<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Cavaliers have found themselves mired in a bad sequel: Life Without Larry Hughes, Vol. 2. Hughes increased his activity at practice Thursday but will not play tonight in Atlanta against the Hawks or on the back end of the road trip Saturday night against the Houston Rockets. Since Hughes' ankle injury two-plus weeks ago, the Cavs suddenly have gone from the Eastern Conference's best team to an average one. This is not a new sensation. It is a rather eerie redux as to what befell the Cavs last season when Hughes departed. And for the moment, there doesn't appear to be a rosy end in sight. Not only are the results similar to last year, but so are the reasons why. Which is what makes it so maddening, considering the Cavs had hoped they had insured themselves against such a mess. ``Our inconsistency has bothered me, especially our effort,'' Cavs coach Mike Brown said Thursday. ``There have been times we've played pretty good. We've got to keep fighting through it.'' After a 6-2 start, the Cavs are 3-4 since Hughes limped off the floor Nov. 15 against the Portland Trail Blazers, and they have fallen out of the Central Division lead. They are scoring about three fewer points per game without Hughes, a central figure in the motion aspects of the Cavs' offense and the incentive for the opponent to keep from opening a camp in the vicinity of LeBron James. If you dare to look back to last season and the aftermath of Hughes' two finger surgeries, you'll find results quite close to the current seven-game sample sans No. 32. After starting 18-10, the Cavs went 14-15 in the first 29 games that Hughes missed. They scored eight fewer points per game in that span -- before Flip Murray's arrival at the trade deadline and subsequent insertion into the starting lineup eased the burden. Murray is plying his trade with the Detroit Pistons. The man the Cavs brought in as a Hughes backup, David Wesley -- who is making $1.75 million, equal to the salary Murray got from the Pistons -- hasn't worked out.</div> Source The Cavs got a steal in the draft with Shannon Brown, they should give him more PT, the kid can play. What a mistake Ferry made with choosing Wesley over Flip Murray? He had to have known Larry Hughes is guaranteed to be injured during a stretch of games. He's never been healthy and has missed an average of 20 games per season. When you get involved with a health risk like Hughes, you better have a viable backup. The Cavs viable backup is Shannon Brown.
Ferry thought that after playing so well Flip Murray would be demanding a contract that the Cavaliers just couldn't afford. At least, I hope that's what he thought, because otherwise it's just plain idiotic, rather than just ignorant.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity;:</div><div class="quote_post">The Cavs got a steal in the draft with Shannon Brown, they should give him more PT, the kid can play. What a mistake Ferry made with choosing Wesley over Flip Murray? He had to have known Larry Hughes is guaranteed to be injured during a stretch of games. He's never been healthy and has missed an average of 20 games per season. When you get involved with a health risk like Hughes, you better have a viable backup. The Cavs viable backup is Shannon Brown.</div> Bettin on Hughs to play an entire year is almost as bad as betting on shaq to do the same....never gonna happen.
