“The Super Team's Fatal Flaw”

(June, 17th 2015) By: Ira Barasch

  Any child dreams of a world where all of their favorite heroes  assemble. In pop culture you have the Justice League and The Avengers, and in sports you have the big three. In layman's terms; it's the grouping of three All Stars together on one team, with the mindset of winning a championship. The concept of having really good players around each other has actually been around for a while. Magic Johnson (Kareem Abdul Jabar and James Worthy) and Larry Bird (Kevin McHale, Robert Parish) both had one, and even Michael Jordan (Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman) had one. The Spurs have had one for years with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginóbili. Yet it's only been fairly recent where players, rather than general managers, have started to manipulate the roster movements by forcing themselves out of losing situations. 

The first modern day “Big Three” were the 2007 Boston Celtics, where they combined Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett with an already productive Paul Pierce (and a young budding point guard named Rajon Rondo). The three combined players took the Celtics from winning a total of 24 games in 2006 to wining 66 games in 2007, and eventually the NBA finals the very same year. The accomplishment was unprecedented, never before had a team changed that drastically. Teams began trying to copy the formula, but more importantly, player's tried as well. As I've written before (see: The baby faced champion) and NBA title is what most players dream of their entire career. The allure of being on a super team is tempting to many. Evidence of that became apparent after “The Decision” when LeBron bolted from the Cavs to the Heat to join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. The Heat made a remarkable four straight finals, winning two of them, in what can only be described as dominance. Carmelo Anthony then tried it with the New York Knicks, literally forcing his way out of Denver to join with Amar'e Stoudemire and eventually Tyson Chandler, to a lesser degree of success. Dwight Howard forced his way out of Orlando to join with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol in L.A to disastrous results. However, most recently has been LeBron returning to Cleveland, and Kevin Love forcing his way out of Minnesota to join him, with an already talented Kyrie Irving. There are a few obvious flaws with the concept. First off is the money. Believe it or not every player in the NBA is not playing for free, and the better they are, the more they want to get paid. The players that make up a Big Three are All Stars, demanding high salaries, thus depriving the team of any cap room for other players to compliment them. Second is ego. Again, when dealing with stars they are used to playing a certain style, and more importantly, used to carrying most of the burden of scoring themselves. When joining with a few of these kinds of players you never quite know what you're going to get. It can work beautifully such as with the Heat, or it can be a train wreck like with the Lakers. 

Lastly is the sad example of what we saw this post season with the Cavaliers, which is the venomous injury bug. If an injury bug bites your team its bad news, yet usually you can have another player ready to step up to take his roll, or be able to at least make a trade or signing to supplement the loss. Yet when you have a Big Three; if one goes down, let alone two, your entering a nightmare. You have no money, no players to replace that kind of talent, and a whole different kind of cohesion with this team. After Love went down, we all knew the Cavs would be in a tough spot, and when they lost Irving it was only a matter of time till it they lost. Iman Shumpert and J.R Smith are not second options, they are roll players. As is Matthew Dellavedova and Timofay Mozgov. They can play well with a team, yet don't think that they can salvage a season. 

In the end be it trading an arm and a leg for an all star, or paying for one in free agency, you compromise your future. It's a risk that sometimes seems too good to pass up. Sometimes that's actually the case, LeBron can attest to that, other times it never really comes to fruition which LeBron can no attest to as well. Either way, buyer beware, the age of the super team is coming to a close. Whats next? Well we'll find out on October 27th, when the whole season starts over again.

Hey Blatt! Go Deep!

(June, 10th 2015) By: Efraim Graber

If you take a  look back at the Cleveland Cavalier players in the middle of the 4th quarter of game 1 of the Finals, something seemed to be different about them. Fast forward to the end of the 3rd Quarter of game 2. Something is up with these players. Now we're in the first 2 minutes of the second half of game 3. These Cavs players are absolutely exhausted.

