Carlos Carrasco gets Gatorade shower after near no-no
July 1, 2015Dan Gilbert walking the walk after talking the talk
July 2, 2015
Good morning, Blawg Pound. I’m coming to you on this Thursday morning on the road from my second home, Columbus! Of course, it’s for work travel, but I’ve been able to hit up some of the delicious food choices that I don’t get in Northeast Ohio. Anyhow, enough small talk because OH MY GOD KEVIN LOVE SIGNED A FIVE-YEAR DEAL AND THAT’S AMAZING AND WE SHOULD TALK ABOUT IT A LOT!
My first reaction when I heard the news was taking that first deep breath and exhaling. I made it clear at the time of the trade of Andrew Wiggins that this was the type of risk with just one guaranteed year of Kevin Love that I would not have been willing to take. Despite how good Love was (and is), the Cavaliers would have something locked up for the long-term with Wiggins to grow alongside Kyrie and (hopefully) LeBron. The Cavaliers have been burned far too much by free agency in the past for me to feel comfortable with that arrangement in the slightest, regardless of how many times Kevin Love reassured us. You put yourself in an unenviable spot when you shrink your window and force yourself to win now or risk it all getting blown to pieces. Things like arms getting torn from sockets and knees knocking other knees can cause foundations to crumble.
But, I told myself I would suspend my objection to the trade for the season for a couple of reasons. First, there was nothing I could do about it. Second, I didn’t want my opinion of the future and its prospects to ruin a push for the Larry O’Brien trophy and all the intensity and excitement that comes with that. I’m glad I did, but the injury gods reminded us of how going “All In” creates just as many losing tales as winning ones. Kevin Love had his season cut down in the first round of the playoffs, just when he was really finding his groove, helping the Cavs closeout the Celtics late in games, and his back seemed to be bothering him less and less with each game. That could have been it right then and there, and the Bulls or Hawks could have taken out the Cavaliers, the Cavs would’ve had an excuse for it, and the worrying would’ve had four to six more weeks added to it, with perhaps a lot more uncertainty.
Instead, because the Cavaliers kept putting one foot in front of the other and grinding out playoff victories, even after Kyrie Irving went down in The Finals, Kevin Love remained intrigued. Why would he want to leave this situation where they were so close and anything outside of cruel and unusually timed injuries would have allowed them to complete the mission? Love was a man of his word all season long, and without a long drawn-out parade of visits to sunnier or more storied destinations, he re-upped with the Cavs.
It’s how he re-upped with the five-year max, though, that makes all of the difference. Instead of having this dark cloud hang over the team for the next year and the corresponding whispers about Love’s future, the Cavs now have a core locked in. It’s always fun when Jalen Rose is wrong (and it happens often enough), but this case is extra delicious. They have two All-Stars in their mid-twenties locked in for the next four years and one at age 31 that doesn’t seem to have any desire to be anywhere but home. That’s the best situation for a Cleveland sports franchise in a long, long time.
Getting restricted free agents Tristan Thompson and Iman Shumpert out of the way was an excellent move by David Griffin and company as well. They’ll both be Cavaliers for the next several years, and along with Irving and Love, they form a multi-functional and prime core around LeBron that should allow him to age gracefully. With the Brendan Haywood contract getting more action than many of us anticipated, Dan Gilbert can bite down harder on that tax dollar bullet and bring in a key rotation player as well as potentially bringing back both J.R. Smith and Matthew Dellavedova. How amazing is all of this?! And it’s been said many other places on these pages, so I’ll just keep it brief and say that Dan Gilbert deserves a lot of credit for what he has done, what he is currently doing, and what he appears willing to do through this entire run within the constraints of the NBA salary cap and the tax burden.
I wish nothing but the best for Andrew Wiggins for the rest of his career. I’m sure there’s All-Star trips, NBA All-Defensive teams, and playoff runs in his future. The thing I hoped for last summer above all was that BOTH teams could feel like they won that deal. Minnesota now has a young group to build around in Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Tyus Jones. With Love locking in, the Cavaliers may have already felt like both teams had won, but some of the fans holding their breath along with me can now exhale and just get back to enjoying this incredible ride of Cavs basketball. It doesn’t get much better than this, guys. We can’t forget that.
With all apologies to the Tribe hurlers who have been remarkable this week — including Carlos Carrasco last night — that’s all I have for you today. Have a tremendous long weekend, and we’ll talk again soon.
