Profiles of Coaches Kuester and Malone (Joe Gabriele)

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Joe Gabriele published profiles of both Coaches Kuester (today) and Malone (last week, not sure if if was posted). Here they are:

Roll On, Big O
Joe Gabriele
Cavs.com Beat Writer

Over the past few seasons, whenever the Cavaliers have been eliminated from the postseason – (whether it was in the 2007 NBA Finals or the East Semis last year) – the refrain of “what the Cavaliers need” by the public and punditry had always been the same.

“They need an offensive coordinator.”

That had been the outcry throughout the Mike Brown Era. “Too much of LeBron handling the ball.” “They initiate the offense too late into the shot clock.” “Players are standing around watching LeBron.”

Some of the criticisms were warranted. Some weren’t.

This season there hasn’t been much to gripe about – on either side of the floor. Defensively, the Cavaliers were one of, if not the best defensive teams in the NBA. They were the top team in points allowed and the only club to hold opponents under 92 points per game. They were second in opponents’ field goal percentage and tops in defending the three-pointer.

And on Wednesday afternoon, LeBron James – certainly one of the most talented offensive forces in a generation – was named to the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team.

Last week, we took a look at the man partially responsible for Cleveland’s prolific defensive numbers, Mike Malone – the Cavaliers’ “defensive coordinator.” And today, we shift focus to the Wine and Gold’s “offensive coordinator” – assistant coach John Kuester.

The Cavaliers offense didn’t rank among the league’s top one or two teams. But it didn’t have to. And anyone who might claim that their offense was stagnant or predictable obviously didn’t watch a game this season.

“When we started talking about tweaking things, Mike already had a good foundation – we just built upon it,” said Coach Kuester. “And the addition of Mo has helped tremendously. Delonte has moved to the two position, but he’s got a point guard mentality. So when you have three people that have point guard mentality, it really helps out during the game. And we’ve seen players, like Andy and Z, just flourish within this group.”

The addition of Mo Williams was a godsend for the Wine and Gold – a club that has been searching for a legitimate point guard since No. 23 arrived in Cleveland six years ago. They’ve gone through the likes of Kevin Ollie, Lucious Harris, Jeff McInnis, Damon Jones and Eric Snow. Mo Williams has been able to meet the delicate balance between running the show and creating his own offense.

Adding Mo to the mix has taken some of the ball-handling pressure off of LeBron, and the results have been tangible.

“There was never a vision of getting the ball out of anyone’s hands, because we have multiple guys that can handle it,” maintained Coach Q. “If you recognize that Bron has not handled as much and the offense is not as stagnant, it’s because he trusts this group as much as any superstar I’ve ever been around. That’s what makes LeBron a unique superstar: he’s unselfish and he trusts his teammates.”

While the Wine and Gold doesn’t boast the offensive firepower of Phoenix or the Knicks, their numbers were up across the board from one year ago.

This year, the Cavaliers ranked sixth in the NBA in field goal percentage at .468; improving upon last year’s .439. They were second in three-point percentage (.393 – .358 last year) and eighth in assists-to-turnover ratio (1.59 – 1.43 last year). This season, Cleveland was 13th in the league, averaging 100.3 points per game, up four points from last year’s 96.4.

During the regular season, when Cleveland cracked triple-figures, they were 38-2. They’re 4-0 in the postseason when they score more than 94 points – 19-1 since the 2006 postseason.

“I think we’ve recognized people’s strengths,” continued Kuester. “Very rarely came out of a game where we said, ‘Doggone, our shot selection was absolutely terrible.’ Our guys understand good shots from bad shots, for the most part – and we’ve got guys who can make tough shots. That helps, too.”

The man most players call “Coach Q” joined the club in August 2007 after working as an assistant with the Magic, Sixers, and Nets. Kuester is one of three men in the Cavaliers locker room with a Championship ring, which he won as an assistant with the Pistons in 2004. Kuester was with the Celtics from 1990-97 and was the head coach of George Washington University from 1985-90.

As a player, the married father of two matriculated under Dean Smith for four years at North Carolina. He played in three NCAA tournaments and made a trip to the finals. He was twice named the squad’s best defensive player and earned honors as the MVP of both the ACC Tournament and the NCAA East Regionals.

Kuester was drafted in the third round by the Kansas City Kings, playing three years in the NBA.

You’ll routinely see the squad gathered around Coach Q and a grease-board during timeouts, diagramming a play. There’s no statistic to prove this, but the Cavaliers are much more efficient this season executing plays out of a timeout.

Coach Kuester will have his work cut out for him in the coming weeks. Going against the same club night after night, teams quickly learn other squad’s tendencies. After Wednesday’s practice, Mike Brown quipped that “in the playoffs, Atlanta knows everything we’re going to run. They know exactly where we’re going to be at every second during the course of a game.”

No team is going to fool another team offensively in the postseason. At this time of year, it’s not about X’s and O’s. It’s execution and adjustment. That’s where Coach Kuester comes in.

“From an offensive standpoint, you want to be efficient,” concluded Kuester. “And this is a great group to work with. But don’t fool yourself –and I’m a firm believer: Defense wins Championships. We defend. So, to me, I didn’t care if we scored 150 points a game. I just want to put us in a position – with our defense and our unselfishness offensively – we should be able to score some points this year. And the players – along with Mike Brown and Danny Ferry – deserve all the credit in the world.”

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Cavs Coach Gets Defensive
Joe Gabriele
Cavs.com Beat Writer

After they sent the Pistons packing, and with their second round opponent embroiled in what’s now become a best of three series, the Cavaliers can only beat up on each other for the next few days.

