Cavs 08-09 Season - Central Div Champs (official thread)

[osugrad21]

CPD

James, Collins have bond of gold

by Mary Schmitt Boyer Sunday October 05, 2008, 9:41 PM



It has been about six weeks since the end of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. LeBron James brought back a gold medal and a new and deeper friendship with broadcaster Doug Collins.
Collins was a key member of the 1972 U.S. team that lost the gold medal to the Soviet Union in the most controversial finish in Olympic history. At that time, it was the Americans' only loss in the Olympics.
This time around, Collins, whose son Chris was an assistant to head coach Mike Krzyzewski, was asked to speak to the U.S. Redeem Team about his experience and what regaining the gold medal would mean for the team that finished third in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.


No sooner had the final buzzer sounded in the gold medal game against Spain than James separated himself from his celebrating USA teammates, made straight for the sidelines and wrapped Collins in a bear hug.
"This is for you," he said.

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[osugrad21]

CPD

Ready to ring out: Cavaliers' Big Ben determined to show vintage Wallace defense

by Jodie Valade Saturday October 04, 2008, 8:12 PM


LeBron James stood out in Saturday's Wine and Gold Scrimmage merely for who he is -- Olympic gold medalist, NBA MVP candidate and the self-proclaimed King of Akron who now has the key to the city to officially prove it. Newcomer Mo Williams dazzled with the up-tempo point guard play the Cavaliers have coveted for years, and rookie J.J. Hickson's energetic athleticism earned him time in the spotlight as their Gold team topped James' Wine team, 49-45.
Meanwhile, at Akron's James A. Rhodes Arena, Ben Wallace tried his hardest to stay behind the scenes. He had 6 points, 3 rebounds and several defensive lessons to teach the neophyte Hickson.
"He's got to learn," Wallace grinned, explaining his sudden aggressive offensive-minded play against the rookie. "He's got to learn one of these days."
The 6-foot-9 power forward with the perpetual scowl is finally back to good health, finally alongside a coach with a defensive philosophy that matches his own approach, and finally ready to inspire the squad with perhaps the NBA's biggest star to play like a team with no standouts.
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[osugrad21]

ABJ

Brown stresses trust for Cavs Coach wants his team to try to play hard, to not be selfish, communicate
By George M. Thomas
Beacon Journal sports writer

Published on Tuesday, Oct 07, 2008
http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/sportsblitz/ INDEPENDENCE: It will be just the basics for the opening of the Cavaliers' preseason against the Toronto Raptors tonight at Quicken Loans Arena.
Coach Mike Brown said Monday he won't be looking for anything too complicated and he will emphasize execution over other elements of the game.
''We might not necessarily do everything correctly all the time, but if our guys just trust one another and trust the system on both sides of the floor, they try to help one another whenever they need to help their teammates, then communicate with one another. If they do those three things, then they'll have a chance to look pretty good out there even if the execution isn't where it needs to be,'' he said.
Scanning the practice floor on Monday, one fact struck Brown: only three members of his roster ? LeBron James, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Daniel Gibson ? were there at the same point last year. Add in Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao, and you have only five coming back from last year's roster before the team's big trade in February. Still, at this point, Brown said, he's looking more for attitude than anything else.
''I want all my guys to try to play hard. I want all my guys to try to defend,'' he said. ''No matter what combinations are on the floor, you don't want anyone to be selfish. . . . They're just going to go play and try to win the game as a team.''
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[osugrad21]

CPD

Hanging out with former Cavaliers GM Harry Weltman

by Bill Livingston Monday October 06, 2008, 9:53 PM


The Cavaliers are bright with promise now, but when the basketball lifer was their general manager, Ted Stepien had just finished being their owner. That meant the franchise was a national joke.
The lifer stopped the laughing. Still, the first thing he tells you at lunch is that these are the good old days.
"The first time I saw LeBron James," said Harry Weltman, "I thought he could be the best player ever."

Weltman saw James as a man among boys in high school, blessed with an unparalleled combination of size and quickness. James' first instinct, unselfishness, perfectly matched his best skill, passing.
"I saw some flaws in his shooting," Weltman said, "but you can teach a player to shoot. He's a little behind Kobe Bryant. Kobe shoots better. But LeBron is younger, he's getting better as a shooter and he is the best passer I ever saw."
Weltman jabbed his index fingers toward the area below his temples. "He has great eyes. He sees so much," he said.

