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By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal sports columnist
POSTED: 05:51 p.m. EST, Jun 07, 2008
Cavaliers coach Mike Brown came to mind when the Detroit Pistons fired Flip Saunders this past week.
Not because Brown should be next, mind you. He shouldn't.
But because the clock never really stops ticking on a coach or manager. Each game takes him one game closer to his last, and when the end comes, it sometimes comes for the most amazing reasons.
See Charley Manuel replacing Mike Hargrove so Manuel could take the Indians to ''the next level.''
Saunders was let go in Detroit after the Pistons failed to reach the NBA Finals in all of his three seasons.
Never mind that Saunders' teams went to the Eastern Conference Finals three years in a row. That was not good enough.
Truth be told, it might not have been.
There are coaches whose teams overachieve, who go farther than the talent on the team should take them because, well, because they can coach.
Same with managers.
There are coaches who have the magic touch, or seem to. Phil Jackson comes to mind, as does Red Auerbach.
Then there are coaches who can take a team far, but not far enough. Their message either is not getting through or it has become stale or it's just good enough to get a team to a certain level, where it will lose.
Saunders fell into that category with the Pistons.
He did a great job in the regular seasons. This year, he widely was praised for developing the Pistons' young players. Come playoff time, the Pistons could not finish Game 5 in Boston, Rip Hamilton got hurt, and the Pistons lost in six.
Which brings us to Brown, the ever-likable coach of the Cavaliers.
Brown is in no danger right now of losing his job. Nor should he be. He has taken the Cavs to the Finals once and the East semifinals twice. He has won a lot of playoff games and series, and this season he had his team within an eyelash of beating the Boston Celtics in Game 7.
When all is said and done in these NBA Finals — ending a year from next August, I believe — the record will show that the Cavs came the closest to beating the Celtics.
Of the millions of e-mails that come through each week, several hundred thousand are about Brown. (Hey, the figures are a joke.)
Most are negative.
Many are hostile.
Some are mean.
It's hard to understand the venom, really. Brown is a man of high character, who has done fine with the Cavs. Makes a person wonder if people prefer to have a coach who loses, but is flashy.
Brown is in an enviable spot, because he has LeBron James on his team. But that also puts him in an unenviable spot, because James always will receive the credit for wins but never the blame for losses.
There's also the question of whether Brown will fall into Saunders' category, when people will look at his tenure and say, ''You know, good just isn't cutting it.''
Pistons leader Joe Dumars conceded that there are ''25, 26 teams that would love to be where we [the Pistons] are.''
''But good has not been good enough,'' he said. ''I appreciate everything that Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown and Flip Saunders have done, but I also know they were handed some great teams. It's not like they had to take bad teams and make them good.''
So the question becomes how long Brown gets to succeed. If the Cavs do not reach the Finals next year, does that mean the Cavs need a new coach to ensure James re-signs?
They could hire a more offense-minded coach. Some folks were advocating the Cavs should have hired Mike D'Antoni before the New York Knicks did and let James run like a greyhound in D'Antoni's offense.
D'Antoni's previous team, the Phoenix Suns, ran like greyhounds all right. They ran real fast and basically ran around in circles and got nowhere.
D'Antoni's style is glitzy, but it has been no more successful in the long run than Brown's. Yes, the West is tougher, but comparatively speaking, the Cavs did as well in their conference as the Suns ever did in theirs.
The Cavs could go the patient route and stick with Brown's system, which relies on defense first, second, third and 98th.
In some circles, being patient means one more year with a job.
So it will be with Brown this year. With James' contract situation looming over everything.
You just kind of wonder when, if ever, Brown becomes the topic of the stories about the guy who did well when doing well was just not well enough.
INDIANS
This past offseason, the Indians and General Manager Mark Shapiro were convinced they could contend to win their division and advance in the playoffs.
So no thought was given to trading C.C. Sabathia when his market value might never have been higher.
