LeBron James doing it alone as usual

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Don’t the Cavaliers know they are only renting LeBron James, that his destiny is bigger than Cleveland?

The Cav’s are in round two of the playoffs dueling with the Boston Celtics and Kevin Garnett. No, make that Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce. See, that is the problem with Cleveland. It is still just LeBron James, the King.

There are those that say James should stay in Cleveland. He went to high school in Ohio. He is an Ohio boy. Never mind the market is so small.

The Cavaliers deserve to keep James home for the core of his prime. They’ve already landed him in one NBA Finals. They’ve already honored their commitment to competing for a title by making the in-season deal for Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Wally Szczerbiak, and Delonte West, taking payroll and luxury tax hits along the way.

source

Cleveland has only one chance to survive and that is to find star number 2. Kevin Garnett has two star number twos. Tim Duncan has Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. Kobe Bryant has Pau Gasol. Dallas tried with Jason Kidd to Dirk Nowitzki. Phoenix tried with an aging Shaq to Steve Nash.

Wally, Joe, and Big Ben Wallace do not qualify as the number 2 that LeBron needs. There are no Scotty Pippens to LeBron’s Michael Jordan in that group.

Cleveland needs to find this number two star before 2010, the LeBron free agent date, the sooner the better or LeBron is out of here.

Where will he go? To a bigger market, most likely New York, most likely the Knicks.

In fact, Donnie Walsh wouldn’t have accepted the presidency of the Knicks if he didn’t think it was feasible that the team could get far enough under the salary cap to wine and sign James.

The Nets are also expected to join the bidding, as minority owner Jay-Z is a close friend of LeBron’s who has made no secret of his desire to see James someday pack the new arena the Nets are supposed to be putting up in Brooklyn.

New Jersey may struggle to get LeBron, because it is not the storied franchise that the Knicks have been.

And we know that LeBron loves Madison Square Garden.

James wants to go in as a Yankee, which is precisely why he wore the team’s cap — much to Cleveland’s dismay — during last year’s Division Series. He has big-city dreams, LeBron does. The lifelong Yankees fan is also a lifelong Madison Square Garden fan. Back in March, after managing 50 points, 10 assists, and 8 rebounds on the Knicks’ home floor, James beamed as he said the following:

“This ranks really high, just because of the point of where it happened, the mecca of basketball. I’ve dreamed about playing well in this building. To get a standing ovation in the greatest basketball arena in the world is a dream come true for me. It’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”

Better get busy Cleveland. LeBron appears to just be a loaner right now.

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Raise your hand if you think LeBron James will be the next Cavalier to shoot

For Cleveland it was a test drive of sorts of just how will the new players work out in the playoffs.

For Detroit it was game 68 of the regular season. Not a time to get worked up about anything.

Cleveland tried LeBron James on Chauncey Billups. They tried Ben Wallace on Rasheed Wallace.

The Pistons just watched and played. They did not even double LeBron.

The Pistons kept their poker faces.

“They look very similar, and that’s not a bad thing,” point guard Chauncey Billups said. “I don’t see too much difference.”

For one thing, problems No. 1, 2 and 3 haven’t changed — LeBron James, LeBron James and LeBron James, who scored 30 Wednesday.

“The big horse,” shooting guard Richard Hamilton said, “is still LeBron.” source

Did the Pistons learn anything?

“We pretty much want to feel out and see how they play with their new guys,” Billups said of the Cavaliers. “Obviously, you still want to come out with the win. But you learn some things about how they like to play with the new guys and what the new guys can do.”

Hmm, they are not speaking.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Were you excited or panicked over the Piston’s loss to Cleveland?

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LeBron James can do all the shooting. He needs defense from his teammates.

Detroit and Boston are on top in the East.

Even though Cleveland went to the finals by getting past the Pistons, this is a whole new Cleveland team, although still led by LeBron James.

Cleveland wants bad to beat Detroit.

Cleveland Cavaliers 89 Detroit Pistons 73

A newcomer to one of the NBA’s fiercest rivalries, Wally Szczerbiak didn’t need long to understand Cleveland’s hatred.

“All my buddies, all the fans, everybody, all they want to do is beat Detroit,” he said. source

The new guys can play some defense and that made the difference.

“We’re still in search mode,” Brown said. “We’re using these games to win and to get better. Against Orlando [on Monday night], we played [good defense] for 24 minutes. Wednesday night, we played the right way for 48 minutes and that made the difference.”

In resounding fashion.

