Game 7: Cavs at Wolves | Fri, Jan 6th | 8:00 PM ET

Post #1 » by **Rise Against** » Fri Jan 6, 2012 12:34 am

The 2nd game of the 7 game road trip.

Irving vs. Rubio, anyone interested in that matchup?

Plus Derrick Williams haven't been playing as much or as well as people would expect.. 7 PPG and 4 RPG in 17 MPG.

Nirvana · Post #2 » by **Nirvana** » Fri Jan 6, 2012 3:56 am

I'm excited to watch Rubio. I hope both him and Kyrie come into this game looking to outdo one another. That, in addition to the #1 and #2 picks in the draft side of things, should make for a pretty interesting game.

Anyone else torn with emotions of wanting to win and root for the team, yet knowing that it's just going to hurt us in the long run? I mean, rewind to when we got LBJ, we were done for because we never had a chance for a high pick again. I know most of us are secretly dreading all the sudden finding ourselves in the late lottery treadmill and missing out on the serious impact players that lead to perennial playoff contention. It's not rocket science. The front office has to know this. We'll probably blow the team up at some point through trades/buyouts (Jamison) to guarantee the sufficient amount of tanking necessary for our future success, with Jamison, Varejao, and Sessions being the three most likely guys to both bring in value and lead to an increase in losses by their removal.

I just got finished rooting for the Browns to lose games for their draft position, now the Cavs have just started the season and I'm already thinking about our draft. What a life we live here in Cleveland.

Manny Phresh · Post #3 » by **Manny Phresh** » Fri Jan 6, 2012 2:39 pm

If you listen to most cball players, players like Sullinger and Terrence Jones stayed in school mainly because there was much uncertainty of an NBA season. It's safe to say that next offseason draft will be the best in awhile. Here's to hoping the Kings make the playoffs this year. Should be a good game tonight. Looking forward to it.

mcfly1204 · Post #4 » by **mcfly1204** » Fri Jan 6, 2012 3:04 pm

I would actually prefer to win games, because that means something is going right. Given the makeup of our roster, that likely means the youngsters are ahead of schedule. The issue during the LeBron era was that we did not hold onto our picks, and the picks we kept were used poorly. As long as we keep our picks, whether high or not, we can continue to add pieces.

2004 - Puke Jackson. Missed on Al Jeff, Josh Smith, Biedrins, J.R. Smith, Jameer Nelson, and Kevin Martin
2005 - pick traded to Phoenix in 1997, who moved the pick to Charlotte.
2006 - Shannon Brown. Bleh.
2007 - pick traded to Toronto in 2004, who moved the pick to Charlotte. Dudley was selected with the pick, Wilson Chandler, Rudy Fernandez, Afflalo, Brooks, Splitter, Landry, Big Baby were selected afterwards.
2008 - JJ Hickson. Courtney Lee, Ryan Anderson, Ibaka, Batum, George Hill, DeAndre Jordan were selected afterwards.
2009 - Christian Eyenga.
2010 - pick traded to Washington.

Nirvana · Post #5 » by **Nirvana** » Fri Jan 6, 2012 4:55 pm

Our 2007 pick was actually traded for Jiri Welsch. :O OOOOOHHHH THE HUMANITY!!! It was used on Rudy Fernandez, after Boston used it to trade for Rondo.

We also had a 2007 first rounder from trading Lamond Murray (who at one point in time was my favorite basketball player) that we traded for Sasha Pavlovic, and that pick became Jared Dudley.

My point about our draft position is that we were never in the top 5 again, thus never giving us a chance to add an additional stud through the draft, which is the only way we'll get them here. I won't complain, though, if we're winning games. Byron Scott is a great coach and he'll have the guys playing solid basketball, and laying the foundations of winning basketball is important, but I also really want to have the shot at the most talented players at least one more year while we are rebuilding, you know? I hope we keep playing well and showcase Sessions and Jamison, and lose a little here and there enough so that we can add some depth of talent to this squad to build around. I'm not rooting for 0-66, by any means.

Just a solid top 5-7 pick, with a chance of getting lucky and moving up.

tidho · Post #6 » by **tidho** » Fri Jan 6, 2012 8:48 pm

Nirvana wrote:...Anyone else torn with emotions of wanting to win and root for the team, yet knowing that it's just going to hurt us in the long run?...

Not torn at all. I want hard fought, character building, close losses every night. We need a top ten pick. The last think we need is to sneek into mediocrity this year. If we can land another hot prospect and Irving and TT look like they've got game then it actually gives us a shot in free agency to turn this around. The perception that the team could really take off simply sells better than the idea that they should be solid for a while.

mcfly1204 · Post #7 » by **mcfly1204** » Fri Jan 6, 2012 9:20 pm

If we are winning games, I think that is better for our future than a potentially high draft pick. It would be nice to have another high pick, but that would not guarantee us anything. High lottery picks can pan out, or they can get you Marvin Williams, Martell Webster, Charlie Villanueva, Adam Morrison, Tyrus Thomas, Shelden Williams, Randy Foye, Jeff Green, Jianlian Yi, Corey Brewer, Brandan Wright, Joe Alexander, Hasheem Thabeet, Jordan Hill, Evan Turner, Wesley Johnson, Aminu, etc.