We owe it to our fans to put the best team possible on the field, Shapiro said at the time.
Now Sabathia is 3-8, and the Indians look like anything but contenders. So what do the Indians do about him now?
The answer does not seem complex, especially in a market such as Cleveland, where money is not falling out of the rafters: Answer the phone and see what other teams are offering. If there's a trade that will make the Indians more competitive in 2009, say yes.
Sabathia, quite frankly, turned down $18 million per year to stay with the Indians.
He loves it here, of course. Loves this team. That's what he has said. But apparently in baseball, and all of professional sports, there's not enough love to overcome dollars.
If Sabathia truly wanted to be here, he would have signed already. If he doesn't want to be here, well then he should go, and others who truly want to play here should be brought in.
But the notion of trading him is not that simple.
Teams technically are not allowed to negotiate a contract extension with a player prior to acquiring him. There can be no Johan Santana-type deal during the season (excluding a wink-wink agreement behind the scenes).
So what team would give up a top prospect or top player to the Indians — a requirement if Sabathia is traded — for a guy who is guaranteed only three months with his new team?
If a team does not know it can re-sign Sabathia, it probably will offer mid-level guys.
This would not be acceptable.
Because if Sabathia leaves as a free agent, the Indians would get two ''sandwich'' draft picks — selections at the end of the first round. The front office probably believes that it can do better picking its own guys than taking another team's mid-level guys.
Set aside the rhetoric and emotion for a moment. Get to the crux of the Indians' situation by considering facts:
• The No. 1 starter, the reigning Cy Young winner, is 3-8.
• The No. 2 starter is on the disabled list.
• The No. 3 starter is out for the season and will require ''Tommy John surgery'' on his pitching elbow.
• The No. 3 hitter is on the disabled list after being ineffective.
• The No. 4 hitter does not have a home run.
• The closer spent time on the DL.
• The setup guy who was nearly unhittable a year ago now is hittable.
• The Indians are 61/2 games back.
Here's an opinion: There's no team in the American League Central that is going to run away and hide, so the Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers or Indians could take control if they got hot.
The Indians have shown no sign they will get hot, but two weeks ago, they also were in first place.
So if the team wants to take a glass half-full look, it can say Sabathia has pitched well after a slow start and Fausto Carmona will come back from his injury. Jake Westbrook is gone for the year, but the team does have starting-pitching depth.
What they need to do is hope this week's 39-run, four-game series in Texas was a real sign the hitters have straightened themselves out. Then they need to figure out the bullpen.
Rafael Betancourt seems dangerously close to losing his setup job to Masa Kobayashi, a move that probably needs to be made.
In this half-full view, these are all signs that things could get better.
Shapiro and Assistant GM Chris Antonetti are not paid to take a half-full look, though.
They're in their jobs to assess things realistically.
Which is probably why they will continue to wait regarding Sabathia.
The trading deadline is July 31. The ''waiver trade'' deadline is Aug. 31.
That means the Indians have four to six weeks before deciding what, if any, moves to make. In the interim, they, of course, should continue trying to acquire another hitter and set the groundwork for a possible future trade of Sabathia.
They need to focus on playing better. If that's possible.
Patience might not be the popular thing, but it's the sensible thing.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
We love our drama, don't we? Lest it concern high-schoolers.
• Paul Pierce looked like he needed to head to Wal-Mart for a new knee Thursday night, then 1:45 later trotted back on the court and made two 3s to give the Celtics Game 1.
• This is the point where you grab the tissue to wipe the tear from the corner of the eye.
• It was nice and all, but let's not — repeat, not — compare this to Willis Reed back in 1970. In that game, Reed was doubtful to play. He needed a shot just to drag his injured leg on the court. It was Game 7, not Game 1, and Reed's inspiring presence gave the New York Knicks a championship.
• In terms of drama, Reed was Shakespeare and Pierce was High School Musical.