LeBron is averaging over 45 minutes a game, granted there were two overtime games. There is no excuse for that. Shawn Marion is a more than capable player who actually has finals experience himself. The same can be said about the two big men for Cleveland. Tristan Thompson and Timofey Mozgov are huffing and puffing down the court in the first three games in the 4th quarter. It's just going to get worse as each game goes on. An alternative for them is Kendrick Perkins, throw him in for at least 8-10 minutes as a viable rim protector. Then again, there might be something we don't know about these players that Coach Blatt is not telling us.

To further this case, we saw Mathew Dellavedova put up 20 points last night in Cleveland's second win in the finals. He was then immediately shipped to the hospital and put on I.V. with severe cramping and dehydration. These Cavs players are being overworked. Golden State has been throwing out some very weak lineups, giving Blatt the perfect opportunity to leave in a scorer like J. R. Smith and bring in some bench players to give the starters a rest. If the series goes to 6 or even 7 games, this team is going to be in trouble.

For your information LeBron cramped up in the 4th quarter of last night's game. Imagine it was like last year where he couldn't get back up. This is from playing 48-50 minutes a night (overtime). 

Rhetorical question time! Is Joe Harris that much worse off than James Jones? Can you leave Shumpert out there to guard Curry a little bit longer? Can Perkins come in and make a difference defensively for this squad? Nobody knows, but David Blatt better try it out soon before they ship the whole Cavs bus to the hospital for I.V. fluids. 

“I'm coming home”

(June, 8th, 2015)  By: Ira Barasch.       It took three words for LeBron James to shock the world, three words that made free agency last summer turn into a frenzy. The Cleveland Cavaliers then acquired Kevin Love by actually trading their past two number one overall picks in Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett. He also joined an already blossoming point guard in Kyrie Irving. The beginnings of a super team seemed to be in the making. From James getting his buddies James Jones and Mike Miller to come for reduced salaries, to the Cavs hiring David Blatt from overseas to coach, this team seemed primed.

Yet the struggle that ensued was incredible; Love was not fitting in, his game was just not conforming to LeBron's. Anderson Varejao went down with a season ending injury before even playing in the regular season, thinning their front court dramatically. David Blatt and the team was hovering near a .500 record when January came along. 

Again the team changed, with the Cavs acquiring J.R Smith and Iman Shumpert from the Knicks, and Timofay Mozgov from the Nuggets. Suddenly they were blowing out teams; their record skyrocketed. J.R. Smith looked like his old self, he was playing with confidence and making his shots. Mozgov was finally living up to his potential and looked like a dominant big man and a rim protector. Things started to look up for the Cavs as they entered the post season. Until Love went down with a dislocated shoulder vs. the Celtics, and Irving's injuries started to act up, eventually leading him to fracture his kneecap in the first game of the finals.

So where does that leave LeBron? It seemed like he was playing a five on one at times in game 2 of the finals. Back to carrying the whole team on his back. He has mostly role players around him and no other All Stars. This is dramatically different than when he won his two other titles with Miami. There is no Dwayne Wade to rely on, no Chris Bosh to turn to, and no Ray Allen to make a clutch three. This is all on LeBron's shoulders now, yet it seems so fitting that it should be. This is his team, it's his city, and most importantly, it's his time to prove his worth. Never before has so much been on the line for James as far as his legacy is concerned. This is his chance to pick up a team, practically by himself, and bring them to the promised land, like he wrote about in his article last summer. This is his chance to bring the city he spurned their first title since 1964 when the Cleveland Browns won it all, and complete his tale of redemption after being swept by the Spurs in '07. Finally, this is also his chance to establish a legacy that won't be in the shadow of the older “23” so many compare him to. The time for excuses are over, it's time for LeBron James to officially establish himself as the best player in this generation. If he can overcome the odds, if he can push the distractions and the detractors away, he can finally establish himself to be among the great players to ever play the game.


However for James, who has been blamed for not being a clutch player over his career, this is a huge task. So what will it be LeBron? You said you're coming home. Talk is cheap, and actions speak louder than words. Now is the time to show all the people who don't believe in you, who hate you, an

d root against you, that you are the player we knew you could be when you came into this league. It's not going to be easy, but if you win, the glory is all yours. It's right there for the taking, now we will just have to sit back and see if you can.