Anthony Parker

[Kabookalu]

Players on a legitimate contender are usually held to a higher standard. If you think that he will be lazy and unmotivated with Shaq and Lebron in contract years trying to win a chip, well, one of two things are going to happen. One, he will not see the floor if you are right, and two his career will be effectively over. I hope he realizes this and works to overcome the deficiences you have seen in his game.
I personally am not impressed with his game, but Ferry for whatever reason saw fit to sign him, so he will be better or he just wont get much time.

I actually do hope he does well and somehow changes his lazy ways because although he made me bang my head against the wall, he was a great personality. People are always open to change but Moon is the type of guy that is just happy being in the NBA.

[jnester71]

Position battles: Delonte West's ongoing problems with chronic depression and gun charges figure to cost him the starting shooting guard spot to newcomer Anthony Parker. Shaquille O'Neal, Anderson Varejao and Zydrunas Ilgauskas are the top three big men, but need a younger body to complement them. It could be Jamario Moon or second-year pros Darnell Jackson, J.J. Hickson or Jawad Williams. Parker and Moon can play several positions fairly well, so Brown's nine-man rotation may be flexible.


http://probasketballnews.com/story/?storyid=748

Mike Brown's rotation flexible?
These guys haven't watch this guy coach!!!

[Basketball_Jones]

AP should be starting anyway. Delonte seems like more of a spark plug off the bench. As for Moon, the guy plays excellent off ball defence and average to below average man defence. He gambles and brain farts a lot guarding someone one on one, but he really gets out there to contest shots. I remember he played well in guarding Lewis when the Raps played the Magic.

[RapsBulls4evr]

Lol, so many Raps fan posting... I thought this was the Raptors board instead.

[anotherhomer]

AP was such an important player esp in the first season with Raps...probably arguably the most important one behind Chris Bosh

He should be starting because his shooting skills and basketball smarts can compliment Lebron and Shaq really well. He also makes the right pass so he can facilitate ball movement from the top of key too.

And yes, the Raptors do miss him.

[L&H_05]

He can't guard those guys any better than smaller wing players. He's no stopper and his length doesn't bother anyone because his not a strong positional defender and he's a bit lazy. You're trying to big him up into something he isn't. Culture, style, personnel, blah, blah, blah. He was no different in Miami where he played alongside D-Wade who draws all of the defence to him. You think Moon could have prospered in Pat Riley's culture, on a winning team, with a superstar teammate creating room for him. The more he was in Miami, the less he played.

Unbelievable that you don't understand what I was saying...Then Toronto fans telling some of us about the Cavs and comparing how a player plays in a terrible, non winning situation like it is/was in Toronto to what the Cavs do...

You guys watch 82 games of average basketball every year...

What you fail to understand here is that the Cavs entire foundation as a team is based on defense...At no point would they have signed Jamario if they didn't feel he would excel defensively here.. Like Boston, the Cavs are constantly communicating on defense, so being in a certain position is not so difficult..

Put it this way, if Wally Szczerbiak could find court time and no be a true defensive liability (he was more of a overall liability) then I'm sure Jamario will be able to find his niche..

[anotherhomer]

Jamario Moon will have some role due to his athleticism and energy but AP will have a much bigger role than Moon despite getting less than him.

As you can see on papers, the coaching staff and players are already loving him. Hopefully not too much that AP has to play 30+ minutes a game.

He should be splitting minutes with West 24/24 but i'm sure the coaching staff be tempted to play him even more. On the other hand, when there's Shaq, Verajao, Mo Williams and Lebron on the team, he won't be forced to play too hard and get more chances to rest due to the blowouts Cavs will probably have.

For the swingman position, he's arguably the second best player (compare to West) behind Lebron despite his decline.

[MrBojangelz71]

Raps fan here.

I think you guys are in for a pleasant surprise by what AP brings to the table. He can flat out shoot the three. With Shaq and Bron dishing from the inside, he will be gold.

He is a consummate pro that will adapt his game to whatever best helps the team. If you need him to provide D, he will give you solid D, if you need him to play guard he can do that well, if you need him to provide some scoring punch, he'll find a way. Problem with him as a Rap was we needed him to do all of that all the time. It was just to much on him and if he's overused he tires and makes errors.

He will find his role with your team and then give you solid minutes at it. He is a slow starter but usually kicks it in at around the quarter mark. Hopefully coaching doesn't get deterred by this and allows him some time to get it going.

AP was one of my favorite players to ever wear a Raps jersey. Pure class act that can still contribute to a winning team. If you guys make the run that you are expected to make this year in the playoffs I guarantee you AP will be a major contributor to it. He's the glue guy you've lacked in previous years. By years end he may not be your starting 2 but he will be the one finishing games at that spot.

[tsherkin]

Especially because Cleveland has solid interior defense, Parker will thrive. Moon, too. They can afford to gamble (or in Parker's case, shade instead of play straight up, or player tighter and more aggressive) and if/when they get burned, Shaq/Z can come lumbering out from around the rim to contest the shot, or Hickson/Varejao can wait and try to draw a charge, or Lebron can swoop over and try to block it, etc, etc.

It's an ideal situation for both of them. In Miami, even when JO was healthy, he wasn't playing loads of minutes and their interior D was horrendous... and I don't even want to talk about Toronto.

Realistically, both of these guys will look better on D on that team; Mike Brown, no matter what his faults as an offensive coordinator, does coach a good defense.

[cage]

i think dagger was bang on with moon

he is an extraordinary athlete who did seem to regress his second year in toronto (after a very surprising rookie year). he was the only athletic wing we had on the raps and i think expectations were raised a little too high for a life-long minor leaguer, as we were desperate for a wing who could defend and slash to the basket, but he seemed to settle for the jump shot (which seems to be a raptors thing). questionable shot selection as well. wade was able to find him for quite a few ally-oops, more than he had in toronto.

a great rebounder and shot blocker with all the tools (minus strength, as he's very thin) to be a pesky defender. has to play smarter and not bite on pump fakes. i remember how impressed raps fans were when moon, in his first ever nba game, completely shut down deng. i think both AP and moon will play valuable roles with the cavs. they were both very nice guys as well

[tsherkin]

I think he regressed beacuse of the nature of the team, because he was going a little outside of his role due to the injuries we suffered.

As long as you cut down on his 3PA and just get him running and defending, it's all good with Moon.

[imgrindin247]

Moon is fine on your team, because he knows he has to play within what he can do or he will ride the pine. In Toronto, he got away with jacking up stupid shots because our depth at the wings was pathetic. It was kind of the same with Parker as we had to run him into ground at his age. We asked him to defend the best perimeter player and be our top scoring wing with nobody that created shots for him. 5 years ago he could do it, but at 34, it's not reasonable to expect that.

I hated losing him, but he is a better fit on your team and I hope he can win a Championship there. It's impossible to root against someone like him.