King James needs an outside shot
By Terry Brown
NBA Insider
Friday, October 1
Forget everything you've heard about LeBron James passing, dribbling, dunking and selling sneakers while taking a faltering franchise to the verge of the playoffs as a rookie and selling out arenas across the NBA.
This year we find out if he can shoot.
Forget about the no-look passes and around-the-back dunks or even the no-look dunks and the around-the-back passes. Last year, the Cavaliers needed the star-studded rookie to play point guard and put bodies in the seats, but not necessarily in that order.
James probably will not have to dish as many passes this season.
When they drafted the 6-foot-8 phenom out of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, they already had a shooting guard named Ricky Davis. They had the highly-touted Dajuan Wagner as the second-string guard. They had the high-scoring Zydrunas Ilgauskas at center, so the team had all the scoring it would ever need.
By the time James was named Rookie of the Year, the Cavs also had an All-Star caliber power forward in Carlos Boozer.
Then a funny thing happened.
Davis disappeared before James played his first professional game. Later, Wagner and versatile guard Jeff McInnis were injured. This summer, Boozer ditched the team for Salt Lake. But that was not all.
Jason Kapono, who did not play very much but was without question the team's best shooter at 47 percent from long range, was picked up by the expansion Charlotte Bobcats.
Kevin Ollie, the team's second-best shooter at 44 percent from long range, and Kedrick Brown, the team's third-best shooter at 38 percent from long range, now play for the Sixers. Eric Williams, who took the second-most triples on the team, is in New Jersey.
All of a sudden, James is the starting shooting guard.
And to make matters worse, the Cavaliers have replaced the aforementioned players with new point guard Eric Snow, Drew Gooden, rookie Luke Jackson and second-year player Aleksandar Pavlovic.
Snow, to begin with, has shot only 204 3-pointers in his nine-year career and, gulp, done so at 20 percent proficiency. He's never shot more than 45 in a season. He should not plan on it after shooting 11 percent from distance last year.
Gooden has shot only 90 triples in two seasons and made 23, which is not particularly bad for a power forward. But it's not necessarily good for a team like the Cavs who were, quite frankly, the worst-shooting team in the NBA even when they had Kapono, Ollie and Brown.
Last year, the team shot 31.4 percent from long range, which placed them 29th out of 29 teams. It should come as no surprise that they shot only 786 3-pointers as a team on the season while their opponents took 1,162.
To add a little salt, they were outscored 92.9 to 95.5 on average on the season. Add one more 3-pointer each game and do the math.
The problem, though, is that unless newcomers Jackson and Pavlovic do something very, very special, it will all be up to James on the perimeter.
Sure, Jackson handled the college triple with ease and often showed his NBA range while becoming the Pac-10 player of the year at Oregon.
But he is more of an all-around player who is, well, a bit slow of foot with vertical drag. Pavlovic is Pavlovic. He came over from Serbia-Montenegro and made 19 of 70 3-pointers as a rookie for the Jazz, who exposed him in the expansion draft before the Bobcats shipped him off to Cleveland.
But let's not kid ourselves. With the game on the line and the franchise's immediate future at stake, is there anyone you'd really want shooting the ball besides the city's golden boy?
Before you answer that, let's not forget that James shot only 29 percent from distance last year.
There is no inside-outside game in Cleveland. Ilgauskas can score, but he prefers his elbow room and mid-range jumpers. Gooden might actually be a better small forward. McInnis and Wagner often exchange glances in and out of triage.
Again, that leaves James.
The same James who once went 0-for-22 from distance during an eight-game stretch that spanned December and January before hitting only nine 3-pointers in 13 games the entire month of February. Overall, James shot 41.7 percent from the field, counting the dunks and fastbreaks and commercials.
Now, he gets the double-teams and zones and second-guessing that comes with all the past accolades.
And while it might not be fair to criticize a gifted player who can pass and dribble and lead a team like James just because he can't shoot, the fact of the matter is that his team won't need him to pass and dribble anymore as much as they'll need him to shoot.
