I sincerely hope that there aren’t too many so-called fans of the Cavaliers disappointed in the wake of victory on Wednesday night.  One’s perspective might yield the joy of victory, but for too many, they would rather experience the thrill of defeat in January for a few extra ping pong balls in the hopper this May.  Sadly, those fans really exist; they believe you live at the top of the draft until you become a legitimate contender.  If it’s up to me, I choose to root for my team to win every night they take the court, but that isn’t to say that I can’t see the world through the eyes of the other side.

Look, nobody wants their team to be stuck in that NBA purgatory, because it’s so difficult to rise from the bottom of the playoffs or the bottom of the lottery to the top of the Association.  No team puts together a plan or, what it really is, a model to rebuild with the intention of being a 5^th or 6^th seed.  You just don’t plot it out like that, but so many teams end up in that place, knowing that they can’t climb any further.  That’s when you see Joe Johnson getting max contracts in hopes of keeping the Atlanta Hawks at the top of Mount Mediocre.  It isn’t just the Hawks; you can look at Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Portland, and any other team that has a franchise index that resembles the Black and Lavender Cavaliers from their Fratello years at Gund Arena. 

Watching a team that rotates 1^st Round Playoff exits and 1^st Round picks out of the Top 10 is just excruciating.  This is how you end up trying to build a team around Andre Miller and Chris Mihm.  That’s why you hang out at the bottom of the playoffs for a few years, winning 42-47 games a year, and then you win 20 or 30 some games for a few years before becoming a bottom two team.  That’s when you hope for some love with the ping pong balls, and also hope that lotto love comes in the year with a talent pool that doesn’t put Michael Olowokandi, Steve Francis, or Stromile Swift in the Top 2.  Even being at the top of the draft doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to net a decent players, imagine how stacked the deck is against you when you’re trying to improve your team picking in the mid-teens year-in and year-out.

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The New York Knicks (7-11) have a combined 12 all star appearances compared to the 2 by the Cleveland Cavaliers (7-10).  The Knicks have 3 guys who are making money in the territory of the maximum contract allowed by the NBA.  The Cavs are in the middle of a rebuilding project that has shed salary.  New York City is a market that star players want to play in and Cleveland is not as desirable.  Despite all of these commonly accepted factors, the Cavs appear to be in a better situation moving forward than the Knicks.  

The Knicks are struggling.  Mike D’Antoni is supposed to be an offensive-minded coach, yet they came into Wednesday night’s game with the 29th worst field goal percentage in the NBA.  To make matters worse, their defensive field goal percentage is rated 20th out of 30 teams.  The Knicks have a lot of problems, but the root of them start with the fact that they spent all of their cap space on a small forward, power forward and center.  They do not have any wing players who are above average.  When Iman Shumpert is designated the starting point guard and expected to run an offense so early in his career, your team is fundamentally flawed.  

Considering the star power on the Knicks and the amount of salary paid, it is unacceptable that they have lost 7 of their last 8 games.  If the playoffs were to start tomorrow, the Cavs would be in the playoffs and the Knicks would be in the lottery.  This is something that few people would have predicted before the season.  Whether the Knicks are struggling because of a poorly-constructed roster or coaching is a moot point.  The Knicks are almost a finished product and they need to figure out a way to win with the team that they have.  Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire need to figure out a way to be more effective together because they are both under contract with the Knicks for a long period of time.

Kyrie Irving set the tone for the game by being pretty passive on the offensive end.  He was looking to setup his teammates more than score and the end-result was 4 Cavaliers in double-digit scoring and none of which scoring more than 15 points.  Irving attempted 7 field goals, which is a career low.  Conversely, Irving had 7 assists which ties his career high mark.  

