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Find out the scoop on the CAVS from award-winning sports writer Bob Finnan.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Nuggets in the news

David S. Glasier
DGlasier@News-Herald.com
Today's stories by Cavaliers beat writer Bob Finnan yield three newsworthy nuggets.
In each of those nuggets, fans can find a reason to be concerned about the Cavs at the outset of the 2007-08 season.
Nugget 1 - "The Cavaliers decided not to pick up the third-year option on Shannon Brown's contract, making him an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2008. Brown's salary for next season would have been $1.1 million.''
Brown, the Cavs' first-round pick in the 2006 NBA Draft out of Michigan State, is coming off a lackluster rookie season. He was uninspiring this year in his second training camp and exhibition season. No, make that downright awful.
What's more, he was awful with the golden opportunity of swingman Sasha Pavlovic's holdout dropped in his lap. Brown did zilch with his chance to make hay while the sun shined. Now, Pavlovic is back and Brown is re-established at the far end of Coach Mike Brown's bench.
With this move, the Cavaliers are all but writing off a guy who, if he was living up to his potential, would be a steady contributor in his second NBA season.
On a team that currently has big-time issues with its depth players, this is a bad thing.
Nugget 2 - LeBron James says he "will try to put more emphasis on the offensive end'' in tonight's game against the Knicks at The Q.
Well, that would be a good idea.
In Wednesday's stinker of a home opener against Dallas, James played more like gone-and-gladly-forgotten Henry James than King James. There are 81 games yet to be played, but the franchise player needs to do more than score 10 points and take 11 shots for this franchise to succeed this season.
Nugget 3 - Cavs general manager Danny Ferry said his opposite number on the Celtics, Danny Ainge, "embarrassed all of us'' over the summer by adding Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to the Boston roster.
How gracious of Ferry to acknowledge the fine work of an Eastern Conference competitor. Wouldn't it be nice if Ainge had cause to similarly praise Ferry for using the past offseason to land the jump shooter and proven point guard the Cavs so desperately need?

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