It certainly ended well for the remade Cleveland Cavaliers Sunday night. With 4 new players rotating in and out of the lineup for the bulk of the game, the team managed to spank the young Grizzlies by 20 109-89.
While this may not be the norm for the Cavaliers as their new guys get acclimated and face better squads over the next two weeks, it couldn’t have gotten off to a better start:
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Ben Wallace – 5 for 6 from the field; 12 points; 10 rebounds (Double-Double); 1 Block; 1 great hustle play towards the end of regulation that prevented Memphis from getting the ball inbounds for a 5 second violation.
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Joe Smith – 6 for 8 from the field; 14 points; 6 rebounds; very active on defense.
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Wally Szczerbiak – 4 for 10 from the field; 2 for 4 from 3 point land; showed a lot of hustle.
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Delonte West – 2 for 12 from the field (apparently picking up Larry Hughes’ slack..J/K); 5 points; 6 dishes; 3 Steals; 1 Block; 1 huge alley oop to LeBron James. Looked good at PG running the offense.
All four men helped their new team in some way and the rest of the Cavs looked to benefit. After 1 game, it seems like this can work for the Cavs because of the following: neither of these 4 players have to do too much. All they have to do is play within their own boundaries. With the rest of the Cavs’ roster, it could work extremely well.
Think of it this way.
Ben Wallace only needs to scrap down low. He’s not mandated to score points or be the player he was that won 4 Defensive Player of the Year awards. He just needs to scrap. Putting him on the court with Zydrunas Ilgauskas will allow both men to play off of each other’s strengths. Z can do the scoring, and Wallace can clean up anything that Z can’t get to.
Wally doesn’t need to do much other than wait for the opposing defense to collapse on LeBron, find a spot behind the 3-Point line, and fire away. Even with aging legs, he can do the job Donyell Marshall vacated and perhaps better.
Delonte doesn’t have to hoist up all those shots he took in game 1. He just needs to push the ball and distribute. He’s not bad at doing either. Plus he gets after the ball on defense. Gotta like his athleticism out there.
Joe Smith just needs to do what he does best: a little bit of everything. He can pull down rebounds, shoot well around the key, and mis it up down low. A great guy to pull off the bench right now.
What’s even more encouraging about the 4 acquisitions is how the rest of the team has risen up since the trade. Friday night’s win over Washington may have taken on greater importance than initially believed. It got the remaining healthy players to play well together, which helped ease the transition and all the turnover.
Now, it’s just a question of building on their time together. And as they move along, they’ll be getting more help as Anderson Varejao returns soon, and then Sasha Pavlovic, and finally Boobie Gibson. When that occurs (provided injuries keep to a minimum now), the Cavs may just be ready to go toe to toe with Boston and Detroit come playoff time.
