Here at Sparty and Friends, we have reached NBA preview time. There will be one team per work day leading up to the season opener (Celts vs. Cavs, October 28that 8pm on TNT). The teams are ordered by record starting with last place and going up through the non-playoff teams, followed by the playoff teams in order of elimination (or lack there of in the Celtics’ case). You can find the full list of our previews here. We knocked off the Heat, got hate mail about the Thunder, had a guest writer for the ExpressGrizz, praised the T-Wolves marketing team, got lazy and had a Clip show, went to the circus that is the Knicks roster, took the Buck by the hornsantlers, met a cat named “Bob”, ran with the Bulls and a “(pat)phish”, we put it in the Net, kept Pace, put the King in check, Blazed the Trail, Warrior’d up, Nugg’d it, rapped withthe Raptors, cowboy’d up with the Mavs, might as well have been walkin’ on the Suns, couldn’t figure out a good pun for 76ers, were the Wiz and nobody beats us, we Rock’d it, delivered a “Trey” o’ Magic, searched for Atlantais, Jazzed it up a little, and all we get a Cavalier attitude…

The Cleveland Cavaliers are kind of an interesting team. I say kind of because they aren’t interesting or uninteresting really; they are merely kind of interesting. Their is automatic interest because of LeBron James because, well, he’s awesome and stuff. However, the rest of their team brings few storylines of interest. Mo Williams’ arrival? OK. Not bad, I guess. Ben Wallace and his quest to prove that he isn’t worth his weight in chocolate? Not really. The Big Z’s career coming to a close? Not that interesting. Nicknames for your back-up point guard that are strange and might only exist to make the announcers sound stupid and giggle? Possibly. But what is the real drive behind this team? What makes them tick? Why don’t they try to stick together and win one while LeBron is still there? Can they win a championship if they do stick together? These are all valid questions. After the following sentence is a valid jump. Use it.

Let’s backtrack before we, um, forward… track? Dammit. Here are the basics…

Last Year’s Record: 45-37 (2nd in Central Division, 4th in Eastern Conference, 13th in the NBA)

Coach: Mike Brown

Expected Starting Lineup: Mo Williams, Sasha Pavlovic, LeBron James, Ben Wallace, Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Expected Bench Contributors: Daniel “Boobie” Gibson, Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, Anderson Varejao

Does LeBron need this guy? Yes, but not in the way you might think.

So they now have themselves an actual point guard. Impressive? Not as much as you think. While almost every great scorer needs a great point guard, LeBron doesn’t. That’s why I wrote the word “almost” in the previous sentence. Michael Jordan never had a constant great point guard. Ron Harper was pretty good in 1997 and 1998 but the reality is that Jordan found his own shot. (This falls under the list of reasons why Jordan should have won the 1997 MVP instead of Karl Malone.) Kobe didn’t need a great point guard and neither did Iverson. The absolute top scorers can do without them. LeBron is one of those guys. If you did not know this, you need to get yourself checked out. Even non-sports-fans know them the LeBron James. So why, you might ask, did the Cavs get Mo Williams in the first place?

The answer to that question is simple; they need a diversion. For those who never played basketball I may need to qualify this a little better. When the team you are playing has a point guard who can score as well as another scorer on the wing, it complicates things. Let’s take a step back first. When a team’s primary scoring threat is on the wing and the point guard is not a scorer, the defense has an easy way out. All they have to do is focus on the wingman and wait for him to touch the ball. This may lead to some zoning out which will lead to a few open shots for the point guard. The defense is OK with that though because the point guard isn’t a great scorer and they don’t want the ball out on the wing where the possibility of scoring is higher. This all changes if the point guard can score. When the defense cannot simply wait for the ball to get into the scorer’s hands their decision are much more complicated. If the ball is coming up court in the hands of a scorer, the defense must first focus on that player because, as my JV basketball coach once told me, the guy without the ball can’t score on you yet. This is just the distraction that LeBron could use right about now. You might notice that the effect of the scorer bringing up the ball is so great that the Cavs (LeBron), the Rockets (T-Mac), and the Lakers (Kobe) all use their star to bring up the ball in the 4th quarter of playoff games. This is less effective than the scoring point guard and the scoring wingman which very few teams can implement. Besides, we all know that LeBron is a better passer than Mo Williams anyway.

He's better than you think he is.

The rest of the starters are a weird crew. Sasha Pavlovic is much better than people realize. He missed so much time last season that he was off his game in the playoffs so it might come as a surprise. Big Z is a complete coin flip at this point. Some times he looks like it’s ten years ago, some times he looks like it’s ten years from now. Ben Wallace is much worse than people think. He just isn’t good anymore. I’m not even sure if he was ever that good in the first place at this point.

Then you have then bench. Gibson will be coming off the bench as per the last two seasons. He can drain the three but still needs to develop other parts of his game. Delonte West is a decent bench player who will get less minutes per game than he has tattoos. Thank you. Wally is still Wally. He does everything he does and has done and will do. Then they have Sideshow Bob on the bench as well. Good move to bring in if you need more defense, but if Mike Brown has him and Big Ben on the floor at the same time he is an idiot. And yes, if you were wondering, he did this last year in the playoffs. Only Mike Brown would play a lineup with only three guys who could score. Did I mention that I don’t like Mike Brown? No. OK. I don’t like Mike Brown.

Will this team get it together and win that championship? I have to say no. But really, it is hard to say. With the Eastern Conference not being that strong, they might be able to get to the finals by way of LeBron becoming the supernova that he is. Can he do it by himself? I thought the answer was no. But it might be yes, and now he has more help than before.

Today’s YouTube clip is LeBron putting on one of the most disturbing one-man-shows of all time. Apologies to Sparty on this one. Everybody else, enjoy…

Prediction: 52-47 wins, 2-6 in the Eastern Conference

Popularity: 1% [?]