Powe the Show

I probably sat up and took notice of newest Cavalier Leon Powe at about the same time as everybody else. But maybe not in quite the same way.

It was the spring of 2008, and the Celtics were on their way to winning the city of Boston roughly its 490th pro sports title of the decade. As much as those of us in Cleveland hated to admit it, the Celtics had all the championship ingredients: A dogged defensive mentality, star-power leadership from Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, a breakout young star in Rajon Rondo, and a deep bench led by James Posey and Eddie House.

Even so, the Celtics needed a bit more to win it all. They survived seven-game scares against the Hawks and Cavs in the first two rounds of the playoffs before dispatching the Pistons and Lakers for the right to hoist the franchise's 17th title banner.

On the fringe, creeping ever-closer to the center of the spotlight, was this kid with bum knees and the heart of a lion. Everyone will remember Leon Powe's 21-point performance in Game 2 of the NBA Finals that year as his coming-out party. But from the perspective of a Cavs fan, as my team did a good deal of bumping and grinding with Boston that season, Powe's presence was announced more like the rising Sun than a bolt of lightning.

By the time the Cavs squared off with the Celtics in the second round of the '08 playoffs, the equation seemed to come together. The name, the face, the green jersey with the number "0" planted squarely in the middle of the back. That one player that every team needs to have step up in the biggest games of the season, that one unsung hero that wasn't in the equation at the start of the journey, Boston had found him. The Celtics simply would not have won the NBA title without the contributions of Powe.

That could have been it. A lot of players catch their 15 minutes of fame and fade into obscurity. Some even get lucrative contracts before regressing to the mean. But Powe kept popping into the headlines and highlight reels. When Garnett seriously injured his knee last winter, Powe stepped up, helping to salvage a 62-win season and the second seed in the East for the Celtics. Along the way, he burned the Cavs for 20 points and 11 rebounds in an early March game.

Powe kept playing the role of extra-strength bandage until a late-season knee bruise was followed by a torn ACL -- his third -- and microfracture surgery during the playoffs. That's been the trend of Powe's career. In a lot of ways, it's probably been the trend of his life.

The details of Powe's early life, outlined in this East Bay Express article from 2003, read like the first half of a movie script: Growing up impoverished in Oakland, single mother, many siblings, had to skip school to change diapers, house burned down, family forced to live in a car, mother eventually arrested and served prison time on theft and welfare fraud charges.

There were a million ways Powe could have gone down a wrong path in life, could have ended up in and out of the penal system or worse, but his was one of a few scattered hoop dreams that came true -- Powe found a mentor in former Contra Costa College player Bernard Ward, himself trying to right his life after drug-related run-ins with the law.

Ward helped Powe set the ball rolling toward high school stardom, which led to a spot on a star-studded AAU squad that included LeBron James, which in turn helped pave the way for Powe to earn a scholarship to Cal-Berkeley.

Then Powe attains college stardom, goes to the NBA, makes millions and wins a championship, right? It could have been, because Powe had ascended from obscurity to certified prep blue-chipper by the time his senior year of high school rolled was within view. But while playing AAU ball during the spring between his junior and senior years, he tore his ACL. It would become a recurring problem. He clawed back, played his senior year and made it to Cal. Then he tore his ACL again in college, downgrading him from NBA lottery pick to second-round project.

The Nuggets drafted him in the second round in 2006 and traded his rights to Boston, where he became something of an afterthought until the Celtics traded for Garnett and Allen in the summer of 2007, launching the Celtics back onto the national stage and giving Powe the chance to play a role on a contending team.

He seized the moment, playing with as much intensity and ferocity as his body would allow. At 6'-8", he played taller than his height, blocking shots and crushing dunks. He looked like a core member of the Celtics moving forward.

From Cleveland, all I could do is wish we could get our hands on a player like that. In fact, when I first became honestly conscious of Powe, that was one of the first thoughts that entered my head. The Cavs needed a Leon Powe, someone with an intangible fearlessness and physical presence, someone alongside LeBron with a reputation for rising to the occasion in big games. The need became more pronounced as the Cavs wilted against Orlando in the Eastern Conference Finals this spring.

As the chain of events would have it, that's exactly what happened. The Cavs found a player like Powe. Exactly like Powe, in fact.

When Powe underwent a combination of ACL repair and microfracture surgery on his left knee this May, Celtics management scaled the love way back. Powe went from important role player to injury case with a cloudy future. Powe told The Plain Dealer that he was at least looking for a one-year deal from Boston, but GM Danny Ainge wouldn't even commit to that degree. In July, the Celtics declined to give Powe a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent.

The Celtics might have been banking that interest in Powe would be minimal, and that they might be able to re-sign him at a later date if his rehab went well. But for all intents and purposes, the bridge between Powe and the Celtics was burned at that moment.

The Celtics, through inaction-by-design, opened the door, and Danny Ferry walked in. The Cavs aggressively recruited Powe throughout July and August, and despite overtures from other contenders, Powe signed a two-year deal with the Cavs -- with the second year being a team option.

A great many Celtics fans are upset. Powe was well-liked in Boston, and a lot of Celtics fans seem to think Powe was given a raw deal, loved then left by team management. Of course, other Boston fans seem to think they'll get along just fine after having substituted Rasheed Wallace for Powe.

Signing Powe and banking on his return to 2008-09 form is a risk on the part of the Cavs, no doubt. Powe's knees are ravaged at this point, and he's only 25. Even if Powe does come back midseason, he is still an undersized power forward who will need to fit into the Cavs' system somehow. Powe thrived playing alongside defensive-minded center Kendrick Perkins in Boston. The Cavs' version of Perkins is Shaq, but his game is a little different, and he takes up a lot more space in the paint.

These are the wrinkles that will need to be ironed out. For now, the Cavs are taking a minimal-risk chance on a player who deserves such a chance.

It may be months before we get a chance to see Powe in the wine and gold, but I'm honestly thrilled that Powe is coming to Cleveland. It's not just what he might bring to the table for the stretch run. It's that I'll get a chance to root for a player that I've been wanting to root for.

Sweating it out at Camp Mangini

Does the Browns roster really need to have its collective hide toughened this much?

That's what a lot of Browns fans are starting to wonder as the first preseason game approaches this weekend.

Less than two weeks into the first training camp of the Eric Mangini Era, and there are already media-conveyed squeals coming out of Berea that say certain players, who are nameless as of yet, are unhappy that Mangini is working their well-compensated fingers to the bone.

Well, not entirely nameless. Jerome Stanley, the agent for Syndric Steptoe, took his beef with Mangini to the media following Saturday's rainy practice, in which Steptoe suffered a shoulder injury that ended his season before it began. The full-speed practice in the rain was excessive, Stanley asserted, essentially accusing Mangini of handling his client in a reckless fashion. Steptoe, who was fighting an uphill battle to make the team to being with, was waived by the Browns on Tuesday.

The complaint of Steptoe's agent is just a scratch on the surface. A Yahoo! Sports article by Jason Cole notes that there is an emerging trend of players complaining at the Berea complex. Cole said Braylon Edwards -- a well-known squeaky wheel -- has been particularly irritable since camp started. Much of it might have to do with a lack of a new contract, and a springtime trade to the Giants that went belly-up. But it's clear that Edwards is, at least right now, not having a lot of fun playing for Mangini.

The grumbling is probably going to get worse before it gets better. There is blame to shoulder on both side of the equation.

The players -- at least the ones who were here last year and beforehand -- are guilty of having to be dragged kicking and screaming into a camp where Job 1 isn't necessarily to minimize contact and keep everyone healthy. At least to the naked eye, that appeared to be Romeo Crennel's primary goal every summer.

The results of Camp Romeo were actually counterproductive. The Browns suffered more injuries and were less-prepared for physical football with Crennel's spare-the-rod approach. Even worse, the players became conditioned to expect a relatively low-impact camp atmosphere. Going through the motions was enough.

Mangini now has to uproot that culture, and predictably, the players are going through a great degree of culture shock. Their island in the Sun has just turned into Parris Island, and they're not liking it.

With that in mind, it's easy to see why Mangini brought so many ex-Jets along for the ride this year. This isn't Dwight Clark filling out the roster with 49er castoffs because it's a quick fix. Mangini wanted to bring some Jets players along with him, in part, to help ease the transition for the guys who weren't used to his style.

“Guys will get used to it,” Jets transplant David Bowens told Cole. “The second year, he eases up. He’s just trying to establish himself.”

