02/23 Morning Minute: Who Needs The New Guys?

If there is any possibility that you had either been in a coma, overseas with no access to the United States, or just plain out of it and you pick up a newspaper today to see the Cleveland-Washington box score, I wish I could be there to see your face.

The fact that LeBron James just barely missed his third straight triple-double comes as no surprise. 33 points, 15 rebounds, eight assists. Just another day at the office. But Damon Jones? 10-of-16 from the floor, 7-of-11 from behind the arc? The mohawk was stroking last night to finish with 27 points in 44 minutes of play. The last time Jones started a game was January 15, 2006. Coincidently enough, it was during a seven-game stint that saw the Cavs only win two of the said contests.

The last time he played over 40 minutes? You’ll have to look back to a post-season win for the Miami Heat that took place on May 12, 2005. Regular season? That would be February 23, 2005. I think I speak for the rest of my colleagues on this site when I say that his stepping up last night could not have been more timely. Well done, Damon. I look forward to seeing your offense a bit more in the near term as we’ll need it thanks to our injuries.

If you’re wondering what Jason Kidd did for Dallas last night, he went 1-of-5 from the floor for two points in 32 minutes. Yes, he had 15 assists and four steals, but this line just screams “Eric Snow” to me. Not sure why.

Speaking of Snow, this blurb from Brian Windhorst made me chuckle:

I have to say the possession late in the game where Eric Snow fumbled the ball, Zydrunas Ilgauskas dove on the ground to save it, Snow got it back and shot a fadeaway over three Wizards that was a foot short and two feet left of the rim, only to have Ilgauskas catch it and put it in the basket with one second on the shot clock and the Cavs down by one point with two minutes to go has to qualify for basket of the year.

It was good to see ESPN interview all of the new guys as well as Danny Ferry in last night’s game. Ferry looked like a kid who just passed his driving test, but can you blame him? One thing that I did not like very much was the constant referral to not getting Kidd or Mike Bibby. Seeing what we got for what we gave up, I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people who think we didn’t do well in that deal. Oh, and props to Wally for mentioning the “coming back to Ohio” bit. Fans love that.

Next stop, Memphis.

Good things coming out of Tribe camp lately. Specifically regarding our bullpen, Masa Kobayashi got to leave his first tossing session with Josh Barfield’s broken bat and Rafy Betancourt seems to be in the best shape of his life, both physically and mentally. I’m pretty excited about both players as Japanese pitchers tend to have solid initial campaigns in the Majors. Just look at what Hideki Okajima was able to do last season out of the bullpen for Boston.

And finally, while I was joking about it earlier this week – while it’s not in a PD headline, you’ll love this:

Asked what Andy Marte has to do to improve his offense, Eric Wedge said, “His in-game at-bats need to be better.”

There you have it, folks.