Philoking.comfrom Jason Burns’ perspective…

It’s been a long lonely summer so far in the city of Cleveland. For those of you who know me about as well as the Google search that probably got you here, I am a huge Cleveland Cavs fan.

Last seasons finals run was bitter sweet for me. It was awesome to be watching games that late into the season, but the San Antonio series showed me what I had been trying to ignore all season. Cleveland is a big fish in a little pond. Even now, the local fish are growing ever larger (ahem, Boston) and my guys seem to have forgotten to eat their Wheaties this summer.

I am sure that I will get some grief for this, but I thought I would go through Cleveland’s current roster and clean house a bit, throwing out the stuff that we don’t need anymore… kind of a spring cleaning kind of thing.

The current roster is as follows:

Out of this crew, there are quite a few I would like to mention and comment on, so here goes…

First, I will group the guys that I think we should keep that do not warrant extra mention, just the role players guys, people ya need to fill out the bench and give ya solid minutes when you need them. Shannon Brown, Dwayne Jones, Ira Newble, Scot Pollard, Eric Snow and David Wesley. I really don’t have any issues with these guys, they are solid, provide good minutes, and don’t bitch about it.

Now comes the guys that need to get the hell out of Cleveland:

• Daniel Gibson: I really liked this kid during the playoffs last year. My only problem with him is he likes to shoot. I mean really likes to shoot. I don’t think he is going to be the Steve Kerr to LBJ’s Jordan. Unfortunately I see this kid going more of the Starbury route and expecting big dollars. Get what you can for him while he has a ton of upside.
• Larry Hughes: This is a toughy, I really like Larry. He is a great player, tons of heart. Unfortunately he is Samuel Jackson in Unbreakable. Dude gets smashed up if there is a strong breeze. He is on good wheels at the moment, I’d deal him, but we overpaid for him so he is more than likely to stay.
• Zydrunas Ilgauskus: I tell ya, Zeke is just what a team of gazelle like players needs… a slow white guy. I won’t even say I like him, I am sure he is a nice enough guy, but he is no fit for this team. We need centers in the mold of Bill Cartwright, Bill Winnington and Will Purdue….that’s right, the stop and pop reliable mid range shooters that are good for 6 fouls a game. Give me that over an old slow dude who demands touches any day. I will give him credit though, he is hell on the offensive boards, part of the reason Cleveland was so good on the glass.
• Damon Jones: Why did we get this guy again? I know he had a few good series shooting in Miami, but there is a reason he has played on just about every team in the Eastern Conference. He’s got moxy, but he left his game in Miami.

So that leaves us who we keep, our Nucleus.

• Lebron James: Not sure I needed to mention him. He’s got the game if we can get him some help.
• Drew Gooden: His sharp shooting and good rebounding was vital, now if we could get him to stop letting people just walk past him on defense.
• Donyell Marshall: I will probably always like this guy, and I would give him that shot against Detroit 10 out of 10 times, no question.
• Aleksandar Pavlovic: Mike Brown needs to tone him down a bit, make him play a bit smarter, but this kid has tons of potential.
• Anderson Varejao: Another guy who doesn’t need to score to make an impact. His energy is just awesome for this team.

Last thought for the day…Have Zeke help Mike Brown pack. He is a great defensive coach, but it’s like Cleveland has no offensive direction. No plan whatsoever sometimes. Give me someone who wants to stop and score equally.