Bad Big Toe

LeBron is gonna sit out a few games. According to ESPN, "The All-Star forward said Monday he'll consider sitting out Cleveland's next few games to rest his sore right toe, which he injured on a recent road trip and aggravated during Sunday's game against Phoenix."

But don't worry, cause LeBron is not worried either:

"There are still a lot of ballgames to play," he said. "We're still right where we want to be. It's all about getting to the playoffs. Once you get to the playoffs it doesn't matter if you're a No. 1 seed or eighth seed, it's best out of seven. We want to get home-court advantage of course, but we have to keep getting better."

Hey guys, here is a nice little statistic for you: We hold only a four-game lead over New Jersey, who holds the No. 8 spot. This teams attitude smells like 2 day-old dog feces, and it kinda sorta shows on the court a little bit.
I like their strategy: Sleep-walk through the regular season to get ready to play in the playoffs...Wonderful. At least we will have a dynamic backcourt combo of Eric Snow & Larry Hughes to help out, I mean shit the bed, I mean smile a lot, I mean dribble off their legs, I mean...shit.

Status Alert!!!!

From the world-wide leader in shitty journalism, NY prejudice, and star-fucking... and sports:
Status Alert: Hughes (sore elbow, right ankle, left leg tendinitis) is able to jump off his right leg again, as evidenced by two dunks he threw down en route to a 16-point performance during the Cavs' victory on Friday, the Akron Beacon-Journal reports. (Jan 27)

Sore Elbow...check
Right Ankle...check
Left leg tendinitis...check
3-13 shooting against a defensively challenged Suns team...check

But hey, as long as he can dunk, he is A.OK to go.

Larry and his brittle bones are stealin' Benjamins' Baby

I don't mean to berate Ferry and his miscalculation in taking Larry Hughes, but perhaps the front office should have done more homework.
Nerd stats for yo ass:
Larry Hughes has NEVER played more then 73 games in a season. In fact, Hughes has played, on average, 60 games out of 82, or 73% of all the games he has played (not counting this season). Perfect. I also believe he has been injured with every possible ailment this side of DeJuan Wagner (who has is fuckin colon removed).
Some other career nerdy numbers:
CAREER STATS
FG%: 41.4
You have got to be shitting me. A shooting guard has a career average of less then 42% shooting the rock under the 3 point line. You know who can shoot better then 42%? Desmond Mason. And Desmond Mason is pretty god aweful at shooting the ball. Ok, let's examine his 3PT %.
3PT%: 29.2%
What. The fuck. 29%? You know who shoots better then 29% from the 3 point arc? Air Bud. Larry is actually having a pretty good 06/07 year shooting beyond the arc (ranked 17th out of all SG's) but his career number hovers around the Yakhouba Diawara range...which is bad (no need to look it up)
FT%: 75.2
Ok this isn't too bad, but he is averaging 4.5 free throws/game for his career. This is on par for the league, but as a SG who is making top 25 money, it is quite low.

Now for the other important career numbers
15.2ppg 4.6rpg, 3.3apg
In 2002-03, Hughes scored 857 points. In the 03-04 season, he scored 1148 points. The following year, his CONTRACT year, he scored 1345 points in 61 games, and averaged 6 rpg and 4.5 apg. Quite the outlier, don't you think?

Breaking this Down

In the 2005-06 off-season, the Cavs needed to make a mark, a stamp in free agency. At the top of the list was shooting guard. The market had 4 marque players: Ray Allen, Joe Johnson, Michael Redd, and Larry Hughes. Ray Allen wanted too much money so the Cavs didn't seriously persue him. Fair enough. They really tried to get Michael Redd. In fact, LeBron sent him a video tape! He turned them down to make $13+ million to stay with the shitty Bucks. Fair enough.

But the Cavs didn't even attempt to look into Joe Johnson. The reason: The Suns wanted too much ( two 1st rounders). Some critics also believed giving Johnson that amount would leave less money to re-sign LeBron. Here is a fun fact! There is something called BIRD RIGHTS. These rights allows the team that drafted a player to re-sign him to as much money as they want, more then any other qualifying offer from another team, even if it is above the salary cap. We could have signed Joe Johnson and dished out 100 trillion dollars to LeBron.

So this leaves us with the two 1st round picks vs. Joe Johnson

Joe Johnson>>>>>>> Shannon Brown plus the 2008 1st round pick. But we didn't even look into the Johnson situation, a player who makes a million LESS than Hughes and is outperforming him in every major statistical category known to man (and animal).

Let's look at some numbers:
2006/07
Player A
Games played: 32/44
14.8 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 3.3 apg
40.4 FG%, 39.3 3PT %, 66.43 FT%
Player B
Games played: 38/42
24.9 ppg, 4 rpg, 4 apg
48.1 FG%, 38.2 3PT %, 75.4 FT%


2005/06
Player A
Games played: 36/82
15.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 3.6 apg
40.9 FG%, 36.8 3PT %, 75.6 FT%
Player B
Games played: 82/82
20.2 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 6.5 apg
45.3 FG%, 35.6 3PT%, 79.1 FT%

Obviously Larry Hughes is not Player B. Joe Johnson is putting better stats without Steve nash feeding him the ball. Teams are locking on him and he is putting up better numbers across the board while playing the same minutes. UGHHHHHHHH

Larry Hughes wants to coach.

What does $13 million give you? OPINIONS! And lot's of them!

Apparently, Larry Hughes thinks the Cavs need to change their offensive style.

Sunday at The Q, after the team the Cavs so want to play like, the Phoenix Suns, turned a four-point game after three quarters into a 115-100 drubbing, Hughes said the only "stops" are of the Cavs themselves.

"We need to run more," he said. "Our identity is not as a defensive team. It is to get out and push the ball down the court. That's obviously how we've been more successful. The wins and losses show it when we're in the attack mode.

"Trying to call us a defensive team when we need to put the ball in the basket is not what we need."

When you go 3-13, 1-4 from beyond the arc, 0-0 FT, and collect 0 rebounds in 39 minutes, you may want to just shut the fuck up and stare at the wall. Not surprisingly, this was a typical lackluster Larry performance. The Cavs trailed by 4 going into the 4th quarter against the really ridiculously hot Phoenix Suns. What the Cavs needed was someone other then LeBron to hit an open jumper. Enter Larry Hughes, king of smiles himself. This douchebag smiles so much, I swear he cracked some grins at his brothers funeral. Larry missed every shot he took (it seemed), puncuated by a jumper 4 seconds into the shot clock with some time left to climb back into the game. Yes, the Cavs ended up losing by 15. Perhaps coach Mikey should sit Larry for a few games. We'll see if he still smiles. Then again, getting 13 million to shoot 40% and average 14 ppg will make you smile. Horray!