One on One with jimkanicki
May 31, 2010While We’re Waiting… Rebuilding Browns, LeBron Judges, and the Cribbs/Wallace “Flash”
June 1, 2010
When the Cavs were looking to upgrade the team’s roster in February before the trade deadline, I was a big propenent of the Cavs trading for Antawn Jamison. Well, that didn’t work out so fantastically. So, I’m writing this to acknowledge the fact that I was wrong.
Offensively, Jamison fit in well with the Cavs after a few games. He was consistently producing 15 and 7 for the team in every game. The Cavs’ offense looked fairly good, with Jamison providing very good off-the-ball movement and benefiting from many good passes when he cut to the basket.
Defensively, Jamison didn’t hurt the team too much during the regular season. The big concern for many about Jamison was the fact that many viewed his defense as a pretty big liability. During the last month and a half of the season, it didn’t seem to be a huge problem – the team’s offense was more than making up for the perceived drop in defense.
Come playoff time, however, the Cavs had a full roster, with Shaquille O’Neal returning to the lineup. The front court set of Jamison and O’Neal was slow on rotations many times. While the Cavs managed to beat the Bulls fairly handily, the matchup issues were compounded when the Cavs played the Celtics.
Kevin Garnett tore Jamison up. When Jamison would front KG in the post, a lob pass would provide an easy basket. When Jamison defended hoop-side, Garnett would post up. The fact that Jamison got killed on the defensive end didn’t seem to help his offensive game either. Of all the matchups that really killed the Cavs (and there were many), I think that this was the most glaring.
So I was wrong thinking that Jamison would put the Cavs over the top. I also was wrong in thinking that the Celtics were a sort of a pushover team. I’m willing to admit that, and thought you folks that have pointed it out deserved to hear me say it (cheers, Kanicki). The thing is, we’re all wrong a lot. I’m no “sports writer”, but I like to think every now and again I can formulate a pretty good opinion on sports. Still, I find this quote from Joe Posnanski in an interview with Slate Magazine to be incredibly apt here (via Sharp):
Slate: All sports fans make predictions. Does the fact that you do it professionally mean that you’re supposed to be right at least slightly more often than the rest of us?
Maybe [sportswriters] have a little more insight from talking to the players, the coachesâpeople who are on the inside. But in reality, I don’t know that we’re wrong any less often.
I do think, though, that a big part of the job is how you handle being wrong. Are you up front about it? Do you play it off? Do you try to defend yourself? Every time you write anything, at least half your readers are going to disagree with you. A big part of sports writing is how you respond to that tension.
So with that in mind, and with the spirit of openness and honesty that we have recently decided to establish, I admit to you all that I was wrong about Jamison. He wasn’t the piece that put the Cavs over the top. Certainly there was a lot more going on with the team than just the Jamison-KG mismatch, but it surely played a part in the team’s demise.
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(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
21 Comments
The Jamison acquisition was a solid one, it just wasn’t given a chance to work properly in the playoffs because of circumstances and questionable coaching. Shaq injury really hurt Jamison because he was never able to get comfortable playing with Shaq on the floor. Mike Brown could have alleviated this situation by subbing in JJ Hickson early (who had lots of experience playing with Shaq) and bringing in Jamison at the point he subbed Shaq out.
Brown also never figured out how to take advantage of Jamison’s offensive abilities. As has happened with too many players who have arrived recently on the Cavs, Jamison was made into a spot up shooter. While the spot up game is one of Jamison’s abilities, it is by no means his strength. Jamison can be a devastating force on the post, and yet I can’t recall a single time when the Cavs ran plays for Jamison in the post against the Celtics. The team also did a pitiful job using Jamison and LeBron in the pick and roll, a omission so glaring, Windhorst was literally begging Mike Brown to run it more.
As for his defense, I don’t think it was as bad as it looked. Garnett had a length advantage on him and turned into KG circa 2005 in that series making sick turnaround jumpers and doing whatever he wanted on the block.
Now, after I’ve said all of that in Jamison’s defense, it can’t be denied that the dude flat on yakked on some big jumped in the Celtics series (for instance that wide open 3 at the top of the key in game 2 that would have brought the Cavs within 7 with about 4 minutes to go) and was flat out turrible in Game 6, choking from all over the floor (dude couldn’t even buy a layup). But I think he was used improperly and that exacerbated his deficiencies.
I think we all could admit we’re wrong about this one. It was like the team just imploded in that Boston series. While I respect Ferry for all his hardwork he basically told Mike Brown here are new players see how they fit. So it’s not all on Mike Brown.