The night after the Detroit Pistons shot lights out, the Cavs shut their Eastern Conference rival’s offensive lights off in an 89-73 victory at The Q. source

NBA Basketball Big Ben Wallace Quote of the Week – Talking to Ben Wallace before the game, a radio reporter asked him if the key to dealing with the Pistons is handling “Rasheed Wallace’s BS.”

“What is the BS?” Ben Wallace said. “Big shots?” source

So, nobody is confusing one game with getting your defensive stuff together and maintaining dominance over the Pistons, but it sure feels good.

LeBron and the new boys are headed in the right direction.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Can LeBron lead them back to the NBA Finals?

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Cleveland beat the Memphis Grizzlies.

108 – 89.

And all the new guys played and played well.

LeBron thinks it will work out just fine.

Coach Mike Brown cautions them to take it one game at a time.

Still, even though it was only the Grizzlies, it was a victory and everyone was excited from the beginning.

“It brought some energy to the building,” Brown said. “It was energy from the fans because of the new players.”

Ben Wallace, who started at power forward, scored 12 points, tying his season high, and had 10 rebounds, while Delonte West, the starter at point guard, scored five points with six assists.

The other two players picked up in the deal, forward Joe Smith and guard Wally Szczerbiak, came off the bench late in the first quarter. Smith scored 14 points while Szczerbiak had 10. source

For Big Ben it was especially pleasing to have the crowd at his back like in the old days with the Detroit Pistons.

Wallace, the target of criticism by Bulls fans, enjoyed his new home.

“The crowd was great,” he said. “I didn’t get booed. That’s new for me.”

James was pleased with Wallace’s contributions.

“He showed it tonight, his ability to get up and rebound and his ability to throw down dunks,” James said. “And he made free throws, too.”

It didn’t take long for the newcomers to make an impact. Wallace brought the crowd to its feet with a dunk less than 2 minutes into the game and West hit a 3 midway through the period.

There were even T-shirts.

His arrival even was celebrated at the souvenir stands, where T-shirts proclaiming ”BIG BEN A CAVALIER” were on sale. source

Well, it was only one game and Coach Mike Brown is probably right about taking it one game at a time, but LeBron is happy and that means a lot!

NBA Basketball Fan Question Will Big Ben make the Cavalier difference?

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This is a monster trade by Cleveland, Chicago, and Seattle.

Cleveland gets Ben Wallace and Joe Smith from Chicago and forward Wally Szczerbiak and guard Delonte West from the SuperSonics.

Danny Ferry, the Cleveland GM, immediately announced they were good enough to win the title.

Hold on, there.

All four players were underperforming, especially Ben Wallace.

Now as a huge Pistons fan, your intrepid author likes Ben Wallace a lot, but he is 33 years old. His best years are behind him. You also gave up Dwight Gooden to get him. Expect Ben to play excellent defense, but will he be able to rebound like days gone by? Most likely not.

Here is a rundown on the trade.

In an 11 player three-team blockbuster trade, the Cavaliers acquired Chicago’s Ben Wallace and Joe Smith, Seattle’s Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West before the trade deadline closed on Thursday, two league sources confirmed.

The Cavaliers sent Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Shannon Brown and Cedric Simmons to the Bulls, and Donyell Marshall to the Sonics. Seattle also gets the expiring contracts of Chicago’s Adrian Griffin and Cleveland’s Ira Newble. source

LeBron James

Still LeBron James has to be happy. His current cast was going nowhere and Ben is an intimidator, Smith and Szczerbiak give you scoring, and West is young. It will help LeBron to have more outside shooting around him than Daniel Gibson.

Danny Ferry is happy to be out of Larry Hughes contract.

Much like Wallace, Hughes didn’t deliver as the Cavs had hoped. They signed him to a five-year, $60 million free agent deal in 2005, but he struggled with injuries and his jump shot.

Hughes had become a target of abuse at Cleveland home games as fans grumbled with every miss and every mention of a contract—he’s making $12.8 million this season—that seemed untradeable. source

Still, Danny Ferry was trapped. His Superstar, LeBron James, was unhappy and that is not good.

He’s dead serious, though, about getting the Cavaliers their first title. James, who led them to their first finals appearance last season, had publicly campaigned for Ferry to do something before the deadline.

James got his wish. Ferry overhauled the Cavs, trading 60 percent of the starting lineup Brown used Wednesday night.

The deal caps a busy month of trades as several stars, including Shaquille O’Neal, Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion and Pau Gasol, all were dealt to new teams. The Gasol swap triggered an arms race of sorts among the Western Conference’s top squads, while this one could have a major impact atop the East.

Will Ben Wallace bring Cleveland the NBA Title?

Probably not, but the mix makes James happy and gives them a shot and that is all he wanted.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Can you break down this trade to make LeBron happy?

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