Seriously Cleveland? Suck it up

Sure, this probably feels a heck of a lot worse than the Carlos Boozer debacle in 2004.  Still, I'm sick and tired of reading about how LeBron James sucks for announcing on national television that he will sign with the Miami Heat.  Frankly, I don't know anybody outside of Miami that is happy.  Nobody.  Was getting on national TV and screwing over your hometown a poorly planned, narcissistic, inconsiderate, and frankly just plain bad move?  Probably.  Frankly, I think the only place that LeBron could have gone without getting all this flak would've been like to the Minnesota Timberwolves, where nobody knows what's going on, and that wasn't going to happen.  For the people that are upset in regards to the decision to have a fairly classless announcement of his decision via an ESPN interview on national television, I can't help you, it's bad press, it was a stupid PR stunt.  For those of you that are upset he didn't stay in Cleveland (ahem, Dan Gilbert), I have two words for you: shut up.  

Yes, James can probably dubbed an egotistical narcissist, I will neither deny nor endorse that statement.  From a purely basketball perspective though, let's consider what James has in store.  If Cleveland wants to blame anyone for LeBron leaving, blame the front office, seriously, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in all honesty (and my "expert" opinion) have never been championship contenders, that they even got this far is frankly (I think) a merit to how good LeBron James really is.  Seriously, since LeBron James was drafted in 2003 by the Cleveland Cavaliers the Cavs have never had anyone really any good outside of LeBron James.  In James's rookie year behind James you had Carlos Boozer, Ricky Davis, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas all averaging about 15 points per game, fair enough, that seems like a pretty good team, right?  You still got Tony Battie and Darius Miles coming off the bench.  In 2003-2004 the Lakers lost in the Finals to a well balanced Detroit Pistons featuring a starting five of Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace, and Ben Wallace.  The Cavs?  Yeah, no playoffs.  LeBron was a rookie, fair enough.  In 2004-2005 season, no playoffs again for the Cavaliers.  Oh yeah, Spurs beat the Pistons in 7 that year.  Boozer and Davis are gone and the Cavs' second scoring option is Zydrunas Ilgauskas, behind him you now have Drew Gooden as your third offensive option and a huge curtail off behind that with minutes being sopped up by Robert Traylor, Ira Newble, and Jeff McInnis.  In the 2005-2006 season, Paul Silas gets canned as the head coach and replaced by Mike Brown.  The Cavs make the playoffs and lose in the second round to the Pistons.  Cavs front office got the brilliant idea to give a huge contract to Larry Hughes to play next to LeBron, we all know how well that worked... Hughes averaged a rough 15.5 points per game, kind of Ricky Davis-esque performance eh?  This year, the Mavericks collapse to the Heat after taking a commanding 2-0 lead in the series.  In 2006-2007 we're still featuring a "Big Three" of LeBron, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Larry Hughes/Drew Gooden.  The Cavs miraculously get to the finals only to get swept by the Spurs.  In 2007-2008 the Cavs revamp, Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes are traded for Ben Wallace and Joe Smith.  Smith is later traded to the Sonics for Wally Sczerbiak and Delonte West.  Something along those lines.  Cavs lose to the new Big Three of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett in the conference semifinals.  In 2008-2009, we revamp again, the Cavs draft J.J. Hickson and manage to acquire Mo Williams from the Bucks.  Then they are subsequently destroyed by Orlando's pick-and-roll game in the conference finals.  Finally in 2009-2010, to remedy their problems, the Cavs add Shaq, who is notoriously one of the worst pick-and-roll defenders in the league.  Yeah... makes a ton of sense right?  They trade mid-season for Antawn Jamison and then are ousted in the second round once again by Boston.

Now that's a quick snapshot history of the Cavs with LeBron on the team, and quite frankly, Dan Gilbert and Danny Ferry had done a horrendous job of putting any talent next to LeBron, any talent that would get them anywhere.  Some people might note that they've had the best record in the league before, so what?  The Mavericks had a 67-15 record going into the playoffs in 2006-2007, and they were beaten in the first round by Don Nelson's crazy ball Golden State Warriors.  Just because you're a good regular season team doesn't mean jack.  The only way it could mean anything would be if the NBA was formatted like the NCAA March Madness tournament, one and done.  It doesn't make a difference if Cleveland and LeBron had a 66-16 overall record for the 2008-2009 season, the fact that they couldn't guard a Hedo Turkoglu and Dwight Howard pick-and-roll set means that they can't win in the playoffs.  Frankly Cleveland fans, if you're going to be angry, be angry at your FO, be angry at your team roster management, because frankly, they didn't get the job done.  Don't tell me they tried, because to be frank the Cavs were never that good.  