Mangini had better hope that guys like Bowens can start to gain followers in the locker room. Because while Crennel tended to take a minimalist approach to leadership and discipline, Mangini's style is heavy-handed for first-time users. He is a coach with new-school methods built on a foundation of old-school discipline, taking bits and pieces from the leadership styles of his primary mentor, Bill Belichick, and the likes of Bill Parcells and Ted Marchibroda, who he assisted early in his coaching career.

Mangini has spent the past 15-plus years as a football sponge, absorbing information from two of the best football minds of the past 25 years, sanding and polishing his head coaching style in three years with the Jets, and hopefully what we'll witness in Cleveland is a veteran head coach employing a system that works. But the byproduct of football saturation bombing is what we're seeing so far in Browns camp.

Mangini is ramming all things football related down the throats of his charges, and his players aren't taking well to it. Transition is never easy, but Mangini could alienate his players as easily as he could burn off the baby fat of the Crennel regime and turn his team into hardened warriors.

That's the groove Mangini needs to find. He needs to toughen his players and acclimate them to his system without burning them out, to the point where they tune him out and call their agents en masse, asking for the next ticket out of Cleveland.

For now, the burden is primarily on the players to adjust to Mangini. As much as they might not want to, the players need to recognize that this is what an NFL camp is supposed to be -- physically grueling and mentally challenging -- as compared to what Crennel let them get away with for the previous four years.

But once all are aboard who are coming aboard, Mangini needs to make good on Bowens' promise and back off the accelerator a bit in Year Two.

Discipline is good. Education is good. Tough love is good. Alienating half the roster and antagonizing the coach is not good. Sooner or later, the players will be within their rights if they get upset with Mangini for cracking the whip too hard. We're not at that point yet, but when we reach that point, Mangini had better be the first to notice.

LeBron: The saga continues

The upcoming NBA season could be a memorable one in Cleveland. Talentwise, the Cavaliers are poised to field quite possibly the best team in franchise history. They might not take the league by storm and win 66 games like last season's squad, but they're going to win a lot of games and strongly contend for the NBA title.

Given the Magic's loss of walking mismatch Hedo Turkoglu, and the unavoidable age and injury issues enveloping the Celtics, it's realistic if you'd like to peg the Cavs as the early favorites to win the Eastern Conference. Certainly, Shaquille O'Neal gives the Cavs their own age and injury issues, but a slowing Shaq is still 7'-1" and 325 pounds. His size alone is a weapon.

For Cleveland fans, things should be looking rosy if you view the 2009-10 season in a vacuum. Unfortunately, no one will. The entire upcoming season will be viewed by fans, media, players and team executives through the prism of the summer of 2010.

An early-summer memorandum from the league office, predicting a sharp decline in the 2010 salary cap figure, might have thrown some foam on the fire. But it didn't put the flames out. And by late next spring, it's going to be a conflagration.

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh headline what might be the deepest and most star-studded free agent class in league history. For several years now, teams across the league have been angling for next summer, acquiring expiring contracts, pinching their pennies, all in the name of reeling in a big fish next summer.

In Cleveland, it means that we're going to have to really work to enjoy the upcoming season to its fullest. The biggest prize is LeBron, and for the next 11 months, regardless of how outstanding or lackluster the Cavs perform, the leaguewide conversation will center on where he will play in 2010-11 and after.

By next summer, when New York honks like Tony Kornheiser and Stephen A. Smith have promoted the idea of LeBron as a Knick for the thousandth time, when Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski has written his 500th column blasting Cavs management for their ineptitude in assembling a team around LeBron, when Bill Simmons has half-jokingly predicted that the post-LeBron Cavs will become the new Seattle Sonics by 2015 (you know it's coming), when we've heard for the zillionth time from the likes of Charles Barkley about what a backwards stinkhole Cleveland is, and why on Earth would anyone stay in that dirty little town if given the chance to get out, us Backwards Stinkholites will be .... well, more than a little weary of it all. Maybe we're already reaching that point.

If you live in Greater Cleveland, and you want a shot of civic pride, national NBA coverage might not be the best place to get it for the next year or so. Cleveland is going to be trashed from all sides, writers and TV yakkers will have LeBron pre-emptively signed, sealed and delivered to the open arms of New York, be it the Knicks or Nets, and pre-column chin-stroking from national scribes will have LeBron casting his lot with every team from the Heat to the Clippers.

LeBron can't really put the kabosh on it, because speculation is one of the staples of 24-hour cable news networks, be it hard news, sports, celebrity gossip or otherwise. But he can withdraw from the situation with his previously-established company line of "I'm happy in Cleveland, I've never given an indication that I want to play anywhere else, but I'm not going to discuss my free agency in any greater detail until next summer. Right now, I'm all about helping the Cavs win a championship."

Instead, LeBron stirred the drink a bit with his comments Friday, during the media event to launch his new Nike sneaker line. He was asked if he would consider signing an extension with the Cavs prior to becoming a free agent. This was his reply:

"I signed a contract in 2006 with an option. It would make no sense for me to sign that contract if I didn't keep my options open," The Plain Dealer quoted him as saying. "I'll let you fill in the blanks."

All of that is true. LeBron signed a shorter extension to keep his long term options open. However, the tone of his remarks is a little jarring if you're a Cavs fan looking for any reassurance that King James is still leaning toward re-upping with the Cavs next summer. There was no mention of his satisfaction with his situation in Cleveland.

He did mention that bringing national events, like his Nike shoe lauch, to his hometown of Akron "is big for me," but it bears mentioning that LeBron almost always makes a distinction between Akron and Cleveland in his remarks. As residents of Northeast Ohio, we tend to lump the two cities in the same general region, separated by a county line and 30-odd miles of Interstate 77.

But to LeBron, Akron is home. Cleveland is where he works. For LeBron, the benefit of playing in Cleveland is that it's close to Akron and his Bath Township home in Summit County. It's a big benefit, but if you think LeBron feels the same attachment to the "216" as he does the "330," that's probably not the case.

It's not necessarily an indication of his chances of re-signing with the Cavs, but anyone who wants to believe that hometown loyalty is going to be the deciding factor had better forget about sentimentality. LeBron's hometown loyalty is to Akron, not Cleveland, and there's a difference, at least to LeBron.

It's easy to overanalyze LeBron's comments on Friday -- particularly what was not said. Did the extremely disappointing playoff loss to Orlando rock LeBron's blissful marriage with the Cavs to the point where he is seriously considering a move? Is LeBron trying to cover his tracks after Trevor Ariza made public his reported comments about staying with the Cavs? Or do we all just need to take a chill pill?

Given that we all need to get through the next 11 months without going completely nuts, I'd choose Option C. Rationally, LeBron has numerous reasons to re-sign with the Cavs. It's a 40-minute car ride from central Summit County. He can find privacy here. There aren't paparazzi waiting to hit him with volleys of shutter-clicks every time he leaves his house. Most importantly, the Cavs can offer him the most money, most years and highest percentage raises on a new or extended contract.

That will not change, per the rules of the NBA's collective bargaining agreement. Any other team that wants LeBron will have to make an airtight case to him as to why he should leave the Cavs' money on the table. And next summer, that will be a lot of money. A lot more than the three years and $65 million max he could be extended this summer.

Based on everything I've seen this summer and in summers past, free agents are all about the money. Charlie Villanueva and Hakim Warrick were among the free agents that spurned the Cavs to play for less-competitive teams, because the less-competitive team had more money to offer.

There is the ever-present "LeBron needs to conquer New York to conquer the world" argument, but the national media types who contend that LeBron can't become a worldwide icon and billion-dollar athlete playing in small-market Cleveland obviously haven't been paying attention to their own content for the past six years. In the age of 24-hour cable networks and instant Internet access, the media's spotlight is very portable. If LeBron played in Siberia, they'd find him, cameras in tow. ESPN and their competitors are actually disproving their own anti-Cleveland arguments with their obsessive fawning over LeBron.

But all the rational arguments in the world can't appeal to the irrational what-if monster inside our own heads. The hungry monster that gets fed every time the Cavs lose, every time we hear more speculation, every time we see another talking head tell us that the Cavs haven't done right by LeBron, that he needs to resurrect the Knicks for the good of the league, every time we read that another writer has had an encounter with a "source close to LeBron" who, invariably, never has anything good to say about LBJ's chances of staying with the Cavs.

Unfortunately, LeBron likes to feed the what-if monster, too. And he will do just that over the next year, honing his skills as a conveyor of non-committal soundbites. He has his reasons. Some of them are legitimate, some of them are because he loves the attention and wants to keep his name in the headlines.

