NBA Thursday: Starring Manu’s bald spot

Watching tonight’s ESPN doubleheader, the unavoidable thought in my mind was how different the NBA would be if Carlos Boozer had stuck around in Cleveland. Booze is exactly the type of mobile scoring big man that would make LeBron even more of a monster. Imagine Boozer at the four alongside Varejeo or Big Z at the 5 depending on the matchup? Scary stuff.

Chicago at Cleveland

If I’m a Cavs fan, even though it’s only been five games into the season, I am officially very, very worried. Chicago was incredibly mediocre on both sides of the ball but because Cleveand’s offense was so inept, the Bulls ground out an ugly road win despite poor shooting and broken execution.

Charles Barkley provided some actual basketball insight in wondering why Mike Brown keeps trotting Shaq and Big Z out there at the same time. The Cavs’ twin towers have trouble guarding mobile bigs in the pick and roll and neither of them command a double team on offense. That same big lineup got burned in Toronto repeatedly as well, so what gives? In my mind, it’s the Kevin Durant phenomena — except in reverse.

Stat geeks complain about Durant’s flummoxing negative statistical effect, arguing that just because it makes sense in your mind to have your best player on the floor, it doesn’t play out that way in the science. And I use the term science loosely.

Despite perception however, the Cavs five most statistically effective players this season (by win share) have been Shaq, Big Z and Varejeo alongside Mo Williams and LeBron. If this is an experiment in trusting your number crunchers, it’ll be interesting to see how this lineup evolves as the 2009 season rolls along. Watching Taj Gibson, Brad Miller and earlier in the season, Andrea Bargnani pick apart the Cavs bigs on the PnR I can’t see Brown keeping this up much longer.

Worth noting is that in the final minutes of the game, with the decision hanging in balance, Brown went to his small lineup with LeBron at the four. Second guessing his own strategy a bit?

On the other side of the ball, the Cavs offense is just horrible. I like how people keep referring to John Kuester as Cleveland’s “offensive coordinator” for the past few years. If I was a Pistons fan, I’d have some questions. As in, like being told your family doctor is named Dr. Kevorkian questions.

Nothing has changed. Down the stretch, you could visibly see Chicago load up on LeBron waiting for him to go 1-on-5 and, unbelievably, that’s exactly what the Cavs did. A weak attempt at screen-and-roll by Varejeo gave way to four Cleveland players standing around the perimeter watching LeBron work. That just isn’t going to work; not for the past three years and not now.

Strangely enough, the Cavs lost in Chicago exactly the same way last year, except Tyrus Thomas blocked LBJ’s shot at the end of the game. Those who don’t learn from history…

San Antonio at Utah

The Spurs are old. This wouldn’t be a big deal if they didn’t also look and play their age.

Incredibly, Barkley hit the nail on the head again with this matchup: Manu Ginobili is the x-factor for the Spurs this season. The walking-bald-spot just isn’t as explosive as he used to be, unable to get to the rim and draw fouls or break his man off the dribble. Without those two essential elements, Manu is no longer an elite wing scorer. And without any scoring from the wings (speaking of which, did anyone think Richard Jefferson would be this useless?) the Spurs are done like dinner.

The Jazz on the other hand looked good, with the Williams and Boozer machine rolling like old times. AK47 didn’t do much damage and Okur looked pooped, but considering how banged up Utah’s bench is this win was definitely a big one they’ll take.

Tony Parker’s face when Pop pulled him with three minutes left in the game was pretty awesome. You could tell, down 12 points the Frenchman wanted to give it one last shot. With Portland on the sked tomorrow though, Captain Pop was having none of it. Strangely enough, when he put Duncan and Parker back in for a last minute push, he left Ginobili on the bench. Punishment for a bad shooting night perhaps? Recovering from bat-rabies?

Notes:

• Raptors fans laughed incredibly hard when the Cavs signed Jamario Moon. Now, at least once a week, a national audience will understand why. Especially John Hollinger, who for some reason constantly asked why Toronto didn’t play him more. Perhaps he can ask that question to Mike Brown, who gave Moon a DNP-CD tonight. Again.
• Taj Gibson — impressive.
• Manu Ginobili’s bald spot deserves its own jersey.
• Gregg Popovich continues to defend his title as “worst interview in the history of sports television.”