What are your thoughts on each player for the Cavaliers? Here's mine with an A to F scale. LeBron James : 21ppg, 5.5rpg, 5.9apg, 1.65spg, 0.75bpg. This kid surpassed everyones expectations after struggling in the pre season. He immediately was seen as the teams leader, and proved many knockers wrong saying he couldn't shoot. LeBron unselfish play won over many fans and should lead him to the ROY award. His perimeter defense, and erratic outside shooting is the reason he receives the minus with his A. Grade : A- :king: Carlos Boozer : 15.5ppg, 11.4rpg, 2apg, 1.0spg, 0.74bpg, 0.525fg% This guy is total blue collar with a touch of class starting to appear offensively. The biggest steal in the NBA draft in years, he improved his game in all areas to be among the candidates for most improved. Stepped up big time mid year when injuries were around with some massive games. Only negative again being that he is still a rather weak defender. Grade : B+ :two_thumb Zydrunas Ilgauskas : 15.4ppg, 8.1rpg, 1.3apg, 2.5bpg, .482fg% Just like the Cavaliers season, Z started off slowly before gaining momentum in the second half to show he is a top 3-4 center in the NBA. Another positive is that he was again able to log up 80 games with no further foot problems. His struggles early was his defensive commitment, and lack of ball being fed into the post. However he stepped up defensively and with the addition of McInnis, became the Cavaliers focus again. Grade : B- my personal fav. Jeff McInnis : 11.5ppg, 7.6apg, 2.7rpg, 1.13spg, 38%3pt Who would of thought Jeff would have had such an impact on this team. The win/loss with and without him speaks loudly of the way he played here. After struggling a little with his shot early, he turned it on, whether it be feeding Z in the post or knocking down 3's. His perimeter D was an upgrade over what we had, and his ball control was outstanding. Glad to have him aboard. His injury is the only reason he doesn't receive a straight A, as staying on the court is a factor. Grade : A- Eric Williams : 9.4ppg, 3.8rpg, 1.9apg The addition of Eric part way through the season brought some respectibility missing in the Cavaliers. He provided much needed leadership qualities and toughness. Although his contribution wained towards the end of the year partly due to injuries, he was a vital player in the revitilisation. Grade : C Tony Battie : 5.4ppg, 4.9rpg, 0.94bpg Like Williams, Battie provided the Cavaliers with some hard nosed defense. He backed up both front court positions admirably. His ongoing concerns though are his ailing knees, which will continue to inhibit his playing time for the remainder of his career. Grade : C :suspicous Dejuan Wagner : 6.7ppg, 1.3rpg, 1.2apg Frustrating comes to mind when we talk Wags. Once again injuries severly ate into his season, which dented his growth as a player. He shows flashes of why he was selected 6th overall, but it is generall overshadowed by his non-existent defense and erratic offense. He plays as if he is the only player on the floor, and lacks the fundamentals to be a part time point guard. Hopefully with a healthy offseason he can start looking like the player we drafted. Grade : D- :thumbsdow Kevin Ollie : 4.1ppg, 2.9apg, 2.0rpg Copped alot of flack basically because of his contract situation. Did struggle occasionally, but basically played at the same level as he did previous years. I believe the fans wanted more due to his contract, but that is unreasonable. Ollie was a steadying influence down the stretch of many wins, however his lack of range hurts his effectiveness. Grade : C Ira Newble : 3.8ppg, 2.4rpg, 1.1apg This guy frustrated me no end. I raved about this signing as I believed he was a perfect fit at small forward. His defense and outside shooting was to compliment our other scorers. However although his D was reasonable, he seemed to leave his jumper in Atlanta. He was solid from range pre Cleveland, but showed zero signs of that. At least showed some form in the last two weeks. Grade : D- Kedrick Brown : 5.3ppg, 2.3rpg, 1.1apg Under utlised by Silas this season, however he does have glaring inadequacies. His athletic defense and reasonable outside shot should make him and invaluable member of this squad. However he is a very tentative offensive player, who lack the handles to have any sort of penetrating game. With some work, this kid is a keeper. Grade : C- Desagana Diop : 2.2ppg, 3.5rpg, 0.9bpg We are still waiting for this guy, and it may take some more patience. He did make strides, however he is still very raw, and a long way from being a regular bench contributor. Diop had some good defensive performances to shut out some wins, but this is always nulified by his non-existent offensive game. Grade : D :thumbsdow Jason Kapono : 3.5ppg, 1.3rpg, 47%3pt Came as advertised. Good shooter who is slow footed. His shooting gave him some minutes (memorable Hornets game, ala Langdon), but his lack of athletisism limits him. Good guy to have as a 12th man, but thats about his limit. Grade : D+ Your thoughts......
I agree with everything stated above. Except that I would give Ira Newble some extra credit points to bump him to a C-. He is a factor out there on defense. He made key plays for us and swiched momented with his hustle. His over all performance from the beggining of the season was terrible, but something hit this kid during the last 2 months of ball and he accepted his role as a "defensive player".
