While We’re Waiting… Signing Parker, Meyer’s Staff and Braxton’s Highlights
December 2, 2011Cleveland Browns Offense By the Numbers
December 2, 2011
The two sets of double doors were unlocked, there were chairs in the media workroom and the opaque door that leads to the pristine facility was just begging to be crossed through. On this day, Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant would keep everyone from needing to step on to the hardwood floor with their pen and paper, but the fact that there was finally a meeting, the team able to speak to the media about players, was a giant high-topped step in the right direction.
While Anderson Varejao, Ramon Sessions, Manny Harris and Samardo Samuels would be on the premises, no one who receives a check from the Cavaliers outside of the communications staff is allowed to speak with them until the season starts one week from today. While fans have a lot of questions – How’s Kyrie Irving’s foot? Is Ramon Sessions going to be traded? – it will be at least a week until we are all provided response, be they canned or candid.
While some fans may still be angry over what happened in the summer of 2010 or the lockout or the fact that things do not appear to be different than they were in seasons past, the fact that players are attending voluntary workouts speaks well to the mental state of what was a 19-win locker room. Soon, the wanting public will be provided a scrimmage, the annual Wine and Gold game where players young and old will run in practice jerseys. Then two preseason games (hear that NFL?), then the regular season will commence. Who the Cavaliers will be playing and when they will lock horns is still to be determined.
The fact that basketball is back, however, is as definitive as ever.
No longer is this Cavalier roster littered with veterans and unsigned rookies. No longer are there lingering questions about which players will be considered the face of the franchise. No longer are there rumors and speculation surrounding what the Cavs would (not) be afforded if in fact there were no basketball played between now and this spring.
Camp will break, rookies will get signed and this team will finally be taking the necessary steps to return to prominence. It won’t be an overnight fix, but then again, what has in this city of ours? There is no denying that – with Irving and Tristan Thompson added to the roster – this team is more talented today than it was five months ago.
The exciting part will be seeing the process unfold.
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(AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
26 Comments
I dropped this in the last post, but it seems more relevant here:
I know this is all part of “The Plan” and all, but it’s a pretty big downer to be going into the season and *hoping* your team will be one of the worst 3 in the league. Am I the only one bummed out about having to root for my team to loose all season? Doesn’t exactly motivate me to go out and buy tix…
But I’m supposed to be all into it again in 2012?
Add to all this the fact that the League seems no more competitively balanced than before the lock out – it’s difficult for me to find ANY excitement here.
Im excited. Scott would you be in support of ramon sessions for landry fields?
the nba needs to cut the league down to 8 teams or so. Cavs will be like the indians, a farm team for ny, la, bos etc..
@yerfdog, I certainly would if the Knicks were actually interested in that trade, but I don’t think they would be and the money doesn’t add up anyway. Fields is making peanuts compared to Sessions.
Someone has to be at the bottom of the league and someone has to draft first overall. It’s not as if we haven’t just come off a half-decade of being one of the top teams in the NBA.
Cleveland apparently doesn’t have the clout of LA, Boston, or Miami. But we have a great owner, good management, and some decent looking talent at a few spots.
Any comparison to the Indians or Browns is off the mark. The Indians ownership doesn’t try and the Browns have been mismanaged for decades. The Cavs are neither.
I, for one, have faith that we’ll come out of this okay, even if it means 1 or 2 more years of less-than-good basketball.
Believe me, #1, the Cavs will lose their share of games without your hope and prayers. You need to root for them to develop and win as much as they can, they will add the top draft pick all by themselves.
#3: I don’t know what to say about you except you should stop rooting for Cleveland teams and sell out to the Yankees and Lakers already.
@1
i know what you are saying. nobody wants to go into the season looking at it as a road block to next years draft.
maybe i can offer these words: “root for the team, enjoy the wins and know that there is a better tomorrow on the horizon”
my dad spoke those to me when i was in a ball on the floor after the fumble.
i look at this year for the cavs in the same manner. i will root for them to play hard, for kyrie to show he can be the PG this team has never had, for baron to show he’s got the maturity to mentor the future, for tristan to become what JJ will never be, for varejao to stay healthy, and for chris grant to show he can make the right moves in a very lopsided league.
will they win some, sure. will they lose some, sure. today’s horizon is good, but there is a better one on the way.
personally, if the 2 rookies look promising and it looks like Scott is coaching them up the right way, I will enjoy watching them develop even though they’ll surely lose a ton of games.
Loved watching the Daugherty, Price and Harper learning under Lenny Wilkins that first year, even with a lot of bonehead plays. What is hard is watching cranky veteran roster-filler guys when they lose every night. I’m really glad Mo is gone and won’t be sad to see Davis leave too. Baron can still win them some games but can’t believe he will be able to tolerate for very long the attention and touches Irving will get.
