Indians and Terry Francona agree to two-year extension
November 4, 2014Tristan Thompson will get paid—eventually
November 4, 2014Happy Tuesday WFNY!
It’s election day! I know we all get so sick of the endless political ads that fill up every last corner of our existence in the weeks leading up to this day, but never the less, election days is one of my favorite days as an American. If we can set aside the corrupt nature of American politics, on face value the sight of democracy in action is one of the purest forms of expression that we have as Americans. And our right to vote is something so deeply ingrained into our American DNA that, frankly, so many of us take it for granted.
But don’t worry, I’m not going to talk politics here. This is neither the time nor the place. I’m just going to encourage those of you who are aware of the issues and candidates to use your right to vote today. Especially in your local county and city elections, where your vote has the biggest impact. The candidates spent a lot of time and money to raise awareness for their platforms. I hope you all can find time in your day to take an active role in deciding what happens in your neck of the woods.
Now, lets talk some sports.
*****
It’s good to see you again, LeBron
Last week I solely talked about the Cavaliers. Specifically, I talked about the excitement of the unknown. Well, this week, things are slightly less unknown. Slightly.
There’s going to be so much time in the months ahead to break down stats and talk about basketball philosophy and strengths and weaknesses with this team. But today, I wanted to talk a little more about LeBron James. It’s really hard to explain how I feel about LeBron and his return, even after it’s been a real thing for two games.
It’s tricky. LeBron was my favorite player and was rivaling Steve Yzerman as my favorite pro athlete of all time. When he left, it was painful as a fan, both as a fan of LeBron and as a fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Here was the greatest player in the game, and we got the fortune of watching him play for our team day in and day out. For seven years I watched 99% of his basketball games. And then he was just gone. And though we all moved on and celebrated Kyrie Irving and had hope for the future while maintaining our passion for the Cavaliers through it all, it just wasn’t quite the same as watching the best player in the game play every night.
I’m not trying to go all emo on you guys here, but just trying to explain my mindset as a fan as I go through this admittedly strange yet exciting season. It feels weird to have LeBron on the Cavaliers again. It just does. Not in a bad way, or a good way. Just weird. But it’s also been pretty great to watch him play for the team I root for again. It’s been fun to root for LeBron rather than against him.
And strangely, that’s perhaps been my biggest takeaway from these first two games. Above all else, as great as it’s been to see Kevin Love grabbing every rebound in sight and Kyrie Irving playing alongside other great players, and as great as it is to see the team relevant again in the national eye, I’ve really mostly enjoyed watching LeBron play again.
As the season progresses I’m sure the outcome of the games will matter more to me and the weirdness of watching LeBron every game will wear off and everything will be back to business. I look forward to that time. But with only two games under the team’s belt so far, there’s only so much we can really extrapolate from what we’ve seen so far.
This week brings a three game Western Conference swing. The schedule makers were not super kind to the Cavaliers in terms of playing on the road early in the season, and they were even more cruel to us fans who get up early in the morning in the Eastern Time Zone and can’t stay up to watch a game that starts at 10:00 pm. But after we get through this week, things will really get back to normal and the season will really, truly begin.
*****
Did we overlook the Heat?
After LeBron left Miami, many (if not most) observers said the Heat were done. An ever-aging Dwyane Wade and a diminishing Chris Bosh plus an over-the-basketball-hill Luol Deng just weren’t going to be enough to win.
Well, so far that has not been the case. The Miami Heat are 3-0 and the sole unbeaten team in the East. And that guy named Chris Bosh who everyone seemed to love to make fun of in recent years? He’s only averaging 25.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, and 4 assists per game. His 29.4 efficiency rating is sixth in the NBA. No Cavaliers are currently in the top twenty. Oh, and remember Luol Deng? Well suddenly he’s scoring 15 points per game while shooting 57.6% from the field. He shot 41.7% from the field last season with the Cavaliers.
Miami is currently third in the NBA in offensive efficiency and 11th in defensive efficiency. The role players are coming up big and playing really well, also. The Heat could not be off to a better start and Chris Bosh is relishing his new role as Miami’s best player, as ESPN’s Michael Wallace tells us:
Through three games, Bosh has switched it up a lot. He’s averaging 25.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game while shooting 54.5 percent from 3-point range. Having accumulated totals of 77 points, 34 rebounds, 12 assists and four steals so far, Bosh is off to his most dominant start since he arrived in Miami in 2010 to essentially become the third option behind LeBron and Dwyane Wade.
This represents the fastest start for Bosh since his final season with the Raptors to begin the 2009-10 season, when he tallied 93 points, 44 rebounds, made all three of his 3-pointers and shot 45 free throws. Bosh has been fond of saying that even though his overall numbers dropped off once he arrived in Miami, that he is a much better player now than he was during his previous All-Star years in Toronto.
I have no clue whether the Heat are going to be able to sustain this level of play all season long. My instincts tell me they probably will not. But if they do, Chicago isn’t going to be the only fierce rival in the East. It might be time to keep an eye on what the Heat are doing.
