Making the parts fit

Seems like overall, Gibson is being tested/groomed for the starting position. It’s hard to argue with the way they’ve handled this situation. Whether we are 10 games or 20 games away from Boobie being the starter, I don’t know. Have we found our BJ Armstrong? VERY similar skill set: same size, defensive acumen, and nice looking stroke. Similar handles at this stage of their career as well. Defensively, Gibson is still not quite as strong as Snow, but he shows a lot of promise.

In one of my posts last year regarding the Damon Jones signing, I mentioned that by the end of their contracts, both Jones and Snow would be fairly effective as backups, assuming we have a young, developing starter. Both have two guaranteed years remaining, and could be part of a salary dump in their final year. That last year is actually very valuable to the Cavs as trade bait in 07-08, when other teams may be looking to clear cap space.

Scott Pollard’s role is strictly as injury insurance and as a practice player. We are very deep in the frontcourt. Pollard was basically signed in case Z or V got injured.

The Cavs offense is terrible, although it showed signs of life versus Atlanta – hardly a worthy test. That said, I think it’s far too soon to make a statement about Brown’s ability to develop younger players. Gibson and Shannon Brown are only rookies, just a few months into their professional careers. The only other young players that Coach Brown has inherited have been Varejao and Pavlovic. I think he’s done okay there, if anything giving too many minutes to Varejao. Pavlovic would be more vauable to another team. And I don’t think anyone could kiss Lebron’s butt more than Silas did.

The Cavs never imagined Shannon Brown as anything but a two guard. Ferry was very clear about that over the summer. Turns out that he is a bit shorter than Gibson, though (although he is a bit stockier). I don’t think the Cavs are giving up on Shannon yet, but his path into the rotation isn’t quite as clear as Gibson’s, given his ball handling skills. Plus, Gibson has shown the better stroke in games, and apparently in practice as well.

I am not overly concerned about the Cavs at this point. I think that the organization made a commitment to give the starters more rest this year, trying to avoid injuries and burnout. This worked very well for the Heat last year, although it cost them some games during the regular season.

My main concern is that they are not giving Gooden quite enough minutes, and have relegated him to complete garbage man status in the offense. This is a terrible waste of his abilities, especially considering how often our offense stagnates, that we didn’t sign him for his defense, and he is still one of the younger players on the team. The dude has logged shockingly few minutes!

Gooden’s post up game is actually one of his best assets, but requires that someone actually pass him the ball on the block with time on the shot clock. He is also athletic and he can run, which makes him perfect with LeBron and Hughes. I think the main problem is that he doesn’t compliment Z very well, especially since one of Z’s most glaring weaknesses is his inability to pass out of the double team. Interior passing, Denny -- we don’t have it. You can’t have a player who is completely ignored on offense (Gooden), especially when you already have a starter that is rarely guarded anyway (Snow). Gooden, for his part, is actually quite a good passer. I am also starting to agree more and more with last year’s critics who said that Z wouldn’t fit very well with the rest of the team they are building. This should be the real issue being discussed.