Kasz216 said:
Bladeneo said:
Kasz216 said:
Bladeneo said:
Garnett has mentioned on more than a few occasions that he felt he should have left the Twolves earlier than he did, and he agreed with Lebron's decision to go. But I see the point you're making.
The Cavaliers have some good players, but it certainly says something when A) You can't manage to secure a decent free agent signing, even with the best player in the league on your team and B) Players like Jamison who started last year are now on the bench.
Cleveland's two best supporting players, Mo and Varajeo (who I love), both shrunk into nothing in the playoffs and I really don't think Lebron had it in him to carry them yet again. On paper the Cavaliers had enough but those deep and talented role players simply came up short when it mattered, Shaq was signed for a series that never came and Hickson wasn't trusted to help Lebron.
The Cavs were still leaps and bounds better than when LeBron arrived, obviously, don't get me wrong. I mean, the team he took to the finals consisted of Sasha Pavlovic, Daniel Gibson, a young and still too raw Varajeo and an oft-injured Big Z. That team wouldn't get to 20 wins without him really.
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They couldn't sign a free agent BECAUSE of Lebron and his contract which suggested he might leave.
Had he signed a regular contract, they would of eaisly signed free agents.
Well that and the fact that they kept Mo Brown around (because Lebron wanted them to.)
Mo Brown was horrible. He's play someone 20-30 minutes, they'd have a big game, then sit them down for like 5 minutes the next game.
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Where did you read that? I was under the impression Lebron wasn't happy with Brown's decisions, especially in the playoffs. They had more than enough opportunities to give Lebron decent help before this offseason, and it was made pretty clear by a fair few free agents around the league (like Bosh and Wade) that they simply didn't want to come to Cleveland. The Cavs missed out on a number of players that LeBron wanted, especially Jason Kidd, i think not signing him really pissed LBJ off.
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This season.
All the previous seasons he was a big supporter of Mike Brown... and where did I read it? Everywhere?
As for Jason Kid... there really was no way for them to really get Jason Kid.
The big issue... (again lebron related) is Lebron REALLY liked Hickson and wanted to keep him around.
Hickson was going to be needed for any big trade. Even the Jamison deal was supposed to hinge on Hickson till the wiz got desperate.
Whenever there was big trade talk, it was basically to see if the Cavs could get someone without Hickson, because Lebron wanted to keep Hickson... Hickson pretty much was always the deal breaker.
That and Mo Williams huge contract when he turned out to be a lot worse then everyone expected.
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Keeping Hickson was never a bad thing though; many critics considered him to be the most talented player, offensively, that LeBron had played with in Cleveland (which says everything really). On paper the Jamison deal looked great, he was more flexible and dynamic than Amar'e and cost the Cavs next to nothing, but again it was another one of those deals that didn't pan out. Just the Mo Williams deal, just like the Ben Wallace deal, like pretty much every deal Mike Brown and Ferry made.
Mike Brown wasn't a great coach by any stretch, but no way the Cavs could justify firing a guy who won coach of the year and took them to two 60 win seasons. Oh sure, everyone accepted it was pretty much LeBron doing all the leading on and off the court, but you can't go ahead and fire a guy when your playoff run went like this:
2007 Finals
2008 Celtics in 7, an amazing series and lost mainly due to Paul Pierce going insanse
2009 Magic, a series that was much closer than people accept and really, Rashard Lewis turned into a clutch machine with his three points
It was only until 2010 when there was no plausible explanation other than bad players, a subpar Lebron performance and bad coaching decisions that there was much to complain about.
