<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">CLEVELAND - When the Cavaliers signed Donyell Marshall last summer, thoughts couldn't help but to turn to what impact it might have on Drew Gooden. The move, especially for the reasonable price of $21 million for four years, was pretty much universally heralded. But Gooden was headed into a contract year and the memories of his deterioration in 2003 when his minutes were challenged when the Orlando Magic signed Juwan Howard to compete with him were still fresh. Cavaliers' general manager Danny Ferry's experiment and coach Mike Brown's handling of it have so far been masterful. Things are always changing in the NBA, but since the beginning of training camp and into the first five games of the regular season Marshall and Gooden have done everything but hold hands and warble Happy Together. Their statistics say enough. Marshall is averaging 12.0 points and 9.8 rebounds, Gooden 11.6 points and nine rebounds. Gooden's minutes have remained the same as last season, 30 a night, and he's continued to be a bruiser around the hoop. Marshall has come in and shown he can be a good rebounder and a solid long-range shooter. With Gooden and Marshall leading the way, the Cavaliers are currently averaging 10 more rebounds per game than their opponents. That stat has been skewed in the past two games when the Cavaliers have hammered the Toronto Raptors and Seattle SuperSonics by a combined 103-51 margin. Gooden and Marshall have 39 rebounds in those two games. ``When I got here I said there wasn't going to be a conflict because we're two different types of players,'' Marshall said. ``People thought we were going to compete, but we can play together.'' Playing them together has been one of Brown's most prudent decisions thus far. When Marshall and Damon Jones come into the game in the first quarter, Marshall replaces center Zydrunas Ilgauskas and plays alongside Gooden. Brown often uses the rotation in the second half too.</div> Source
