PS4: @ Cavs Tues Oct 15 7:00PM EST

[HornetJail]

Have caught about 10 minutes all preseason long. So to get all this straight, defense is looking decent, offense is complete ass, Biz, Kemba, and McBob are looking good, Hendo's half-assing, Zeller, Sessions, and Taylor are playing okay, MKG is struggling, and Ben Gordon is still a selfish prick?

[Elden Payton]

Somehow our offense has turned the corner since about midway throught the third in the Milwaukee game.

[MPM]

Have caught about 10 minutes all preseason long. So to get all this straight, defense is looking decent, offense is complete ass, Biz, Kemba, and McBob are looking good, Hendo's half-assing, Zeller, Sessions, and Taylor are playing okay, MKG is struggling, and Ben Gordon is still a selfish prick?

Pretty good synopsis. Defense looked very, very good at times last night. The offense has just been broken. Gordon is infuriating - dude still has his blinders on with the ball and pouts like a baby - nothing's changed so far. McBob isn't blowing up, but is solid and looking like a starter and Biz is looking like a bonafide basketball player. I hope his rebounding isn't a fluke - he seems to really be focusing on board work - positioning and blocking out well and really going after the ball. The game seems to be slowing down for him.

Zeller and Taylor have been OK, but aren't getting the touches they need. When Taylor gets the ball in his hands, he's been aggressive, and Zeller has looked really good on the glass, but seems to go largely ignored by our guards. We seem stuck in last season mode where we had no interior presence - we pass around the perimeter, ignore the post entirely (cutters, roll men, and post ups) and instead wait for one of our guards to go one-on-one toward the end of the shot clock, sometimes playing off screens. It's ugly at times. The toughest part for me is to watch how active our bigs (Biz, McBob, Zeller) are at running out to set screens, often rolling cleanly to the hoop and our guards literally do not even look at the roll man, content to dribble away from the screen and push it around the perimeter. We really need to learn to work our bigs into our offense - Al, McBob, and Zeller can all put it in the hoop, but not if our guards don't get the ball to them.

[mrknowitall215]

Is it just me or does Waiters really suck?

For all the critiscism that MKG gets Waiters is the worse player imo.

A lot of the bad Waiters do which is usually jacking shots and not playing defense is overlooked because he has a few good games every here and there.

Article following last night's game

Mike Brown a little frustrated with Dion Waiters’ defense

Brown’s defensive focus led to some frustration and discussions with second-year two guard Dion Waiters and Brown on Tuesday night. Waiters was matched up on Gerald Henderson and getting torched pretty good as the Cavaliers were losing to the Bobcats, reports the Morning Journal.

“He takes me out, talks to me and then puts me back in,” Waiters said after the Cavs’ 92-74 loss to the Bobcats on Tuesday before a sold-out crowd of 4,047 at the Canton Memorial Civic Center.

Brown did that three times on Tuesday night.

“You’re better than this,” (Brown said he) told Waiters. “To his credit, he tried harder. He has a lot of room to grow.”

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/ ... s-defense/

I don't remember it specifically being Henderson that torched Waiters, but his defense does leave a lot to be desired

[vorbis]

i was able to go back and watch the game this afternoon. some thoughts:

henderson - i'm really a bit puzzled as to how he's going to fit in in this offense. i liked how they tried to go to him in the post, i think that might unlock some opportunities for him. he wasn't really all that interested in fighting around picks at the top of the key against waiters, and paid for it.

walker - i didn't feel he was coasting so much as his minutes were tightly controlled. still, he's so good. it's good to see him do well against irving, he had kind of a mental block against him for most of his head-to-heads for his rookie season and part of last year.

MKG - him taking 8 free throws over the course of a few minutes in the 3rd quarter is a good sign. his jumper still looks bad (worse than it actually is IMO) but at least he took a few in rhythm when the circumstances dictated it. the rest of his game makes up for it right now, but i'm wondering if this season might have less-than-inspiring boxscores from him due to his offensive limitations

biyombo - very encouraged by several tough rebounds in traffic, solid boxing out fundamentals, running the floor with gusto. i really think the simplified role is going to be a big help for his development. i liked his performance this game more than his 21 rebound bucks game.

zeller - man, i like a lot of the heady plays this guy makes. his easy competence reminds me of how i felt when mcroberts first started seeing the floor last year. willing to rebound, very comfortable in the high post with vision, runs the floor, alert and competitive defender, really seems "switched on". just looks very prepared to contribute this season. i'll be watching to see if he can show flashes of being more than a solid starter, which i think it's pretty clear he'll be for 10+ years barring injury

mcroberts - smart player on offense, knows where to be, when to cut to the hoop. i wish his 3-ball was more consistent. you could do a LOT worse with a $3M reserve player.

sessions - i was curious to see how his role would change with clifford at the helm and less balls to the wall guards pushing transition strategy. the jury is still out, i think.

gordon - he's a veteran but the second he dribbles the ball bad things start to happen. please can we just have him spot up, off curl screens and the like?

taylor - i don't feel like he had a very big imprint on this game. stroked a nice 3, some good passes in transition. i wonder if he's still trying to find his role on this team after being the lead dog for Sweden this summer.

as for the cavs, the announcers mentioned that they practiced earlier in the day, so i would encourage caution before making assumptions on conditioning, but man, waiters is a lazy defender. grabbing, tugging, bumping any chance he can to avoid having to move his feet. bennett in particular looked very sluggish. i know he's working back from injury but he wasn't exactly a baseline to baseline terror in college. irving was irving. he's really a bit of a jerk, isn't he? he looks like he's fun to root for.