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[osugrad21]

CPD

Cavs quick to step up pressure

by Mary Schmitt Boyer Monday October 06, 2008, 9:47 PM


With the addition of point guard Mo Williams, much of the focus has been on the possibility of speeding things up on the Cavaliers offense.
But it looks as if the team may want to push things a little more on defense, as well.
"We have guys that are quick and can pressure the ball, and we want to take advantage of it," Cavs coach Mike Brown said after the team unveiled its new defensive wrinkle in Saturday's Wine and Gold intrasquad scrimmage. "We'll mix some of the [pressure] in. Those guys are athletic and can defend guys 90-plus feet."

The Cavs defense was ranked ninth in the league last season in points allowed (96.7) and 11th in field-goal percentage (.455). They'd like to improve on those this season, and Brown may look at occasionally using a three-guard rotation of Williams, Delonte West and Daniel "Boobie" Gibson, with LeBron James and Ben Wallace or Anderson Varejao up front.
"Before, we had size and length," Brown said of his guards. "Now with some changes, we have quickness. With our bigs, we feel that Ben and Andy can help out harassing the ball and then get back and defend."
The coach emphasized that the plan was not necessarily to go for steals but to make opponents use the clock while bringing the ball up court.

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[osugrad21]

Canton

Cavs' Gibson ready to get back in the zone
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
BY CHRIS BEAVEN
[email protected]

INDEPENDENCE It's a place all NBA shooters seek out ? The Zone.

Few find it consistently.

Count Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson as one of those frequent visitors to the happy place for any shooter.

"It really is the zone," Gibson said. "You get out there and you're kind of just floating."

Gibson floated into the zone enough last season to rank fifth in the NBA in 3-point shooting. He hopes to spend even more time there this season on a team with high hopes.

The Cavs open the preseason at 7 tonight at home against Toronto.

"I feel great," Gibson said. "I'm looking forward to the season, no pain, no anything. I can just go out and play and have fun."

Pain ? from a strained right hamstring to a bad ankle sprain ? disrupted Gibson's regular season a year ago, limiting him to 58 games. Finally, a separated left shoulder ended his season after Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Gibson could only watch as the Cavs' season ended with a Game 7 loss in Boston. He hit 44.0 percent of his 3-pointers during the 2007-08 season, averaging 10.4 points. In the playoffs, he averaged 9.0 points, shooting 45.2 percent on 3-pointers.

"Last year only motivated me for this summer getting myself back, getting myself ready to do some good things," said Gibson, who had arthroscopic surgery on his left ankle in June to ensure being at full strength for training camp.
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[osugrad21]

ABJ

LeBron plays a little, Cavs lose by a lot Everyone gets chance in exhibition opener
By George M. Thomas
Beacon Journal sports writer

Published on Wednesday, Oct 08, 2008
CLEVELAND: He was gone in a flash.
LeBron James played a little more than eight minutes in Tuesday's exhibition-opening 104-84 loss to the Toronto Raptors.
Before the game, coach Mike Brown all but said that the NBA's premier player wouldn't see a lot of action. That might be the modus operandi for the exhibition season as Brown looks to get No. 23's minutes below 40 per game.
That doesn't mean there wasn't anything to watch as the Cavs tried to cage the Raptors. While it's not easy to project what the final product will look like with James in the lineup, fans could walk away feeling a bit optimistic because this won't play like that Cavaliers team that far too many times looked as if it were lumbering up the court.
These Cavs? They produced 21 points in transition.
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[osugrad21]

CPD

Cavs run fast, tire fast in lopsided loss to Raptors

by Brian Windhorst Tuesday October 07, 2008, 10:31 PM


Roadell Hickman/The Plain DealerCavaliers guard Mo Williams gets a different view of Tuesday night's exhibition game after slipping on the court at The Q.
In case his repeated screams of "run," "push it" and "get out in front" weren't enough, Mike Brown twirled his arms, pointed and sometimes even half-skipped down the sideline. The Cavaliers' head coach didn't much care if his team won Tuesday's preseason opener -- and they didn't, getting dropped, 104-84, by the Toronto Raptors -- he was much more interested in getting his point across.
Armed with new point guard Mo Williams and some other fleet ball-handlers, the idea is to become a much more up-tempo team this season. It wasn't a smashing success in the first outing, but there's no doubt about its emphasis.
The newness of it all showed, as the game wore on the Cavs admittedly lost their legs. After leading throughout the first half, the Raptors chugged past them as the game reached the later stages of the third quarter.
"We looked pretty good at it at times, at other times we looked sloppy," Brown said. "We have to be selective with our tempo, we have to know how to run."
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[osugrad21]