It was close to playoff time too which makes it even more difficult. No one knew what they were supposed to be doing and it caught up to them. Everyone looked lost out there. That is on Mike Brown and the players. Everyone is to blame in some way for this season blowing up like it did. We had HUGE expectations for this team. Anything less than a Finals trip would be considered a failure. Injuries and new players and new lineups just led to this team flat out not playing the right way. I’m so disappointed for the fans and all of us on WFNY.
Maybe we were right on him in theory, but that’s not where titles are won.
Ferry thought his coach could throw new players into a boiling pot and pull out a trophy just a month or two later. Turns out Mike Brown’s a good man but not a very good wizard.
And anyway, Cavs still gave themselves no chance by not playing hard. That’s not on Jamison, or Ferry. Maybe one lesson here is that a Wally on the bench since training camp sometimes trumps a Tawn on the floor as the season ends. Maybe chemistry counts.
I really wish that O’Neal would’ve played during the second half of the regular season so we could gauge how much of the collapse was a function of which variables. I guess the only way to tell will be next season if LeBron returns….
kanicki didn’t want to hear denny say he was wrong. kanicki wanted to hear denny say kanicki was right.
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wrong on antawn? enh. we wanted a long perimeter presence to help defend lewis/pietrus; who’s to say he wouldn’t have done well in an orlando series? in that sense we were all wrong on shaq too.
… or … we were all right and mike brown just didn’t recognize there were other matchups on the bench better suited to the celts.
*denny, i give you the ‘rickey tag’ for 3rd person narrative as a replacement for the played out caps-lock sarcasm meme. đ
^ the html bracketing surrounding ‘rickey’ and ‘/rickey’ above were stripped out so this is not funny.
/fail
I remember writing on here around the trade deadline saying that a trade for Amare or Iggy meant the Cavaliers are playing for the future, a trade for Jamison meant the Cavaliers were playing for this year only. Told you.
Now look at the team, the Jamison trade made the Cavs having needs at SG, PF, and Center this off season. Also, on top of that, we need a point guard and a consistent 6th man….all with the MLE.
Trading for Iggy would have made the team younger with JJ at PF, and Iggy at SG, and we would only be looking for a Center to play behind ANdy this off season. Maybe trading Mo.
This team is jacked up……all because of the Jamison trade.
“This team is jacked up…. all because of the Jamison trade”
Very true, atleast we dint get troy murphy although both contracts are horrible. Iggy would have been ideal, and left us with something going forward instead of jamison on the down swing with a big contract.
The problem with Jamison is that he never got to play with Shaq (only played together 4 times in the regular season). With them not playing together, it wasn’t until the playoffs that we found out playing Shaq and Jamison together greatly compromised our defense. And, Jamison ran into a bad matchup with Garnett.
The Jamison trade was a good one and I’d do it again if I were Ferry. No they didn’t get it done, but the Cavs had enough pieces to win a championship this year. No ifs ands or buts.
@ Natty – âThis team is jacked upâŠ. all because of the Jamison tradeâ
Couldn’t disagree more. The team gave up a mere first round pick for Jamison, that’s it. There were no other real consequences (other than losing Z’s Bird Rights). You assume that Iggy was available for a price the Cavs were willing to pay, and there’s no indication he would have been. Not to mention the fact that Mike Brown’s “system” reduced Jamison, a great low post player, to a spot up jump shooter, Brown’s system would surely have turned Iggy, a far less versatile player who needs the ball to succeed, a glorified Larry Hughes.
I completely agree with Ike. The Jamison deal was a great value and I’d do it again if given the opportunity. He was easily the best piece available for the price the Cavs were willing and able to pay (nothing). The Shaq injury and Brown’s coaching decisions are, for the most part, the reason the deal didn’t work out for this year. If LeBron comes back, I would not write off Jamison contributing in a big way in 2010-2011.
How you base a trade on one series where the 6’9″ Jamison had to guard a 7’0″ Garnett is besides me, I don’t. Jamison isn’t a great defender but none of the Cavaliers played defense. Furthermore Jamison’s offensive capabilities were never fully utilized. As a result Garnett didn’t have to play much on the defensive end.
These are part of why your head coach was canned. If you ask me it was long overdue.
@ AMC – I totally agree. I still like the Jamison acquisition, especially with the price we paid. There were so many factors aside from Tawn being a “bust” that contributed to his playoffs failure that have been exhausted here (Mike Brown’s crappy offensive system, Shaq and Jamo having no game time burn together, a mismatch for Jamison in ONE series, and most crucially the team quitting etc.).
If by some miraculous stretch (for Cleveland standards), we get (1) LBJ to resign, (2) get rid of some dead weight like Mo, and (3) can somehow add some more complementary pieces including a good coach, I am confident Jamo can contribute at a very high level for at least one more year.
