Cleveland Sports Forum

Waiters had a breakout game. Just hope he can be consistent. Zeller had a productive game as well and I hope his injury is minor.

Frank Blinebury-NBA.com



The Cavaliers have heard it all.

They reached to take Dion Waiters with the No. 4 pick in the draft.

He was never even a starter in his two seasons spent at Syracuse.

He has never been the catch-and-shoot type scorer the Cavs need.

He promptly got injured at the Las Vegas Summer League because he was overweight.

Well, as Matt Damon famously said in Good Will Hunting, how do you like them apples?

That was the rookie Waiters, in just his fourth NBA game, taking a match to the Clippers and practically burning down the Staples Center with 28 sizzling points on a white-hot 7-for-11 shooting from behind the 3-point line.

It was one thing to see the 20-year-old take the floor and look like an established veteran on Opening Night last week. But that was at home and that was against the Wizards. Since that time, Waiters has continued to look anything but overwhelmed, moving confidently around the court and moving the ball.

Well, let’s get one thing straight. Talent and ability had nothing at all to do with Waiters not starting at Syracuse. That was just a decision made by coach Jim Boeheim, who rarely went to the final minutes in Waiters‘ two seasons with the Orangemen without having the ball and the game in his hands. Waiters was a star and big-time producer.

Cavs coach Byron Scott has been an ardent defender from the day Waiters was drafted, refusing to pigeon-hole him into either the one or the two spot. He’s just a guard, Scott has said over and over. He just knows how to play. Just ask the Clippers.

The biggest adjustment that Waiters has had to make from college is playing without the ball in his hands now that he’s next to Kyrie Irving in the Cleveland starting backcourt. Yet the transition has been smooth so far as he’s worked on coming off screens and improving his footwork to get better shots.

On Monday night the kids Irving and Waiters doubled up the Clippers veteran backcourt of Chris Paul and Willie Green 52-26, making things look so easy for much of the game and making the plays and the shots that held off L.A.’s late run in the fourth quarter.

In four games, Waiters is averaging 16.3 points and has hit 11 of 20 long balls and made at least one in every game.

Now we know why Scott has been ignoring the critics and nodding his head toward Waiters. One more bit of validation and a glimpse at a future that might require sunglasses.

Updated: November 6, 2012, 6:29 am ET



Sky’s the Limit for Irving, Waiters
By Alex Kennedy
NBA Writer


The Cleveland Cavaliers have one of the most promising backcourts in the league. That was evident last night, when Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters combined for 52 points in the team’s second win of the season. Irving and Waiters form a scary one-two punch, taking turns dominating and embarrassing opponents. Both players can score at will and they’ve done just that through four games.

On some nights it’ll be Irving who carries the scoring load, as was the case in the season opener when he dropped 29 points in the win over the Washington Wizards. On other nights it’ll be Waiters who takes over, as was the case on Monday night when he had 28 points in the win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

“I feel like we’re just playing off of each other, just taking what the defense gives us,” Irving said of the duo. “That definitely works well for us. We take turns. I play off of him and he plays off of me.”

“We can both play with the ball and we can both play off the ball,” Waiters said. “We make each other better.”

In the first week of the season, Irving and Waiters have been one of the most productive backcourts in the league. Irving is averaging 23.7 points, 6.0 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.1 steals while Waiters is averaging 16.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.2 steals. In Cleveland’s wins, they’ve combined for an average of 48 points.

These numbers are even more impressive when you consider that both players are just 20 years old. Waiters, born in 1991, will turn 21 next month and Irving, born in 1992, will turn 21 next March. Even though they’re often the youngest players on the court, Irving and Waiters are fearless, refusing to back down from anyone. The duo is old enough to torch your favorite team, but not old enough to order a drink afterwards.

“Potential wise, the sky is the limit for us,” Waiters said. “We’re still young and we’re still getting better every day. When we get on the court, it’s all about how we can make each other better. We’re going to push each other. We just have to keep working with each other every day.”