The best-case scenario is if LeBron re-signs next summer. As the next year progresses, however, we might come to the conclusion that the second-best outcome is that, should LeBron leave, we're so fed up with the media circus, the flirting, the suspense, the New York self-righteousness, the nationa media taunting and Cleveland-bashing, that we almost welcome his departure as a chance to regain our peace of mind.

We all want to see this relationship between Cavs fans and LeBron to continue to be positive and fruitful. But in the end, if it doesn't work out that way, it's best that the split be a mutual decision. And to that end, there's hope -- if you want to call it that.

If LeBron is sick of Cleveland and the Cavs a year from now, there is a good chance that we're also going to be sick of him. Blasphemy? Get back to me next summer, when we'll know for sure.

1 + 1 = 1 too many

At the outset of 2009 Browns training camp, Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn are on a level playing field.

Eric Mangini says he has no preconceived notions about who will be under center for the regular season opener. Both quarterbacks will start from zero, and the better man over the next six weeks will lead this team onto the field Sept. 13 against Minnesota.

That's what worries me.

Why? Because I know that the Browns need to move on from Derek Anderson. They need to move on from this two-year QB controversy masquerading as a QB competition. They are a rebuilding team and they need to know what they have in 2007 first-round pick Brady Quinn, and the only way that is going to happen is if Mangini gives Quinn the reins for an entire season. If Quinn succeeds, you breathe a sigh of relief. If not, quarterback just got moved up the list of priorities for next offseason.

But this need to hold onto Anderson and Quinn as a security blanket to guard against injuries and outright failure has to stop. Unfortunately, based on Mangini's early-camp comments to the media, it appears he's going to hang onto both QBs all season.

If Quinn is under center on opening day with Anderson holding the clipboard, I can live with that. I still don't like it, but the net result is Quinn starting. But what really has me wary is Anderson's ability to tease.

Anderson is completely capable of looking like the better QB through camp, through the preseason and even into the early part of the regular season. And when Anderson is at his best, Quinn just can't measure up. Anderson has all the physical attributes. At 6'-6", he's among the tallest QBs in the NFL. His power arm is well-documented. And, perhaps most attractive to a coach, Anderson is not a thinking man's QB.

That's not a criticism of his level of intelligence, but let's just say that line-of-scrimmage audibles aren't Anderson's strength. He won't scrap the playbook in the huddle and run his own game. He has the plays strapped to his wrist, and that's that.

Somehow, I get the feeling that Mangini values submissive coachability in his quarterbacks. Think Bill Belichick circa 1993.

When Anderson is throwing 35-yard completions on a frozen rope, his physical attributes look sublime. It's so easy to get sucked in by Anderson's height and strength when he's cooking. And for a coach like Mangini, who likely has no shortage of belief in his ability to mold players, it can be extremely tempting to look at Anderson and believe that he can be a franchise QB if he's placed in the right system and taught the right things.

If Anderson bursts out of the gate like he did in '07, hanging among the NFL's elite passers through September and October, the illusion becomes even more crystallized. Brady Who? This Anderson kid has finally turned the corner. All he needed was a real system and a real coach.

Anderson is scary because he's perfectly capable of doing exactly that. If he gets his act together, he can blow Quinn out of the water for several months. It won't be by design, Anderson will just happen into a groove and look unstoppable for a certain period of time.

But Mangini, for all the hours he's certainly spent watching video of Anderson, hasn't yet experienced December Derek. For all the hours of sterilized video, free of emotional involvement, free from that horrible gut check we received on that cold day in Cincinnati two years ago, Mangini hasn't experienced December Derek until he's experienced him.

And that is when Mangini will realized he was snookered. He was seduced, courted and left at the altar by a quarterback whose trademark pose is walking back to the sideline with his hands on his helmet after throwing another interception.

That is Derek Anderson with the pressure on. That is the DA that you want no part of. That is the DA you never see coming in August when he looks like John Elway in 7-on-7 drills. The worst part is, by the time Anderson makes a compelling enough case to get benched -- compelling to a coach, not to fans -- three-fourths of the season has passed and Quinn is little more than a stopgap until the coaching staff can go back to the drawing board during the offseason.

After a two-season roller coaster with Anderson, we can safely arrive at the conclusion that he can be judged at face value. Big, strong, rocket arm, can heave the deep ball with the best of them, can't complete precision passes with any regularity, questionable decision maker, and tends to wilt in pressure situations, when QBs generally earn (or fail to earn) their large paychecks.

Another season of DA won't produce any new revelations, even with a new, more competent coach.

The previous regime invested two draft picks in Quinn, and it's time to give him a season to show his stuff, whatever that may be. For at least one proving-ground season, before the Mangini Era gets too far along, he has to know what he has in Quinn. Quinn's chance to prove himself can't be short-circuited by Anderson's peak-and-valley performance peaking just in time to save his hide from the recycle bin, once again.

The only things that will be accomplished by keeping Anderson around is to keep him in the conversation, keep Quinn looking over his shoulder, and risk the possibility of Mangini falling in love with his potential. Just like Romeo Crennel and, before him, Phil Savage.

If I can't be sure of anything else with this team, I can be sure that's a powder keg waiting to blow up in everyone's face.

Talking Heads about the Tribe

Baseball is bad when it's not about baseball. And for most of the 2009 season, the Indians certainly have not been about baseball. They've been about the talking heads of Mark Shapiro, Eric Wedge and other club higher-ups trying to explain the business of baseball.

Most fans don't want their TV screens fogged up with hot air speeches about market constraints, opportunistic trades and maximizing value. All we care about is the fact that the Indians are not a winning team. We really don't care why. We really don't care how they're going to get back to respectability. We just want Shapiro and Co. to do it, and earn their gosh-darn inflated salaries.

Friday's deadline trade of Victor Martinez was the final insult. Not to speak ill of the trio of pitchers the Indians received -- Justin Masterson, Nick Hagadone and Bryan Price -- but if Wednesday's trade of Cliff Lee removed the head of the beast, the loss of Martinez ripped out the heart, the closest thing the Indians had to a soul.

The Indians are truly a shell right now. They are a collection of players with no uniform identity, no cause for which to fight, except roster spots for next season. During Friday's game, Shapiro appeared on SportsTime Ohio's telecast, explaining the Martinez trade and reviewing the state of the organization.

Right now, that's all we have if we're on the outside looking in. We have talking heads drawing verbal diagrams and defending moves instead of players playing ball. It's like the offseason, except there is no snow on the ground.

Since talking heads are the only way through which we can really follow the Indians right now, let's do exactly that. Let's talk Talking Heads about the Tribe. David Byrne, the lead singer of the 1970s-'80s art rock band, probably never envisioned himself as a baseball sage. Well, step to the plate, David. You're up.

This is Indians baseball that Shapiro and Wedge can understand -- Talking Heads style.

Once In A Lifetime

A single off Talking Heads' influential 1980 album "Remain in Light." Also Shapiro's justification for dealing Lee when he did.

By stepping through the open door before the Phillies and Blue Jays could come to an agreement over Roy Halladay, Shapiro reasoned that he could get the best deal for the Indians. Shapiro said he was under no pressure from the Dolans to dump salary. He said this was the best move at the best time, and if he had waited, this type of deal might not have come along again.

Of course, Carlos Carrasco is the only widely-recognize marquee prospect the Indians received, and most pundits seem to project him as a middle-rotation big league starter at best. A-ball fireballer Jason Knapp might become a big league stud someday. Or he might become Adam Miller. We have time to find that out. Time is about all the Indians have right now.

Burning Down the House

A single from the Heads' 1983 album "Speaking in Tongues." After sitting through a roster purge that included Mark DeRosa, Rafael Betancourt, Ryan Garko, Ben Francisco, Lee and Martinez, the application to the Tribe's situation is kind of self-explanatory.

The trade purges of 2006 and '08 look like garage sales compared to the flame thrower Shapiro has taken to the roster in the past month. This is most definitely not a retool with an eye toward 2010. This a rebuild for 2011 and after. Grady Sizemore is the only real core player left after this detonation, and even he might be gone before the Indians return to competitive ball.

This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)

Another single from "Speaking in Tongues." But also a suitable commentary for the people who are aghast that, once again, the Indians are dealing off their best players.

You know the script: "Why does this always happen to Cleveland? Why do we always get screwed? We are fate's bastard children."

It is true that if Shapiro had done a better job at piecing together a roster this year, the Indians would have been winning with Lee and Martinez this year instead of trading them. But their departure from the Indians was inevitable.

