I just realized that in the picture below, you can actually see Mike Brown on the sidelines with his hands in his pockets. Fitting.

To Mike Brown: When your team is on offense, and the first pass is to LeBron James, who holds the ball still for five or six seconds, while everyone else stands motionless around the perimeter, and then takes a long jumper; or when Larry Hughes receives the ball, then dribbles in place for three seconds before launching a long jumper rather than driving to the basket and getting his shot blocked because he hasn't learned to drive and kick, please - PLEASE - don't stand on the sidelines with your hands in your pockets.

Did you watch the same game as I did yesterday? Did you see how the Heat made an entry pass to Shaq, who held the ball while all 4 (!) other players rotated around him? That was a basketball play! Couldn't Z do that? Did you see the Heat set screens for Jason Kapono, one of the best shooters in the NBA, allowing him to catch and shoot a la Rip Hamilton? The only person we have running through screens is LeBron. He is not a catch and shoot player. He is consistently the first or second person to touch the ball in a given possesion, which allows the defense to set up for the possibility of him driving the ball. If you run a successful pick and roll with, say Gibson and Ilgauskas, the result will either be a mismatch (good) or the defense will have to send a third player over to help. One or two passes later LeBron will have the ball without three or four players directly in front of him. His drives will be unstoppable.

There is a lot of talk about posting LeBron up. Why don't we do this? Why can't he pass out of the post like Shaq?

Hire an offensive coordinator. And while you're at it, hire a free throw coach like the Mavericks. Unbelieveable.

Thank you Danny Ferry, although I should probably thank Geoff Petrie (the Kings' GM) for not agreeing to a deal. But Danny, please don't sign Bibby after he opts out of his contract at the end of the season.

Now just figure out a way to unload Larry Hughes, resign Varejao and Pavlovic or possibly pull off a sign and trade with Pavlovic. It will be difficult to keep him, but I don't think the Cavs can afford to give up Varejao in a sign and trade unless we get a major guard asset in return - which is possible. But Bibby is not the guard Cleveland should be looking for. Also, forwards Donyell Marshall and Z will be one year older next season. Best to dump Hughes; salary for a more efficient guard or two. Good luck.

In other news, check out this great write up of a massive prank pulled off at the Super Bowl. There's no epilogue in the write up, although there is one at Zug.com, who came up with the prank. But the writing quality is far worse, so once you finish reading the epilogue-less version go to Wikipedia for a better version of how it ended up. (I was going to post the link to the prank entry, but strangely, although I just read it about an hour ago, the post now auto-redirects to the Zug.com entry).

I just got my first laptop, so once I transfer the necessary files I will be able to mix and master songs from the comfort of a cable car sliding up a Swiss mountain, should I ever wish to do so.

To Danny Ferry: Please don't trade Drew Gooden for Mike Bibby.

Two months ago I would have been ecstatic about this trade. But since I discovered The Wages of Wins I am living in constant fear of another move like the Hughes signing. How is it that I seem to have a greater desire to seek out objective statistical analysis of NBA players than a GM getting paid millions for the same job? This vexes me; I'm terribly vexed.

Basically we would be trading a high percentage shooter and good rebounder for a low percentage shooter who takes a lot of shots. Also, Bibby's assist-to-turnover ratio is worse than Eric Snow's, and he only gets one more assist per game than Snow. This does not bode well for a team with offensive troubles, especially one that already has an expensive but inefficient guard (Larry Hughes). Our current starting point guard, Daniel Gibson, is already stretching the floor with his three point shooting and is much, much cheaper than Bibby. I'm not saying Gibson is the answer, especially since he can't make an assist to save his life (not good for a PG), but Bibby certainly isn't the answer either.

Ferry, please don't make a trade just to make a trade. The team will be worse off in the long run and you will need Gooden (and the salary cap space) to bring in the right point guard for this team whenever he becomes available.

Off to work now...

Watch 'The Wire'. Just do as I say. It's on HBO. Better yet, if you're planning on buying anything for $50 or more in the near future, do not buy that thing and instead purchase the first season of the show. Do it. Buy The Wire. I just finished episode 9 and I've never seen anything like it. The show has been called THE BEST SHOW ON TV by TIME, Entertainment Weekly, The Gaurdian, the Chicago Tribune, Slate, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Daily News (according to wikipedia). Feel free to add LostonPurpose.com to that list. In my experience, this is one of the few things that has ever lived up to my expectations - not even the Mona Lisa managed that. Watch the show. Make it a priority. After two episodes it will become a priority. I hardly ever watch TV, but this show rules. Trust me.

Hey, LOP is up on the front page of Spindividual. If you're interested in hearing one of the non-free songs to the left, and don't want to buy a whole album, you can buy pretty much every song there for a buck.

Figures, I complain about the Cavs and they immediately win two back-to-backs in a row for the first time since 1993 (I think). Of course, the offense still isn't very good. But I am impressed by their defensive prowess. Their defense is like 4th in the league by any metric. Mike Brown deserves some credit for that.

I will probably be posting a couple new demos in the next few weeks.

As if on cue, a black DS has materialized...

This should boost my productivity.

I can't find a Nintendo DS anywhere. Not in Ohio, not in California. Well, I'm only looking at Circuit City because I have a surplus of gift cards there, but if they don't have any in stock then I doubt many other places do. So the New Super Mario Bros. game sits in my bedroom, burning a hole through my retina every time I look at it.

Speaking of burning sensations, the Cavs need to figure out a consistent offense. I know this sounds strange, considering that they've won 5 out of 6 right now, but ultimately they're having the same problems as last year. They finally have one of the best defenses in the league by any metric, but they still lose games they shouldn't have barely pull out victories of what should be easy wins. And they don't have the proper fundamentals to compete when they're not at the top of their game, like the 2nd game of a back to back. I hate to say it, since Ilgauskas is on my fantasy team, but they're built to run. They should take advantage of the NBA's new rules and just run other teams out of the gym - LeBron, Larry, Drew, Varejao, Donyell, Damon and Gibson are all athletic enough to do this. And when things aren't working, they can put in Z and run a traditional offense (as long as they consistently pound the ball inside). The guys over at The Wages of Wins are going to do a post on the Cavs in the near future (at my bequest, sort of) and I think their data will point out that while almost all the Cavs' forwards are above average, almost all their gaurds are not. So they might as well take advantage of the athletic prowess in the frontcourt as best they can.

The picture is from Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.