I was just majorly disappointed with the fact he lost entirely his jumpshot from Atlanta. He was very consistent there, and I dont understand what happenned. Maybe he caught the same bug as Bremer. I hold hope he can regain some of that touch next season.
hehe, not bad, in general i would bump everyone's grade up a notch, you were a little harsh... but i'm very pleased with our season on the other hand, you will witness me being vicious next year if we don't greatly improve upon this year... i have high expectations now
Fair calls Karma. Brown needs to work on his handles and attack the basket for once. If I saw him drive and dunk on someone (anyone) I would faint.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting insshc:</div><div class="quote_post">kedrick brown?? he's done that quite a few times! he gets HIGH</div> I saw all but only a handful of games this season, and I did not see him dunk over one person. He is afraid of contact.
He's the second coming of Jumainne Jones, only Brown can defend. Both players do not attck the basket and rarely go to the line because of that. I put this down to his lack of ball handling skills. He doesn't have the confidense to attack the hoop for that reason alone. All the athletisism in the world doesn't get you to the hoop, if you got no handles. Whats everyone elses gradings? Not after an essay on each like mine. Just like to know what you thought of each individual.
As far as the Ira Newble topic goes... Historically he is a final-month-of-the-season-guy He avg'ed 13.5 in last month with Hawks and scored and efended well for us in those last few. Newble through all but final month: D- Newble in final month: B because he did what we expected him to.
Thats why I give Ira a C-. He did up his D during the 2nd half of the season. 1st half he was worried about getting his 13ppg.
Karma Cav, i list ur posts. ur rankings were acurate. i would have probably given every1 half a mark up though. ie. A- would become A, D+ would become C-......u get the point. anyway, good job KarmaCav
The effort was there all season from Newble, but I graded him low as I was sure he wasn't a poor mans Michael Curry. He played great team ball in Atlanta. Did all the small things right, which included hitting his open looks. The fact he shot sooo poorly for sooo long dragged his rating down. But I have always held hope that he draggs his arse back to Atlanta to pick up his jumper and bring it here.
After hitting that 3 on his debute, nothing else seemed to sink for him. Newble, James and Ollie need to work on shooting this summer.
Ollie's shooting is probably like Shaq from the free throw. He just will never have it. With James you can see the talent, just need to hone in on the mechanics. And Newble like I have said numerously, he just needs to track his steps back to Atlanta where he had left his jump shot and bring it home with him.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting King James:</div><div class="quote_post">I saw all but only a handful of games this season, and I did not see him dunk over one person. He is afraid of contact.</div> I dunno if its the contact, he just doesn't have the sufficient handles or the confidence yet. I remember back in college where he would grab rebound over centers, you'd see the guys arms near the top of the backboard grabbing a board. He's got amazing hops, doesn't really have finnesse in the air but this guy can jump. His shot has really improved over the years, and that's a step, he can become a guy who can be a defensive stopper while also having offensive skills if he can be groomed into it. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The effort was there all season from Newble, but I graded him low as I was sure he wasn't a poor mans Michael Curry. He played great team ball in Atlanta. Did all the small things right, which included hitting his open looks. The fact he shot sooo poorly for sooo long dragged his rating down. But I have always held hope that he draggs his arse back to Atlanta to pick up his jumper and bring it here.</div> Their's no such thing as a poor man's Curry, he's as poor as it gets. I would do explanations but I really don't want to right now. PS: You spelt Dajuan Wagner wrong again LeBron James : A Carlos Boozer : A - Zydrunas Ilgauskas : B Jeff McInnis : A + Eric Williams : C Tony Battie : B + He did what I expected him to do, nothing more nothing less. Dajuan Wagner : D I like him but he dissapoints me a lot Kevin Ollie : C Ira Newble : C - Kedrick Brown : C Desagana Diop : D Jason Kapono : D
I change my grade for Eric Williams. I give him an E for effort. He didn't contribute much on the court like he did in Boston. We seen little hints and flashes of his defensive game. He took charges, he can draw contact. But he just didn't do any of that during the 2nd half. IMO a C is being very generous.
I am one Cavs fan that thinks Kedrick Brown can be a real good player with some work on his game. We know he has serious hops and a pretty good three point shot, we should all hope he works on his ball handling and trys to figure out a way to get more confident.
I agree CBBI. Brown might not ever be a star but he can be a solid player who makes a big contribution. I hope the Cavs keep him around. He has some solid defensive skills and doesn't need the ball to be effective on the court. I was also surprised by his outside shooting. That was supposed to be a weak point when he came from Boston. He does need to be more aggressive but I noticed that when he played late in the season he did play more aggressively on the court and took it to the hoop a few times. Hopefully that continues and I also hope Silas gives him a chance and doesn't bury him at the end of the bench.
Kedrick's late play was VERY impressive. He knew what he had to do to get minutes. He doesn't fall in love with the 3 ball as he did in the beggining of the year and he hustles after the ball after he misses a shot. Playing with LeBron more will make this kid better. LeBron seems to look for him alot for that outside jumper and Kedrick drains it everytime.
Kedrick must be protected in the upcoming draft. Work on those handles kid, and we have a serious baller on our hands.
