Just the way we planned it...

Other than the fact that my internet is going so slow that I'm having a hard time following my beloved Windhorst Beat Blog, the Cavaliers' season has gone just about as well as it could have and a lot of people deserve credit.

After watching Shaq and Varejao start every game together for the first week or so and how nauseating the offense looked, I wrote this email to Brian Windhorst (which he has yet to respond to):

"Brian, I need some help here.

I believe that last year's starting lineup should remain our lineup this year for the following reasons:

The people in question of whether or not they should start are Parker/West, Hickson/Varejao and, perhaps the most controversial, O'Neal/Ilgauskas.

1. Starting shooting guards in the NBA have made a living destroying guys like Anthony Parker in their careers. Parker is a good player and a better traditional shooting guard than Delonte West (I guess) but that is what the Joe Johnsons of the world are used to and are comfortable beating. Delonte West is so annoying to these guys because his whole goal is to bother them. Delonte doesn't appear to care about his stats (or even really his physical well being) when he plays, he just tries to bother the other team's best scorer. On the flip-side, Anthony Parker is an intelligent player who can probably outsmart most backup shooting guards and could score off the bench which we just didn't do last year when the going got tough in the playoffs.

2. This is obviously not an issue as to who is better because, while Hickson gets the nod in athletic ability, Varejao is very effective whether he comes off the bench or starts and is undoubtedly the better player as we stand today. The only issue here for me is that Andy plays better with Z and it seems like JJ would play better with Shaq. I guess Mike Brown has addressed that issue by starting JJ with Shaq but that is not the direction I would go, but at least that means he is evaluating the situation instead of just blindly starting the "best" players. My opinion on this is more affected by who the starting center is than anything else so I'll just leave it at that.

3. Here's the big one.

The whole off season I kept hearing about how great Zydrunas was going to be against backup Centers and I never bought that. In all honesty, Z isn't really playing against the other teams' centers at all. He's rarely just trying to beat his guy in the post but he is often playing off of LeBron's drives hitting jumpers so I'm really not sure if who is playing center for the other team really matters to him offensively. If anything, starting centers would probably be annoyed that they have to follow this goofball out to 20 or so feet which is always a good thing. On the other side of this coin, Shaq, I believe, would very much benefit from facing backup centers. The backups in this league are often younger guys and therefore, not as physically developed. These guys simply couldn't handle Shaq physically, I don't think. Also, this would give the second team a guy who needs to be double teamed (at least at times) or, if nothing else, a guy who they could go to when they were having trouble getting buckets, which was often the case last year with our bench. I also believe Z's game is much more affected by rhythm than Shaq's which is just another reason I would rather have Z start. He's spent the last however many years learning to play off LeBron and now we're taking that away from him.

I'm sorry for the length of this email, but I still feel like this roster is without question capable of being a great team but we're basically playing with our hands tied behind our backs when we have our three guys in Mo, LeBron and Shaq on the court to start the game, all of whom like to possess the ball, and have a bunch of guys who would really compliment either LeBron or Shaq playing together without either one of them on the floor.

I know that this team failed against the top teams in the NBA, but the starting lineup was almost always good. We routinely had the lead after the first quarter against L.A. and Orlando, but our bench let us down and we couldn't sustain our breakneck pace that was our only advantage against Orlando and we had to just murder LeBron with overuse in order to come close to closing out those games. Wouldn't it be smart to save one of our two guys that we can just go to to initiate to offense for the bench instead of leaving them out to dry like last season as well as stepping on the toes of Mo Williams?

I would like to know your opinion on this and whether or not it is being discussed as an option, although regardless of either, I still think it's what the Cavs should be doing.

Thanks."

Since Brian is apparently too busy to answer such a loyal reader's email, I guess I'll have to do it myself.

Hey, Buddies:

Chill.

You had a few good points there. You definitely noticed early on that Varejao and Shaq should never be on the floor together but you didn't plan on one thing: JJ Hickson is a different player when he gets to play with LeBron James. He's a dunk machine with a jumper. He's like Amar'e Staudemire if his coach ever told him to attempt to play defense. He's honestly one of the the rare supporting players LeBron has had that has legit talent in a traditional sense and he's showing that he can be on the court for an extended period of time without ruining everything. Also, Z seems to be adjusting well to coming off the bench as well as randomly starting when Shaq has phantom injuries. Problem number 1? Solved.

Another thing you were right about was how dumb it is to have lineups without one of these three people on the court: Mo Williams, Shaq'uille O'Neal, or LeBron James. Without one of these three, the team is left with zero primary playmakers on the floor which is a disaster. Mike Brown has since adjusted himself by giving Mo his break late in the first and bringing him back to start the second when LeBron and Shaq hit the bench. Solved.

Another thing Mike Brown deserves credit for his how he has handled Delonte West, and the solution to this problem is perfect for Mike Brown's style because the solution is to basically do nothing. Delonte's mood seems to swing for absolutely no reason; when he's good, he's great and when he's bad, he's useless. And what has Mike Brown done? He hasn't cut him, traded him or written him off on his bad days and he hasn't begun to start him after one good game. He plays him to start the second quarter and if he has it he sticks with him and if he doesn't he goes to Jamario Moon or Boobie Gibson or some combination of both and there's really not a huge problem because the regular season doesn't matter. Let the record show, however, that when right, Delonte West is a superior player to both of those guys, no offense to them.

I would like to thank you for your very well-written and weirdly long ass email.

Brian.

Was that so hard?