*****
Crowell? Bueller?
Those of you who listened to my latest appearance on the WFNY Podcast have already heard me discuss this, but where the heck is Isaiah Crowell? The Browns leader in rushing TDs and Yards per Carry is suddenly absent just as the running game is going down the tube. Why? How? Where? What?
This one makes no sense to me whatsoever. I loved what Crowell added to the Browns’ ground attack and while most of the attribution for the recent rushing decline goes to the loss of Alex Mack, I feel like the diminishing role of Crowell is playing a part as well.
In the podcast, Craig guessed that it was one of three things: A lack of picking up blitzers in pass protection, punishment for fumbles, or team disciplinary issues. Well, head coach Mike Pettine seems to suggest that it’s not really any of those things, as Mary Kay Cabot reports:
So what gives? Why isn’t the Crow flying?
“No. Not disciplinary,” said Pettine. “The kid’s in good standing with the team.”
Pettine said Crowell isn’t still paying for putting the ball on the ground three times against the Steelers. He did keep him off the field at the end of the Oakland game because of ball security, but that was an isolated situation.
“That’s not being held over his head, but it was a staff decision,” he said. “We assess that each week.”
So how can your leader in the clubhouse in terms of TDs and rushing average (4.9-yards per carry) be stuck on the bench?
“We evaluate everything from A to Z – how they’re practicing, just a lot of factors that go into their play,” said Pettine. “I don’t want to get into projecting forward, but we assess each week who gives us the best chance to be successful and that’s who we roll with.”
That doesn’t really clear up anything. Something more has to be going on behind the scenes that nobody is talking about. I guess us fans will just have to continue scratching our heads trying to figure this one out.
*****
A Gregg Alexander sighting!
I know, you’re saying “Who?”
Gregg Alexander was the frontman for the late 90s/early 2000s band New Radicals, the “one hit wonder” who gave us the memorable song “You Get What You Give”.
I put “one hit wonder” in quotes because, to me, New Radicals were not that. To this day I still listen to their album “Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too” quite frequently. I think the whole thing is amazing.
Anyway, after the album and video’s release, the band got pretty big, and then Alexander shut the band down and became a reclusive figure behind the scenes of the music industry. He’s still been active as a song-writer and producer, but mostly he’s been a shadowy figure that escaped the attention of watchful eyes.
However, I recently stumbled upon this recent interview with Alexander in the Hollywood Reporter! I realize this is a fairly esoteric discovery that most probably won’t care about, but it’s honestly a pretty excellent read that somewhat dissects the mindset of a reclusive song-writer who burst onto the scene, delivered one of the biggest hits of the 90s, and then disappeared into thin air.
*****
That’s it for me this week. Lots of watching the Cavs on DVR to look forward to the rest of the week for me. Hope you all have a great rest of your week!
11 Comments
The Heat haven’t exactly played the best of the NBA. I would love to see a Cavs/Heat playoff series, though I think that might mess with LeBron’s head too much.
After the podcast’s Alice in Chains discussion, you really let me down by bringing up New Radicals. I hated that song when it was out because it was so overplayed on the radio and it still hasn’t reached that “I can tolerate it out of nostalgia” level that many other overplayed 90’s songs have with me now. I’ll admit I never heard any of their other stuff, so you’ve at least piqued my interest.
I have Crowell on my Monday Thursday fantasy team. I’m guessing they wanted to keep him fresh for this game.
…but we can’t $et a$ide the corrupt nature of American politic$.
The New Radicals’ song was the worst song i had ever heard the moment i heard it. We still make jokes about it. ANd don’t get me started on that video….
The Heat played a banged up but decent Wizards team, a terrible 76ers team, and a good Raptors team. Not a terrible schedule either. It’ll be interesting to see where they go but they are playing a bit above their heads thus far (unless we think Bosh is a 50% 3pt shooter now and such). We’ll get to see more of where they are at against Houston.
It looks like Pettine isn’t just blowing smoke but that he really does put a lot of stock in how guys practice. With three RBs, the Crow has got to earn his playing time.
Reminds me a bit of high school wrestling where guys have to earn their way into the starting line-up by beating the other teammates in their weight class. It’s a strict meritocracy.
Beat me to it “The Heat are surging” is a little bit of a reach after just four games even w/o LBJ.
The Ohio State Marching Band does it again…”They came from outer space!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQAURLlukO8
We really need to wait and see where this team is by February. It makes sense for the Heat to come firing out of the gates when Wade and Deng are at the peak of their health cycles. As the season wears on, the miles on Deng’s legs tend to catch up with him and he stops hitting his jumpers because he’s got no lift. Similarly, I expect Wade to wear down and miss a bunch of games.
Deng has contributed very little it’s Bosh and Wade really. You know that team can’t go 82 games with those two carrying it, they just can’t.
Could not agree more.