Read Loyal Homer’s argument and Bleacher Fan’s argument for what they believe are the biggest surprises of the young 2009-2010 NBA season.
It appears the NBA preseason is even more pointless than the NFL preseason.
The Cleveland Cavaliers seem to have spent zero time in the preseason inculcating Shaquille O’Neal and his style of play into the offense. While the Cavs may have spent very little time working Shaq into the offense, it is still clear that one of the biggest surprises of the 2009-2010 NBA season to this point is the poor partnership of LeBron James and Shaqille O’Neal.
In a league with opponents that are gaining team speed the Cavaliers addition of O’Neal slows the team down. Considerably. Amazingly, as the Cavs cleansed the roster of offensive liability and all around slow poke Ben Wallace, a bigger, slower player is welcomed to the roster. The Cavaliers coaches and upper management believed a big reason why the team was unable to get over the hump and make the NBA Finals last season is because the team was unable to handle Orlando Magic big man Dwight Howard. While that assessment questionable (since most exports believe it was perimeter defense that was the team’s downfall), the Cavaliers failed to execute on the defensive end of the floor and the offensive end of the floor for the majority of last season’s Eastern Conference Finals. The solution from management in the offseason was to solve last season’s problem, not prepare for the upcoming season by continuing to surround LeBron James with athletic shooters willing to defend and play hard for 48 minutes.
When the Shaquisition was first announced in Cleveland, the first thought from many fans and media involved the possibility of the two egos having trouble coexisting. Leading up the season each player said and seemed to be doing everything necessary to dispel the idea that the two established players would have trouble coexisting. Then the season began. Chatting offline with occasional commenter Old School (who just so happens to be a basketball coach), he made an excellent point worth considering in further detail. Old School pointed out that in the first two Cavaliers games especially, Shaq was getting position down low against the opponent, but the Cavalier’s ball handlers were unable to get the ball inside to Shaq when he had position. One of two results is possible from this scenario. Result one involves a very large, very angry teammate. The second result involves a very large, very apathetic teammate. Neither scenario breeds success.
Cavaliers’ head coach Mike Brown decided to end the first and second games of the season by putting Shaq and 34-year-old Zydrunas Ilgauskas – possibly the two slowest active players in the NBA – on the floor at the same time. The result? Two losses. Why the two slowest players are on the court at the same time at the end of a game – especially when the team is desperately trying to make up ground on the scoreboard – is something that Cavs fans are still trying to sort through. Brown argues on one hand that he is a defense-first coach. But, rather than have good athletes on the court who can quickly turn defense into offense when the team is trying to make up a deficit, Brown slows the team down to a crawl with two half-court players.
When a team starts as poorly as the Cavaliers have, fans – for some reason – seem to pay extra close attention to what a player is doing off the court, too. That extra attention is why Cavs fans cringe when Shaq makes an attempt to become a deputy sheriff in Ohio. It is not as though Shaq must abandon his seemingly noble wishes of becoming a sheriff deputy simply because the team is losing. However, a concerted effort to avoid press releases and extra attention on an off the court matter – especially when the on the court matters are not going very well – is just logical. Oh, and Shaq should also avoid mentioning to the media that – one week before the season – he should really start to learn the playbook.
One of my favorite stats from hockey that finally made its way into NBA box scores last season is the plus-minus stat (+/-). For those unfamiliar with what the stat means, here is a simple definition: A player with a high, positive plus-minus number is a player that positively impacted the team while on the floor, regardless of how many individual stats they compiled. For example, a +15 (which is quite good, by the way) means that while that player was on the court the team played +15 over its opponent. In the season opening game Shaq was just plus two, and in the next game against Toronto Shaq was MINUS 25! It does not take a rocket science to determine this is quite alarming and telling of what the big man’s impact on the Cavaliers has been thus far this season.
It is easy to understand why the Cavaliers pursued and secured the services of Shaquille O’Neal. Management wanted to solve the problem it believed prevented the Cavaliers from making the NBA Finals last season. However, that flawed, myopic thinking may cost the Cavaliers a shot at this season’s title and further prevent management from successfully completing its primary objective – keeping LeBron James in wine and gold. The worse Shaq plays… the slower the team is on the court… the greater the chance LeBron’s decision scale tips closer toward the Northeast.
The Cavaliers management can in part rectify the error in judgment by trading for an athletic shooter like Stephen Jackson. Time will tell if the Cavaliers will be an elite team in the 2009-2010 season. It is safe to say that if the team morphs into an elite team this season it will NOT be because of the presence of Shaquille O’Neal.
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