Since I am down for the count, fellow LeBlogger Aaron is takin over on the updates for now:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All right, in honor of our
sick LeBlogger, I’ve decided to post a nice summation on the state
of Ohio athletics. It hasn’t been the greatest week, that’s
for sure, so let’s start with the bad first.
By now, we all know that our
#2 has just had his second operation on his finger this season, and
is out till at least the end of game 82, with a slight possibility that
he could return in time for the playoffs. Not cool, not cool at
all. So what’s this mean for out beloved Cavaliers?
Well first off, we’ll have
to continue to play without our second leading scoring. The hope
was that we’d be able to play at .500 without Larry, and we’ve done
just that. But a .500 team is not what the Cavaliers wanted with
this season. We had hopes of going deep into the playoffs, and
without Larry, this team could be in trouble. I’d like to think
we’ll have some players step up, but the bottom line is, the entire
team is ailing, with Jackson now out, and Ira fighting a facial infection.
What we need is for LeBron to continue playing like LeBron and the rest
of the team to turn it up a notch.
In terms of the long-term substitute
for Larry, it looks like it’ going to Sasha, who has to continue playing
strong offensive basketball and get his defensive game under control.
Sasha is our best replacement at the 2, and has shown that he can score
12-14 points a night, but he has also shown that he cannot control his
defensive game, and foul out with 6 points.
But then there is the fear
that our team is overextending itself right now. Our core is playing
way too many minutes to make it through 82 games. I like the way
the frontcourt is sharing minutes, but our only player to replace the
1-3 is Damon Jones. And while DJ is playing a bit better lately
we need another piece. Stephen Graham seems to be a nice pickup,
and hopefully can play some solid minutes, but right now it appears
we’re going to need to make a move. What that is. . . only our
man Danny Ferry will know. I’d hate to lose someone from our
current core, so maybe we dangle some draft picks out there, I don’t
know. I just don’t know.
What I do know is this time
last year we were in nearly the identical situation, and we all know
how that ended. LBJ can’t do it by himself, and needs some more
players to complement his game. We all hoped Larry could come
in and be that piece, but now we have to move on and play without him.
And I don’t want to hear any talk about Larry’s past medical record,
because the bottom line is, it doesn’t matter right now. We
have to make due with what we have, battle it out every night, and get
to the playoffs. I still feel we’re a good team, that should
be in the playoffs regardless, but our chance of being there in the
final 4 of the Eastern Conference hinges on our ability to find someone
to help share the scoring burden with LBJ.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment