Byron Scott is a poker chip for the Cavs in the high stakes game of NBA free agency, Bud Shaw writes in his Spin column.
Byron Scott's agent is also the representative for The Beaver of classic TV fame ... and after some displeasure for an interview experience with the Cavaliers his client now seems headed to The Q.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Just to keep some semblance of normalcy, the Spin will never declare free agency.
Delonte West would be good in the role of Eddie Haskell
One day the Cavaliers seemingly are leaning -- some would call it "listing" from a boomeranging torpedo -- in the direction of Brian Shaw. The next -- Wednesday -- they seemed primed to hire the more experienced Byron Scott.
(Meaningless background break: Scott's agent, Brian McInerney, also represents Jerry Mathers. Yep. The Beav, from the classic "Leave it to Beaver" TV show. Purely from an entertainment standpoint, I would love to see Scott get the job, hire Mathers as a special assistant and bring back Wally Szczerbiak just to hear Wally and The Beav address each other by name.)
It's difficult to imagine how the hiring of a rookie head coach (Shaw) would've worked as an enticement for LeBron James. Scott probably wouldn't seal the deal either, but he could help.
Scott has his detractors. He's not known for burning the midnight oil. He can be rigid in his ways. That said, I guess he rigidly underprepared two teams all the way to the NBA Finals?
Scott said Tuesday he wasn't waiting for Phil Jackson to decide whether to return to the Lakers. Scott also said he didn't need to know James' future before deciding whether to coach the Cavaliers.
Within 24 hours, McInerney sent an email to AOL FanHouse critical of the Cavaliers' coaching search and even went as far as to congratulate Shaw on joining the NBA coaching fraternity.
The email, in part:
"We assumed that due [to] a week of miscommunications with the organization, which continually required on the record correcting, [Cavaliers GM] Chris Grant was aware of our disappointment in media driven coaching search. As a week of 'corrected' media reports from 'our camp' indicated, we did not appreciate Cavalier executives going 'off the record' and creating incorrect news with writers, or at least as was repeatedly told to us by those journalists," McInerney wrote FanHouse.
With Scott back in the picture, maybe his camp now considers that a case of no harm, no foul.
Brian Shaw (center, with Lakers head coach Phil Jackson and guard Derek Fisher) won't apparently take over the Cavaliers' bench, and Bud Shaw thinks that's for the best.Scott's good relationship with James' buddy, Chris Paul, would have to be a poker chip in dealing with James. If you can get Scott, you get him. If not, why hire a coach until after James declares his intentions, provided it's not Labor Day?
The Cavs need to hire a guy who excites James. Or wait and hire a coach who's excited by James' return.
Shaw could be a solid choice. He comes from the Jackson tree.
That sounds vaguely familiar. Mike Brown's connection to Gregg Popovich in San Antonio recommended him. Shaw and Brown could sing you a love song about the importance of defense but there's a lot more to it than that, as Brown discovered.
Scott played and coached in the NBA Finals. If he's willing to sign up ahead of James' decision, it's not only a good hire but it gives James another reason to re-sign.
The rumor mill keeps grinding...
I have not been able to confirm this, but I am told that the Cavaliers will, in fact, field a team in the NBA next year if James does not re-sign.
The Celtics' novel idea: having a coach who entices players to re-sign.
With a trip to the Finals in the rear-view mirror and Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen all expressing interest in playing another season together (even though the latter two are free agents), Doc Rivers is back with the Celtics.Boston Celtics' head coach Doc Rivers decided Wednesday he'd honor the final year of his contract and return for the 2010-11 season. This news came a day after Paul Pierce opted for free agency.
Few in the league believed Pierce would sign anywhere else with Rivers on the fence. It's less believable with Rivers returning and vowing to recruit Pierce and Ray Allen to remain in Boston.
"I want to try one more year with this group," Rivers told Yahoo!
After mistakenly saying all season that the Celtics looked too old to contend, it would be stupid to suggest they can't make another run next year. So I won't say that. I'll just be thinking it.
Why they say timing is everything...
Outfielder Jerad Head received the Akron Aeros' "Player of the Week" award Monday less than a week after he was arrested along with teammates Beau Mills and Columbus Clippers pitcher Josh Tomlin and charged with felonious assault stemming from a June 3 bar fight.
According to the team release, Head's "slugging numbers continue to explode in the month of June."
Allegedly.
HE SAID IT
"It didn't get dysfunctional; it was always dysfunctional." -- Hank Haney, in the August issue of Golf Digest, on his six years as Tiger Woods' swing coach.
If they were dysfunctional, what's that make Tiger and Butch Harmon? Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown?
YOU SAID IT
(The Slightly Expanded Midweek Edition)
"Bud:
"Watching World Cup soccer begs the question, have you ever flopped after a grammatical error?" -- Tom H.
No, but I did receive a yellow card once for what was ruled a particularly dangerous run-on sentence.
"Bud:
"Does LeBron James think there has been too much hype over the World Cup?" -- Flo G.
Not sure. But I'm told he rooted hard for the U.S. team after hearing someone call them "the Yanks."
"Bud:
"It's actually embarrassing that one high school basketball player can command the attention that [LeBron James] does. And the media just keeps overwriting day after day. I don't want to see another word about it. It's only a basketball game and he's a player." -- Larr
If you've seen the hairline in my column picture, sir, you know I do not embarrass easily.
"Hey Bud:
"The World Cup soccer tournament reminds me of a childhood rhyme. Fifa-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of a referee bum. Or is that an umpire? I not sure, because I never watch." -- Rick
Don't you know that for the fourth straight decade, soccer is primed to sweep the country.
"Hey Bud:
"The only difference between the U.S. Soccer Team and any Cleveland franchise is that we have to wait four long years to watch the U.S. team lose." -- Jim
Yep, four long years. The time between World Cups really does drag, doesn't it?
"Bud:
"The insanity [over James] started with his draft and has been fanned and fanned every day since by the sports pages. Now you want it stopped? When he leaves, what will you write about?" -- Chip
I will write that the Cavs are geniuses for finally hiring a coach named Shaw.
"Dear Mr. Shaw:
"World Cup Soccer must not be thought of as a major sporting event unless the games are played at 9:07 p.m. Eastern Time. -- Sincerely, Bud Selig and David Stern."
First-time "You Said It" winners receive a T-shirt from the Mental Floss collection. Repeat winners get a two-disc CD of "The Vuvuzela Christmas Collection."