Only three pictures hang in the office of Cavaliers coach Mike Brown at Quicken Loans Arena. Two are of his family. The other is of his players joining hands high in the air, an action and a picture that he says represents ''team.''

Brown starts an All-Star Game assessment of his team by talking about the ways he can improve as a coach. He continues by praising his players for winning despite more injuries than they would like to count.

This is the same coach who works the sideline markers at his son's grade-school football games and who greets everyone by first name.

This coach preaches defense, but spent part of the offseason in Europe studying ways to improve the offense.

He's not afraid to let players suggest plays in key moments or to let them call a play that will take precedence over his during a game.

He also has sat players down for heart-to-hearts about their roles on the team.

He also understands that his success relies largely on the success of one of his players (Hint: The guy wears No. 23).

And this season, he has had to be a magician in patching together lineups through holdouts and injuries that might have done in other teams.

For whatever reason, the Cavs are not looked on as an elite team in the East by the national pundits.

At the All-Star break, the Cavs have had their regular players miss 96 games due to injury and 23 to contract holdouts. The Cavs have used 11 starting lineups and twice had stretches when they have been without three or four key players. Yet they entered the All-Star break with a 29-23 record that includes a 15-6 record since Jan. 1.

Injuries and absences have been the only two factors that have held the Cavs back.

''When we're completely healthy, I think we're just about as good as anybody,'' Brown said.

Injuries were one of several subjects Brown discussed during a lengthy sit-down at Quicken Loans Arena.

Brown, a man secure enough in his position to allow his players to take charge of a situation or game, has done a juggling act worthy of Ringling Brothers in the first 52 games.

As he looked back, he reflected on the benefits of that juggling act as well as the play of LeBron James, Anderson Varejao, Zydrunas Ilgauskas — and his favorite subject, his team's defense. The topics:

The effect injuries had on the team

Brown freely conceded right off the bat that one of the ways in which he needs to grow as a coach is adjusting to missing two, three or four regular players.

Brown loves his substitution patterns — they call them ''rotations'' in the NBA now, just like jump has become ''elevate'' — and when things happen, he prefers not to alter that pattern.

That can lead to situations he described with a unique word.

''One of my weaknesses is that when I have multiple guys out I can get screwy,'' he said.

Guys shuffle in and out too much, which means offensive flow could be disturbed and defensive assignments missed.

''If I'm screwy when we have multiple guys out, I know that the team is,'' he said. ''So I have to be careful when figuring out why we lost specific games. Some of it might be 'Hey, Mike, you shuffled this guy in and this guy in and then you took that guy out and nobody really got a rhythm.'

''I have to be real careful with that. That has bothered me some. But yes, I feel like I am constantly trying to find the right combination for that specific not just night, but for that specific play or that specific quarter of that particular ballgame.''

The lineup that the Cavs started most often this season and had the most success with (11-2) had Larry Hughes and Sasha Pavlovic at guard, James and Drew Gooden at forward and Ilgauskas at center. That allowed Daniel Gibson and Varejao to provide sparks off the bench.

Once that lineup appeared to settle in, Pavlovic sprained his foot.

Then Varejao sprained his ankle.

In that same time, James missed a game with a sprained ankle, Gibson had a hamstring problem and Gooden strained a groin muscle.

Ira Newble came out of mothballs to get 11 starts, and Eric Snow went into the starting lineup for a game and found out about it minutes before the game began.

If Brown has an ego, he does not show it much. So it was in this case as he credited his players for being ready when others were injured.

''They've shown their professional character,'' Brown said. ''I give them a ton of credit for being ready to go out and contribute to help get a win no matter what has happened.''

The benefits of the injuries

If ever there was an oxymoron, that might be it. Benefits of injuries.

Brown has said often that he will not use excuses, but he even concedes, at times, that he has grown weary of the injuries and shuffling.

''A lot of times you just see one guy out, maybe two guys out,'' he said. ''But to have three, four, five guys out of your top eight rotation from last year sometimes can be hard to deal with.''

Take Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Bruce Bowen from the San Antonio Spurs, for instance, and what happens?

Brown, though, has gained a little more faith in guys like Newble and Damon Jones (who has gotten key minutes).

He makes no secret of the fact that the Cavs will go where James takes them — ''LeBron makes me a better coach by 100 percent. I'm not afraid to admit that at all.'' — but he also has seen guys in different roles, and Newble might have earned a permanent spot in the lineup with his play.

''Even when Sasha comes back, somehow, some way, I have to try to keep (Newble) in mind and keep giving him minutes,'' Brown said. ''If we're playing real good basketball, I may have to leave him in at first and try to find a way to work Sasha in.

''Who knows?''

The effect contract holdouts
had on Pavlovic and Varejao

Both players missed all of training camp. Both players have missed significant time due to injuries. Sometimes a player who is not in game shape gets hurt because he overextends. Sometimes a player who misses training camp is not in shape.

Brown conceded that the question is valid, but that he doesn't know if the injuries are related to the holdouts.

Pavlovic signed a new contract shortly after camp ended and missed two games. He never found his rhythm before getting hurt.

Varejao, though, returned after missing 21 games and was an improved player.

''He's one of our better shooters from 17 feet,'' Brown said.

Sounds preposterous, but Brown was serious. A year ago, if Varejao missed a couple of open jumpers, the instructions given him were clear: Go to the basket.

This year ...

''He's shown in practice and in games that he can hit that shot from 15 to 17 feet,'' Brown said. ''Even when he catches around the elbows, if that guy backs off him I know it's going in when Andy shoots the basketball.''