Irving and Waiters have been pushing each other for years. They met in high school, when they were two of the top-ranked prospects in New Jersey. They grew up within 55 miles of each other – Irving starring at St. Patrick and Waiters starring at Life Center Academy. They would see each other at all of the local AAU tournaments and high school camps, where they would usually dominate their peers. At some events, they would go head-to-head. At others, they would play on the same team. Irving and Waiters met as sophomores and became close friends, before going off to Duke and Syracuse respectively. The chemistry that has been on display this season in Cleveland has been in the making for years, which is why they’ve been able to experience success so quickly. While other young backcourts are still trying to get on the same page, they’re ahead of the curve.

“We’re building on the bond that we already had,” Waiters said of his relationship with Irving. “Coming out of high school together, we clicked right away and we were always together. We met in tenth grade and from that day on, we’ve been close friends.”

Cleveland has high hopes for their young backcourt. They selected Irving with the top overall pick last year and picked Waiters with the fourth overall pick in June, making them the cornerstones of the franchise. Cavaliers head coach Byron Scott has been extremely impressed with each player, so much so that he started both Irving and Waiters from day one even though they had starting-caliber veterans behind them on the depth chart. Irving started all 51 games that he appeared in during his rookie season, getting the nod over Ramon Sessions. Waiters earned his place in the starting lineup during the final week of training camp, keeping C.J. Miles on the bench.

Scott has said that he thinks Irving and Waiters can be one of the best backcourts in the league over the next decade.

“They can create for themselves and they can create for their teammates,” Scott said of Irving and Waiters. “You can put the ball in their hands on just about every play and they’ll do something good with it.”

“It just depends on who has it going,” Scott said. “Sometimes we’ll have Kyrie run the high pick-and-roll and we’ll have Dion go the corner and vice versa. It helps us offensively and makes us tougher to guard, having two guys who can not only make plays but make shots as well.”

Scott is confident that Irving and Waiters will get better over the course this season, as they continue to play together.

“They’re still getting better and they’re still getting used to each other,” Scott said. “As much as they want to talk about how they’ve known each other since AAU, they still haven’t played together that much. They’re still getting used to one another, but they’re starting to come along.”

While the future is certainly bright for Irving and Waiters, the guards want to win now. Both players believe Cleveland has what it takes to make the playoffs this season. Right now, the Cavaliers have the sixth-best record in the Eastern Conference and they’ll likely be in the playoff hunt for much of the year. If Irving and Waiters can elevate their games, they may be able to sneak in as the eighth seed over other fringe teams like the Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors.

“If we come to play every single night, I feel like we can play with the best of them on both ends of the floor,” Irving said. “We have the aggressiveness. We have the confidence. Whether anybody else believes it doesn’t matter. It’s just about us, everyone in the Cavaliers organization, believing in ourselves. I believe we are a playoff team.”

“Hopefully we can make the playoffs,” Waiters said. “We want to achieve that. We have to work our way up to that next level. That’s the main thing. For us to do that, it’ll take hard work, dedication and sacrifice. Everybody has one goal in mind and that’s to make the playoffs. We’re young, but we’re going to do whatever it takes to get there and keep building off of each other. Hopefully we can get there.”

If Irving and Waiters continue to play at a high level and deliver performances like the one we saw on Monday night, the Cavaliers may have a two-man game that makes them a playoff team this year and a contender for years to come.

New flopping rules:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1398 ... lping-game

Cleveland Cavaliers

Jason Lloyd


Chris Paul asked Byron Scott to stop using Alonzo Gee on him defensively
Scott made that shocking revelation today after practice. He has been calling Gee one of the league's best defenders for a few days and is trying to prove it by using him to defend multiple positions.

Apparently at some point during Monday's Cavs win over the Clippers, Paul jogged by Scott and told him "take him off me" and wanted Kyrie Irving to defend him instead.

"Why you got him guarding me? Let the young fella guard me," Paul told Scott. "I said, 'Young fella has guarded you. He said, 'Well you threw me in the fire, made me guard all those guys.'"

Scott coached Paul, of course, when Paul was just breaking into the league in New Orleans.

"Obviously (Gee) had a little effect on him," Scott said. Paul had 17 points and nine assists for the Clippers. 9 minutes ago

Waiters certainly won't score 28points or hit 7 3's every night. But he makes an exciting backcourt running mate for Irving. Given time to mature that's an excellent start to a championship team.

