Moving (forward, hopefully) the Cavs theme for 2010-11

comment(0)

Facebook

rss

October 26, 2010

Chris Grant and Byron Scott head the new Cavaliers, who open the season Wednesday night (GETTY IMAGES).

By Zac Jackson
FOX Sports Ohio
October 25, 2010

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio � The two-time MVP is gone. So are the old head coach, general manager, hired-gun center and the franchise�s leader in games played, rebounds and blocks.

It�s a good thing new coach Byron Scott has been in a similar situation before. It might be a better thing that new general manager Chris Grant grew up seeing the country with his parents and their moving truck.

Grant now has a very interesting new gig � and a whole lot of moving to do.

LeBron James took his immense talents to South Beach last summer, but the Cavaliers are still open for business. They�d like you to believe that rumors of their demise have been greatly exaggerated. For now, anyway, they�re playing to win and compete for a playoff spot. Per Scott�s orders, they�re planning to play �pissed off� about being dismissed by national pundits and play fast all the time.

Getting back to the way things were, though, for the team that won the most regular season games in the league the last two years doesn�t figure to be a fast process. Or an easy one.

There is talent, starting with former All Stars Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison. Anderson Varejao is an established post presence, and 22-year-old J.J. Hickson is still growing in many ways. There�s a new, up-tempo system and mindset that should bear zero resemblance to the offense that went stale last May, leaving the other players content to watch James dribble out the shot clock and leaving them even more powerless when he quit in Game Five against the Celtics.

But the fact is James started as a forward, often ran the point and had an imprint on every layer of the game plan and the organization. He was (and is) a walking triple-double, a physical marvel and hometown hero. He changed basketball in Cleveland in both the short and long term, and now the Cavaliers must move on � and prove worthy of attention before and after Dec. 2, the Heat�s first visit to Quicken Loans Arena.

Things are more than a little different. Replacing James as the starting small forward is 30-year-old Jamario Moon, whose basketball resume includes stops in Mexico, the CBA, WBA, USBL, D-League, ABA and with the Harlem Globetrotters.

�You can�t replace a guy like LeBron,� Moon said. �He was basically everything. He scored, he passed, he rebounded, he played defense. We�re not trying to replace him. We�re trying to work with the guys we�ve got.

�We�re going to put the best guys on the court that give us the best chance to win. That�s all we can do.�

Scott said he knows and has discussed with his players that the Cavaliers are now seen as a team both best-served by and headed for the draft lottery. He was asked specifically last week about one Yahoo! Sports article that picked the Cavs to go 12-70.

�I look at that as kind of a joke,� Scott said. �I�ve been in this business a while. I had a team that won 18 games its first year (in New Orleans) and that team didn�t have half the talent we have here.�

Scott�s been pushing Hickson, who might be the most talented of the bunch. He feels like his team will defend well enough to get out and run, has two emerging young guards coming off the bench in Ramon Sessions and Daniel Gibson and has the right mix of experience and leadership to win early. After Wednesday�s season opener with Boston, just one of the Cavaliers next 10 games is against a team that made the playoffs last season.

There are concerns besides picking up James� scoring load and getting Hickson mature. Williams missed almost the entire preseason with a groin injury and a death in the family. There�s some concern about him catching up and catching on in the new offense and about his mental state; he was very public about his disappointment in James� departure and admits that he�s emotional to a fault.

Anderson Varejao missed two-plus weeks this month with an ankle issue and a family situation of his own. Jamison is 35 and will come off the bench, a role Scott says both he and Jamison are fine with now. Jamison has two big-money years left on his contract, making him both a topic of trade discussion and someone for whom the Cavaliers probably wouldn�t get maximum value if they did make a move.

Grant has repeatedly said he�s placing �no limits� on anything the Cavaliers do this season, which can be translated to mean he�s holding high hopes but also realistic ones. He got a call from one of James� flunkies a few minutes into �The Decision� and said five minutes later he was working the phone of a prospective free agent, eager to move forward.

It�s not that easy, but the Cavs and Heat did work a sign-and-trade deal for salary-cap purposes that brought the Cavaliers a boatload of future draft picks and a $14.5 million trade exception good until next July. They have some players who figure to be attractive to other teams trying to tinker and upgrade and have cap flexibility themselves.

�You don�t win 127 games the last two years with one guy,� Grant said. �We�re going to go out and compete, play hard and aggressively.�

The goal, for now, is for the team to take the identity of its coach, who won three NBA titles as a player and coached the Nets to the Finals twice. Scott still shoots free throws with his players after practice, always in some sort of competition. When things aren�t going well, he�s not afraid to publicly ask for better.

Grant, a former player at the University of San Diego who said his position was �the guy who fouled the other guys,� has been working in NBA front offices since. Both know owner Dan Gilbert will provide them the resources, and both know they�re just at the beginning of what figures to be a winding journey.

�(Success) is always measured by victories, but to me it�s measured by month-to-month, how much better we play,� Scott said. �I want to see how much better we get and how well these guys understand the system, how quickly they come together.

�We want to win every game, but we also want to see growth on the team.�

Follow Zac Jackson on Twitter @FSOhioZJackson

Tags: nba, lebron james, cavaliers, Mo Williams, jj hickson, Antawn Jamison, zac jackson, Byron Scott, chris grant

comment(0)

Facebook

rss