Sources: Cavaliers close to deal for Stoudemire

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

As to the first point, what Williams does vs. what he can do are two separate animals. Williams can create off the dribble, but his offense doesn't encourage it.

As to the second - who is LeBron going to play hi-lo with?

That's not his game, never will be. Hi-lo serves to crash the defense in low where he wants to operate. He is the lo, with Williams, etc... being the high. So getting another big for LeBron to play hi-lo with isn't going to work.

Do you mean the Cavs should be looking for an alternative to LeBron? Another inside presence to play hi-lo with Williams/Gibson/Parker? If so, I guess I see what you're saying. When he's not hitting, it'd be nice to have a 2nd option.

But if I had a guy like James on my squad, I'd recognize that the odds of him going cold for an entire playoff series are pretty slim. As such, I'd work on finding a way to maximize him, rather than try to find a fallback to him.

Jamison or Granger are the best ways to maximize your best weapon. If LeBron ices up for a series, the Cavs are boned no matter who they add. So go with the guys that will make your team play its best when it's at full throttle. That's how you win a title and that's how you keep LeBron in Cleveland.

It's not that LeBron will go cold for seven games. But he will go cold for a game, or for a quarter, or a half, and when that happens, they have absolutely no one who can pick up the slack.

The best kind of guy for that team would have been a guy like Randolph, who can crash the boards, get points w/o having plays run for him while LeBron is in, and if you want to give LBJ a blow, you can run plays for him in the low post.

Cleveland has an alpha dog an energy guy (Varejao) and role players. But they don't have a second banana who can emulate a first when needed (McHale, Pippen, early Kobe, Shaq in Miami, even Ginobili to a lesser extent)