RealGM

Lebron is well known to dominate the ball and as a result the offense stagnates, with everyone else looking to spot up shoot and not develop their game. Do you guys believe this system is the result of Cavs management being too scared of Lebron's contract issue, to tell him to adjust?

I believe so, and the sad thing is that Lebron would probably opt out anyways. Overall solution imo is to tell lebron to play off the ball more and let other players get involved. While lebron's stats and ego would take a hit, they may end up being contenders.


-edit
im not sure you guys understand what im asking.
im jus asking if you guys feel cavs management is too scared to change the offensive system out of fear of lebron opting out?

You need an offensive system first and that's not LeBron's job...

This is the LeBron bashing explanation for the Cavs offensive issues. Sure LeBron sometimes hold onto the ball too long which stifles the passing. However, if anything the biggest fault with LeBron is his tendency to not move when off the ball. Not to dominate it. Not to mention that neither of these are absolute.

Of course, none of this explains why the team scores more than 10 points less when LeBron isn't playing.

Yeah, all that to say that the issue is not LeBron (as the OP says) but is the Cavs offense.

CzBron wrote:You need an offensive system first and that's not LeBron's job...

The truth...

This man doesn't know offense, thus doesn't teach it...

Ehh Lebron has really not been dominating the ball as much lately with Delonte at point.


The Cavs for all their offensive problems get alot of open looks because of the way teams load up on Lebron. Guys just need to make shots plain and simple.

I think that Lebron doesnt need a real PG. I love Jason Kidd and his intelligence is what sets him apart from many PGs but I dont think we can get the most out of him because his inability to score at times.

Honestly I think the perfect compliment would be a wing who can play offball and onball like Lebron. That would make it incredibly difficulty to double team two players who can create offense for themselves and others.

If we are looking in the PG mold then I would say Baron Davis or Allen Iverson who definately benefit from playing offball as well as onball that they both can get ~8asts. Both guys may be out with their current team but both are a far reach. Even Kirk Hinrich I would take.

In the SG mold, I would start with Vince Carter(5+asts) who showed who he is without JKidd but Nets dont look like they want to trade him anymore plus he stock has skyrocketed. Mike Miller(~4ast) is a def on my list, plus he grabs boards and shoots the 3 better than anyone on our team(sorry boobie, he can hit a three even after dribbling). Steven Jackson can also be considered also. I am definately anti-Michael Redd but if you want someone in the same mold,younger, and cheaper then I would do a JR Smith. He is younger(22) so he can be molded to play defense,more athletic, and as pure a scorer and shooter as Redd just without the minutes, his biggest knock is BBall IQ not defense. You gotta respect someone who can get his shot off on the same team as Allen Iverson and Carmelo.+6th man of the year candidate.

Even if you wanted to go ballhandling PF or SF(if Lebron moves to the 2-unlikely) you can try Ron Artest(~4asts) or Hedo(~5asts) because they create their own offense as well as others. I'd even go after Lamar Odom to play PF next to Lebron.

1.Baron Davis
2.Allen Iverson
3.Vince Carter
4.Jason Kidd
5.Mike Miller
6.Steven Jackson
7.Kirk Hinrich
8.JR Smith
9.Ron Artest
10.Hedo Turkulou
11.Lamar Odom
12.Michael Redd

Off the top of my head, those are the guys who may be dangled or arent in concrete situations next season, whether we have enough to get them or not is another story.

hey eye, where did that come from? good post I guess but a bit OT dont you think?

the cavs offense needs a pg who can create and get into the middle of the defense, and who is quick enough to defend on the perimeter. and the offense needs a coach who has an understanding of how to atack a defense.

this team lacks a player who can create his own shot when the shot clock is low, and doesnt have to rely on Lebron getting a pick up top, and then watching lebron shoot a fadeaway three.

i just wanted to reiterate what i edited in the original post a day or so ago

"im not sure you guys understand what im asking.
im jus asking if you guys feel cavs management is too scared to change the offensive system out of fear of lebron opting out?"

do you understand what i asking about? or do you guys just feel it is a necessity for Lebron to be a point forward and that is pretty much the only way to succeed given the cavs talent?

No, I think M Brown is incapable as an offensive coach. and this mix of players doesnt help. every team looks good when their shots are falling, but look at a team like the pistons, they know where and how to get guys the ball where they are comfortable.

the whole objective of running plays is to get easy shots. this offense doesnt do that. it is predicated on lebron being able to lose his man and whoever else doubles him, or for Z to go one on one against his man. I dont see any cutters when Z or Lebron have the ball.

the only guy we have that can hit a J off a screen is Wally, and he is too slow in most cases to create enough space to get a good shot off. Delonte and Boobie should get better at that, but since we dont run it they havent.

It isnt surprising to me that when Andy and Sasha are in the game together (rare I know) and lebron is on the bench those two pass and cut to the hole. Being foreign players, they have a better understanding of moving without the ball and more experience at hitting the cutter with a pass.