That was a skill that Varejao lacked last season, and a skill that he worked on in the offseason. Brown also said that it was apparent Varejao was in good shape when he finally signed his contract.

''His weight and body fat were almost identical to what it was at the end of last year,'' Brown said. ''His weight was one pound, two pounds off at the most. His body fat was three-tenths of a percent off.

''You knew that Andy was working.''

Pavlovic had a more difficult challenge working his way back into things because of the position he plays.

''It's a little easier for an energy and hustle guy,'' Brown said. ''If he's in shape, he can step back in. As opposed to a skill guy.

''That skill guy is magnified 100 times. There's no way you can replace that playing pickup over in Serbia. Or even New York City. If you go play in the toughest area of New York City, you're not going to be able to replace the speed of the game.''

Defense, which he considers the foundation of the Cavs' success

In the playoffs last season, no team limited opponents to fewer points or a lower field-goal percentage than the Cavs.

This season started, and the Cavs gave up more than 100 points in 11 of the first 16 games. That kind of play was anathema to Brown, who said the defense the first part of the year was ''awful.''

He attributes those struggles to his spending time in Europe in the offseason studying the motion offense played there. When camp started, the Cavs spent more time learning the offense than stressing the defense.

''I knew it would make our defense slip,'' Brown said. ''Our hope was that it wouldn't make our defense slip as much as it has. It ended up slipping quite a bit.''

But it rebounded when Brown went to a lineup that included Hughes and Pavlovic and then Newble at guard. All are big guards, a trait the coach likes because big guards defensively cause problems for other teams.

It took a couple of strong talks with Hughes to convince him to run the offense. The team's main point: We know you scored with the Washington Wizards, but with James, things are different, and when you filled this role a year ago, the team reached the Finals.

Hughes agreed, and he has been a positive as he has settled in.

Brown said that since the switch was made in late December, the team's defense probably has been in the top 10 in the league.

Starting with the Christmas Day game, the Cavs have been giving up 95.7 points per game, a figure skewed by the past three games against the Denver Nuggets, Orlando Magic and Spurs when they didn't have all their players.

Until those three games, the Cavs had held 17 out of 20 opponents to less than 100 points.

This clearly bodes well for the upcoming playoff push.

The national perception of the Cavs

Brown was asked a question about Ilgauskas, who is having an outstanding season (13.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.7 blocks after playing in all 52 games). He mused that Z probably has All-Star worthy numbers, but he was not an All-Star.

That led him to offer the thought that: ''I don't think we as a team get a ton of respect.''

That statement can cause eye-rolling.

Some of these ''no respect'' stances come across as whines. Others as rants. In Brown's case, it came across more quizzically, as if he just doesn't get why his team and his players are looked on the way they are.

Respect comes from winning, and the Cavs won enough games in the playoffs last season to reach the Finals.

But they also were swept by the Spurs and became the brunt of many jokes because of it. This is the era of spew-it-out talk shows, and there are endless babbling ''analysts'' on TV that need to rant about something because ... well ... that's what the show calls for.

After the Finals, the Cavs were the subject of the rants.

This season, though, the Detroit Pistons also have complained about the Cavs beating them in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Rasheed Wallace attributed his team's loss to officials' calls — apparently from the grassy knoll. Recently, the Pistons said the only reason that they lost was they were worn down from playing so many minutes during the season.

This way of thinking almost completely dismisses the near-incredible play of James in the series, and the fact that James was hammered as he tried a game-winning shot in Detroit in Game 2, when nothing was called.

During the season, Brown does not pay attention to newspapers, TV or radio — he calls it ''the noise,'' good and bad — but he answers questions. He pointed out that last season, someone asked him about James' numbers being comparable to Oscar Robertson in the history of the NBA — James and Robertson are the only players to average 27 points, six rebounds and six assists in three consecutive seasons.

As Brown talks, he gets animated and his voice rises — for the first time.

''You talk about his numbers are compared to Oscar, and there's nobody else in the history of the game that had those numbers and we won 50 games,'' Brown said. ''Not to take anything from Dirk (Nowitzki), because Dirk is deserving just as well as some other guys ... Golly ... You think, 'Hey (LeBron) needs to be mentioned as an MVP candidate. He needs more votes for that MVP thing.' You don't hear that at all.

''Even this year ... You have to win. I firmly believe that in order to be an MVP your team has to win. But we're starting to win, and when we talk about LeBron, people tell me he's getting considered for (MVP) behind this guy, this guy, this guy and this guy.''

At this point, Brown puts his arms out and raises his shoulders.

Translation: Brown wonders whether James is so good, he's taken for granted. And that attitude spills over to his teammates, like Ilgauskas and Varejao, who got not a vote for the All-Defensive team, despite leading the league in charges.

Yes, one man's flop is another's charge, but to Brown, a guy who leads the league in charges has to be doing something right defensively.

Brown is right about James. It defies all logic that James would not be at the top of every MVP voter's list.

The guy does everything, and in games he has not played, the Cavs are winless.

Is there a better indicator of value?

That James deserves the MVP at this point of the season is one of the irrefutable facts about the Cavs at the All-Star break. The others:

• When healthy, they can make a playoff run similar to last year's.

• The indispensable player is James.

• Brown has done a sterling job juggling and adjusting, even when he becomes ''screwy.''

As for respect, Brown has been around long enough to know this: In the pros, teams earn respect by winning.

If the Cavs put a healthy team on the floor come playoff time, there's no reason not to think that they'll gain some of that respect their coach believes that they deserve.