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Edited on Sun May-31-09 12:12 AM by HughBeaumont
Unless Ferry miraculously gets an athletic big of all-star caliber in this offseason, I'm afraid Cleveland is never, and I mean NEVER going to win a championship in any sport, EVER.
The Indians simply cannot compete in a setting where the largest teams pretty much use the rest of the league as their personal farm clubs. "Little ball" only works when your pitching does. And the Indians haven't seen good pitching since 1995 (you know, the year they lost to Atlanta in the WS).
The Browns are in constant rebuilding mode, and hey, why not? It's not like their ever-drunk nutjob fans are boycotting this consistently lousy product despite having to watch soccer-score offense in sub-arctic temperatures and supposedly professional players drop more balls than golfers. Why CHANGE? They're making bank!
Many people, including myself, think LeBron is pretty much this city's last and only hope to bring home a title. But whatever the Cavs do, whoever they surround him with apparently is just never, EVER enough. True, the Magic merely outscored the Cavs moreso than out-playing them (sorry, I didn't see a shred of defense from either team this whole series). True, they inhumanly and regularly drained threes without a hint of dry spell.
But the Magic did this without Jameer Nelson. They did this with bench players and journeymen banking threes like they were Peja in his prime. Most importantly, they emphasized how important it is to have an athletic (or at least someone who doesn't have his feet cemented in hardwood, (Z)) big or two and surround him with deep threats.
The Cavs have "finesse" bigs, which sadly, ain't-a gonna cut it against the Dwight Howards of the world. Their backcourt picked a HELL of a time to lay bricks with regularity.
You know this is going to fire up the "LeBron to the Knicks" chorus even further unless Ferry is able to pull something out of his hat, and fast. The Magic, Celtics and Bulls are going to continue to get better and better and Cleveland's chances for a title are getting slimmer and slimmer with each passing year.
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