My concern for the cavs (and other small market teams) being completely irrelevant is not management or budget. The culture of the NBA today seems significantly different than other pro sports. The majority of players appear to be more concerned with living a certain lifestyle rather than personal or team success thus putting Cleveland and other similar markets at the bottom. In addition, even if we hit on the draft, get another superstar, or even 2, they will not have any interest in extending a contract when they can get similar money in a large, ‘hip’ market.
Thanks Christopher, I needed that. Guess my In Gilbert We Trust faith was wavering a little. They’re definitely rebuilding this team the right way and I think they can and will succeed. Hopefully last season was rock bottom and we’ll only see improvement from here on out. It’s just a little weird to hope they improve but not too much. To root for them to win games, but not too many.
I guess as long as the Heat choke again, this season can only be a success!
Sell out ny and la? Now thats just disrespectful. My hatered runs deep for such markets and will always be a loyal cleveland fan.
Im simplying stating what direction i feel the league is heading.
I understand, Cle, but that’s what we are up against and that’s why it will be better and sweeter when a Cleveland team does come out on top. Enjoy the journey my friend.
Re: Fields, to echo the comment above, the money thing would be a huge hurdle. Plus, with NY apparently having to trade for Chris Paul, I’m not sure how that’d work.
Re: competitive balance, the new CBA wasn’t going to disband teams. How anyone thought this year would be different than last is beyond me. What it did was share revenue better and allow teams to make money and build better teams going forward. This does not effect Day 1.
I was excited up until, two days after a deal was announced, I already started to see NBA writers fill up pages on how Paul was forcing a trade to New York, Howard was forcing his way out of Orlando, and how no small market teams – even the Thunder – had a chance at getting either of them.
Now that the lockout has ended and the Cavs will be jockeying for draft position and after hearing about Chris Paul wanting a trade to the Knicks, I think you could say I’m pretty disillusioned with the NBA. The major issue with players forcing their way out of teams was purposely not rectified immediately by the CBA. As I and others feared, this whole thing was mostly about the BRI split and was a gigantic waste of time. Under the new system the rich will get richer and the poor will have to get lucky, just as it was before.
@architrance #10
watching Dirk hoist the trophy over his head while Bosh fake collapsed to the floor crying knowing that we have two lottery picks in the draft was the punctuation i needed to mark last cavaliers season “redeemable”.
#suckforBarnes
I have fought this my whole adult life while watching the NBA, but the new CBA finally broke my back (not that LBJ didn’t almost do it heading into last year)…there is 0 chance the Cavs will ever win a Championship. The “competitive balance” the oweners supposedly were looking for is still non existent and henceforth today’s American born NBA superstar will never stay in a small market/non-warm climate past his first contract unless he wins a championship there during it. Look at the “hot stove” in the NBA since the lockout was fixed a week ago: CP3 wants out of NO for NYC and D. Howard has been targeted by the media as eventually on the move. It’s sick, sad, and disheartening. Unless a small market team can fill its roster with loyal overseas talent, there is little chance of winning. Even then the media will clamour for them to go to a bigger market. It’s all a sham, and for someone who has literally watched over a thousand Cavs games dating back to his first one at age 5 in 1985 against the Hawks in Richfield, it pains me to say it. Seriously though, what’s the point if you know there’s 0 chance ever of finishing first? Why waste the time, emotion, energy and money? Wish it was different but it’s not. It’s the reality…as that old song goes…you know its sad but true.
[…] “While Anderson Varejao, Ramon Sessions, Manny Harris and Samardo Samuels would be on the premises, no one who receives a check from the Cavaliers outside of the communications staff is allowed to speak with them until the season starts one week from today. While fans have a lot of questions – How’s Kyrie Irving’s foot? Is Ramon Sessions going to be traded? – it will be at least a week until we are all provided response, be they canned or candid.” [Scott Sargent] […]
the word is “LOSE,” not “LOOSE”
I am so tired of seeing this word misspelled.
losen up, Mike.
haha, okay. sorry.
Unless everything falls into place, and I mean everything from good picks and getting the right free agents I can’t see this team being anything but average the next few years.
Any chance we could hang on to Baron until the trading deadline and then find a contender whose point guard just got hurt and then make a favorable deal for him? Also, while I was unhappy the situation allowing the stars to leave was not corrected, I think our problem was the selfish player we had and not endemic. Paul wants out becasue N.O. is hopeless, and with our owner, I can see our new young stars staying if we are a contender. I guess I am just a glass half-full guy.
sessions for Landry wouldnt work money-wise. i think ronny turriaf would have to be involved as well, or some combination of bill walker/toney douglas/renaldo balkman.
@18, complete agreement.
the most successful professional sports league in the history of earth just held the most profitable championship game in the history of earth with teams from two cities that could never attract a free agent in the nba’s current ‘player freedom’ model.
nfl. pittsburgh. green bay. parity.
the players and owners tied in this agreement. fans of fly-over teams lost. agents and ESPN won. sad.