The online shoe company Zappos offers new hires their pay earned plus $2,000 to quit after one week of an being hired.  On the surface, this appears to be an insane way to run a business.  However, It is this kind of forward-thinking that has turned Zappos into a company that is known for their superior customer service.  The idea is one of pragmatism:  A job with a company as reputable as Zappos is far more valuable than $2,000 to most people.  The type of employee that would accept that package is somebody that Zappos probably does not want working for them in the first place.

I bring this up because we do not live in a black and white world.  Sometimes it makes sense to give up free money if it will get you a bigger return for the foreseeable future.  The same can be said for a basketball team that is lacking enough talent to contend that chooses to rebuild and at the expense of winning games.  

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About three weeks ago I wrote a piece titled "Sink Below Medicore - This Year."  For many of the more casual Cavs fans out there it might not be a popular piece.  It basically says that we need to lose games in 2012 and for those that cannot see the big picture it can be a tough pill to swallow.  Hopefully those losses are competitive, we see growth out of our young core, but in the end lose games.  In that article the Cavs were about to embark on a pretty tough stretch of scheduling.  I had stated that they rightfully should have went 1-10 over an eleven game span from Jan 20th to Feb 8th.  I had hoped they would have been 7-17 and in the hunt for a top 5 lottery pick.  Well where are they now?  Can they still get a lottery pick of value?  Lets take a look at my first Cavs OKC Plan Progress Report.

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Moments after the depleted Knicks upended the aging Lakers at Madison Square Garden last week, an ESPN message board asked, “Is Jeremy Lin the new favorite for NBA Rookie of the Year?” It seemed like a pretty reasonable question, considering the young point guard—making just his third NBA start—had dropped 38 points and seven assists on Kobe and the Lake Show, sending Spike Lee into hysterics and launching the term Linsanity into Twitter parlance. The only problem, of course, was that Jeremy Lin is not actually a rookie.

Somehow, like a mighty eagle trapped in a tiny canary cage, the Harvard-educated phenom spent the entirety of the 2010-2011 season at the end of the hapless Golden State Warriors’ bench, appearing in less than 30 games and averaging a shade under three points. To some, this revelation might cast the entire, overnight Lin sensation into doubt. After all, it was only a month ago that the undrafted guard was still an anonymous nomad-- outright released by two other teams and seemingly doomed for the D-League. And yet somehow, nothing about this story feels fleeting. Maybe it’s the appeal of an underdog conquering the Big Apple, or the polarizing Tebow-ness of Lin’s God-centric post-game interviews. But above all else, it’s the enormous weight he carries as an Asian-American sports star that will likely—for better or worse—prolong and define the Jeremy Lin drama. 

The “Nice” Kind of Racism

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The evening began with a bad sense of deja-vu for the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Once again, fan-favorite Anderson Varejao will miss extended time with an injury.  Because the team did not have a shootaround this afternoon, the news came late and shortly before tip-off.  I believe that the mood of a team has a big impact on how it performs.  For example, the Cavs were a respectable 7-10 before the Miami Heat made their first post-Decision visit to Cleveland.  The wheels fell off after that and they managed to only win 12 games after that. 

The Cavs had little hope on Saturday night with the bad news of Anderson Varejao, Kyrie Irving still out with a concussion and the Philadelphia 76ers coming into town.  Every year, there appears to be a team that makes the jump from a bottom seeded playoff team to one with home court advantage.  The Doug Collins coached 76ers are playing that role this season.

The Philiadelphia squad is winning by having a balanced scoring attack and by playing hard-nosed defense.  Much like the Denver Nuggets, Philadelphia does not have a singular star.  On the year, they are holding opponents to 51.9% shooting (which is 3rd best in the NBA).  They are also winning games by an average of 8.9 PPG, which is good for 2nd best in the league.  The 76ers are a team that values the basketball.  They  are committing a league-best 10.7 turnovers per game.

The 76ers are a team that has a balanced attack, has an elite defense and who doesn’t turn the ball over.  When a lottery-bound team who is missing its two best players face them, they need to play a near-flawless game.  Instead, the Cavs shot 36.9% overall and made a total of 3 three-pointers on 21.4% shooting.  Tom Reed of the Cleveland Plain Dealer had the Tweet of the night when he pointed out that the Cavs had as many airballs as the 76ers had turnovers.

Philadelphia dominated the Cavs throughout the entire game.  Their biggest lead was by 21 points compared to the 2 for Cleveland.  The real turning-point for the game was when the 76ers out-scored the Cavs 37-22 in the 2nd quarter.  Under normal circumstances, the Cavs would have been able to withstand that assault.  They scored their 22 points on 42.9% shooting and they had 6 assists in the process.  The issue was that Cleveland played poor defense and gave up 57.1% shooting.  It should be noted that the 76ers won by 15 points.  In other words, the Cavs may have had an opportunity to win this game if they played better defense in the 2nd quarter.

Ramon Sessions continued his streak of performing well as a starter (19 points, 8 assists) as did Antawn Jamison (20 points, 8 rebounds).  Other than Alonzo Gee, who had 17 points on only 8 shots, no Cavalier scored more than 7 points.  Considering that the two best players on the Cavs were unable to play in this game due to injuries, the bench needed to produce more and with better efficiency if the Cavs had wanted an opportunity to win the game.  

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