<div align="center"><u><font color="red">Cavs 2005-06 Preview</font></u> </div> Last season was a huge disappointment to the Cavs as they looked as if they would make the playoffs all through the season until April when they lost out to the New Jersey Nets who were strengthened by Vince Carter and the Philadelphia 76ers who played well in the latter part of the season to see off the Cavs. However, this off-season looks as if it will be invaluable to the Cavs. They have signed Donyell Marshall, Damon Jones and Larry Hughes. Another key transaction was the re-signing of Zydrunas Ilgauskas. They also managed to trade to receive young European star Martynas Andriuskevicius. <u><font color="red">Improving the Roster</font></u> As has been publicised, the Cavs desperately needed an outside shooter and a point guard. As it happened, they got both in Damon Jones who shot .432 from downtown last season, 5th best in the NBA. He also dished out 4 dimes per game and should provide solid assistance to LeBron James. They also managed to sign Donyell Marshall who shot .416 from beyond the arc, 11th in the L. He is also tied with Kobe Bryant for the most 3pt shots made in one game with 12. Larry Hughes led the League in steals last season with 2.89 per game whilst adding 22 points. <u><font color="red">All Transactions</font></u> ? June 2 ? Cleveland name Mike Brown as Head Coach ? June 27 ? Cleveland name Danny Ferry as GM ? June 28 - Cleveland acquires the draft rights to Martynas Andriuskevicius from Orlando for a 2006 second-round pick and future considerations ? August 2 - Cleveland signs Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall, and re-signs Zydrunas Ilgauskas ? September 8 - Cleveland signs Damon Jones ? September 17 - Cleveland signs Alan Henderson <u><font color="red">Breakdown of Transactions</font></u> June 2 ? Mike Brown will take over from Paul Silas as Head Coach. He is a very defensive minded coach who will nurture the team?s defensive qualities. June 27 ? Danny Ferry takes over as GM from Jim Paxson. Paxson was widely regarded as unsuccessful with strange transactions and stupid moves. Ferry will look to turn that around and make bright moves both with players and coaches. June 28 ? Martynas Andriuskevicius is acquired from the Orlando Magic. This could be a good move as the youngster has been likened to Zydrunas Ilgauskas and could understudy his fellow Lithuanian. Ilgauskas would be able to guide Martynas and teach him additional abilities required in the NBA. August 2 ? Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall and Ilgauskas are all announced to be playing in the wine and gold next season. With this the Cavs get a shooter, a defender who also explodes on offence and retain their All-Star Center. Not bad for a day?s work, eh? September 8 ? Damon Jones signs for the Cavs providing them with a new point guard to share duties with Eric Snow like McInnis did last year. What?s more is that Jones shot 5th best in the League last year. September 17 ? Alan Henderson will be seen as a small pickup, which technically he is but he could help out from the bench if he can reclaim his form of the 99-00 season as Most Improved Player. He won?t need to match the stats, but if he can knock off 5/6 points and a similar number of rebounds from the bench I?d be happy. <u><font color="red">The Roster</font></u> C Zydrunas Ilgauskas PF Drew Gooden SF LeBron James SG Larry Hughes PG Damon Jones 6 Donyell Marshall 7 Eric Snow 8 Ira Newble 9 Anderson Varejao 10 Luke Jackson 11 Aleksandar Pavlovic 12 Martynas Andriuskevicius IR1 Alan Henderson IR2 N/A IR3 N/A <u><font color="red">Projected Stats for Starters</font></u> Zydrunas Ilgauskas (37 mins) ? 16ppg 9.7rpg, 1.6apg, 2.3bpg. This is because the team has a lot more offense and he will be more likely to grab boards and block shots than he would score more points. Drew Gooden (27mins) ? 14ppg, 9rpg, 2apg, 1bpg. Like Ilgauskas, he will be more likely to defend than attack aggressively and will see his defending and passing stats rise. LeBron James (43 mins) ? 30ppg, 8rpg, 7.5apg, 2.3spg. LeBron will take another step towards his goal of averaging a triple double for a season. I wouldn?t be surprised to see the assists rise to 8, though. He will only get better than he currently is so will get better in all areas, despite new additions to the team. Larry Hughes (40 mins) ? 20ppg, 6.5rpg, 5apg, 3spg. He will step up yet again whilst defending. He will gain more assists because he will be passing to LeBron this year so will find it easy to pass to him. Damon Jones (34 mins) ? 12ppg, 3rpg, 5 apg, 1spg. He should find it easy to dish out assists with both Larry Hughes and LeBron James charging up the court on fast breaks so you could see some explosive alley-oops leaving Jones? hands. He could also just pull up and hit the trey gaining up to 12 points per night. <u><font color="red">Projected Stats for Bench Players</font></u> Donyell Marshall (20 mins) ? 