Zellers and Thompson don't have that level of promise, but perhaps will become a solid inside pair. Fun to watch the group develop.

2011-12 additions are comparable to the rookie class of Daugherty, Hot Rod, Harper and Price.

After Losing Four of Five, Lakers Fire Their Coach


The Lakers fired Coach Mike Brown on Friday after a 1-4 start to the season and began compiling a list of potential replacements. The list is expected to include Mike D’Antoni, Mike Dunleavy, Brian Shaw and Nate McMillan, but no name holds more intrigue than Phil Jackson.

Jackson, who led the Lakers to five championships between 2000 and 2010, left the franchise last year, in part because of health concerns and general fatigue. At the time, he sent signals that he was probably done for good.

But Jackson, who turned 67 in September, has regained his strength and his energy after a year in retirement, and after operations to repair knee and hip problems, according to friends. There is no certainty that he would return, or that the Lakers will ask, but the mere possibility had fans and commentators buzzing Friday.

The fact that the Lakers’ front office would not dismiss Jackson as a candidate only fueled the speculation.

“When there’s a coach like Phil Jackson, one of the all-time greats, and he’s not coaching, I think we’d be negligent not to be aware that he’s out there,” General Manager Mitch Kupchak told reporters at an afternoon news conference. “We’re putting together a list and an attack plan.”

Expectations are always high in Los Angeles, but they skyrocketed this summer after Kupchak acquired Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, pairing them with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol to form one of the most talented lineups in N.B.A. history. There was talk of a 70-win season and, of course, a 17th championship banner.

But the Lakers stumbled through the first two weeks of the season and have struggled to adapt to the Princeton offense, installed by Brown’s top assistant, Eddie Jordan. Injuries have also slowed their development. Nash played just a game and a half before sustaining a leg injury, and he will be out for a few more weeks. Bryant is playing through a foot injury and has been unable to practice. And Howard, though he is averaging 22.4 points and 9.6 rebounds, is still regaining his stamina after undergoing back surgery in April.

As of Friday morning, the Lakers had the worst record in the Western Conference.

Jim Buss, the Lakers’ executive vice president, gave Brown, his handpicked choice in 2011, a vote of confidence in a Thursday interview with ESPN-Los Angeles, saying, “I have no problems with Mike Brown at all,” and concluding, “I just have to be patient.”

The patience clearly did not last. It surely did not help Brown’s cause that the Los Angeles Clippers began the season 4-2, including a 105-95 victory over the Lakers.

Bernie Bickerstaff coached the Lakers against the Golden State Warriors on Friday and will apparently serve in an interim capacity until the team names a replacement.

Jackson has rescued the Lakers in crisis before. He was first hired in 1999 after Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal were swept out of the playoffs and promptly guided the team to three straight titles. Jackson left in 2004 but returned a year later after his successor, Rudy Tomjanovich, resigned. The Lakers won titles in 2009 and 2010.

Brown lasted just 71 games, including a 41-25 record in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season. He had two years and $9 million left on his contract.

The urgency for the Lakers to win now has never been greater, with Bryant, Nash and Gasol in their 30s and Howard heading for free agency next summer.

Although it is unusual to fire a coach after just five games, Kupchak said, “With this team we didn’t want to wait three months and then find out it wasn’t going to change.”

Even in retirement, Jackson’s connections to the Lakers remain strong. He still lives in Playa del Rey, a short drive from the Lakers’ headquarters in El Segundo, and he is in a long-term relationship with Jeanie Buss, the team’s executive vice president of business operations and daughter of Jerry Buss, the Lakers’ owner. Jackson still follows the N.B.A. closely and seems eager to return to the game in some capacity, according to friends.

If he does return, it is conceivable that Jackson would seek a short-term arrangement in which he would groom a successor — possibly Shaw or Kurt Rambis — and then move into an advisory capacity. Jackson’s representatives declined to comment Friday.