• That NBA season in 1970 ended May 9, by the way. This season is due to end sometime around 2019.
• How good was Reed in that series? In the first four games he scored 37, 29, 39 and 23 points and averaged 15 rebounds. Against Wilt Chamberlain.
• Maybe it's me, but there's something ridiculous and wrong about a trainer admitting he gives a horse steroids, which trainer Rick Dutrow has admitted with Big Brown. Well, there's something wrong with giving the horse steroids, not just admitting it.
If steroids help humans by making them bigger, faster and stronger, why would the same not be true for a horse?
• What could be most amazing is that steroids are not banned in nine racing states.
• Four years ago, the same trainer was suspended 45 days and fined $3,000 when one of his horses tested positive for mepivacaine, a drug that has the high potential to affect a race.
• One of his horses also tested positive for clenbuterol, another steroid.
• A past story details how horses improve drastically when they enter his barns.
• I'm sure there's no correlation to those drugs.
• Lonnie Chisenhall might turn out to be an Eagle Scout and good player for the Indians, but it's always interesting how teams explain away past indiscretions.
Chisenhall was booted from the University of South Carolina team after being charged with burglary and grand larceny following the theft of a flat-screen TV, PlayStation 3 and DVDs from a dorm room.
Story goes that another player told Chisenhall he was borrowing the items, and Chisenhall bought into it. The other player also was charged with stealing three computers and $3,100 from the team's baseball office.
The Indians used the ''wrong place at the wrong time'' explanation in selecting Chisenhall with their first-round pick in the draft Thursday.
Can't argue that one.
• Joe Dumars said he's going to make changes and that nobody is sacred with the Pistons. Chauncey Billups with the Cavs next year? Love to see it. Absolutely love to see it. He's 31 and due $36 million on his contract, but Billups and LeBron James seem like quite a pair.
• The NFL complains about excessive rookie contracts, then the Oakland Raiders give Darren McFadden $60 million. No, not everything adds up in that picture.
Until next time, there you have it.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/.
Cavaliers coach Mike Brown came to mind when the Detroit Pistons fired Flip Saunders this past week.
Not because Brown should be next, mind you. He shouldn't.
But because the clock never really stops ticking on a coach or manager. Each game takes him one game closer to his last, and when the end comes, it sometimes comes for the most amazing reasons.
See Charley Manuel replacing Mike Hargrove so Manuel could take the Indians to ''the next level.''
Saunders was let go in Detroit after the Pistons failed to reach the NBA Finals in all of his three seasons.
Never mind that Saunders' teams went to the Eastern Conference Finals three years in a row. That was not good enough.
Truth be told, it might not have been.
There are coaches whose teams overachieve, who go farther than the talent on the team should take them because, well, because they can coach.
Same with managers.
There are coaches who have the magic touch, or seem to. Phil Jackson comes to mind, as does Red Auerbach.
Then there are coaches who can take a team far, but not far enough. Their message either is not getting through or it has become stale or it's just good enough to get a team to a certain level, where it will lose.
Saunders fell into that category with the Pistons.
He did a great job in the regular seasons. This year, he widely was praised for developing the Pistons' young players. Come playoff time, the Pistons could not finish Game 5 in Boston, Rip Hamilton got hurt, and the Pistons lost in six.
Which brings us to Brown, the ever-likable coach of the Cavaliers.
Brown is in no danger right now of losing his job. Nor should he be. He has taken the Cavs to the Finals once and the East semifinals twice. He has won a lot of playoff games and series, and this season he had his team within an eyelash of beating the Boston Celtics in Game 7.
When all is said and done in these NBA Finals — ending a year from next August, I believe — the record will show that the Cavs came the closest to beating the Celtics.
Of the millions of e-mails that come through each week, several hundred thousand are about Brown. (Hey, the figures are a joke.)
Most are negative.
Many are hostile.
Some are mean.
It's hard to understand the venom, really. Brown is a man of high character, who has done fine with the Cavs. Makes a person wonder if people prefer to have a coach who loses, but is flashy.
