So who’s No. 1 at 2 guard? Cavs coach Brown says shooting-guard job is ‘wide open’
Rick Noland | The Chronicle-Telegram
INDEPENDENCE — LeBron James will start at small forward tonight, with Zydrunas Ilgauskas at center and probably Ben Wallace at power forward and Mo Williams at point guard.
Those four players will also be on the floor when the regular season tips off Oct. 28 in Boston against the defending NBA champion Celtics, but don’t read anything into who starts at shooting guard tonight at Quicken Loans Arena when the Cavaliers open their exhibition season by hosting the Toronto Raptors.
“If I start Wally (Szczerbiak), it doesn’t mean he’s earned it,” coach Mike Brown said Monday following a workout at Cleveland Clinic Courts. “If I start Sasha (Pavlovic), it doesn’t mean he’s going to start. That 2-guard spot is still wide open.”
Delonte West, who started at point guard last season, is part of the starting shooting guard battle, but he’s still absent from camp due to a personal matter.
Camp invitee Michael Dickerson also is handling a personal issue, while power forward Anderson Varejao didn’t practice Monday due to a strained left thigh and is questionable for tonight.
Assuming Varejao doesn’t play and West and Dickerson are still absent, the Cavaliers will have 15 players in uniform against the Raptors.
“We’re going to try to get all of them on the floor,” Brown said.
Some players will get shorter looks than others in the first of eight preseason games. James, who played the entire first quarter in the team’s intrasquad scrimmage Saturday at the University of Akron and watched from the bench after that, could see even less time against Toronto.
“LeBron’s not going to play much,” Brown said. “We’ll take a look-see at him in the first quarter and that’s probably about it.”
Veterans Ilgauskas and Wallace, who both experienced back problems last season, are also likely to be limited, which should give veteran acquisition Lorenzen Wright, first-round pick J.J. Hickson, second-round choice Darnell Jackson and camp invitee Jawad Williams a chance to show what they can do.
Frequent substitutions could lead to some helter-skelter play at times, especially since the Cavaliers have less than 40 percent of their offense installed and are experimenting with applying full-court pressure defensively.
“We might not do everything correctly all the time,” Brown said. “If our guys trust one another and trust the system and communicate with one another, we’ll have a chance to look pretty good.
“I don’t want the game to be sloppy,” the coach added. “I don’t want the game to be a highlight dunk fest. I want to get something out of it.”
If nothing else, the game will give the Cavaliers an opportunity to go against someone other than themselves after one week of practice.
“We’re not that anxious yet, but it’s going to be good to go out and go against another team,” James said.
“The preseason isn’t really about winning. It’s about continuing to get better.”
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.
TONIGHT
WHO: Cleveland vs. Toronto
WHAT: Preseason opener
TIME: 7 o’clock
WHERE: The Q
TV/RADIO: No TV; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM
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Filed by Rick Noland | The Chronicle-Telegram October 7th, 2008 in Sports. Popularity: 5% |
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