Oct

30

Cavaliers Suffering From Delonteitis

Posted by Stephen Rhodes under SDC COMMENTARY 

Cleveland Cavaliers fans, fear not, despite your team’s current 0-2 record. Lots of good teams stumble out of the blocks at 0-2 and recover. But it appears that in the Cavs’ situation, it is one player that could be the lynch pin as to the team’s fortunes between now and the playoffs: Delonte West.

They seem to be in a quandry because West hasn’t played a single game – preseason or regular season – for the team. And yet he isn’t suffering from any sort of physical illness or injury at all. Technically, the team has him as “away” due to “personal reasons”. But as those of you who follow the happenings in Cleveland already know, West is suffering from bipolar disorder.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the disorder, basically it is a disorder which is a mental imbalance. It affects your mood as like Tourette’s Syndrome, mood swings are the norm. And as those of you who have been following the West situation already know, West is having issues outside of the basketball arena that are of a domestic nature, which have not came to finality as of yet.

Where does West’s situation fit in the grand scheme of things in Cleveland? Well, consider that the Cavaliers seem listless when on defense, especially at the guard position. West’s forte is defense; as such, he usually is assigned to the top scorer on the wing (usually the 2 guard). As of late, that assignment has fallen into the hands of Daniel Gibson. The results thus far have been below par.

So to say that West’s presence on the hardwood is an understatement as the first line of defense (the guards) is compromised with his absence. And yet the Cavaliers are dealing on what to do with West while the team figures out what to do in the meantime; so how does the team deal with West in the long-term?

It seems to me to be a tough call. The team, to its credit, is allowing West to deal with his inner demons; however, the team doesn’t exactly have an indefinite time frame to work with, either.

I can honestly say that Cavs general manager Danny Ferry, just on this situation alone – should he handle it correctly – get some major consideration for NBA Executive of the Year. And there is another thing to consider: how does this affect LeBron’s future in Cleveland?

Pretty simple, in my estimation. If West can resolve his issues in a timely (i.e. as soon as possible) fashion, perhaps the Cavaliers can proceed on their usual course to the playoffs and beyond. If this turns out to be a wait-and-see proposition regarding West, then the Cavs will need to make a final decision regarding West ASAP, otherwise, their chances of reaching the NBA Finals will go from probable to slim.

LeBron and Shaq cannot do this alone. They, for at least the short-term, need some inspired play from the guard spots until West returns – assuming West returns. And I think depending on what the final resolution ultimately is, the Cavs will make the playoffs but not visit the NBA Finals.

West’s mental state of mind is important, don’t get me wrong. But at the same time, the Cavaliers will need to make a hard decision of a permanent nature. LeBron’s future – directly or indirectly – rests in the hands of the Cavaliers organization and Delonte West. And by the way Cavaliers brass – the meter’s running.


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