Just remember, as some here ominously observed in the time leading up to and after the deadline, these big-time midseason acquisitions have traditionally not resulted in championships, including the blockbuster Gasol deal in 08. I’m not going to write a high character guy like Jamo off just yet.
let’s not forget that windhorst is standing by his story that stoudamire was not available (for hickson). would phx/kerr have dealt him at the deadline? unknown. just saying it’s unfair to say we shouldve gotten amare.
my beefs at the time were:
1. if we’re dealing, we should look at a #5 because life goes on after this year and as of now both our centers are [really really] old. (the al jefferson rumor was my favorite of all the made-up scenarios that were floating around at the time.)
2. in the few times i watched jamison this year, he just didnt look that great. it was a 2-17 game (ironically against the celtics) that got my attention, but he’d had several other stinkers right before the deadline. but i was fine deferring to guys who watched him more to vouch for him.
i’ll go with a minority view: i liked (like) antawn. for a mellow guy by nature, he looked fired up in playoffs. to me, it seemed he played hard, aggressive D, right on top of KG. who knew KG would be ridiculous. i’m inclined to credit KG more than i am to ding antawn. the only guy with length to stop KG when his jumper is on might be Z and there’s little doubt that that would have led to KG drives, backside help, and lots of dishes to perk/baby for layups. as for his offense, MB used him mostly as a kickout for lebron drives and no one ever said he was built to drill 3s like a lewis or pietrus. he could have been helpful in an uptempo offense, but of course MB decided to run much of the offense through our 400lb center with a 1″ vertical. (stopping now.)
unfortunately, antawn has never shown that he can be a step-up-at-clutch-time guy. i’m looking at his wooden/naismith award winning year when UNC lost to utah. not saying he looked at uncomfortable as mogotti, but he was close.
it’s hard to know who has the robert horry or reggie miller or kobe within himself. if you’ve ever golfed with someone who gets better under pressure, you know the type. question to anyone reading: who on the cavs is your second option with the game on the line? who would you most expect to knock down a game winner? i would have said delonte when his head is right, but it didn’t seem right all playoffs. you look down our bench… all i can come up with is boobie. at least he’s done it before.
While never a big Jamison fan, the fact that they never took Jamison away from the hoop (where KG can’t guard him either) on offense, was a complete joke.
nothing wrong with Jamison that a real coach could not fix … said it for years, he and Ferry are not good and do not understand that LBJ needs to play off the ball and attack … any decent coach and we would have back to backs … same for mangini … just waiting for next year when he is gone … Jamison fine player if we had a clue how to use him
@ #7 – How come with the Jamison trade, we now need a power forward next year, but if we did the Iggy trade, JJ is our PF? Either we need a PF or we dont, but regardless, we still have JJ
One or the other, buddy
we got Jamison for free…hard to complain about that. if he and Shaq were a liability together, then we just should have not played them together.
yes, Jamison has failed in the clutch throughout his career (much like Vince Carter) and he was yet another trade where we added offense while ignoring the defensive implications (Mo, Shaq, Jamison).
but, if nothing else, the trade chip of Jamison for this summer for a 1st round pick that may not have been able to make the team is a pretty darn good value.
because…if LeBron quits on the team, it doesn’t matter if Jamison is on it or not.
I think everyone is forgetting a major point here. The problem, for the most part, was NOT the Cavs. It was Boston getting healthy right at playoff time! The Cavs were not mentally prepared for the Celtic team they faced, and who can blame them! It was surprising to see how well teh Celts played. (They will be world champs this year.) I did not relaize this until the BOS-ORL series. Then it became clear what happened to CLE. Clelvenad can win a title with the team they have. Give this team another year with perhaps the addtion of a SG or PG, and they can win it all.
Tmac… so you are telling me that its OK for a team to not be mentally prepared for a playoff series? How is that not the Cavs fault? The Cavs were outcoached, outhustled, outplayed, and now OUT of the playoffs. If the Cavs were mentally prepared for that series, it would have turned out differently.
Honestly, the Cavs’ biggest issue was its reactionary style of management. No one in the organization was pro active or had faith in their philosophy. I guess in my mind you never build a team for a single opponent (Piston, Celtics, then Magic). A team should be built around a system or philosophy. Consequently, it was flawed management from the beginning and from the top down. So I felt from the beginning of the season Shaq was brought in 6 months too late. And that Wally’s contract should have been used. And I thought that we should have used it to get stephen jackson or andre igoudala. As for Antawn, he wasn’t my first choice. I wanted Amar’e more. But I always thought the best stretch four was Lebron all along. I posted all this throughout the year to many jeers and verbal abuse on the Plain Dealer’s website. So I stopped posting. I didn’t even go back to say I told you so..
As much as I like kicking horses when they are down, I can’t here.
I wanted ‘Twan too. It made so much sense.