Cavs Off-season Report Card

906434   Now that the season has a few more months until it begins, we all have to sit and wonder, "Will we do it this time? Will we make it to the promise land and hush all our doubters". The rumors could all go away if we made the right moves this season. So I am sitting here left to consider if we did it this time? Have the Cavs made the key moves to take this once forsaken team to that of the Chicago Bulls just before they broke out and defeated the bad boys of Detroit. Let's review our key acquisitions during the off season. Leon Powe: At power forward, Powe can be a positive later down the road but much could only be said about him "before" he had two bad knees. So we will wait and see what he can do on the court when the time comes. In the locker room he is said to be a great guy and we know he has the grit and experience from winning a ring in Boston to bring to the table. He takes nothing away from our chemistry. I give this an incomplete "I". Jamario Moon: An athletic "natural" Small forward who at the very least will allow our team to run and gun if we ever play a small ball line up again. Think about when we used LeBron at the 4 and 5 (although in limited times). We may be looking at a small ball team of Mo Williams, Delonte West, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon and LeBron James. Crazy? No not really when you consider last season's injury bug the dwindled roster to 3rd string players getting big playing time. Look at the games last season against CHI and NOR where James played center. It's interesting to say the very least. We are talking about a high flying act that could run with the best of them and LeBron won't be the only one scoring this time. I would be remiss if I didn't use Hollinger's unbaised scouting report. He is the statistical NBA guru so it's a plus to me. John writes: "Moon came from nowhere to take over the starting small forward job and gave the Raptors two things they desperately needed -- rebounding and shot-blocking. He led all small forwards in both overall rebound rate and defensive rebound rate, and ranked second at the position in blocks per minute. While he wasn't asked to do much offensively -- his usage rate was only 54th among the league's 63 small forwards -- he was at least somewhat competent from outside, hitting 32.8 percent of his 3-point attempts. And when he went to the rim he was money. Moon made 66.7 percent of his shots in the immediate basket area, the eighth-best mark in the league. Among perimeter players, only LeBron James and Grant Hill were better. However, for a player this athletic his free-throw tally was disappointing -- just 1.1 per game, and 55th among small forwards in free-throw attempts per field-goal attempt. An outstanding leaper who was invited to the dunk contest, Moon is dangerous in transition and on alley-oop plays in the half court. He's also a decent midrange shooter (41.1 percent on long 2s last year) and foul shooter, so opponents have to play him for that." His highest PER was 15.21 and 7.2 pts, 4 rebs and 1.2 ast are a welcome breath of fresh air when compared with Pavolic highest PER of 12.17 and 4.6 pts, 1.9 rebs and 1.1 ast. For this addition to a bench that already has two previous starter bolstering our depth I'm giving this athletic, mid range knock down shooter an "A" because he could very well be our key spark off of the bench. Anthony Parker: OK so he isn't a spring chicken. That said, at 33 he is still known for his defense of players more athletic then him. He does have a high basketball IQ and compared to the guy he in essence replaced at SG, Wally Szczerbiak, he avg 10.7 ppg to Wally's 7 ppg and 3.4 ast to Wally's 1.1 ast. Oh and lets not leave out Parker's highest PER 14.69 compared with Wally's 17.84 (To be fair, that was Wally's first year and he hasn't been the same since. His highest PER in the past 2 years was 14.02) I can say with out a doubt that is welcomed considering his 2 years on Wally. Hollinger's report: "Parker again was the lone rock in Toronto's shaky perimeter corps, playing all 82 games, defending passionately and hitting 43.8 percent of his 3-pointers. His season was basically a carbon-copy of the one he delivered a year earlier, which is no mean feat for a guy who turned 33 in June and spent much of his prime toiling in the wilds of Europe.   Offensively, the Raptors used him even more than in his first season up north, adding nearly a point to his 40-minute scoring rate, and he also upped his rebounding numbers. However, too many of those shots were jumpers, and as a result Parker's free throws plummeted to 1.5 per game. Despite a fairly prominent offensive role, he ranked just 56th among the league's 63 point guards in free-throw attempts per field-goal attempt. Though Parker remained among the better defenders at his position last season, his defensive impact wasn't nearly as noticeable as it had been two seasons ago. He doesn't have great size or athleticism, but he's both dogged and smart. However, at 33, there's a concern that he might be losing a step at that end. Offensively, let's just say he can shoot accurately from pretty much every spot on the floor. Parker ranked in the top 10 in shooting on non-layups from both the left side (10th) and the right side (5th), and was, by a wide margin, the best in the league from straight on (see chart). Though he barely qualified for the leaderboard in terms of attempts, he was so good on his few tries that he could have missed 30 straight and still cracked the top five." So we added two complementarily pieces in Parker and Moon. One is a knock down shooter from outside while the other is "money" inside. Is this getting you excited yet? The main benefit in Parker is his size at the 2. We now have a 6'6" guard with the ability to play solid defense on guards larger than Delonte West.   If I'm a betting man we shouldn't go down hill from here. Oh and if we do, Parker only has one more year on his contract. That's going to allow us flexibility just in case some team wants to shed cap room come the trade deadline. Because of his age and his defensive prowess reaching it's peak I am a bit fearful of what we are getting. Like Wally we have to wonder if TOR is secretly laughing at us like BOS must have been during that playoff elimination two seasons ago when we took Wally off their hands. I'll give this pick up a "+C". Shaquille O'Neal: Now we get to the BIG IF. Yes, that's our new nick name for the Big Aristotle (Since he'll never read this blog I'm safe from any rap songs being dedicated to yours truly). I look at Shaq as being our new and improved version of Ben Wallace. Call it the silver lining point of view. While the world around us suggest Shaq is too old, too stuck in his lazy ways, too... you fill in the blank with your own complaint. I suggest that it doesn't matter. I loved that his imposing size and willingness to step up in big games will at the very least give us a person on offense that teams "won't" ignore. Shaq has many pluses to bring to the table. <ol> <li>His passing ability. Shaq still is one of the best passing big men in the league and that won't change in time thankfully. Two great passers on our team makes me smile.</li> <li>His ability to clean up on the boards is leaps and bonds better than Wallace and imagine if Ilgauskas were to come in and play some power forward with Shaq (Albeit a slow front court, we run a slow offense. No harm no foul).</li> <li>Shaq is experienced with what a winning team lacks and he will bring 4 rings of experience we didn't have before. The Diesel locker room element is welcomed.</li> <li>You can smile about the fact that Shaq is a scorer (A true beast among men on offense). His baby hook shots, footwork in the low post and his ability to force his way to the hoop for put backs. We know this; the league knows this. But now I'm done smiling.</li> </ol> Shaq has a few (ok, a lot) of negatives. If it weren't for his ability to will himself into 2004 Superman we would be completely out of luck. Shaq has been called out for his poor pick and roll defense and his slow transition defense. We can also expect that he will at best improve marginally from the free-throw line this off season. If teams (and they will) implore the age old hack a Shaq defense we will have to sit the big guy. No worries. Ilgauskas would be able to handle the latter end of the game. Outside of that, (I know, I just told the crew of the titanic don't worry it's only a leak) we have to recognize this isn't just any player. It's SHAQ. Here's the bright side people. Look at what he replaced. Ben Wallace was giving you slow lethargic un-Big-DETROIT-Ben-like attempts, at intimidating while on defense. We know Shaq will knock you on your butt if you come into the paint even if he doesn't block your shot. That's a plus in it's self. This is more about what Ben was not, than what Shaq is. Remember when we played BOS in the playoffs and they wouldn't even cover Wallace? That had to hurt his ego but it didn't exactly do wonders for the rest of the guys either. We picked up a guy who "has" to be covered. Shaq can be just as intimidating in the hole as anyone on defense. Before you say, "well he is slow" We run a slow paced offense. He will have plenty of time to get to his spots. Look at these numbers: Shaq 17.8 pts, 8.4 rebs, 1.4 blks and 1.7 ast (Last seasons PER 22.33) Wallace 2.9 pts, 6.5 rebs, 1.3 blks and 0.8 ast (Last seasons PER 12.18) Not really much of a question there. Now crew... doesn't that look more like a leak to you? I thought so. Now let's patch it up, and keep it moving. Hollinger writes this about Shaq's 07-08 season. "Everything you need to know is under that column labeled TO, and it speaks to why the Diesel can't be a go-to guy on the blocks anymore. Shaq turned the ball over on 18.5 percent of the possessions he used, a staggering figure for a primary offensive weapon, and his turnover ratio was actually even higher in Phoenix than it was in Miami. Only eight players had a higher turnover ratio than Shaq, and their names are a who's who of guys whose teammates try to make sure they never touch the ball: Alexander Johnson, Joel Przybilla, Jason Collins, Dominic McGuire, David Harrison, Kendrick Perkins, DeSagana Diop, and Hilton Armstrong. In particular, he committed 36 offensive fouls in just 61 games, but he also found plenty of other ways to give the ball away -- most notably 3-second violations. I don't have data for this, but it wouldn't shock me if his total last season set some kind of record. He wasn't finding the open man, either. Talk to any scout and he'll tell you the value of Shaq is that he can draw a double-team, but he was actually fairly useless in this department last season. Shaq had the third-worst pure point rating in basketball; only Eddy Curry and David Harrison were worse. His ballooning turnovers overwhelmed a couple of pieces of good news from his season. First, he focused much more on rebounding in Phoenix and posted his highest rebound rate in eons, ranking 17th among centers. Second, both his TS% and free-throw percentages were his best in five years, albeit on a much lower quantity of shots. O'Neal's poor conditioning has made him a target on defense, where teams routinely attack him with screen-and-rolls and force him to try to pick up a dribbler coming off the pick. At the beginning of the season he was so lethargic that often he couldn't even stay with the screener as he ran out top, let alone pick up the dribbler. By the end of the year he was in better shape and was a bit more adept at handling this play, but it's still a major vulnerability. Additionally, he's become very foul prone, committing 5.48 per 40 minutes -- putting him in the top third among centers. Offensively, O'Neal is a behemoth who gets deep post position and can convert short bank shots in the paint area. However, he picks up numerous 3-second violations and offensive fouls attempting to get position. Additionally, he's a horrendous foul shooter who has a bad habit of committing lane violations -- he was called for this three times in one game." Now close your eyes, Wait! You can't hear me say open them so just squint... Although he is the oldest of the additions to our roster I give this acquisition an "+A". [Stop squinting] Shaq adds much needed girth to the front court and provides a stable go-to-guy in the paint when teams lock down on LeBron. His passing abilities allow for LeBron to move without the ball. Shaq frees up allot of pressure put on Mo Williams when LeBron leaves the floor not to mention Shaq has 4 rings that will speak volumes in the locker room. This is great sense we have a few younger guys willing to listen.   In all we made improvements to our front court girth and rebounding, backcourt defense and size, and improved our bench to a credible threat when we rest our starters. I would say the total report card is an "-A/+B" (Depending on how Powe turns out). We got stronger in key areas but the price was age. So it's fair that I say "Only time will tell". true

2009-08-23T09:01:02Z

92295 2 Cavs Off-season Report Card

2009-08-26T20:16:59Z

http://sportsnation.espn.go.com/fans/eQ2.0/blog/posts/92295

2008-08-16T23:31:54Z

By Eric Young 906434 eQ2.0 Telling It Like It Is...

2009-08-24T18:51:49Z

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