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Execution doesn't match Brown's plan
Cavs must play angles, move in, out of lane better
By Brian Windhorst
MILWAUKEE - The Cavaliers' defense has a severe hole right now and the entire NBA seems to know about it.
Coach Mike Brown is an expert in defensive techniques. In fact, he could hold an honorary doctorate. His philosophy has been honed in the best organizations in the NBA. There's no design flaw. Execution has been the major pitfall.
Brown wants his players to play what he refers to 2.9-second defense. He wants to clog the middle to stop penetration and interior passing, and to try to keep the offensive player from even wanting to go inside.
His system calls for every defender on the weak side (the side of the court opposite the ball) to sag into the paint for 2.9 seconds at a time. In other words, less than the illegal three seconds, which is a technical foul. He wants each player to be nimble and aware enough to keep his man and the ball in sight at all times by playing angles and by moving in and out of the lane.
The problem is the Cavs' defenders simply don't do it well. This has become an obvious fact and the opposition thrives on it. They know that the Cavs, by and large, don't get out to contest shots fast enough. Simply put, make a couple of quick passes and you'll almost always have an open outside shot.
That's where you get this horrifying number: 42 percent. That's what Cavs' opponents shoot from 3-point range, last in the NBA and it's not really close. They give up nearly seven threes a game, also near the bottom. Overall, the Cavs are third from the bottom in field-goal percentage defense. These oodles of open shots on the weak side are perhaps the biggest reason.
Brown believes in time his players will learn to get in better position and challenge more shots. That day seems pretty far away.
Dribbles
• At least one true part-owner/hip hop artist has shown up at Quicken Loans Arena this season, as Jay-Z did to see his New Jersey Nets face the Cavs on Friday.
A Cavs insider confirmed what has been rumored for months now, that recording artist Usher Raymond IV has yet to deliver on his investment promise to owner Dan Gilbert and is not currently welcome.
On a recent Tonight Show interview, Usher chatted with Jay Leno about the Cavs, but apparently all hasn't been well with he and Gilbert for months.
Usher was supposed to be a prominent part of the ownership team and was said to have purchased a ``significant'' percentage of the team. He was on the podium with Gilbert and large shareholders David Katzman and Gordon Gund when Gilbert took control in March.
• Larry Hughes wasn't exactly thrilled that video of him in a night club was included in a story on HBO's Real Sports about pro athletes' infidelity and so-called gold diggers -- aka the women who attempt to attract them -- last week. At the very end of the segment, host Bryant Gumbel clarifies that the players shown in the piece weren't necessarily examples. Other players shown partying in clubs included Allen Iverson and Gilbert Arenas, two of Hughes' friends. Hughes believes the footage was taken at Iverson's birthday party last summer.
• It has been a year since Eric Snow had that unusual episode with Paul Silas in Detroit, which led to a series of bizarre circumstances: Snow being thrown off the bench, Snow being suspended and a fiery Silas refusing to answer questions about it after the game, bellowing ``am I speaking Chinese?'' Snow is still upset by those events, but last summer after Silas and general manager Jim Paxson were fired, the Cavs tried to soothe the wound by refunding the $50,000 fine he paid for his suspension.
• NBA commissioner David Stern said in an ESPN chat this week that he's encouraging teams to experiment with not playing music while games are going on. This is a standard practice at virtually every NBA arena, including The Q, where artificial crowd noise is also pumped in occasionally.
• In a bizarre circumstance, the Cavs, Charlotte Bobcats and Miami Heat all were housed in the same Beverly Hills hotel last weekend. Teams cross paths on the road all season, but for 10 percent of the league to be in the same hotel on one night is rare. It must've been a This is Your Life moment for Heat guard Jason Kapono, who has played for the Cavs, Bobcats and Heat.
• Speaking of a rarity, the five-second backdown violation James was whistled for Friday night is called so infrequently that the Elias Sports Bureau, the Holy Grail of stats of all kinds, doesn't even track it. It might've been the first time it was called on the Cavs.
• The Indians are about to enter into a $280 million foray with Time Warner Cable that will move their games off FSN-Ohio starting next season. But the Cavs aren't going anywhere soon. The TV contracts with FSN and WUAB (Channel 43) run through 2008.
• Heading into Saturday night's game against the MIlwaukee Bucks, James had 11 30-point games this season. As a rookie, he had 12 30-point games in 79 starts. He didn't get his 12th 30-point game last season until Feb. 11.
• If Mike Wilks were to enter the Slam Dunk Contest at the All-Star Game in Houston in February, he'd probably have a good shot at winning it. No, the 5-foot-10, 180-pound Wilks can't even palm the ball, but he sure can jump. He might just be the best dunker on the Cavs when it comes to aesthetics, especially when he bounces it off the backboard and throws it down. When Wilks gets in his rare dunking mood at practices, the entire team stops to watch. Wilks was also a star and fan favorite at Rice University in Houston. Alas, the somewhat shy point guard laughs at the suggestion.