Ultimately, it's a baseball problem, and it won't be solved until the sport adopts a salary cap, which may never happen, thanks to contentious labor relations between players and owners going back more than a century.

Don't be naive. Don't allow yourselves to be emotionally snookered by a tearful Martinez lamenting his departure on Friday. Certainly, his emotions were raw and real. The Indians represented 13 years of his life. It was the only organization he knew. But as soon as the Red Sox slide a fat contract extension under his nose, those tears will dry right up. It's still a business. As fans, you'd be best-served in not getting emotionally attached to players, especially when you are rooting for a midmarket baseball team with lagging gate receipts.

They'll leave sooner or later. That's the rub. A team like the Indians needs to develop players they someday won't be able to keep. That's the only way they can win.

Life During Wartime

A single from the 1979 album "Fear of Music," and probably a good working title for how Tribe fans feel right now.

If you shouldn't treat the events of the past week like the Apocalypse, no one is asking you to accept it with a smile either.

If there is a winter of discontent fit for midsummer, this is it. A bad season gone worse, as all the supports have been kicked out from under the local baseball team by a GM in full teardown mode.

How do you deal with it? Dig an emotional foxhole. Alcohol is good for relaxing on a given evening, but not so good as a coping mechanism. Tend to the garden, go for a run, clean out the gutters like you've been meaning to do since spring. If baseball doesn't bring you enjoyment, shove it onto the back burner. It will be there later, once they Indians figure out a new direction.

Take Me to the River

A cover of an Al Green song that appeared on the Heads' 1978 album, "More Songs About Buildings and Food." Probably also what most fans would like to do with Larry and Paul Dolan, with Shapiro and Wedge not far behind.

The reasons for why the Indians are in this mess are many. Some of them, such as a lack of a salary cap in baseball, aren't their fault. But some are. The Dolans don't have the up-front cash to invest in the team, meaning that they're heavily reliant on the team's revenue streams to make roster improvements. When that revenue dries up, there is nothing to really jump start the process, short of going into rebuild mode and trying to build a winner with a new group of younger players, which can take years.

As Cavs owner Dan Gilbert is fond of saying, money follows, it doesn't lead. In other words, you have to invest money to make money. The Dolans have invested money into the Indians organization, but they can't make the acquisitions and capital improvements that can really spark fan interest, get the turnstiles clicking and the cash registers ringing, thereby jump starting revenue streams and paving the way for more income that can be pumped back into the team.

Unfortunately for the Dolans, the net result is a fan base that is highly skeptical of their competency as owners. Skeptical fans don't spend money freely.

Girlfriend Is Better

Yet another song from "Speaking in Tongues." Also a caution to Lee and Martinez, now that they're playing in the East Coast media crucible. In a nutshell, don't wake up one morning to find out that you have a girlfriend you didn't know you had.

The unrelenting eye of the camera can turn you into a god. But it can also tear you down and pry deeply into your personal lives. I have no doubt that both you guys are upstanding family guys, but you're still professional athletes entering into contact with larger fan bases than our little Midwestern outpost. Women want you. Men want to be you. Privacy is thin. Rumors can start from a blog post.

You could let your guard down at least a little bit in Cleveland. Not so in Boston or Philadelphia. Watch your back and watch your reputation. That's all I'm going to say.

Psycho Killer

A song from the Heads' 1977 debut, "Talking Heads: 77," and probably how a lot of fans would describe Mark Shapiro at the moment. His work as GM over the past nine years does have a hatchet-job element to it. The Indians have not drafted well on his watch. They haven't had a good track record with free agents.

The only time Shapiro has had any real success is when he needs to flush a season and trade veterans for prospects. That's a definite positive quality to have in a GM, but when season after season needs to be flushed, the body of work doesn't really stand the test of time.

It's really time for Shapiro to learn from his mistakes. He's quickly approaching 10 years on the job, and his regime needs to hit for a higher average with drafts, trades and signings. If his handpicked support staff isn't getting the job done, it's time to make changes. And, Mark, please, look outside the organization. Bring in experienced baseball people and give them real authority to challenge you.

If you do that, you might take an ego hit in the short term, but your reputation will flourish in the long run.

Gone with the wins

It's over. The credits are rolling, and it wasn't a happy ending.

Wednesday's trade of Cliff Lee and Ben Francisco to the Phillies essentially finishes what the Bartolo Colon trade of 2002 started.

The rebuild is kaput. Mark Shapiro's original plan is busted after seven years, two winning seasons and one playoff appearance. It's back to the drawing board, and it's going to take at least several years before any new momentum might be able to slingshot the Indians back up the standings. Until then, build up your emotional callouses and prepare for a lot of losing as the Indians try to piece their organization back together.

More and more, I'm hoping that task will fall on new shoulders, but that's a whole other column.

For now, putting Shapiro squarely in the crosshairs of blame for this deal is attempting to simplify a complicated issue by hunting for a scapegoat. There are several reasons why Shapiro traded Lee now, and at least a few of them aren't his crosses to bear. Shapiro is on the hook for who the Indians received in return, but not entirely for the circumstances that led to the trade.

First, Lee's relationship with Indians management was tenuous at best. He still held a grudge for the way he felt he was treated during his worst of times in 2007, when he was demoted and didn't make the postseason roster. Lee was able to harness his resentment and use it to better himself in a big way in '08, and after a slow start, '09 as well.

This spring, the Indians reportedly didn't want to talk contract extension with Lee because they didn't want to sign him at peak value. That probably further agitated the waters between player and organization.

With all that in mind, it's reasonable to wonder if Lee was a voice of dissension in the clubhouse, a guy who spoke negatively of management. We know how the Indians deal with those kinds of players. They get rid of them.

Second, the Phillies seemed to really want to make a move for a frontline starter. Shapiro's haul for Lee and Francisco (pitching prospects Carlos Carrasco and Jason Knapp, catching prospect Lou Marson and minor league infielder Jason Donald) has been met with a heavy helping of criticism by fans and the local media, but if timing was an issue, perhaps Shapiro wasn't going to find a team more willing to make a blockbuster deal than the Phillies, who are attempting to stock up for defense of their World Series title.

But the third reason for the trade is perhaps the most disheartening, because it involves the financial state of the Indians. If the Indians made this trade primarily for financial reasons, it forecasts rough seas ahead for the franchise, at least until the economy improves noticeably.

No secret, the economic nosedive of the past year has hit Ohio hard. A region already losing jobs to business flight is now losing jobs to downsizing at established companies. Widespread job loss means family budgets around the region get tightened, and discretionary spending -- like Tribe tickets -- is among the first things to go. Couple that with a lousy on-field product and a palpable distrust of Indians management throughout the fan base, and you have a recipe for rusty turnstiles at Progressive Field.

As of last month, the Indians were averaging a little over 22,000 per game. A beyond-capacity crowd for the Cavaliers, a sparse crowd for the Indians.

Less attendance leads to reduced merchandise sales, and likely indicates shrinking ratings for the club's game telecasts as people find other things to do with their summer besides watch a losing baseball team.

All of it nails Larry and Paul Dolan squarely in the wallet. And that's what makes this summer's purge of (so far) Lee, Francisco, Mark DeRosa, Rafael Betancourt and Ryan Garko so troubling. For at least the short term, we might be going retro in Cleveland. The cash-strapped Tribe of the '70s and '80s might be returning, selling off their best players to save money.

Lee was slated to make $9 million next year, should the Indians have picked up his club option. If $9 million for one year is too rich for the Dolans' blood, that's a sign that ownership might fear some very real financial distress over the horizon, if things don't pick up on the revenue front. But that's an "if" that is only truly known by the Tribe's high rollers and accountants. It's up to the rest of us to speculate.

But if we are to play the role of Bill Belichick, who famously only went by what he saw, what we see is a team that just traded their best pitcher at least half a season before it was truly necessary, meaning the fear of losing Lee to free agency was not the only factor at work here.

The Indians have performed what could loosely be described as fire sales in 2006 and '08. But the players traded in those purges amounted to assorted flotsam and jetsam that didn't play into the team's long term plans.

The trades of 2009 cut a lot deeper -- and deeper still, if the Indians trade Victor Martinez before Friday's trade deadline -- and seem to resemble a white flag more than an attempt to retool for next season.

This coming rebuild is a far cry from Shapiro's original plan of 2002 and '03. It won't arrive on the heels of a seven-year run of success and the benefit of the doubt it provides. It will arrive in the midst of an economic hurricane, with a fan base running the emotional gambit from angry to exasperated to jaded, thoroughly unwilling to spend what little mad money they have on the Indians.

