+1!

Course you can play through that…it would just hurt a lot. Ask Pierce, he did it.

“hurt Lebron = no chance for championship”

That’s only because of two reasons:

1. LeBron, if he’s truly hurt (which I also have my doubts), should not be playing then – a healthy Delonte West would be able to run the offense better and provide better defense, a healthy J.J. Hickson could provide more inside muscle and athleticism, a healthy Leon Powe could also provide more inside muscle and scoring, a healthy “Z” could shoot the ball better and give the Celtics a different look, and a healthy Gibson could shoot the ball better from the outside than an injured LeBron.

Frankly, there’s no excuse for playing out there hurt, regardless of his perceived importance to the team. He’s hurting the team more by being out there if he’s hurt, and his being hurt doesn’t excuse his lack of effort – you can always control and provide maximum, continuous effort, especially during this time of year. And, if he truly cannot give that effort, whether it’s due to injury or indifference, he shouldn’t be out there.

Of course, reason #2 will prevent that from happening.

2. Coach Mike Brown – he has been outcoached yet again. This guy is really not a good coach. He’s been riding LeBron’s coattails for way too long, putting too much into him and making LeBron look good, being the big “star” that he’s supposed to be that virtually everyone else on the roster has been neutralized in terms of effectiveness. Two ways that this has occurred.

a. Virtually every play is run through LeBron, even though he’s technically not the point guard (it’s supposed to be Mo) – LeBron will often dribble down to 5 or 6 seconds on the shot clock, then try to break down the defender with a few dribbles, then hoist up a shot that often misses the mark. Several analysts blame the other Cavaliers for this “1-on-5” offense, but in reality, Brown believes LeBron is the “go-to-guy,” saying “he carries us,” etc., so he allows this to happen. He doesn’t come out and say that the whole offense needs to be involved, that there has to be more ball movement and less dribbling, specifically by LeBron.

That’s a major reason why Shaq, Jamison, and even Mo have not gotten into good rhythm and been consistent offensive threats in this series like they were supposed to be. Even Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett came out and said to this effect: "With our (Boston) team, you don’t know where the scoring will come from each night. With their (Cleveland) team, you know where the scoring will come from, LeBron James – you’ve got to contain LeBron.

With so many weapons on this team, why does the opponent acknowledge that there really is only one guy to stop? That’s because of Brown’s coaching philosophy, to get the ball to LeBron and let him “do his thing.” And LeBron also feeds into this, mostly due to his ego that he is this “great player” and that he is the “leader of this team” and that he needs to make the plays – where I go, the team goes.

In my opinion, LeBron isn’t as great of a team player as the media has made him out to be. Yes, he’ll dish out some assists, but it always comes down to him at crunch time, often doing what I described above – he never really trusts his teammates to deliver the big plays down the stretch, and they have shown from time to time on rare occasions in the regular season that they can do it, whether it’s Mo, Delonte, Shaq, Jamison, even “Z.” No, it’s all about LeBron, all of the time.

- Brown didn’t play “Z” much when he came back from the Wizards
- Brown didn’t integrate Powe into the offense down the stretch (what was this about Powe being an important signing when we got him from Boston last offseason)
- Brown didn’t utilize Gibson virtually at all, supposedly because he plays “poor defense” – how is Gibson supposed to improve defensively when he’s sitting on the bench with DNPs throughout most of the games. He’s arguably the best 3-point shooter on the team and was a decisive factor in eliminating the Pistons 3 years ago that allowed the Cavs to reach their first NBA Finals.
- J.J. Hickson, who showed remarkedly improvement over the course of the season both offensively AND defensively, now is relegated to playing around 5-10 minutes a game, while the 38-year old Shaq can play 25-35 minutes a game.
- Jamario Moon and Delonte West have been rendered non-factors because they’re only playing only 10-20 minutes/game at best, yet were critical components to the Cavaliers winning 61 games in 2009-2010. Nevermind that both Moon and West are considered solid to above-average defenders – Parker has been as poor defensively as Mo has, and West can give you more consistent offense than Parker can, and Moon is considered as good of a 3-point shooter as Parker has, and has likely had more productive games this season than Parker has, yet Brown keeps running Parker out there.

Coach Mike Brown deserves as much of the blame as any of the “active” players (by “active,” I mean those that Brown is allowing to play for significant minutes, including Shaq, Mo, Parker, Jamison, and yes, the “King” himself – LeBron, who probably deserves as much blame as anyone, with all of his self-proclamations and “not overreacting to the loss in Game 2,” and “I know what needs to be done,” “it’s a long series,” blah, blah, blah, when his effort was not acceptable for a regular-season game, let alone a postseason game.

These are the main reasons why the Cavs are in the pickle they now find themselves in – even if by some miracle, they come back and beat the Celtics, does anyone really think that they will match up with the Magic? Forget the 2008-2009 Cavs’ first 2-round sweeps and the 2009-2010 Magic’s first 2-round sweeps – those aren’t as similar as they appear on the surface, as Orlando faced better competition (Charlotte was better than last year’s Pistons team and the Hawks were more experienced and healthier this year than last year’s group) and still has matchup advantages against the Cavaliers, especially now that Nelson is back to full strength.

Let’s face it – the Cavs have been undone by poor play from the “active” players, especially LeBron and his passiveness and lack of leadership, and Mike Brown’s very questionable management of his talented roster throughout the course of this season and the playoffs. Owner Dan Gilbert has even implied that much of this current situation is at Brown’s feet, and I don’t disagree at all. If the Cavs fall, Brown should be out – then perhaps more of the talent on this roster can actually manifest itself, instead of it just being LeBron all of the time.

Great questions, and I too don’t think that this elbow injury is for real either, for many of the reasons you stated. Plus, as mentioned above, his injury should not be affecting his effort and determination – if he is truly that injured, then he should take himself out and allow a fully healthy player to be on the court instead, because, even with that player’s limitations, he will still be able to bring more to the court than an injured LeBron can, as seen by the lackluster games by the “King” in this series.

Is messing with his head? So what about Game 3, when he went off? He wasn’t even that bad in Game 4, he just went 0-5 from 3-pt land. Game 1 he was even better, obviously not better than Game 3, but he went 12-24 to get 35 points. And even Game 2….7-15 for 24 points, which included getting 15 FT attempts?

And honestly, what about the rest of his teammates? Are they injured too? It seemed like, for example, only Shaq and Parker showed up in Game 5…

Well, I’m outta here before I say something that gets me tossed. Good luck in Game 6.

Exactly – this further emphasizes the point, in my opinion, that LeBron really doesn’t care about the game or the series. For further thoughts, read Adrian Wojnarowski’s article here.

This is another reason why many are questioning his true desire to this franchise, its fans, and the city of Cleveland (and Akron by extension), and why he’s not at the same level of a Jordan, Kobe, Magic, Bird, or even Shaq.

All the more reason why he should not be on the floor if he cannot deal with the injury (still don’t believe it’s as serious as being implied) – a healthy West or Gibson can give you more than a 50% LeBron (and that 50% might be generous, especially with the way he has been standing around in this series, especially Game 5).

Yet he’s chucking up halfcourt shots at pregame? Is his elbow bruised? Probably. TORN LIGAMENT? NO.

Good question.