CPD

Cavs on the run? Let's see Mo, Mo, Mo

by Terry Pluto Tuesday October 07, 2008, 10:46 PM


As Mo Williams was leading a fastbreak after an opponent made a basket ...
Not sure I've ever written that in a Cavaliers story in the Mike Brown era. Not the Mo Williams part (he's new), but Cavs consistently motoring the ball up the court in high octane after the other team scored.
But that's what Williams can mean to this team, as was clear during the Cavs' 104-84 loss to Toronto in their first exhibition game of the season Tuesday at Quicken Loans Arena.
At one point in the game, Sasha Pavlovic turned to Williams during a timeout and said, "You even push off makes [shots made]. I gotta get used to that."
Williams said, "You better get ready to go because I'm gone."
Roadell Hickman/The Plain DealerMo Williams taps the ball away from Toronto's Willie Solomon during the second quarter of Tuesday's exhibition game at The Q.
The Cavs are not about to transform themselves into the run-and-gun Phoenix Suns, but with Williams they have to be better than last season's offensive clunker that was 24th out of 30 teams in scoring. And 28th in field goal percentage.
And 25th in assists.
How does a team with the NBA's leading scorer in LeBron James average fewer than 97 points? Some of it was the supporting cast. Some of it was a coach employing his third offense in three years. Some was how the Cavs have desperately needed a point guard with the speed and the athleticism Williams brings from Milwaukee.
The Cavs say they want to run more this season. Nearly every team makes that claim this time of year. But with Williams, it can happen.

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[osugrad21]

CPD

Cavaliers Insider: Jermaine O'Neal was a deal just out of the Cavs' reach

by Brian Windhorst Tuesday October 07, 2008, 7:30 PM


Frank Gunn/Associated PressJermaine O'Neal (left, with Toronto teammate Chris Bosh) was on the Cavaliers off-season radar, but Indians and Cleveland were never able to put together the right package for a deal.
The Toronto Raptors have the moniker "new look" attached to them these days, thanks to June's dramatic trade that brought them All-Star center Jermaine O'Neal. That look, which was briefly on display at Quicken Loans Arena Tuesday when they visited for a preseason game, could've been linked to the Cavaliers if circumstances were different.
Coach Mike Brown said the team considered trading for O'Neal over the summer when Indiana Pacers President Larry Bird basically made his whole team available as he started a makeover. Brown coached O'Neal for two seasons when he was with the Pacers from 2003-05 and knows him well. But the two sides could never reach an agreement on a deal.
"He was talked about as were other guys on their team that were talked about for trade possibilities," Brown said. "We couldn't get anything worked out."
The Pacers were looking for a starter-quality center in return for O'Neal, which made it tough to make a deal work for the Cavs. They are not permitted to trade Anderson Varejao until at least Dec. 5 due to collective bargaining rules because they matched an offer sheet he signed on that date last year. They were not interested in parting with Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

The Raptors ended up dealing point guard T.J. Ford and center Rasho Nesterovic for O'Neal on draft day.

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[osugrad21]

Canton

Cavaliers give glimpse of team to come in preseason debut
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
BY CHRIS BEAVEN
[email protected]

CLEVELAND Empty seats and a limited run by the superstar reminded Cavaliers fans that Tuesday night's game against the Raptors was only the preseason opener.

Further proof came when crunch time arrived with the Cavs using two rookies and three free-agent invitees on the floor. So Toronto's 104-84 win before an announced crowd of 18,847 at Quicken Loans Arena will be pretty much forgotten by today.

But the Cavs did get a glimpse of what they can become with Mo Williams coming on board to join LeBron James and Co.

