 the Lakers at Quicken Loans Arena.
J.J. Hickson and the Cavaliers were down and out a number of times this season, but the team is optimtistic about the future. (AP photo.)
There was the Dec. 2 debacle in LeBron James’ first game back at The Q, but there was also a home win over the Miami Heat.
There was an NBA-record 26-game losing streak, but there was also a 5-4 start and 6-6 finish.
The Cavaliers acknowledged all the negatives Thursday at Cleveland Clinic Courts as they prepared to go their separate ways for the offseason — and with a potential lockout looming — but the overall mood was extremely positive and optimistic.
“There were so many opportunities for our guys to go haywire, but they never did,” coach Byron Scott said. “They hung in there.
“The last couple of weeks were really important,” he added. “We were very competitive. We won some games a lot of people thought we wouldn’t win.”
At times, it almost seemed like Cleveland had just finished the regular season 63-19 and not 19-63, the second-worst mark in the NBA.
“We had some embarrassing losses, but those only made us stronger,” center Ryan Hollins said.
While there was no mistaking the fact the Cavs missed the playoffs for the first time in six years — they narrowly escaped becoming the first team in NBA history to go from the best record in the league to the worst in back-to-back seasons — guard Daniel Gibson answered “without a doubt” when asked if making the playoffs next season was a possibility.
“That’s our goal; that’s our mindset,” he said. “Every guy here is going to be working this summer with that goal in mind.”
The bigger question is exactly how many of the 15 players who ended the season on Cleveland’s roster will return.
Guys like Christian Eyena, Manny Harris, Samardo Samuels, Semih Erden, Alonzo Gee and Luke Harangody remain largely unproven at the NBA level. Anthony Parker is a free agent. Joey Graham was basically a bust. Antawn Jamison, Anderson Varejao, Ramon Sessions, J.J. Hickson, Baron Davis, Hollins and Gibson are not nearly so untouchable they couldn’t be part of a trade.
“After a season like we had, we expect changes to some extent, so we’ll see,” the 35-year-old Parker said.
The Cavs also have two first-round picks — they’ll be No. 2 and No. 8 if the draft lottery goes true to form — and two second-round selections — “It gives me more players to play around with,” Hickson said — but Thursday seemed to be more about reflecting positively on the 2010-11 season than looking too far into the future.
“When things aren’t going well, that’s the test,” Parker said. “I was really proud of our group.”
Scott, who took the job over the summer not knowing if LeBron James was coming back to Cleveland, was even more upbeat, choosing to accentuate the positive rather than dwell on the fact his team went through a stretch where it lost 36 out of 37 games.
The 50-year-old, who said he was in a “feel-good place,” was extremely cordial and quotable in his answers, even when asked about the toughest points of the season.
“Most of the time, I kept my composure,” he said. “It did get to a point where I told the guys, ‘A bunch of you won’t be here if this is the way you’re going to play.’”
A minute later, Scott added, “I had a moment where I wanted to kill everybody on the team, but not necessarily where it was, ‘What did I get myself into?’”
Asked how he assessed the job he did in his first season with the Cavs, Scott laughed and said, “I give myself an ‘A’ for not losing it. I could have easily done that.”
He then gave himself an overall grade of “B” and added, “Players always look at the guy in charge. If I would have lost it, they would have went haywire as well.”
Though their coach ripped into them on more than a few occasions over the course of the season, Cleveland players were extremely complimentary of Scott.
“The last 20 games or so was an opportunity to form some camaraderie, brotherhood, a family environment,” Davis said. “Once you have that, you have something to build on.
“First and foremost, you have to look at the coach,” he added. “You have to look at the man in charge. Coach Scott is poised; he’s motivated.”
That was the gist of an afternoon long on platitudes and short on real news — Parker wants to return, Eyenga may not go back to the Republic of the Congo in the offseason because he said his visa is about to expire and Samuels will have surgery on his wrist before returning to his native Jamaica — but that’s the way the day after the end of the season usually goes.
“We’re building this the right way,” Gibson said. “It won’t be long until that (losing) feeling is gone.”
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.PITTSBURGH (AP) - The comparisons are unavoidable. It comes with the territory when you’re a linebacker and the Pittsburgh Steelers draft you in the first round.
And as much as Bud Dupree, Ryan Shazier and Jarvis Jones - all taken in the opening round over the last three years, all tasked with building upon a legacy strewn with Hall-of-Famers and Pro Bowlers - try to downplay the expectations, they know they can’t outrun them.
Not always the easiest thing to do, particularly at a place dubbed “Linebacker U” by assistant coach Joey Porter, who knows about serving as the nerve center of Pittsburgh’s evolving 3-4 defense. If the Steelers were going to create the kind of chaos they’ve lacked in recent years, they needed their young core to grow up quickly.
The learning curve appears to be leveling off. Shazier, Dupree and Jones were right in the middle of Pittsburgh’s frenetic 18-16 win over Cincinnati last Saturday.
Shazier finished with 13 tackles, a pair of forced fumbles - including the strip on Jeremy Hill that gave the Steelers one last shot - and a brutal but apparently not illegal shot on Bengals running back Gio Bernard that seemed to shift the game’s tone from aggressive to even more primal. Jones put together a strip sack that set up a field goal while Dupree was a presence in the Cincinnati backfield.
“Those guys have played well for us and they need to continue to do that,” defensive coordinator Keith Butler said.
Denver and Peyton Manning, drafted while all three linebackers were in elementary school, offer a starkly different challenge in Sunday’s divisional round. Make no mistake, the Broncos watched Shazier and company create their own brand of youthful havoc.
Yet for how explosive Shazier and his two good friends looked in Cincinnati, he understands they’re still learning consistency. It’s the dividing line between good and special.
It’s a painful lesson both Shazier and Jones have been forced to learn. Jones missed more than half of 2014 with broken wrist - one endured while sacking Cam Newton - while Shazier has pogoed between the starting lineup and the trainer’s room for much of his two years in the league. The 15th overall pick in the 2014 draft was brilliant against San Francisco in September only to complain of a “linebacker injury” late in the game.
“When he’s able to be out on the field, he’s a dominant force,” said linebacker Arthur Moats.
Butler felt confident enough in Shazier’s development to put him in charge of making all the defensive calls.
When he calmed down, Pittsburgh’s defense was remarkably better. So were the Steelers as they rallied for a 34-27 win. Another slow start is not recommended on the road against Manning, even if he’s no longer at the height of his powers.
Shazier is respectful but not fearful. He’s well aware of what the Pittsburgh defense is supposed to do this time of year, thanks to growing up in Ohio the son of a Steelers fan.
“Any type of linebacker, you want to be good in your craft, you’re going to know about Jack Lambert, Jack Ham and those guys,” Shazier said.
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