The biggest battle the Indians leadership regime will have to fight -- whether it's the present cast of characters or a future regime -- won't occur between the foul lines, or even in the farm system. It will be the battle to reclaim the franchise's reputation, a battle to get the fans to believe again, both with their hearts and their pocketbooks.

Unfortunately, Wednesday's trade just made that battle a lot harder to win.

Shake it up

There are countless ways to build and run a successful organization, in sports, business or any other endeavor. The ways are limited only by the variety of talents and personalities that exist in managers and executives across the board.

I write for a business magazine at my day job, and I've talked to hundreds of CEOs about how they run their businesses. Some swear by their metrics. Some manage by feel. Some believe in consensus building. Some believe in majority rule. Some believe the buck stops at their desk.

There is no one right way to do this. But as many ways as there are to build an organization, there are as many ways for it to go wrong.

As an organization, the Indians seem to be at a crossroads. Mark Shapiro and his staff laid out a carefully-orchestrated plan in 2002, one centered on rebuilding what had become an atrophied farm system, signing the best young players to reasonable long-term contracts and augmenting the core the roster with value-based free signings and opportunistic trades. The object was to get the most bang for the Dolans' buck as the Indians transitioned from the big-market fantasy land of the sellout-laden '90s to the budget-conscious, belt-tightened reality of the 2000s.

It worked, but only to a point. And "to a point" just hasn't been good enough to put the Tribe on a consistent winning track.

Midmarket and small market teams simply need to hit on a high percentage of their moves if they are to stay competitive with the big bankroll boys in New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago. Big-market teams can outspend poor drafting and whiffs in the trade and free agent departments. Smaller market teams either hit on the moves they make, or they don't hit at all. There is no safety net, no duct tape to cover the damage at a later date.

And to that end, Shapiro's plan just hasn't worked how it has needed to work. He's hit on some moves, but not enough. The result is basically an unfinished product. The Indians have a small band of promising young players, but little surrounding it. They have a farm system that has some quality talent, but not much apparent star power. They develop some players, but many more seem to languish and not realize their full potential, or have brief stints as productive major leaguers before regressing.

The net result is a lack of organizational momentum, feeding a kind of malaise that seems to have settled over the entire franchise. From top to bottom, the Indians seem to be sleepwalking down a unclear path toward unspecified goals.

Higher-ups in the organization might quickly contend that the organizational goal is very clear: to build a World Series winner. That looks great on a mission statement plaque. But is that what really motivates the front office, coaches and players each day?

I'd guess not. And if you want to kill momentum in the world of business, multiple CEOs have told me that poorly defining your objectives is a great place to start. Want to turn your organization into a collection of automatons going through the motions of work each day? Neglect to focus them on a larger purpose.

That's the danger of the "grinder" mentality that so fascinates Shapiro and Eric Wedge. It's easy to understand the logic of not wanting your players to get too high or too low over the course of a more than seven month journey from the first spring training game to the last game of the season. But in the rush to have players put on their hardhats and focus squarely on the task at hand, it's easy to go too far in the other direction.

You're asking guys to play a sport, not work on an assembly line. A certain level of passion and emotion is a good thing. If you don't have that, you have a group of uninspired, unmotivated employees who are just trying to get to the next game, and eventually to the end of the season so they can punch their time cards and go home.

This is baseball. If you play it for a living, you shouldn't be waiting for the 5 o'clock whistle to blow. But I fear that's the mentality that has grown up around the Indians. Too much Johnny Punchclock, not enough Ernie Banks.

Shapiro's mistakes in personnel management go hand in hand with the mental flatlining that has occurred on Wedge's watch. Wedge could probably do more with the players Shapiro gives him if he could inspire them to achieve more. But Shapiro too frequently hamstrings Wedge with washed-up bullpen arms, overmatched hitters and soft-tossing starting pitchers. Shapiro and Wedge might be eternally loyal to each other, but they're really not doing right by each other in the organizational hierarchy.

Having said all of that, there is still some good left in the Indians' organization. The club is not so off track that it can't be salvaged. But someone has to come in and do a thorough weeding of some of the negative undergrowth that is depriving the team of nutrients. Someone has to break the cycle.

The trouble is, I don't know if Shapiro and Co. can do it. I don't know if they're even willing to admit that there is a problem larger than injuries and a few guys having down years.

The Indians desperately need cross-pollination, whether it be in the front office or in the manager's chair. They need outside perspectives from coaches and executives who are not completely institutionalized by The Indian Way. They need strong-willed baseball minds from other, more successful organizations who are capable of coming in and telling Shapiro "You're wrong about this." And Shapiro needs to give that person real power -- not just the cop-out title of "Special Assistant."

For now, "this," as it pertains to what Shapiro is doing wrong, will remain mostly undefined. The point is, the Indians desperately need a presence within the organization that thinks differently. Right now, I gather there isn't a ton of new thought-DNA being pumped into the front office or coaching staff. And that's what Shapiro needs -- outside influences. Even if it makes him uncomfortable.

I go back to my CEO interviews. Hiring people with different opinions, people who might challenge your methods, is one of the hardest things a leader can do. But if someone in Shapiro's shoes refuses to do that, their loyalty is ultimately to their process and plan, and not to their organization.

As the general manager, Shapiro is obligated to do what is best for the Indians. Not what is best for himself, Eric Wedge, Chris Antonetti, John Mirabelli, or even Larry and Paul Dolan -- though he answers to them. His first priority should be to making the Indians better. Period. Not making the Indians better by doing it his way, with only people loyal to his plan.

We're already seeing the results of that with a downward spiral that is worsening by the year, and a noose that is tightening around Shapiro's reputation as a GM by the week.

Midsummer mish-mash

I know it's probably dawned on you slowly over the past few weeks that your life is a little less full. But you couldn't put your finger on exactly why. Then it hit you: You hadn't read an Erik Cassano column since June.

We'll just continue to assume that because it makes me feel better. I've been on something of a self-imposed summer vacation since the end of June. And by "summer vacation" I mean "Insanely busy with little available time for leisure writing."

But I've gone into my schedule with a pickax and carved out some keyboard time. So let's get back up to speed on some of the things that have been going on in Cleveland sports.

Shaq has been a Cav for almost a month now.

And in that time, the Cavs lost their top offensive coach, John Kuester, who took the head coaching job in Detroit. Immediately, everyone in Cleveland seemed to clench their bowels at the idea of Mike Brown integrating The Big Geritol Tablet into the team's schemes without the help of an accomplished offensive assistant.

But reworking the playbook to accomodate Shaq really isn't an overly complex proposition, for two reasons. First, there aren't many ways to implement Shaq that haven't already been discovered. Second, Shaq is honestly a matchup player at this point in his career.

Shaq is a low-post player, period. Even though he's a good passer, he can't play the high post all that well because he's no threat to drive and no threat to shoot when he's more than seven feet from the hoop. Take him out of the low post and he's Ben Wallace.

Offensively, the only thing he can do is take an entry pass on the block and try to find a path to the basket. If it's there, he shoots -- usually a layup, dunk or that little right-handed hook he's developed over the years. If a double team comes, he passes. That's pretty much Shaq in a nutshell. Nothing too complicated in theory. All a coach really needs are teammates who are willing to let Shaq get his 20 to 30 touches a game.

In addition, Shaq's role with the Cavs is narrowly-defined. He is here to match up with the likes of Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum and Rasheed Wallace. When the games become slow, plodding halfcourt mud wrestling matches, Shaq is there to try and get the tough points and tough stops inside. The games in which the Cavs will truly, honestly need Shaq's services will occur in May and June -- and maybe a dozen regular season tilts.

Against the vast majority of teams on the regular season slate, the Cavs will likely keep hammering away on what worked last year -- smaller, quicker lineups. The Cavs were at their best last year when they could run with Mo Williams and Delonte West in the backcourt, with Anderson Varejao at center. That was their most athletic, most energetic and most potent lineup.

Against teams that don't have an elite big man, chances are the Cavs will still spend much of the time playing with a smaller, uptempo lineup that will give LeBron a chance to run the floor with quick guards. Shaq and Zydrunas Ilgauskas might find themselves on the bench for long stretches of those games.

The Anthony Parker signing was good for a Plan C.

