FreeDarko is primarily an index of pseudo-intellectual ramblings on the NBA. At its best FreeDarko is a wonderful arbiter of style in what is easily the most stylish of all American professional sports league. Look no further for careful consideration of the ephemeral aspects of the game. An elegant-yet-furious burst of magical basketball prowess from Josh Smith as evidenced by a scrub-time dunk, for instance, is right in FreeDarko’s wheelhouse.
At its worst, like when the writers try to grapple with actual basketball content (as opposed to basketball style), FreeDarko can be pretty horrendous. So it was with yesterday’s post. Allow me to quote from it:
At any rate, the fact remains that the rest of the Cavs, save for the oft-injured Larry Hughes, pretty much suck. Donyell and Big Z are finally starting to play as old as they look, I’m not buying whatever Anderson Varejao is selling, and Drew Gooden’s got ADD.
This is “suck” in the typical meaning of the word. This has nothing to do with a lack of style. FreeDarko refers to the bench as “shit awful”. So on one had we have a shit bench and on the other hand we have Larry Hughes as the only Cav other than LeBron who doesn’t suck. There is nothing about this that makes any sense whatsoever.
Larry Hughes is in fact one of the worst players on the roster so far this season and there is little basis for assuming that he is anything but a pedestrian two-guard. Only one time in his career has Hughes had a great season. In the rest of his seasons Hughes has battled average and lost more often than not. Gooden, meanwhile, has been one of the best Cavs players this season and, what is more, one of the most consistent. Were he not just coming off an injury sustained while competing with LBJ in a dunk contest during warmups — !!!!! — there would be nothing in his recent history on which to base the ADD comment. Historically Gooden has proven himself more than capable of mentally checking out for long stretches of games. But in each of his seasons he has improved — he’s finally coming within three point range of the promise of his draft status — and there is no reason to think that his bump in productivity this season — of which we are 1/4 of the way through — is a fluke. If anything, Gooden is the anti-Hughes: instead of coming off a contract year and reverting to form (which is what Hughes did in spectacular fashion last year) Gooden has actually improved in the year following his contract year. Plus, he’s been healthy.
Varejao is better than most people think, too. He looks like a novelty, but his game is legitimate.
The problem with the Cavs is that they are able to pretty much suck while the players, as a group, pretty much don’t.
Anyway, FreeDarko is grossly off target here. They ought to stick to what they know.
