The Cavs and the Cards

Everyone in the world has been talking about the Cavaliers this week. Specifically LeBron James.  I don't really care to comment on the whole 'walking off the court and then not speaking to the press' thing.  He is not a saint, though everyone seems to think so.  That being said, it's not a big deal.  Nothing interesting comes from a losing player in those post-game conferences.

What I do want to talk about is how people are treating the Eastern Conference Finals.  Now that the Magic have advanced, the talk around the dial is that LeBron was let down by his teammates.  I have heard this multiple times, from Anita Marks to Bill Simmons.  This is what I have to say about it:  of course LeBron James is the best player on the Cavs.  He is a freak of nature that can make every player around him better.  His offensive skills are practically endless and he is borderline unstoppable when he is playing well.  The problem with the idea of his team letting him down is that most of them did not play any worse than they did during the regular season.  With the exception of Mo Williams, everyone else played to their potential.  Delonte West was pretty good actually.  Varajao was his usual flopping self.  Big Z was slow on both sides, but was a big body taking up space.  The backups were almost completely ineffective.  All of these things were par for the course when it comes to the regular.  If Mo Williams had played as well as he did during the season, they MIGHT have won an extra game in the series, but I doubt it.  

The truth of the matter is, the main people 'responsible' for the Cavs' lost was Mike Brown and LeBron.  For one, Mike Brown seems to utilize the most vanilla, lethargic offense in the history of the NBA.  He never really adjusted to the fact that their guards are 6 inches shorter than their Magic counterparts.  And when the game was on the line, it seemed like his ability to get the ball in the hand of anyone else but LeBron was absent.  The problem is, the last one might be the King's fault just as much as the head coach's.  No one seems to want to recognize how many mistakes LeBron made this series.  Other than having freakish offensive statistics, he also made a ton of turnovers.  He has improved his passing greatly, but he is not a point guard.  Why was he constantly taking the ball down the court in the 4th quarter?  And when he did, why did he settle for so many terrible jump shots when the referees would have more than likely thrown him a bone anyway if he had driven to the basket?  On top of this, his defense was less than stellar.  I know he had to pace himself or he would not have been able to carry the offense, but he just plain did not play well on that side of the ball.  Like Ric Buecher said, maybe if he had learned how to conserve energy on offense, instead of playing point guard, shooting guard, and small forward, then maybe he could have stretched out his talents a little more.  The team just plain is not very good, and LeBron took it about as far as he could.  But you can't say they let him down, they were never any better than this.

Another thing that people are talking about is the firing of Drew Rosenhaus by Anquan Boldin.  I have loved Boldin for years and consider him a real football player.  This firing is more proof that he just wants to play and the contract talk is not in his interest.  He might want to be traded or get a better contract, but it is not him to make a big fuss about it.  I am happy to see that some players are not going to be insubordinate just because they are not happy with their salary. 

As for the Cardinals...when did they start making the correct decisions?  Sitting on Boldin's contract is the second best thing they have done this offseason.  They resigned Kurt Warner to a respectable contract, which was almost a no-brainer.  Now they are not being sucked into Drew Rosenhaus' games by trading Boldin for less value.  There are two years left on his contract.  They will have the services of a hard-working pro bowl receiver during a period when the team should be able to return back to the Super Bowl.  They were one miraculous catch away from a championship, they certainly could use his talents for the next two years.  Plus, if the 2008 Cardinals end up being a fluke and they revert back to the Cardinals we all know and love, then they still have Boldin on contract for one year to trade away.  Sure, they won't get as much as they would have this offseason, but they would still receive a few draft picks for guy they would not be resigning anyway.  I personally think they will be Championship contenders again this year, and Boldin is one of the reasons for that.