After the Cavs lost to the Heat on Tuesday night, Byron Scott admitted that he should have played Kyrie Irving more in the 4th quarter.  Byron Scott responded by giving Irving 6 1/2 minutes in the final quarter.  Although the game was essentially decided during most of the the 4th quarter, it was refreshing to see Irving getting more playing time.  The only way young players can improve and learn is to actually have an opportunity to play.  Playing the backup point guard almost as many minutes per game as the starter is not investing in the future.  Hopefully this will not be an example of old habits dying hard for Byron Scott.  

There is something about the Knicks that brings out the best in Anderson Varejao.  One of the last games he played last year before he tore a tendon in his right ankle was against the Knicks and he scored 14 points and grabbed 17 rebounds.  More impressive was how he outplayed Amar’e Stoudemire on both ends of the court.  One year later and the result is the same.  Anderson Varejao played recklessly and score 10 points and pulled down 16 rebounds.  Varejao had one of those games where it reminds Cleveland fans why he is such a valued member of the team.  Varejao had a double-double for the 9th time in 17 games.  He was clearly getting on Tyson Chandler’s nerves, which made him lose his temper and earn himself a technical foul.

Turnovers continue to be a major issue for the Cavaliers.  Whether it is a result of youth and inexperience or simply the team not valuing the basketball doesn’t matter.  The Cavs need to be more careful to not turn the ball over as much as they are.  The Cavs scored only 2 points during a stretch that lasted longer than 7 minutes and had 18 turnovers.  The fact that they overcame that scoring drought and turnovers to win by 10 points is impressive.  

The Good:  Every single Cavalier had a positive +/- statistic despite the fact that the game was not a blowout.  

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There are three things that are pretty much guaranteed to happen when the Cavs take on the Heat on Tuesday night.  The first is that there is a very good possibility that the Heat will win the game.  Of course, this is not a given until the final buzzer sounds off.  The other two events are that Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson are probably going to show some affection towards LeBron James.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.  

In a perfect world, every Cavalier would stonewall LeBron James and the Heat.  In a perfect world, all of the Cavaliers would bleed wine and gold and take offense to what LeBron James did when he and ESPN aired his free agency decision on live television.  In a perfect world, LeBron James would have committed to the Cavs long-term and they would have been able to build a team the right way as opposed to trading for aging veterans.

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Sometimes, we just tend to let things slide. And hey, that's a good thing; don't sweat the small stuff, bigger fish to fry, that kind of thing. We all have different boiling points, varying levels of tolerance for certain things, like the difference between the kid who burns a jersey in front of TV cameras and the adult that simply stops wearing it.

Well, you can chalk me up amongst the latter demographic, and it's funny because, to this very day, people learn I'm from Cleveland and ask if I burned my jersey. It's the first thing they say to me, in fact.  I did own one, by the way, and I eventually threw it out, practically without ceremony. But before I get too much into that guy, I should let you know that this is my tale of dissatisfaction with another South Beach traitor, and for events that pre-date his decision on July 13, 2010.

You see, I don't think that it's so difficult to spot a bum. Last Tuesday, after the premiere of another season of American Idol, my local FOX affiliate did its requisite Idol follow-up story with a local wanna-be, and this particular contestant didn't make the cut. The story ends with some jazz about how he's still pursuing his dream by performing in public, using his guitar case as his pan-handling receptacle. I guess I could be nicer, perhaps I could call this bum an "artist," but in the back of my head this particular "artist" is still a bum.

Now, I'm very much in the minority in classifying Zydrunas Ilgauskas a bum to an audience of Cavaliers fans, I understand that. There's a certain connection you gain with certain athletes, especially those who wear one uniform for such a long time. In fact, no one has played in more games as a Cavalier than "Big Z". Let me also acknowledge that the man blocked more shots, grabbed more rebounds, and committed more fouls than anyone else who has worn the Wine & Gold, Black & Lavender, or Blue & Orange. He even took what was left of his talents out of town with some semblance of grace. That so-called grace only goes so far, there's not even a way to salvage style points if you were to leave FedEx for UPS, or Coke for Pepsi.

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