In the end, everyone's responsible <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">There's more to the Cavaliers' collapse than just losing point guard Jeff McInnis, which is what everyone wearing wine and gold has pointed to. Indeed, McInnis' injury immediately signaled the team's descent from the playoff race. It is so apparent that McInnis, a fierce competitor who's never really been seriously injured in his NBA career, tried twice to come back from injuries before he was anywhere ready to do so. But as there is often in life, there's so much more to the story. Others have had their role. LeBron James has gotten frustrated. He wants to take over games and win them on his own. And he has the power to do so; he's shown it all year. But he tends to force things, a natural for rookies. During the losing skid, his turnovers and offensive fouls are up. He often carries that frustrated attitude over to the defensive end, where he tries to make great plays and misses or allows his man to score too easily. That's OK; he's going to get better. James' growth from the beginning of the season to the end has been inspiring, hinting of how great his career will be. </div> <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Forward Carlos Boozer has gotten tired. Boozer's defense, especially off the dribble, has been weak in the stretch run. He's become more foul prone of late, often because he's a step slow. He hasn't been as active within the offense, either. He's played more minutes than at any time in his life. They're hard minutes, and it's worn him down.</div> <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Eric Williams has become injury-prone. His second half was marred by one pain after another. A bruised knee, a twice-injured right wrist, a bruised Achilles tendon. At age 31, he couldn't cope with those pains and be effective. His production dip hurt the team's rotation. It could go on and on. The defense has become susceptible to dribble penetration and isn't very good in transition. This is not a secret; every team they play tries to beat them up and down the floor. The finger of blame doesn't miss the coaching staff, either. They've often used McInnis as an excuse instead of finding an answer, not that they haven't tried numerous options. But they, too, are still learning their personnel.</div>
hmmm i'm not so sure i really agree that missing mcinnis is just an excuse... in fact i don't agree with that at all... but i will concede that our guys are tired, we KNEW this quite a while ago, when our starters were playing giant minutes, especially lebron with around 40 a game! we knew the danger was our guys would be tired down the stretch, and i think they are, but mcinnis being out was the single largest reason by far for our slide
Yea I don't agree with it as just an excuse either, because when he's in their's more fast break point, less turnovers, and the team just runs much more smoothly.
I think that story perfectly describes why the Cavs struggled down the stretch. They have to show major improvements defensively next season. Boozer and LeBron have managed to avoid criticism for their D all season. Silas can't let them get away with it anymore. Z will always have occasional problems after losing some lateral quickness due to all the foot surgeries. I do think LeBron will play more under control next season. He does have some occasional Ricky Davis like moments but that will happen to a 19 year old who had so much put on his shoulders. I kind of agree with the McInnis injury being made to be the excuse for all the problems. He has made a major impact but Silas almost made him out to be the 2nd coming of Jordan or Magic. He's a good player who has really helped but the team shouldn't collapse after losing a guy like him.
he's not the second coming of jordan or magic, but look what he brings to our team: a legitimately dangerous three point threat, which opens up the entire offense for all our inside guys, and gives us an inside-out option great ball distribution, especially inside to our big men (namely z), which takes advantage of one area in which we almost always have an advantage over the opposing team since z really is one of the best centers in the nba fast break points - lebron's strength at this point energy and fire - an underrated and underappreciated emotional spark to get our team fired up and playing all out ball etc. he's definitely had a major impact on the team - and when you lose all that, you immediately lose the fragile few-week old chemistry the team had up to that point, and then everything comes crashing down
The fact is without McInnis on the floor we do not have a player who is both dangerous off the dribble as well as from range. James is erratic from outside for him to be considered a double threat, Wags is predictable off the dribble, Brown and Kapono have no penetration game and Ollie is Ollie. So Jeff is our only double threat. Acquiring a Damon Jones style backup would be a great addition, which we thought we had in Bremer.