So no, I dont think its management being afraid of lebron so much as it is a combo of limited players and poor offensive strategy.

There are many things that I think Cavs management is afraid to come down on LeBron about, but I dont think changing the offense is one of them. In fact he seemed more than willing to have J Kidd come in who would have definately taken the ball out of his hands.

LeBron knows he will always be the focal point of the offense whether that means he has the ball in his hands or not, so I dont really see him being upset with an offensive change. The thing is though, that LeBron is clearly one of the best players in the league with the ball in his hands. Even on Team USA he was the guy who dominated the ball. When we put a new offense into place, I dont think it will be wise to take the ball out of his hands all the time. Sure we need to do it more often and get him so easy baskets off of cuts and in the post, but when you have someone who is as good on the ball as LeBron is, its tough to take him off.

So the team is afraid to put in an offense? Nah, I don't think that argument is legit at all.

I guess what I was overstating above is hopefully the same thing that Bmac stated above that we can't totally take the ball out of Lebrons hands but rather get a player who can run an offense as well as be a product of created offense. So in a sense I dont want a conventional PG, I want a player who can score but initiate offense who also demands double teams.

But I also agree with getting an NFL type Offensive Coordinator who just handles the offense. He can implement an offense, let MBrown do the dirty work. Tell Ferry the type of players he needs and go get them.

And yes just like we thought that Detroit would take a step down after Brown left since incoming coach is offensive minded, they left the defense intact and bumped up the offense and looked refreshed. They thus didnt have to grind it out anymore.

We shouldnt have to grind it out if our offense looks like a well oiled machine.

Here is another great example of no offenseive adjustments. In game one on Saturday,did anyone else think that when Washington, Doubled LBJ on the block, and Z was on the weak side that Joe Smith and not Andy should be in the game for the 15foot open jumper from the foul line? Hello, Andy even open with the ball scares me.

huh? The coach made exactly that move. He put Smith in for Andy. I think it was right after this that LeBron got the two easy layups to open the game up down the stretch

eyejayem wrote:
But I also agree with getting an NFL type Offensive Coordinator who just handles the offense. He can implement an offense, let MBrown do the dirty work. Tell Ferry the type of players he needs and go get them.

you can't do that in basketball - offense and defense are intertwined.

the same player can't release on the break and crash the defensive boards at the same time
the same player can't get back for transition defense and crash the offensive boards at the same time.

Look at Carmelo and LeBron. LeBron gets a lot more defensive rebounds, but Carmelo gets more offensive rebounds. This is 100% because Denver has their SF release for breaks and go after offensive rebounds to maximize their scoring while Cleveland has our SF go after defensive rebounds and get back for transition defense to minimize the other team's scoring.

In addition, Denver likely spends more than half of their practice time working on improving their offense while we likely spend more than half of our practice time working on defense. Mike Brown's first year year it was probably a 90/10 split if not more one sided than that. The reason was we were an awful defensive team when he got here and it took every bit of practice time all year to have our defense playoff ready.

Having an offensive coordinator wouldn't have changes that split in practice time. Does everyone forget that in camp this year, Mike Brown said for the first time he spent 50% or more of training camp working on offense? The result? Other than opening night, we came out of the gate scoring a ton of points. Up until LeBron's injury, we were averaging over 100 ppg. But what happened, our defense slipped.

Where do you think our empahasis when we had time to practice the rest of the season was? Working out kinks in the offense or getting the defense back where we need it to be?

Thus far with a 1 game sample, we've held our opponents 13 points under their season average. Keep that kind of defense up and we'll keep winning playoff games. We aren't going to beat boston by trying to outscore them in a shootout. Our only chance is to shut down their offense.

Great post LJ. Its easy to forget that Mike Brown made this team great defensively from scratch and took this team to the finals last year. There are tradeoffs between offense and defense in basketball and you can't always have both. When you have a superstar like Lebron you can neglect offense more because superstars can carry so much of the offensive load. This has worked greatly in the past with teams like Jordan and the Bulls, Olajuwon and the Rockets and Duncan and the Spurs.

I think our problem is that we are trying to be a great defensive team but mostly have mediocre defensive players. If we had a guy like Marcus Camby or Ron Artest we'd be much better. Our other problem is that we lack a secondary scorer to cause match up problems and take pressure off of Lebron.

If we can solve those two problems in the offseason, whether buy acquiring one player like Artest who kills two bird with one stone, or two players, one defensive stopper, and one secondary scorer, we'd be championship caliber.

^I honestly think with Lebron James, if we could add an all-star caliber big man - like an Elton Brand level guy, that alone would make us contenders.

I think adding someone like that would mean more than a wing scorer like Redd. Ferry should focus his expirings on bringing in a great big man if at all possible. Look at what Gasol did for the Lakers..