12ppg, 6rpg, 2apg. He will be utilized as a player to come onto the court and hit a few jump shots while also adding some rebounding ability and maybe a couple of assists. Eric Snow (14 mins) ? 5ppg, 1.5rpg, 4apg. The reason he will be put onto the floor will be to make some assists and maybe a few points. He will need to use his hands to find the open man for the jumpshot and not much else. Ira Newble (8 mins) ? 4ppg, 3rpg, 1apg, 1spg. Ira Newble?s stats do not get put into the statbook. He is a hustler on the court, tipping passes and forcing bad passes. He is valuable to the Cavs even if his stats don?t say that. Anderson Varejao (4 mins) ? 3ppg, 2rpg, 1apg, 1 spg. Like Ira Newble, Varejao?s stats just don?t come up in the book, but he will hustle will all his heart for his time on the floor. When the injury comes to another Forward ? he will pounce and get big numbers for such an unorthodox player. Luke Jackson (5 mins) ? 4ppg, 1.5rpg, 1apg. He will be used to score a few points, but mainly as someone to fill the void whilst LeBron and Hughes have a breather. Aleksandar Pavlovic (3 mins) ? 2ppg, 1rpg, 1apg. He won?t get as many minutes as last year, but should play better with more experience. Martynas Andriuskevicius (6 mins) ? 3ppg, 2rpg, 1apg, 0.7bpg. The new 7-foot Lithuanian will do well at grabbing the boards when unchallenged, but will have problems when going up with stronger players. However, with some time in the weight room, he could boost his performance. <u><font color="red">Projected Stats for IR Players</font></u> Alan Henderson (2 mins) ? 2ppg, 2rpg, 0.5apg. He won?t get much, but if he gets a chance he definitely has the potential to get more. However, I don?t see him getting much more than 2 mins per game. <u><font color="red">Grades</font></u> Offense ? A: Having LeBron James, Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall and Damon Jones in their team gives them speed, explosiveness, outside shooting and passing which are all the attributes required for a successful offense. Also, Zydrunas Ilgauskas is one of the best in the League at grabbing offensive boards so if the other 4 guys miss, he can get the ball back to them. Defense ? B: With 2 players in the top 3 in the League in steal per game, the Cavs are already well set up. Throw in another 17.3 defensive rebounds between Gooden, James and Ilgauskas and you can get your hands on a fair few missed shots. Zydrunas Ilgauskas could average over 2 blocks per game providing a spark to ignite. Add in the two hustlers to disgruntle opposing players and you?ve got yourself a well-rounded and aggressive defense. Off-Season ? A: Adding 2 of the top 11 shooters, the top stealer and keeping an all-star center whilst adding another young big man and you add all the components that you need to a successful team. Overall ? B+: With the 3 main pickups and the resigning in addition to LeBron James and Drew Gooden, the Cavs look like they could make 5-7 range in the playoffs. Bearing in mind that the other teams to beat them are Detroit, Miami, Boston (divisional) and Indiana you can?t really argue. This season will be seen as appalling if the Cavs fail to make the playoffs which would be worrying to all Cavs fans hoping to see LeBron stay (all of them) <u><font color="red">Team Awards</font></u> These are my provisional awards for the Cleveland Cavaliers: MVP: LeBron James DPoY: Larry Hughes MIP: Damon Jones Rookie: Andriuskevicius (only rookie) Benchy otY: Donyell Marshall These are my provisional awards involving Cavs for the entire League: MVP: LeBron James (if he can pull off a wonder year) 6th Man: Donyell Marshall (again, he'd have to play incredibly well) ? chingy0007 and NBA World. No portion of this article may be duplicated or used without full permission of the author.
That was a great preview. The only question mark is Coaching. This is a team with many options. The talent of this team will bail itself out many times, but this team has the potential to be a bit disoriented and out of control. Can the coach formulate a consistent game plan where everyone knows their role? How much will LeBron be the on-court coach? Will he take on too much of a point-guard mentality and fail to force the issue offensively when his team needs a leader?
Nice preview man. They've actually come together very well. The duo of Hughes and James should be very good and I'd expect it to give teams lots of problems. Gooden/Marshall/Z are all decent in the paint and Clevelands rebounds should increase. The only question mark I had for this team was their defense. Apparently Brown is very focused on that and hopefully it will show. It also helps acquiring Larry who is known for stealing the ball. Regardless, the Cavs should make playoffs this year. They upgraded their roster and now have Lebron James entering his 3rd NBA season.