Obviously, everyone -- Danny Ferry included -- would be ecstatic if we were sitting here right now contemplating how Brown is going to work Ron Artest or Trevor Ariza into the rotation. But that didn't happen. Blame whatever circumstances you want -- the cold Cleveland winters, Ohio's income tax structure or LeBron's impending free agency casting a murky cloud over the Cavs' future -- but they didn't get Artest or Ariza. They got Anthony Parker, and he's still a good catch for $5.5 million over two years.

Parker is the kind of player GMs love. He's a career-long survivor who had to work his way back to the NBA from Europe. He works hard, takes nothing for granted, and brings a specific set of skills to the table -- perimeter defense and outside shooting. The Cavs need both.

Parker is 34, so there is the omnipresent worry that his athleticism, already on a downward trend due to Father Time, will suddenly start skidding over the next couple of years. But when quickness starts to go, it's usually first evident when a player tries to guard someone with explosiveness, someone who can blow past in the bat of an eyelash.

Examining the signing purely through the lens of trying to win a title, none of the teams that currently stand between the Cavs and the crown possess shooting guards with that kind of speed. Kobe Bryant had those kinds of quicks in his athletic prime, as did Vince Carter and Ray Allen. All are outside shooters now. Parker can keep shooters in front of him.

Even if Parker can't play 40 minutes of lockdown defense a night, he can at least play effective defense for 25 to 30 minutes. At 6'-6", his height alone means the Cavs match up better with the other contenders. It wouldn't shock me to see Parker win the starting shooting guard's job in training camp, with West moving to a supersub role.

The Anderson Varejao signing: Good, at least for the short term.

I understand why the Cavs signed Varejao for six years and up to $50 million. He is their best big man under the age of 30. He's been a productive player for his entire career. He could have let hard feelings from the 2007 holdout fiasco fester in his mind, but he put it behind him and played ball. In part, the contract length might have been a gesture of goodwill on the part of Cavs management, an attempt to show Varejao that they're willing to go a little above and beyond the call of duty to secure his future.

Securing Varejao also helps paint LeBron a picture of what kind of team the Cavs might have for the 2010-11 season. As important as it is to maintain salary cap flexibility for next summer, it's important to begin showing LeBron who his running mates will be if he decides to re-sign or exercise his option next summer. LBJ likes Varejao, so in that vein, committing to Varejao is most definitely a positive move.

Is Varejao worth the years and dollars? To an extent. He is what he is. He'll never become even an average offensive player, he's an average rebounder at best, but his defense has improved, he's still a high-energy player and he still has a knack for drawing charges, even as the NBA promises time and time again that refs will crack down on flopping.

Ferry did overpay somewhat for Varejao, but at least he overpaid and made a half-decade commitment to a player who fits the Cavs' system. He might be best-suited to coming off the bench, but he can start at power forward and look competent, at least when he's not asked to guard Dwight Howard. Unfortunately, that's the last image we as fans have of Varejao to date, so it might color our assessment of him for the duration of the summer.

Where else can the Cavs spend money?

The Cavs have signed Heat forward Jamario Moon to an offer sheet. Moon is a 6'-8", 29-year-old small forward known for his hops and man defense. He can probably play some power forward in smaller lineups, adding momentum to the idea that the Cavs will continue to play small and quick whenever the situation allows.

But in order for Moon to become a Cav, the Heat cannot match the offer sheet, which is reportedly in excess of $2 million and, like all offer sheets, must be for a minimum of two years. The Heat are deep at the forward position and might be pursuing bigger game in the form of Lamar Odom, so there appears to be a significant chance that Miami won't match to keep Moon. The Heat have until Friday to make a decision.

If Miami does match, the Cavs will have to once again look at other options.

The Cavs worked out Sean May -- he of the notorious weight and conditioning problems -- in Las Vegas last week, but he might be headed to Sacramento. They reportedly had an interest in Warriors free agent Rob Kurz, an undrafted summer league find from a year ago. He is a 6'-9" outside shooter. The Suns' Matt Barnes has also reportedly been on the Cavs' radar, but for whatever reason, Ferry and Co. only seem to have a lukewarm interest.

An intriguing player who recently landed in the free agent pool is Tim Thomas. Bought out by the Bulls last week, Thomas could fill a need for the Cavs if they could get him to sign for their remaining $3.2 million.

Thomas is a power forward with three-point range on his jumper. If you listen to basketball pundits from around the country, an outside-shooting power forward is part of the Shaq championship equation. Every title Shaq has won has come with some help from a power forward who can pull big men out of the lane and force them to contest perimeter shots -- the so-called "stretch four." Thomas doesn't play a lot of defense, but as Shaq's wingman, he could help pull would-be double teamers away from the big guy. On a one-year or two-year deal, Thomas might be worth a reasonable investment.

The Cavs' draft was all about the money not spent.

Ferry loves doing this to us, right? That pick out of left field. Last year, it was J.J. Hickson. This year, it was Congolese small forward Christian Eyenga, who has been playing pro ball in the European minor leagues.

When the pick was first announced, my initial reaction was that the Cavs had pulled another Ejike Ugboaja out of their hat. Ugboaja was the forward taken by the Cavs with one of their second-round picks in 2006. As time has gone by, I've become convinced that Ferry essentially punted that pick away by drafting a player he never had any intention of signing. I thought he did it again with Eyenga.

Ferry did kind of move the chess pieces around by drafting Eyenga and leaving more immediate help on the board. The idea is likely that a rookie picked at No. 30 probably can't help the Cavs win a title this coming year, so why draft someone you have to sign this year?

Unlike Ugboaja, Eyenga does have a future with the Cavs. He started to turn some heads with a solid showing at the Las Vegas summer league last week, but it's still improbable that he's going to open the season with the Cavs. Especially since the Cavs drafted North Carolina swingman Danny Green in the second round. Green might not possess Eyenga's ceiling, but he's more NBA-ready and figures to open the season with the team -- and for less money than Eyenga would make as a first-round pick.

Who should the Tribe trade?

Mark DeRosa is already gone to St. Louis. There is no question that the Indians are out of contention to stay. With the trade deadline less than two weeks away, now is the time when non-contenders usually start pawning off their expendable veterans for future help.

But unlike in years part, I think Mark Shapiro needs to be a little more selective about who he deals.

There is a school of thought that says now is the time to deal Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez. They have one more year remaining on their contracts, so Shapiro will be able to ask more than the going rate for a half-season rental. But Lee and Martinez are also the club's best pitcher and hitter respectively, and if the Indians want to hold any hope for a return to contention in 2010, they probably need to keep both.

I'm not ready to surrender 2010 just yet. Watching young players like Franklin Gutierrez go to other organizations and find success leads me to believe that the first corrective step is to hire a new manager and coaching staff, preferably with a heavy influence from another, more successful organization. There is a reason why the Cavs have tried to emulate the Spurs and the Browns have tried to emulate the Patriots. It doesn't always work, but if you're going to imitate, imitate a winner.

If a new coaching staff doesn't yield results next season, or if Shapiro's loyalty to his plan is so dense that he can't bring himself to alter his philosophy, then maybe an larger-scale rebuild is in order, in which case it's time for the everything-must-go used car blowout sale. In which case, maybe it's time for the Dolans to find Shapiro's successor.

Until then, keep Lee and Martinez. And please keep Kerry Wood. He hasn't won himself a lot of supporters with his performance thus far as an Indian, but after years of watching Bob Wickman and Joe Borowski save games with smoke, mirrors and mid-80s fastballs, we finally have a closer with closer stuff. I don't want to surrender him so soon. There is always a chance he could rebound next year, and if that isn't the case, then it might be time to part ways.

Am I pumped for Browns season? Yes, to a point.

They went 4-12 last year. As far as sexy drafts go, their '09 draft was somewhere south of Rosie O'Donnell. But maybe that's part of the appeal of Eric Mangini: He's not trying to blow everyone away with his ability to make big splashes like Phil Savage did.

There was a lot of change for the Browns this offseason, as there will always be when a new regime comes to town. But they've been mostly low-key changes. The apple cart hasn't been upset, which I think was a good move.

The Browns have the players to be a decent team. They needed more stability, better leadership and better luck with avoiding injuries to realize that potential. Mangini has, at least thus far, brought the first two elements to the table. As for the third? Buy a rabbit's foot and start rubbing it.

I still wonder what is going to happen to the running game when Jamal Lewis inevitably breaks down. I still think Mangini needs to name Brady Quinn the starting quarterback and be done with it. I still question the wisdom of putting the burden to produce on the shoulders of rookie receivers Brian Robiskie and Mohamed Massaquoi. But for the first time in a long time, my questions about the Browns aren't the product of across-the-board concerns with the team's overall philosophy.

