focus and will to win. He didn't take many nights off. He was the MVP.
Then in the span of a week and a half, everything that could have went wrong went wrong. And the people that we became comfortable with proved that they were not there yet.
Mike Brown is great. But whether you love him or hate him, we can all agree that he was very much out-coached in the series against the Magic. He failed to make a significant tweak to his and his team's strategy that proved to effective in improving their chances of winning. He sat on his hands, and let the Magic dicatate that series. And they cruised.
At the same time, what were you gonna do if you were Mike Brown? Who would you have put in that game that could have made a difference and made a play for you? Jawad Williams? Darnell Jackson? Boobie Gibson? Mike Brown is at fault very much, but the talent disparity between the two teams resonated very much as the series went on. The Cavs just had no one who could matchup with the Magic. They were not talented enough, big enough or smart enough. The Magic were just way bigger. And that goes back to Danny Ferry. That goes back to being locked into Szerbiak (13 million), Big Ben (14 million), Gibson etc. That goes back to not adding a piece at the trade deadline. Where are we if we added Shaq O'Neal right now? The pieces that we had were not significant enough to matchup with the Orlando Magic. And they were silly to think that they were.
It's very hard to criticize LeBron James. He's great and he played great in that series. But if you really looked at it, and have looked at him for the past couple seasons, there is just something that is still a miss. There is something about him what he does to be who he is that makes a team inefficient. The fact that he hasn't started to dictate the game with his post game creates inefficiency. The fact that he has to have the ball for a long period of time creates inefficiencies. Everything that he does takes so long. It takes him 10-15 dribbles for him to create anything. That is inefficient. And who was he stopping defensively? Why didn't he accept the challenge to stop Hedo Turkuglu or Rashard Lewis? Was he tired? Yea, he probably was because it takes so much energy for him to create things offensively. I love how he played. I loved how he improved this season. But he has to learn how to be more efficient. His teammates are what we know they are. And that is never gonna change. But LeBron is not perfect. Far from it. And until he learns to be more efficient, a la Kobe Bryant, the team is never gonna get to where it needs to be. You can crucify the other guys on the team all you want, but as long as LeBron is skipping press conferences and turning the ball over and being mediocre on defense, he should share some blame.
The Cavs are in very big trouble. The Magic are the prohibitive favorite to win the East next season. The Celtics are probably going to add a significant piece this summer, and if KG is healthy they will be in an all out sprint to try to cash in 1 more title before the Big 3 are rendered the Small 3. The Lakers aren't gonna go anywhere. Teams all over the league are coming of age. Where do the Cavs fit in next season? Time will tell, but it's gonna be a huge challenge, both on and off the court over the next year and a half. I will be back with some trade and free agent possibilities for the Cavaliers going into the 2009 season.
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