At the outset of the postseason, Mike Brown was honored as the NBA’s Coach of the Year; validation that he’s forged his defensive identity on the team – and that it translated into a league-best 66 wins. And Brown’s club put that defense on display in the first round – snuffing Detroit in four convincing wins.

The Pistons didn’t shoot over 40 percent in any game after the first and shot just .409 for the series. They didn’t crack the 80-point plateau in the final two games and only put up 68 in Game 3. In the final game of the series, Detroit’s big three combined to go just 3-for-24.

You can trace this to Coach Brown’s defensive tenets – disseminated daily by Brown’s “defensive coordinator,” Mike Malone.

After spending four seasons with the Knicks, Malone – son of former Cavalier assistant coach Brendan Malone – has brought his own defensive mentality to the Wine and Gold. And this week, the Loyola grad will be putting together the game plan(s) for either the Hawks or the Heat – whoever survives the series that’s deadlocked at two games apiece.

“We have to be ready for both,” said Malone, “The luxury is having so much time to prepare – watching all their games, watching our regular season games (against each) and looking at what we did well against them, what we didn’t do well, and how we have to make adjustments so we don’t get hit with the same things in the playoffs.”

The Cavaliers went 3-1 against both clubs and Malone knows each will bring their own unique difficulties.

Miami was able to crack the century mark against Cleveland twice, no small feat considering that it happened just 19 times all season. The Heat shot .463 against the Wine and Gold, .459 from long distance. Dwyane Wade averaged 29.0 ppg over the four contests – stinging them for 41 in a thrilling Cavalier victory on March 2 in Miami.

“Miami, they want to play halfcourt basketball and execute with Dwyane Wade and Jermaine O’Neal,” said Malone in his trademark New York accent. “One thing they do a great job with is they’re one of the better teams in the league in terms of steals per game and blocks per game. They have size at the rim, they get in the lanes and create turnovers and they score off those turnovers. So, they will score in transition off your mistakes, but they’re not looking to – off rebounds and makes – get it in and get it up the floor to try to score real quick. They’re more looking to pound and control the ball.”

The Hawks averaged 94 points per contest against Cleveland, shooting .441 from the floor and .385 from beyond the arc. The Cavaliers beat Atlanta by 14 in late November, but the biggest margin of victory for either team in the final three meetings was six points.

“For Atlanta, if you can keep them out of transition and make them play the halfcourt and be able to guard the ball – because they have a lot of one-on-one players, iso type players – you have to be able to shrink the floor and keep them out of the paint, and you should be alright.”

Malone then quickly added: “Easier said than done, obviously.”

Mike Malone joined the Cavaliers in September 2005 and is also an assistant coach with the Canadian Men’s Senior National Team. He and the rest of the Cavs staff have truly given the Wine and Gold a defensive identity. The numbers are irrefutable.

This year, the Cavaliers ranked No. 1 in overall points allowed and the only club to hold opponents to less than 92.0 ppg. They ranked second in defensive field goal percentage (.431) and tops in defending the three-pointer (.333). Cleveland held opponents under 40 percent a league-best 22 times and were 22-0 in those contests.

Cleveland kept foes under 90 points 36 times – going 35-1 in those games – and held them to 80 points 13 times – going 13-0.

“The thing that really helped was we had the luxury of a Training Camp and really reminded guys – going through step-by-step – what our foundation is, what our staples are,” asserted Malone. “And obviously it’s easy for me – Mike’s a defensive coach – we’ve been a defensive team since I got here. And a Mike Brown team is always going to be a defensive team. I’m just lucky in that I believe in the same things he does and the fact that we’re defending so well.”

Malone will be doing the Cavaliers’ playoff preparation, and he’s obviously been pleased with what he’s seen so far.

“Every year that we’ve been here, in the playoffs, we had great game plan discipline, we focused on the gameplan going in, we’ve taken away guys – defended them the way we needed to defend them – and we’ve gone out there and executed,” added Malone. “And, obviously, in the first round, the proof was in the pudding.”

Of course, having a defensive philosophy and having the horses to execute it are two different things. This season, the Cavaliers have had both.

“In the past, we’ve had some good system defenders,” said Malone. “We didn’t have many good one-on-one defenders. Eric Snow was pretty good. Ira Newble was pretty good. But now you have Delonte, who’s very good. And you have LeBron, who’s getting better and better. (You can put him on any guy any time you want.) Anderson’s done a great job. And Ben, when he’s healthy, can really do some good stuff.”

It’s easy to tell Delonte West is one of Malone’s favorites. But he has been for a long time. As an assistant with Manhattan College, he tried to recruit the Cavaliers current starting two-guard.

“Delonte is one of those guys who takes the challenge every night,” praised the Cavaliers assistant. “The guys that LeBron will finish the game on, that’s usually the guy Delonte will guard through the first three quarters. When I recruited him out of high school, that’s what I loved about him. He’s a competitive guy, and loves that challenge that ‘I’m gonna shut you down tonight.’ He doesn’t care if he gets the ball, he’s in Rip’s ear, talking (stuff) to him. If you score on Delonte, you’re going to have to work for it. It’s not going to come easy.”

Nothing has come easy for opponents this year. And both the Heat and Hawks know that’ll be the case for either when their first round series wraps up. While it does, Mike Malone and the Cavaliers coaching staff will be honing their troops for battle.

“We tell our guys: We have a way we want you to defend, but we know that there’s going to be breakdowns at times. It’s going to happen. But when it does, you’re just going to have to cover for each other and trust each other. And, right now, they’re doing a great job with that.”

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