12 Comments
Recruiting trip? LOL
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2015/07/lebron_james_dwyane_wade_baham.html
“Minnesota now has a young group to build around in Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns, Tyus Jones, and Anthony Bennett (for now).” /ftfy
Man, did yesterday feel good. First up, the Tribe. If those bats could just be more consistent, this team could still make a run and get a playoff spot. And with that pitching staff, they could win. But they have to get there and they have to hit. The D is finally looking better.
The Kevin Love deal felt so good. After years of seeing so many leave, to have someone of his caliber choose to stay kept me smiling for the rest of the day. The lights of LA had no pull. Even if hometown Portland came calling, Love had already decided. Guess the reports of him doing some real estate shopping in Westlake and Bay Village were true. The four year deal with fifth year player option also was very team friendly considering the massive cap increase coming, but I understand desiring security after an injury – and it benefits the Cavs. Tristan and Shump made the grin wider, as did hearing reports that the Cavs have several options for the Haywood deal on the table (probably waiting for the LaMarcus Aldridge sweepstakes to end before the trigger gets pulled).
The sense that we won’t be waiting for very much longer is filling me up right now. The potential was there for the rug to be pulled out from under us after such a magical season, but that did not happen and Love did what he pretty much said he was going to do in his postseason presser after returning to light work.
LeBron returning did much for Cleveland’s psyche. Kevin Love choosing to stay in a city that so many (not just sports figures, but families and businesses) have left over the past 40 years means a lot. It confirms the positives of the Cavs, but it also confirms the positives of the entire region. NE Ohio is no longer a place to get away from. It’s not a place you’re stuck in. It’s a place where you can flourish, grow, and achieve your dreams. As an ex-pat myself, I can see it from afar and I yearn to return. And I banter with twentysomethings nowadays when I wear Cleveland gear and instead of jokes, I hear positives. I hear about people that visited and can’t wait to go back. That’s a lot different than all the negatives I heard as a teenager outside of Cleveland. The city is not a joke any longer and Kevin Love’s choice to stay just helps further confirm that notion. The Cavs appear to be embarking on something special – and they’re doing it at the perfect time, when the city and the region are getting positive accolades from all over.
And me. I can’t stop smiling.
Question for you fútbol guys about penalty kicks. Every one I’ve ever seen goes like this: Shooter tries to guess if the goalkeeper will dive left or right. Keeper tries to guess whether the shooter will shoot left or right. So it’s a 50-50 proposition x 2.
So if the shooter knows the keeper is going to dive left or right, why doesn’t the shooter just kick the ball right down the middle a little above head-high? It seems like the safest thing to do. And even if the keeper doesn’t move either way (and what are the odds of that?), he/she probably wouldn’t be able to get his/her arms up quickly enough to block a point-blank shot right over the top of the head.
What’s the flaw in my reasoning?
Bad keepers guess. Good keepers stay on their toes and read the angle of attack.
Bad keeper:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-tpzBmc5fSJA/UyWvvoJuuaI/AAAAAAAAB0E/wFgZgR0JQ8I/s0/16-03-2014-GifNumber-201.gif
Good keepers:
http://cdn3.sbnation.com/imported_assets/757265/HOPESOLOSAVE.gif.pagespeed.ce.MBKEwHwUTY.gif
http://i2.wp.com/gifsection.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Navas-blocks-Theofanis-Gekas-pk.gif
http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb478/Vdim38/Untitled.gif
Thanks, Hopwin, but still, in the US-Germany match the other night, there were two PKs, and the keeper dove the wrong way on both of them. And obviously the two best teams in the world don’t have bad keepers.
Can we start all bench players and have them play 80% of minutes for the first month?
you would think they would be able to hit top corner every time. You can’t stop that! Put it in a 2.5×2.5 box in top corner.
Technically the keeper is not permitted to move until the ball is struck. But, they’ve been pushing the envelope on that for so long, that that rule might as well not exist.
That is not to say you cannot misread the angle and some PK specialists are specialists because they do voodoo with their feet. I’d post a gif example but I feel I have exceeded my quota 😉
Also, the second gif is Hope Solo from the USWNT, she is clearly not guessing in that example 🙂
Maybe they’ll win 20 games next year! Bennett doesn’t even play.
Yes.