Factory Of Sadness
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Cleveland Cavaliers: Role Players Have No Choice but Play on Another Level

By Ryan Rosko

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Unfortunately there are now more reasons why people are going to doubt the Cavs winning the championship after everything that happened in game one of the finals.

The team has persevered through many struggles this season. With the team playing their best ball in the playoffs, I am confident that the team will continue to go above and beyond and prove those reasons are not going to stop them from winning the championship. Are they limited in options, no doubt, but with LeBron James and a successful coach in David Blatt, any underestimating in the team people may have made should end.

Now with the current roster, there are two points that are more emphasized now: 1) All role players are going to have to play at a higher level even more than they have. They have no choice in order for the team to win. 2.) With the championship experiences of James and Blatt, the focus will be shifted to how both adjust on and off the court.

How much more responsibility James takes on as well is going to be interesting.

James, James Jones, Mike Miller, Kendrick Perkins, Shawn Marion and Brendan Haywood all have won championships in the past. All of them except Haywood, who is not expected to play, will need to play like they did when they won it all when and if given the opportunity.

Iman Shumpert has averaged 9.9 points a game and 5.1 rebounds during this playoffs run. J.R. Smith has averaged 13.2 points a game, 4.8 rebounds, and just under 40% in the playoffs.

Both he and Shumpert are going to be the keys to stopping the back court of the Golden State Warriors. If they can do a decent job on defense and up their production on offense, Cleveland should prove many doubters wrong. Without the role players making sure their level of play increases, the team’s chances to succeed are very limited.

  • Obviously it is going to be tougher getting the series won now. King James Gospel went over the odds now to win the championship with the current roster.

In Browns Country

Pro Football Talk suggested that a team like Cleveland should make a trade for Eli Manning after the season if he becomes available. I gave my thoughts and opinions on the topic yesterday .

Two teams practicing together in preseason is not unusual. Dawg Pound Daily gave insight on when the Browns do just that with the Buffalo Bills.

With the Indians

Wahoos on First believes the right move was to not designate for assignment Jerry Sands. This was the second time Sands was DFA from the team.

With the MLB Draft set to start tomorrow, Wahoos on First also had a podcast posted. On the podcast they discussed the Indians options for the draft with Scout.com’s Jeff Ellis.

The Reigning National Champs Buckeyes

Scarlet and Game late last week started their three part series for the argument of each of the three QB’s in contention to win the QB position this fall. The first part of the series was the Cardale Jones argument.

Eleven Warriors had an article on OSU’s football coach Urban Meyer’s upcoming book. In the article, the site gave a list of other famous college football coaches who also during their careers wrote a book.

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