"We did some good things, of course we did some bad things," James said. "But all in all ... I think we did a good job of executing our keys on the offensive and defensive side."

James had plenty of time to analyze the game. The Cavs do not want him to waste much energy in the preseason so he didn't Tuesday. His night ended after the game's first 7:25. He missed his only three shots from the floor and split a pair of free throws for his only point.

James said it was good to get out and play someone else after "beating up on each other for the last week and a half."

The Cavs led 51-43 at the half when their rotation players got heavy minutes. Things began to get sloppy in the third quarter. The Raptors outscored the Cavs 35-22 to take a lead they never lost.

"The good part about it is we got some tape to look at and show our guys the good things and the bad things that we did," Cavs coach Mike Brown said.

What's evident is the spark that Williams provides as the point guard, as he looked to push the ball up the floor as much as possible.

"He definitely speeds up the tempo," James said. "You got to be able to get out and run."

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[Brutus1]

Mo will make a big difference for this team. Mo, Delonte' and Gibby together should make this team so much better than they've been since LBJ arrived.

Hickson had some decent numbers with 7 points, 4 boards and a blocked shot.

 

[osugrad21]

ABJ

New Cav pressures defense, frees Z Mo Williams' speed creates opportunities for Ilgauskas' jumper
By George M. Thomas
Beacon Journal sports writer

Published on Thursday, Oct 09, 2008
INDEPENDENCE: Prevailing wisdom says the Cavaliers brought Mo Williams in to serve as that long-needed No. 2 to LeBron James, giving the team another scoring option.
But Williams might be the fountain of youth for center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Entering his 11th season as a Cav, he's the team's elder statesman and readily admits that occasionally he feels all of his 33 years.
Last season, he averaged 14.1 points and 9.3 rebounds in 30 minutes per game. In the first preseason game Tuesday at Quicken Loans Arena, he hit for 16 points and grabbed six rebounds in just 22 minutes. He holds no illusions about what he can do in the coming campaign, but he recognizes that Williams could be a difference-maker.
''I don't know, I got a lot of pick and pops before Mo. I don't know if you can attribute it to him, but having him on the floor, his quickness creates problems for the defense, so when I go to set the pick and roll for Mo, the big guy can't worry about me,'' he said. ''He's got to leave me alone and go out to him. Sometimes I don't even have to set the pick-and-roll because Mo comes out so quick.''
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[osugrad21]

CPD

Who's at 2? Szczerbiak, West, Pavlovic in a three-way battle for shooting guard spot

by Brian Windhorst Wednesday October 08, 2008, 9:01 PM


Joshua Gunter/The Plain DealerA veteran of nine NBA seasons, Wally Szczerbiak brings a big body and a reliable scoring touch to the competition at shooting guard.
In theory, there's a position battle for the starting shooting guard spot in Cavaliers training camp. But it's hardly a fight in the classic sense, which makes the competition and the decision all the more complex. As does handicapping the contenders.
Coach Mike Brown isn't sure yet who will be announced in that position on opening night in Boston in three weeks, only that he's got plenty of candidates. That includes Sasha Pavlovic, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West.
With a straight face, Brown even mentions Tarence Kinsey, who finished last season playing in Turkey, as being in the mix. The current plan is to keep Daniel Gibson coming off the bench at either guard spot, a role he has grown comfortable in over the last two seasons.
Pavlovic started in Tuesday's preseason opener, but Szczerbiak will likely start in Friday's game against the Celtics. West may get a chance in one of the three games next week.

The issue is that it doesn't come down to which among them is the best scorer, defender or shooter. The one among the lot with the best overall stats in the preseason may not win the job. Rather, Brown seems to be weighing a mixture of unquantifiable factors. The most important, not surprisingly, being the impact on LeBron James.

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[osugrad21]

CPD

Cleveland Cavaliers release forward Lance Allred, guard Michael Dickerson

by Brian Windhorst Wednesday October 08, 2008, 12:38 PM


CLEVELAND -- The Cavs released forward Lance Allred today, their first cut of the preseason.
Allred signed with the team last March, becoming the first legally deaf player to play in the NBA. He played in just three games, averaging 1.0 point and 0.3 rebounds. He had a nonguaranteed contract, part of the deal he signed with the Cavs last April after playing out two 10-day contracts.
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