Painfully obvious need for rebounding...

[Tahoe]

metro...The big guard on CBill does seem to work, but Flip has to be quick the substitution and bring in Stuckey for his quickness. He'd blow by most any guard, especially the big ones.

I think Stuckey can get significant minutes in the ECF. He's played 8 games now. He has plenty of time/games to get way better.

[Glenn]

We're a defensive team that can't rebound, is soft in the middle* and can't stop dribble penetration to keep guys out of the paint.

*for you, Tahoe

[Zekyl]

At this point, there really isn't much we can do about any of the problems everyone here is talking about. We're not making a drastic trade to upgrade our interior D or our rebounding. We're not going to suddenly start blocking a ton of shots. Right now, all I'm asking is that we bring Dyess's minutes down a bit. Yes, he hasn't had any knee issues in 3 years, but that's because we've been smart and kept him around 25mpg for those 3 years. Its worked thus far, so why not keep it that way? Bring him out a little bit sooner, wait an extra minute to put him back in. Max can hold his own just fine. If Dyess is hot, leave him out there for the extra minutes, but if he's just having a normal game I think it would be fine to take a minute or two away from him. If Max is in foul trouble, Dyess will get to play extra. Otherwise, if you have a legitimate backup, rest the starter. Dyess will be huge for us in the playoffs. He'll have at least one or two monster games for us. I just want to be sure that we keep him rested, healthy, and happy so that he's able to play solid in ALL the games.

[Glenn]

How much worse than Sammy Dalembert is Amir Johnson?

[Zekyl]

Dalembert has some seasoning. While Amir is probably close to the same level as him physically, Sammy's got a one-up on him on court awareness just based on how long he's been in the league. Give Amir another year and they'll be equals, give him 2 and I hope he's better.

[Kstat]

2 out of every 3 times max starts, he picks up 2 fouls in the first 2 minutes. It's a silly idea to save Dice an extra 3 minutes per game.

[Zekyl]

I'm not saying start Max, I'm just saying use him a bit more. If he gets in foul trouble, then you just give the minutes to Dyess, but on the nights that he doesn't get in foul trouble give him an extra couple of minutes to save a few on Dyess. Its a simple idea that wouldn't really screw with anything.

[metr0man]

Stuckey will get some run in the first round, maybe the second but I think it's extremely unrealistic that he's going to get major minutes in tight games in the ECF or Finals. Same goes for the rest of the youngsters outside of Maxiell.

Make no mistake, Chauncey, Rip and Prince will be playing 38-40+ minutes in those games. The entire point of Stuckey and the rest of the kids is so the starters get enough rest before that point that they can play those minutes without running out of gas.

Then there's gonna be trouble, because Chauncey's struggles are not only because "he's tired"... if he's tired, a large part of that is because he's worn because BIGGER GUARDS spend the whole game PRESSURING AND TRAPPING him. Again, it's GOING to happen in the playoffs, and simply getting a few extra minutes of rest isn't going to make it any less effective, since it has proven on more than one occasion in the playoffs to STYMIE our offense.

its like people have this mental block where they refuse to acknowledge that the other team actually did something and that we actually have a flaw. like they're insulted that such a mediocre team like the Cavs could figure it out... that's what the playoffs are about though, there are too many games between the same two teams to just win on talent alone, it's about finding and exploiting flaws, and plugging your own, and counter-moving. Does anyone think we're going to see Rondo on Billups during crunch time of a close important playoff games? No way in hell.

[Kstat]

Cleveland can go without a PG; they run the offense through leBron anyway.

Boston? Taking Rondo away would hurt them more than us. In a playoff game, Tony Allen would not get the ball past midcourt.

[metr0man]

err... what? I was talking about on defense only, not lifting their PG out completely, Boston is not going to have Rondo defend Billups during the important moments... the point being, they are going to use bigger guards to pressure and trap Billups just like every damn team who beats us does.