I am honestly intrigued by what I'm going to see out of the Browns this year. I'm not expecting a lot right away, but I am interested to see Mangini at work.

The Big Unknown

Shaquille O'Neal is big if he's nothing else.

The Big Daddy. The Big Aristotle. The Big Cactus. The Big Shaqtus.

He's 7'-1", 325 pounds and his persona is even larger -- maybe one of the few personalities in the league who can overshadow the Cavs' own magnetic LeBron James.

We're going to find out firsthand how big Shaq is. The grandest of grand Cleveland sports experiments will start to play out over the summer and into the fall. Shaq is coming to the Cavs, courtesy of a trade completed in the wee hours of Thursday morning -- a trade that reportedly sent Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlovic and the Cavs' second round draft pick, No. 46, to Phoenix. Now, we get to see if the potentially-volatile concoction of two legitimate superstars can flourish in Cleveland and end this city's title drought, which will almost certainly stretch to a 46th year.

In basketball, size does matter. And size is why Danny Ferry pulled the trigger on this trade. Shaq is 37, and will be 38 by the time next season's playoffs start. He's slower than he was in his prime years, but he's still a force in the post because he's so big and possesses the coordination to get the ball into the hoop in multiple ways. His size also makes him a load to handle as a post defender.

Shaq will draw double teams on a regular basis, as will LeBron. The combination of the two will produce a staggering number of open looks for the Cavs' perimeter shooters. Even if Shaq disturbs the neat flow of the Cavs' offense, the Cavs should still not hurt for points next season if guys like Mo Williams, Delonte West and Daniel Gibson are knocking down their looks.

If basketball were the only factor to consider about bringing Shaq aboard, this would be a relatively low-risk trade. Even with Shaq's advancing age, the Cavs just received a massive upgrade at the center position for spare parts.

But Shaq is big. And that means big everything. And it's all the non-basketball factors that make this deal a potential powder keg.

No secret, Shaq has an enormous ego, which can divide as well as unite. No active player has a better concept of what it takes to win titles. But in Shaq's world, harmony isn't always a necessary ingredient. For the Cavs, with their often-celebrated locker room chemistry and a low-key coach, that could become a culture shock.

In Los Angeles, he won three titles while maintaining a contentious relationship with Kobe Bryant. It was a volatile relationship that would have fractured a lesser team, but the 2000-02 Lakers had a deep supporting cast and Phil Jackson for a coach. The Cavs don't have that kind of supporting cast, and Mike Brown does not have the locker room management skills that Jackson has honed over years of winning championships in Chicago and Los Angeles. Even so, by 2004, Jackson couldn't prevent the Lakers from lapsing into a fall-of-Rome state. Shaq was traded to Miami that summer.

Shaq won an NBA title in Miami with Dwyane Wade, with whom he has forged a friendship. But even his stay in Miami was marred by a tense relationship with then-Heat coach Stan Van Gundy. The Heat didn't win their title until Pat Riley came out of the front office to reclaim the head coach's job during the 2005-06 season.

The moral of the story? Shaq isn't the easiest guy to get along with. If he doesn't feel he's getting the ball enough or doesn't feel he's being utilized properly, he has no qualms about taking his internal squabble with the coach to the media. If he isn't getting along with a player, don't expect Shaq to be the party that admits fault and extends the olive branch.

Shaq openly disrespects old foes. It's fine to dub Van Gundy the "master of panic" when you play in the opposite conference and have virtually no chance of facing your old coach in a meaningful game. When you're playing for the team that lost to Van Gundy's Magic in the conference finals, it's a different story. The first scenario is funny. The second is bulletin board material.

But that's the Shaq Package. Along with the frontline beef comes the brazen comments and self-serving displays of ego. Make no mistake about it, Hollywood basketball has come to the nice-guy, team-first Cleveland Cavaliers.

Shaq's presence as a daily fact of life should make the Cavs all the more entertaining. When he's not being snarky, Shaq can be quite funny and charming. He's always quotable. And with LeBron's history as a positive, outgoing team leader, there is reason to believe that he and Shaq will develop a positive relationship.

But the degree to which Shaq and LeBron will coexist harmoniously depends on how the plot develops on the hardwood. Shaq will need his touches in the post. LeBron will need his touches on the wings and perimeter. Mo will want his shots. Altogether, it wouldn't be a shock to see those three account for 70 to 75 percent of the Cavs' total shots in a given game. That leaves Delonte, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and the rest of the team to fight over the scraps.

Like I said, it's going to be a delicate balance. The ramifications of Shaq's presence extend well beyond his relationships with LeBron and Brown.

The 2009-10 season will be a juggling act for Brown as he attempts to get a roster led by two massive egos to the playoffs, then through the early rounds and back to the point where the Cavs were eliminated in May.

That's the real reason Danny Ferry has sought the services of Shaq. Not to beat the Grizzlies in December. Not to beat the Bobcats in February. It's to beat the Magic, Celtics and Lakers in late May and June. The Cavs don't need Shaq's help to win 60 games during the regular season. They don't need Shaq's help to beat the Pistons or Hawks in the playoffs. They need Shaq's help to beat the best of the best when it counts the most.

If Shaq can help make a world championship a reality for the Cavs, size will matter. Ring size. And if that's the case, dealing with Shaq's size in all its forms will have been well worth it.

But as of right now, that's still The Big "If."

Winging the draft

If there is any silver lining to be pulled from the Cavaliers losing in the conference finals, it's that the offseason will move fast.

This Thursday marks the NBA Draft, the first chance the Cavs will have to reload for next season. Most basketball reporters and pundits are predicting that the Cavs are going to approach the summer as one of the few buyers in a league of sellers, and if that is the case, the draft marks the beginning of a blank canvas of an offseason for Danny Ferry and his staff. The Cavs can take this offseason in a number of different directions.

Since Dan Gilbert's pocketbook is apparently not an issue when it comes to stocking the roster for the 2009-10 season, what Ferry can accomplish is limited by only his tradeable assets, creativity, and ability to phone and text his colleagues in other NBA front offices.

Ferry will make some significant things happen this summer as the Cavs approach LeBron James' anticipated foray into free agency next summer. What form Ferry's moves will take remains to be seen, but as the draft approaches, we can scan the landscape and set some basic ground rules.

First, the Cavs' biggest need is immediate help in the frontcourt, and Ferry almost certainly isn't going to find that in the draft. Ferry needs veteran big men who can step in and start -- or at least play major, productive minutes -- right away. The Cavs have been talking to the Phoenix Suns about Shaquille O'Neal, which should give you an idea of what Ferry is looking for in terms of frontcourt help. He wants playoff-tested veterans who can provide size and skill to the center and power forward positions right away.

There are a couple of elite-potential big men available in this year's draft, but unless the Cavs can somehow trade up to the tippy-top of the draft order for a shot at Blake Griffin or Hasheem Thabeet, going big is probably not a great idea for the Cavs on draft night.

Second, the Cavs have a less-pressing need for a dynamic wing player who can score and defend. This draft has some decent depth at the shooting guard and small forward positions. If the Cavs sit tight with the 30th pick, there is a chance that a solid wing player could fall to them. If Ferry is more proactive and acquires a pick in the teens, there is a much better chance that he'll find a swingman who can step in and produce as a rookie.

And if pre-draft scuttlebutt is to be believed, a number of teams could be looking to move down in, or entirely out of, the first round as a money-saving move. That means Ferry could find ample opportunity to move up in the draft order without breaking his own bank.

Assuming that Ferry is going to commit the vast majority of his tradeable assets and free agency resources to improving the frontcourt with veterans, draft night might present Ferry with his best chance to get a skilled wing player who can at least bring more to the table than Wally Szczerbiak or Sasha Pavlovic, neither of whom should count on a return to the Cavs next season.

Here are a few possibilities for a first-round Cavs pick if Ferry stays put at No. 30, and a few possibilities if he moves up.


If the Cavs move up

DeMar DeRozan, freshman, USC

Pos: SG, Ht: 6'-7", Wt: 220

Ferry might have to trade up to around No. 10 to have a shot at DeRozan, a Southern California freshman who is regarded by scouts as a supreme athlete. He has range on his jumper and pogo-stick legs that have gifted him with a 40-inch vertical jump. However, he is only 19, so his game is still kind of raw and his defensive fundamentals need work, meaning his ability to step in and produce for the Cavs as a rookie is legitimately within question. But as he matures, his star potential alongside someone like LeBron would be hard to ignore.