Kaner · Post #8 » by **Kaner** » Fri Jan 6, 2012 10:18 pm

tidho wrote:
Nirvana wrote:...Anyone else torn with emotions of wanting to win and root for the team, yet knowing that it's just going to hurt us in the long run?...

Not torn at all. I want hard fought, character building, close losses every night. We need a top ten pick. The last think we need is to sneek into mediocrity this year. If we can land another hot prospect and Irving and TT look like they've got game then it actually gives us a shot in free agency to turn this around. The perception that the team could really take off simply sells better than the idea that they should be solid for a while.

May be one of the pickiest things I've heard haha

Post #9 » by **Klomp** » Fri Jan 6, 2012 10:34 pm

It should be an interesting game tonight.

Exile23 wrote:Plus Derrick Williams haven't been playing as much or as well as people would expect.. 7 PPG and 4 RPG in 17 MPG.

A lot of Wolves fans pretty much expected him to get about this much time backing up Love. He's been playing pretty well though in the time he's had. Rubio and Williams seem to have one alley-oop a game

Nirvana · Post #10 » by **Nirvana** » Sat Jan 7, 2012 1:11 am

Kaner wrote:
tidho wrote:
Nirvana wrote:...Anyone else torn with emotions of wanting to win and root for the team, yet knowing that it's just going to hurt us in the long run?...

Not torn at all. I want hard fought, character building, close losses every night. We need a top ten pick. The last think we need is to sneek into mediocrity this year. If we can land another hot prospect and Irving and TT look like they've got game then it actually gives us a shot in free agency to turn this around. The perception that the team could really take off simply sells better than the idea that they should be solid for a while.

May be one of the pickiest things I've heard haha

Haha, I was just on the phone with a friend and said something fairly similar.

It's just hard sometimes when you want the wins for the players, but want the losses for the draft.

Anyways, here we go. Woohoo, the JUMPSHOOOTER with an air ball.

Dupp · Post #11 » by **Dupp** » Sat Jan 7, 2012 1:59 am

Just tuned in, i swear parker thinks hes kobe sometimes

Nirvana · Post #12 » by **Nirvana** » Sat Jan 7, 2012 5:17 am

Parker really likes to go for the mid-range bank shot from the elbow off the dribble. I don't think I've seen him make it more than once out of the few dozen times he's taken it.

Nothing was worse than when we had Donyell Marshall in the corner pump faking the three, taking one dribble in, then air mailing the closer two pointer. I swear he'd take that exact shot every other game and he didn't make it once in his time with us.

I don't know how many people saw this game, but I swear there were like 12 air balls. It seemed like an inordinate amount of airballing.

Dupp · Post #13 » by **Dupp** » Sat Jan 7, 2012 5:27 am

Yeah there was heaps of airballs both ways. No flow to the game. Wolves played pretty bad, i liked rubio. Andy played good, jamison was pretty good as well, kyrie was solid, caspi was caspi.....

Nirvana · Post #14 » by **Nirvana** » Sat Jan 7, 2012 7:30 pm

Yea, Casspi is not off to a very good start, but I think he's just pressing too hard. I still like the way he fits with us if he plays up to his potential. I guess time will tell whether Casspi will get it together, but Gee is playing pretty well off the bench and might take the starting spot. I haven't really heard/read anything to support that, just speculating.

gflem · Post #15 » by **gflem** » Sat Jan 7, 2012 7:51 pm

To me Casspi is starting to look like he is a tweener, not enough lateral quickness to guard 3's and not big enough to guard 4's. I know its still early, but he looks like the prototypical "stretch 4" without the requisite jumpshot. I hope it is just him getting acclimated to the new team and he will show something more than he has so far.
I liked the way the team played against Minny, but like mentioned above I too am torn about them winning too many games. I dont like watching losing teams as a rule, but I still want a top 5 pick this year in the draft. The Cavs have playeda lot better than I thought they would, which at least means that we have the right coach here, thankfully we didnt hire someone like Westphal.
I am also very happy that Smart is taking over in Sacto, that just increases our chance of getting their pick this season imo.

Kaner · Post #16 » by **Kaner** » Sat Jan 7, 2012 10:20 pm

Andy is starting to look like a HUGE bargain when he has games like this. He just affects the game in so many ways, when you consider the $$ guys like DeAndre Jordan are going for (and I remember LOTS of people claiming we overpaid for Andy at the time). I think that in either case whether we trade him or not, he will either be valuable for us , or fetch a nice trade bounty, given his price tag and the way he impacts the game he will be in high demand.

Dupp · Post #17 » by **Dupp** » Sat Jan 7, 2012 10:31 pm

^Andys effort is amazing, how many other centres stay down the other end after a bucket is scored and try and steal the inbounds pass? He does it after most plays, half the time by himself, and hes the friggen centre.

Kaner · Post #18 » by **Kaner** » Sat Jan 7, 2012 10:58 pm

Dutuctive Depp wrote:^Andys effort is amazing, how many other centres stay down the other end after a bucket is scored and try and steal the inbounds pass? He does it after most plays, half the time by himself, and hes the friggen centre.

it seems like when he's on the floor, he refuses to even stop for a breath even for like .1 seconds...it's remarkable it's like he has a broken "off switch" or something :lol:

Dupp · Post #19 » by **Dupp** » Sat Jan 7, 2012 11:10 pm

^ Which is extra impressive considering we just came from a lockout and some players in the leauge look out of shape.