Cavs must play angles, move in, out of lane better
By Brian Windhorst
MILWAUKEE - The Cavaliers' defense has a severe hole right now and the entire NBA seems to know about it.
Coach Mike Brown is an expert in defensive techniques. In fact, he could hold an honorary doctorate. His philosophy has been honed in the best organizations in the NBA. There's no design flaw. Execution has been the major pitfall.
Brown wants his players to play what he refers to 2.9-second defense. He wants to clog the middle to stop penetration and interior passing, and to try to keep the offensive player from even wanting to go inside.
His system calls for every defender on the weak side (the side of the court opposite the ball) to sag into the paint for 2.9 seconds at a time. In other words, less than the illegal three seconds, which is a technical foul. He wants each player to be nimble and aware enough to keep his man and the ball in sight at all times by playing angles and by moving in and out of the lane.
The problem is the Cavs' defenders simply don't do it well. This has become an obvious fact and the opposition thrives on it. They know that the Cavs, by and large, don't get out to contest shots fast enough. Simply put, make a couple of quick passes and you'll almost always have an open outside shot.
That's where you get this horrifying number: 42 percent. That's what Cavs' opponents shoot from 3-point range, last in the NBA and it's not really close. They give up nearly seven threes a game, also near the bottom. Overall, the Cavs are third from the bottom in field-goal percentage defense. These oodles of open shots on the weak side are perhaps the biggest reason.
Brown believes in time his players will learn to get in better position and challenge more shots. That day seems pretty far away.
Dribbles
• At least one true part-owner/hip hop artist has shown up at Quicken Loans Arena this season, as Jay-Z did to see his New Jersey Nets face the Cavs on Friday.
A Cavs insider confirmed what has been rumored for months now, that recording artist Usher Raymond IV has yet to deliver on his investment promise to owner Dan Gilbert and is not currently welcome.
On a recent Tonight Show interview, Usher chatted with Jay Leno about the Cavs, but apparently all hasn't been well with he and Gilbert for months.
Usher was supposed to be a prominent part of the ownership team and was said to have purchased a ``significant'' percentage of the team. He was on the podium with Gilbert and large shareholders David Katzman and Gordon Gund when Gilbert took control in March.
• Larry Hughes wasn't exactly thrilled that video of him in a night club was included in a story on HBO's Real Sports about pro athletes' infidelity and so-called gold diggers -- aka the women who attempt to attract them -- last week. At the very end of the segment, host Bryant Gumbel clarifies that the players shown in the piece weren't necessarily examples. Other players shown partying in clubs included Allen Iverson and Gilbert Arenas, two of Hughes' friends. Hughes believes the footage was taken at Iverson's birthday party last summer.
• It has been a year since Eric Snow had that unusual episode with Paul Silas in Detroit, which led to a series of bizarre circumstances: Snow being thrown off the bench, Snow being suspended and a fiery Silas refusing to answer questions about it after the game, bellowing ``am I speaking Chinese?'' Snow is still upset by those events, but last summer after Silas and general manager Jim Paxson were fired, the Cavs tried to soothe the wound by refunding the $50,000 fine he paid for his suspension.
• NBA commissioner David Stern said in an ESPN chat this week that he's encouraging teams to experiment with not playing music while games are going on. This is a standard practice at virtually every NBA arena, including The Q, where artificial crowd noise is also pumped in occasionally.
• In a bizarre circumstance, the Cavs, Charlotte Bobcats and Miami Heat all were housed in the same Beverly Hills hotel last weekend. Teams cross paths on the road all season, but for 10 percent of the league to be in the same hotel on one night is rare. It must've been a This is Your Life moment for Heat guard Jason Kapono, who has played for the Cavs, Bobcats and Heat.
• Speaking of a rarity, the five-second backdown violation James was whistled for Friday night is called so infrequently that the Elias Sports Bureau, the Holy Grail of stats of all kinds, doesn't even track it. It might've been the first time it was called on the Cavs.
• The Indians are about to enter into a $280 million foray with Time Warner Cable that will move their games off FSN-Ohio starting next season. But the Cavs aren't going anywhere soon. The TV contracts with FSN and WUAB (Channel 43) run through 2008.
• Heading into Saturday night's game against the MIlwaukee Bucks, James had 11 30-point games this season. As a rookie, he had 12 30-point games in 79 starts. He didn't get his 12th 30-point game last season until Feb. 11.
• If Mike Wilks were to enter the Slam Dunk Contest at the All-Star Game in Houston in February, he'd probably have a good shot at winning it. No, the 5-foot-10, 180-pound Wilks can't even palm the ball, but he sure can jump. He might just be the best dunker on the Cavs when it comes to aesthetics, especially when he bounces it off the backboard and throws it down. When Wilks gets in his rare dunking mood at practices, the entire team stops to watch. Wilks was also a star and fan favorite at Rice University in Houston. Alas, the somewhat shy point guard laughs at the suggestion.