Gerald Henderson, junior, Duke

SG, 6'-4", 215

Mike Krzyzewski's program isn't known for cranking out a lot of NBA stars. But one thing Duke has done for the NBA is produce a number of steady role players who go on to have long and productive, if not spectacular, professional careers.

Henderson could very well become another in that mold. He's a player who is great at nothing but good to very good at just about everything. He can hit spot-up jumpers outside, pull-up jumpers inside, and can finish at the rim and draw fouls. Coming from Duke, he's been well-schooled in defensive principles and can play good man defense on the perimeter -- a major need for the Cavs.

Henderson is a little undersized for an NBA shooting guard, and is significantly undersized for an NBA small forward. But as a rookie, if he could battle the Mickael Pietruses and Eddie Houses of the world to a draw, he could become a productive role player for the Cavs.

Chase Budinger, junior, Arizona

SG, 6'-7", 205

If Ferry is looking for a player who could potentially step in and start at some point next season, Budinger is a good place to begin the search. At 21 and with three years at a top-level college program under his belt, he has developed into an excellent all-around offensive player. He is among the best pure shooters in the draft among swingmen, with range beyond the NBA three-point line and an advanced ability to curl off screens and knock down jumpers. He has the size, hops and athleticism to get to the rim and score. He's also a decent passer with an unselfish mentality.

However, Budinger's defensive game is not as advanced as his offensive game, which means Mike Brown's help-and-recover defensive system would have to do a lot to mask Budinger's man defense weaknesses.

Terrence Williams, senior, Louisville

SG/SF, 6'-6", 215

Another player with starter potential as an NBA rookie, Williams isn't the offensive force that Budinger is, but he employs his height and length far better at the defensive end. He's also a good rebounder for a wing player.

The main problem with Williams is his shooting, and reliance on the outside shot. Although he is an excellent athlete, he lacks a dynamic offensive game and an inability to penetrate could force him to rely solely on his outside shooting. In that department, his three-point shooting has stayed below 40 percent throughout his college career.

If the Cavs stay put

Sam Young, senior, Pittsburgh

SF, 6'-6", 220

It might be a bit of a stretch to think that Young could still be available at No. 30, but teams have been scared off by less than a 24-year-old senior.

In a best-case scenario, Young's advanced age would make the other 29 teams hedge enough to pass on him, leaving the door open for the Cavs to take the defense-minded swingman at 30.

Young isn't the most fluid player on the board, and offensive game might be limited to jump shooting at the professional level. But he's big and tall with a long wingspan and high defensive potential. Young might never be an NBA starter, but he could develop into the type of player that could shut down the other team's best wing scorer for stretches. After watching the Magic light the Cavs up from the perimeter throughout the conference finals, that kind of player could be worth his weight in gold.

Wayne Ellington, junior, North Carolina

SG, 6'-5", 200

Ellington would seem to project as a shooting specialist on the NBA level. His jump shooting ability is superlative, and over his college career, he's developed multiple ways to get his shot off. He can spot up, pull up in traffic and shooting it coming off screens. If he can develop a niche as a catch-and-shoot gunner in the NBA, he'd be a great fit playing alongside LeBron.

However, his size, quickness and overall athletic ability will probably grade out as below average at the NBA level, meaning that he's not going to become much of a threat taking the ball inside, and he will likely remain a suspect defender. That probably won't sit well with Mike Brown.

Dionte Christmas, senior, Temple

SG, 6'-5", 210

Christmas is a player with a well-developed offensive skill set who might be lacking a bit in athleticism. He can probably shoot it at the NBA level, but his ability to create his shot at the next level is questionable. Christmas is a good passer, solid defender and regarded as an intelligent player, so he can probably fit well into a defined role in a team concept.

DaJuan Summers, junior, Georgetown

SF, 6'-8", 245

Size and athleticism make Summers an attractive pick at 30. With an ability to both shoot it from the outside and post up, along with an NBA-size body, he could develop into a legitimate inside-outside threat at the pro level.

Summers' biggest problem is a lack of fundamental discipline. He hasn't yet showed an ability to play fundamentally-solid defense on a consistent basis, and any technical errors in his offensive game stand a much better chance of being exploited at the NBA level. But he still has size and height, and you can't teach that.

Baseball withdrawal

I have a confession to make.

I only started really paying attention to the Indians about two weeks ago. As in, really following them day to day.

True story. The Cavs took up that much of my sports-related attention for roughly eight months. I didn't start keeping daily tabs on the Tribe until the Cavs made their abrupt exit from the playoffs in the conference finals. Even then, I didn't focus on baseball until I made up my mind that the NBA Finals, no matter the winner, would just be too painful to watch.

Certainly, I paid passing attention to how the Indians were generally doing -- which is to say, poorly through April and May. But watching the Indians sag to the bottom of arguably the weakest division in baseball made me dread the end of the Cavs' season even more.

I had made up my mind about the Tribe's offseason moves over the winter. Signing Kerry Wood was a good move. Signing Carl Pavano to guaranteed money was a bad move. Mark DeRosa was another grinder who was going to be valued by Eric Wedge and Mark Shapiro for his supposed intangibles like hustle, heart and leadership -- and the ability to play five different positions. But at the end of the season, he'd present us with a .260 average and 12 homers.

Other than that, I was certain the Indians stirred nothing in me. They weren't all that good in '08, and I didn't really see anything that made me believe they were going to suddenly find the path to greatness in '09. Heading into this season, I firmly believed that the 2007 season was a fluke, one of the few glimmers of success on an otherwise drab backdrop of mediocrity, and one of the only things on which Shapiro and Wedge could hang their collective hat.

If anything, once my suspicions were confirmed in early April, I was hoping for an absolute bust of a season. I was hoping for 100 losses. A season absolutely devoid of any straw within grasping distance of Shapiro or Wedge. A season that wouldn't allow anyone in the Tribe's brain trust to hide behind injuries, or a supposed fluke of a bad bullpen, or an off year by this player or that player.

Once I saw that another lousy start was inevitable, I wanted to see the Indians have a season so bad that the Dolans would be forced to examine the organization and perform what I have believed is a long-overdue shakeup, even to the point of replacing Shapiro. Too many excuses plus not enough wins equals failed rebuild. Harsh? Maybe. But from my perspective, it was better to come to the conclusion now than in 2012, when three more seasons had been wasted.

The Indians hardened my heart. On a trip to Florida in May, I watched them blow a 7-0 lead to the Rays at Tropicana Field, losing 8-7 on a B.J. Upton homer in the bottom of the ninth inning. As I left the stadium that night, I was openly relieved that I decided against wearing an Indians shirt to the game.

A lot of fans, in Cleveland and elsewhere, place a premium on representing your home team when attending a road game. But a bad experience at an Indians-Tigers game at Comerica Park in 2006 made me wise up. If representing one of the teams in this town is going to subject me to ridicule, persistent heckling or worse, why put myself through that? Just because they're going down doesn't mean they have to take me with them.

I was hoping every day that the Cavs would extend their season into mid-June. Even if a Finals loss delievered temporary numbness, it would mean only about five weeks until Browns training camp started. The Browns might still reek like a fish kill this year, but at least they offer the intrigue of a new coaching regime and the obligatory accompaniment of new players.

In the interim, I'd have the NBA draft and the start of the NBA trading and free agency season, which is certain to be an intriguing period for Cavs fans. So if the Indians were to continue losing with a long, still silence, I made up my mind that my summer would probably be more fulfilling if I just kept them in the background.

So why am I watching them again? Why am I hoping again?

The overwhelming apathy is disappearing. I'm looking at the standings again. I'm seeing the Indians hovering six-to-seven games back in the AL Central, and thinking "You know, if they could slice that lead in half by the all-star break..."

I'm actually having an opinion on this team again. While watching a win over the Cardinals this past weekend, I actually said "This is why you rely on healthy players. You don't keep plugging along with injured players in the lineup."

Did I say that? I meant to say "Who cares? They're still bound for 75 wins."

Am I really catching myself watching every at-bat of Victor Martinez? Liking Shin-Soo Choo more by the day? Making sure I'm in front of a TV for every Cliff Lee start? Even gaining some begrudging acceptance of Pavano and DeRosa?

This can't be happening. I had an air of indifference carefully constructed. I don't want to be sucked back in. This team is Nowheresville. The rebuild needs to be rebuilt, and quite possibly with a new GM and manager. Hope is a bad thing when your team is in last place.

And yet, not even 10 games out. And if they could just cut that deficit in half by the all-star break....

There is no getting out, is there? These guys had better make a season of it, or this could be a long summer.