Dunleavy coached the Lakers from 1990 to ’92 and took them to the 1991 finals, where they lost to Jackson’s Chicago Bulls. He most recently coached the Clippers and was fired in 2010 after seven years.

Then there is D’Antoni, who might be the most natural fit other than Jackson. D’Antoni and Nash had their greatest years together in Phoenix, and D’Antoni’s pick-and-roll heavy offense would be ideal for Nash and Howard. D’Antoni and Bryant are also close, having known each other since the 1980s, when Bryant was a child growing up in Italy and D’Antoni was an Italian league star.

However, D’Antoni recently had knee-replacement surgery and still needs several weeks to recover. But if the Lakers called, “I think that’s a door he’ll probably want to open,” said a person close to D’Antoni.

LOL on how D'Antoni was stuck at the end of the article. Who knew?

Personally, I think this will really revive that team. Say what you will about his style, players like to play it. And a little fun wouldn't hurt those vets.

Kyrie Irving To Miss Four Weeks

November 19 at 7:19pm CST By Chuck Myron


Kyrie Irving will miss four weeks with a broken left index finger, the team announced. The point guard sustained the injury, described as a hairline/non-displaced fracture, in Saturday's game against the Mavericks. He played last night against the Sixers, but was unusually ineffective, scoring just nine points on 4 of 14 shooting. The news puts the Cavs in a tough spot, to say the least, since Irving was off to a strong start, averaging a team-high 22.9 points a game, and played an even greater role in the offense than he did as Rookie of the Year last season.

The Cavs have only Donald Sloan and Jeremy Pargo as point guards on the roster behind Irving, and the poor play of the team's bench has already led coach Byron Scott to hint at a possible move. The Cavs have a full complement of 15 players, but only 12 have guaranteed contracts. Sloan's contract is the only fully non-guaranteed deal, as Samardo Samuels can be bought out for $200K, while Daniel Gibson's $4.79MM contract can be let go for just $2.49MM. Nonetheless, Sloan is one of the two true point guards on the roster, while Samuels has been a part of the rotation, averaging 16.7 minutes per game. Gibson has been seeing minutes, too, and he's played the point at stretches during his career, so there's no obvious answer about whom to let go.

The Cavs, with a payroll of just $47.666MM, have the most cap room in the league with more than $10MM. Yet they could be wary of too significant an expenditure, since they're on the hook for $12.25MM to Baron Davis, whom they amnestied last year, even though that amount does not count against the cap. Few on the list of available free agents would command much more than the minimum salary, however, and though we noted yesterday that they're not interested in reaching out to former Cav Delonte West, their position could change in light of the news about Irving. Cleveland could also pursue a trade, though that might be an uphill battle, since most teams aren't looking to deal at this time of year, and GM Chris Grant and company may be reluctant to make long-term changes to the roster to solve a problem that will last only a month.

We are headed to the lottery again.

Tristan Thompson suffered a nasal fracture and will play with a protective mask.
This doesn't impact his fantasy value much and Thompson is coming off back-to-back double-doubles. He's on the radar in all leagues and worth owning in most standard formats.

Source: Jason Lloyd on Twitter Nov 19 - 8:05 PM

This helps the 2012-13 tank effort. With Kyrie-Waiters-AV-TT-Gee we actually have one of the best starting 5 groups in the NBA in terms of +-. But we also have maybe the worst bench out of any team for years. This was no accident. Let the young'uns learn to play together but then when the bench comes in we drop 20 points. Good strategy for this season.

I endorse one more tank job to line up another piece or 2 in the next draft. Then add a key FA and we're off to the races.

Now = unwatchable.

Tanking already??? No that actually began when TRistan was selected....utter waste of a pick...On a sluightly more serious note...the tanking begand when we didn't sign any quality players as backups. For example there were reports Leandro Barbosa was interested in Cavs.. Surely a better players than what we have on the bench. Pietrus wold have been a good addition too....sadly this next draft looks mighty weak...I sure hope there is a deadline deal that can get done for a quality player

Still talking about Tristan ? Surprising that no one has posted how terrible Jonas V has looked this season. Are you still pimping him or did you come to your senses yet ?

Please name us all the players that you thought the Cavs should have picked ?