So LeBron is gone.  Yeah, he is.  He's gone, and it's too bad.  Don't blame him though, he's going where he can be successful.  Think about it logically, forget the money, we know he has enough.  If I'm LeBron, what are my choices?  The top were what? New Jersey, Cleveland, New York, Chicago, and Miami.  So think about this, who would I rather play with if I'm LeBron?  Who's going to give me the best shot at winning?  Should I go back to Cleveland where it's just Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison?  Where I haven't won anything in the past 7 years?  Should I go to New York where Amar'e is?  Play next to Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari?  Or New Jersey with Brook Lopez and Devin Harris, who almost broke the record for most losses in a season?  Chicago? With Carlos Boozer and Derrick Rose?  Or with Miami, where we already knew that Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, two fellow 2008 Team USA teammates and good friends, and fellow All-Stars have committed to sign?  Sure, he was a jerk to do it on national TV but we're all suckers for watching him do it.  Seriously Cleveland, suck it up, don't blame LeBron, if you're going to blame anyone, blame your organization for not being able to keep him.  Seriously, why do you think Garnett didn't win a ring until he got to Boston?  Seriously.  

What is with the Wizards' Players? Seriously.

“I told people that it’s a unique situation. It’s one of those situations were this is where teams really have a chance to build their team, when you have injuries like that. It’s a completely different aspect of what it was in San Antonio, but it’s in the same realm of what San Antonio was when you have an injury like they did with David Robinson and they had a chance to get a pick. You have talent with this team with Antawn, Caron, Gilbert, who’s got three all-stars; to have a top-5 pick in the draft is something you don’t expect. So, when you have that kinda talent, it’s just injuries and they didn’t play together all last year, it gives us an opportunity to build something here. When you have a losing record the year before, you can have a chance to bring in different talent, and hopefully we can mesh together and make it happen.”

The above quote was given by newly acquired Washington Wizards Mike Miller. I honestly have no real idea of how he's drawing this comparison between Washington and San Antonio except maybe that their best player was injured. When Robinson got injured, San Antonio was a team featuring a 37 year-old Dominique Wilkins as its top scoring player, featuring some mix of starters among Avery Johnson, Vinny Del Negro, Will Perdue, Carl Herrera, Vernon Maxwell, Greg Anderson, and Monty Williams. Sean Elliot, the third best player on the team, only played 39 games. Despite injuries, Wizards were never without at least one, if not two of Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler, and Antawn Jamison, the three of which probably outscored the entire 1996-1997 San Antonio team put together. Sure, because of injuries Wizards got a lottery pick (5th), which they promptly traded away for Miller and Foye. So is Miller calling himself Tim Duncan? I don't get it.

Swapping Centers

In the event you haven't heard yet, Charlotte and New Orleans are reaching agreements to trade Emeka Okafor and Tyson Chandler. It's an interesting swap, and you usually don't see straight up position for position swaps unless there's a particular motive, usually in terms of money or personnel fit. When we look at both players though, it's not as though either one is a lockerroom issue, from what I hear both are nice guys that fit well on both teams, both bring generally the same things to the floor, those being rebounding, solid interior defense, and a shot blocking presence. The swap to me from a basketball perspective ends up as something of a wash, however, maybe it makes a little more sense from a financial perspective, Bobcats save money in the long run and Hornets get a more offensively potent center and save a little bit of money now. Dunno how it works out, wish the best for both of them. Okafor's definitely one of those nice-guy big men that I wish Tim Duncan could've developed.

Spurs now are guaranteed playoff exit...

So sad, so sad....

Knicks finalize trade, add size and wing depth

Since you all can find these randomly updating trade rumor sites on your own without my speculations, I'll only post what's going on for reals, purportedly, for now.

Knicks have agreed to two deals, one sending Jerome James and Tim Thomas (and Anthony Roberson apparently) for Larry Hughes, a second sending Malik Rose and cash considerations to Sam Presti for Oklahoma City's little used Chris Wilcox.

Ironically, for the Knicks, these moves are generally more basketball oriented than for the 2010 free agency bonanza.  Though, you have to keep in mind that this doesn't affect the state of the Knicks' 2010 plans.  Hughes will be off the books by 2010 and Wilcox, like Rose is an expiring contract, the difference being Wilcox still has game.

All in all, it's not a bad move for the Knicks, despite all that's said and done about Larry Hughes, he's at least as good of a perimeter threat as say, Quentin Richardson.  I see Hughes immediately starting in the 2 slot, sliding Wilson Chandler back to the bench, unless Jared Jeffries gets traded, who knows? maybe they bench Jeffries.  Wilcox essentially is a major upgrade over Tim Thomas in terms of big man quality, he's not a great rebounder or scorer by any means, but he's serviceable, which Mike D'Antoni has a way of working into stat inflation.  Expect Wilcox to backup Harrington, Lee, and Jeffries at the PF/C slot, unless of course Jared Jeffries gets traded, in which case, expect him to just back up Harrington and Lee.

Breaking: Hornets seriously cuts cost, and size

It's one thing to add depth to the frontcourt, but honestly, it doesn't help to add depth if you trade away your starter for it.  Ultimately this move is purely financial.

Word on the street is that OKC has acquired Tyson Chandler from the New Orleans Hornets for Chris Wilcox, Joe Smith, and the draft rights to DeVon Hardin (so two expiring contracts and a young big).

Maybe I'll talk about this later.  I don't know.  Is there really that much to talk about?

Or not.