Turnaround will be slow developing

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Turnaround will be slow developing
By Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist, 11/15/2003

The Cleveland Cavaliers have The Kid. What they don't have, and are not going
to have, are the Ws. Last night's 91-82 loss to the Celtics made them a
well-deserved 2-7.

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It's a young team, and it's a bad team. No 18-year-old phenom is going to
transform them by himself.

"I'm trying to take babies and speed up the process of maturing," says Paul
Silas, head coach/father figure of the Cavs. "It's taking longer than I'd
like. The production from certain people is just not there yet."

Don't even bring up the subject of Bird and Magic with regard to the LeBron
James phenomenon. He is their link in terms of floor vision and purity of
heart, yes. But those two were plopped into vastly different team situations
than the one confronting young Mr. James.

Larry joined a Celtic team with Dave Cowens on a mission to have one last big
year, Tiny Archibald mended physically after dealing with an Achilles' tendon
injury, Chris Ford at the peak of his career, Cedric Maxwell ready to emerge
as a great player, and M.L. Carr on board as a king-on-the-chessboard
addition. Magic joined a Laker team with Norm Nixon to share the backcourt
load, Jamaal Wilkes mocking people with his soft jumpers and slashes to the
hoop, and one of the handful of greatest players ever at center in Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar.

Beyond that, Larry would turn 23 less than two months into his rookie season,
and Magic, though young (20 by season's end), was coming into the NBA as a
freshly minted NCAA champion. There's something to be said for having proven
yourself to be the best at the highest level of collegiate competition. No
offense, but it's got a little more weight than winning an Ohio state title.

LeBron's got a scoring center in 7-foot-3-inch Zydrunas Ilgauskas, but no
Kareem he. He's got wildman Ricky Davis, whom he'll probably want to punch out
before the All-Star game. And he's got a so-called lifestyle "role model" in
Darius Miles, who is all of 22 himself and who has shown no early career signs
of being the next, oh, let's just say Paul Silas.

But the one good thing LeBron does have going for him is his coach. By now I'm
sure the lad has a good idea what his coach is all about, although whatever he
thinks of him now would be elevated considerably if he had ever seen Paul
Silas play. Their games could not have been further apart technically, but
that doesn't mean The Kid couldn't have learned something about the game's
subtleties by studying the way his mentor went about his business for 16
years.

Old No. 35 will really earn his money this year. He's been given custody of an
athletic prodigy whose individual development would be a full-time job all by
itself. Yet, while he's working on that project, he's also got to mold a team.
And there are expectations. The Cavaliers won 17 games last season. They'd
better win more than that this season, or else someone might decide the wrong
person is in charge of this enormous project.

But that's me talking. Silas says he doesn't feel any undue pressure from his
superiors -- yet.

"Management has been good," he insists. "I told them when I took this job it
was going to take time. You can't build this up in a hurry. I haven't heard
anything bad from anyone. The one thing we needed to do was curb the
enthusiasm of the fans."

This is Silas's third head coaching job in the NBA, and it bears no relation
to the first two. Stop No. 1 was with the legendary Los Angeles Clippers, who
are the NBA's version of a Ship of Fools, sailing aimlessly from port to port,
season after season, squandering draft picks and good will. If nothing else,
coaching the Clippers is good for the memoirs.

Stop No. 2 was with the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets, where he had a nice,
respectable team that could count on postseason play. The ownership situation
was again wacky -- it's not every day that a just-fired coach winds up
pounding on the door of his owner, who also happens to be his next-door
neighbor -- but the basketball was solid and conventional.

Now he finds himself coaching a club that is part basketball, part traveling
circus, and part day care center.

"It's totally different here," Silas points out. "There's a heck of a lot more
media scrutiny, for one, and the Hornets were a veteran club that knew how to
play and knew how to win."

This team doesn't know diddly. It is predictably porous on defense and it is
pretty clueless on offense, except for the times someone remembers to throw
the ball inside to Ilgauskas (22 points last night) or when LeBron can create
something.

LeBron's going to be fine, but please remember that he is 18. "Baron Davis is
a monster now," says Silas, who ought to know. "But it's taken him five years.
That's the reality."

Silas doesn't really think it will take LeBron five years to become
legitimately great, but he knows The Kid, who was 3 for 12 in a spotty 35
minutes last night, is far from great now.

"He's got a long way to go," Silas says. "He doesn't understand some things
yet. How to post up. How to take it to the hoop. The pick-and-roll."

Those sound like a lot of pretty big things to me. Then you realize that he is
basically a 6-8 guard and that his best skill is passing the basketball. He
has to be a team leader on the floor, and he's not yet ready to do that,
either. "He needs to learn how to take over and direct people where to go,"
Silas explains, "but they're not going to listen to an 18-year-old until he
actually does something."

All that said, this kid's talent is obvious. It was on display on Opening
Night, when he broke into the NBA with 25 points and nine assists in a
competitive loss at Sacramento. "I'm glad he did that, so people can see he
does have it," Silas says. "I think a lot of people were waiting for him to
fail."

No one under 20 is. Everywhere the Cavaliers go, young people are waiting for
them. There were LeBron jerseys in evidence at the Fleet last night. There are
LeBron jerseys everywhere.

"Everywhere we go, it's questions about LeBron," Silas says.

Get used to it, Coach. It will be a while before they ask you about your
team.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@xxxxxxxxxx

Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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