By Terry Brown
NBA Insider
Friday, October 1
Forget everything you've heard about LeBron James passing, dribbling, dunking and selling sneakers while taking a faltering franchise to the verge of the playoffs as a rookie and selling out arenas across the NBA.
This year we find out if he can shoot.
Forget about the no-look passes and around-the-back dunks or even the no-look dunks and the around-the-back passes. Last year, the Cavaliers needed the star-studded rookie to play point guard and put bodies in the seats, but not necessarily in that order.
James probably will not have to dish as many passes this season.
When they drafted the 6-foot-8 phenom out of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, they already had a shooting guard named Ricky Davis. They had the highly-touted Dajuan Wagner as the second-string guard. They had the high-scoring Zydrunas Ilgauskas at center, so the team had all the scoring it would ever need.
By the time James was named Rookie of the Year, the Cavs also had an All-Star caliber power forward in Carlos Boozer.
Then a funny thing happened.
Davis disappeared before James played his first professional game. Later, Wagner and versatile guard Jeff McInnis were injured. This summer, Boozer ditched the team for Salt Lake. But that was not all.
Jason Kapono, who did not play very much but was without question the team's best shooter at 47 percent from long range, was picked up by the expansion Charlotte Bobcats.
Kevin Ollie, the team's second-best shooter at 44 percent from long range, and Kedrick Brown, the team's third-best shooter at 38 percent from long range, now play for the Sixers. Eric Williams, who took the second-most triples on the team, is in New Jersey.
All of a sudden, James is the starting shooting guard.
And to make matters worse, the Cavaliers have replaced the aforementioned players with new point guard Eric Snow, Drew Gooden, rookie Luke Jackson and second-year player Aleksandar Pavlovic.
Snow, to begin with, has shot only 204 3-pointers in his nine-year career and, gulp, done so at 20 percent proficiency. He's never shot more than 45 in a season. He should not plan on it after shooting 11 percent from distance last year.
Gooden has shot only 90 triples in two seasons and made 23, which is not particularly bad for a power forward. But it's not necessarily good for a team like the Cavs who were, quite frankly, the worst-shooting team in the NBA even when they had Kapono, Ollie and Brown.
Last year, the team shot 31.4 percent from long range, which placed them 29th out of 29 teams. It should come as no surprise that they shot only 786 3-pointers as a team on the season while their opponents took 1,162.
To add a little salt, they were outscored 92.9 to 95.5 on average on the season. Add one more 3-pointer each game and do the math.
The problem, though, is that unless newcomers Jackson and Pavlovic do something very, very special, it will all be up to James on the perimeter.
Sure, Jackson handled the college triple with ease and often showed his NBA range while becoming the Pac-10 player of the year at Oregon.
But he is more of an all-around player who is, well, a bit slow of foot with vertical drag. Pavlovic is Pavlovic. He came over from Serbia-Montenegro and made 19 of 70 3-pointers as a rookie for the Jazz, who exposed him in the expansion draft before the Bobcats shipped him off to Cleveland.
But let's not kid ourselves. With the game on the line and the franchise's immediate future at stake, is there anyone you'd really want shooting the ball besides the city's golden boy?
Before you answer that, let's not forget that James shot only 29 percent from distance last year.
There is no inside-outside game in Cleveland. Ilgauskas can score, but he prefers his elbow room and mid-range jumpers. Gooden might actually be a better small forward. McInnis and Wagner often exchange glances in and out of triage.
Again, that leaves James.
The same James who once went 0-for-22 from distance during an eight-game stretch that spanned December and January before hitting only nine 3-pointers in 13 games the entire month of February. Overall, James shot 41.7 percent from the field, counting the dunks and fastbreaks and commercials.
Now, he gets the double-teams and zones and second-guessing that comes with all the past accolades.
And while it might not be fair to criticize a gifted player who can pass and dribble and lead a team like James just because he can't shoot, the fact of the matter is that his team won't need him to pass and dribble anymore as much as they'll need him to shoot.