Brown is in an enviable spot, because he has LeBron James on his team. But that also puts him in an unenviable spot, because James always will receive the credit for wins but never the blame for losses.
There's also the question of whether Brown will fall into Saunders' category, when people will look at his tenure and say, ''You know, good just isn't cutting it.''
Pistons leader Joe Dumars conceded that there are ''25, 26 teams that would love to be where we [the Pistons] are.''
''But good has not been good enough,'' he said. ''I appreciate everything that Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown and Flip Saunders have done, but I also know they were handed some great teams. It's not like they had to take bad teams and make them good.''
So the question becomes how long Brown gets to succeed. If the Cavs do not reach the Finals next year, does that mean the Cavs need a new coach to ensure James re-signs?
They could hire a more offense-minded coach. Some folks were advocating the Cavs should have hired Mike D'Antoni before the New York Knicks did and let James run like a greyhound in D'Antoni's offense.
D'Antoni's previous team, the Phoenix Suns, ran like greyhounds all right. They ran real fast and basically ran around in circles and got nowhere.
D'Antoni's style is glitzy, but it has been no more successful in the long run than Brown's. Yes, the West is tougher, but comparatively speaking, the Cavs did as well in their conference as the Suns ever did in theirs.
The Cavs could go the patient route and stick with Brown's system, which relies on defense first, second, third and 98th.
In some circles, being patient means one more year with a job.
So it will be with Brown this year. With James' contract situation looming over everything.
You just kind of wonder when, if ever, Brown becomes the topic of the stories about the guy who did well when doing well was just not well enough.
INDIANS
This past offseason, the Indians and General Manager Mark Shapiro were convinced they could contend to win their division and advance in the playoffs.
So no thought was given to trading C.C. Sabathia when his market value might never have been higher.
We owe it to our fans to put the best team possible on the field, Shapiro said at the time.
Now Sabathia is 3-8, and the Indians look like anything but contenders. So what do the Indians do about him now?
The answer does not seem complex, especially in a market such as Cleveland, where money is not falling out of the rafters: Answer the phone and see what other teams are offering. If there's a trade that will make the Indians more competitive in 2009, say yes.
Sabathia, quite frankly, turned down $18 million per year to stay with the Indians.
He loves it here, of course. Loves this team. That's what he has said. But apparently in baseball, and all of professional sports, there's not enough love to overcome dollars.
If Sabathia truly wanted to be here, he would have signed already. If he doesn't want to be here, well then he should go, and others who truly want to play here should be brought in.
But the notion of trading him is not that simple.
Teams technically are not allowed to negotiate a contract extension with a player prior to acquiring him. There can be no Johan Santana-type deal during the season (excluding a wink-wink agreement behind the scenes).
So what team would give up a top prospect or top player to the Indians — a requirement if Sabathia is traded — for a guy who is guaranteed only three months with his new team?
If a team does not know it can re-sign Sabathia, it probably will offer mid-level guys.
This would not be acceptable.
Because if Sabathia leaves as a free agent, the Indians would get two ''sandwich'' draft picks — selections at the end of the first round. The front office probably believes that it can do better picking its own guys than taking another team's mid-level guys.
Set aside the rhetoric and emotion for a moment. Get to the crux of the Indians' situation by considering facts:
• The No. 1 starter, the reigning Cy Young winner, is 3-8.
• The No. 2 starter is on the disabled list.
• The No. 3 starter is out for the season and will require ''Tommy John surgery'' on his pitching elbow.
• The No. 3 hitter is on the disabled list after being ineffective.
• The No. 4 hitter does not have a home run.
• The closer spent time on the DL.
• The setup guy who was nearly unhittable a year ago now is hittable.
• The Indians are 61/2 games back.
Here's an opinion: There's no team in the American League Central that is going to run away and hide, so the Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers or Indians could take control if they got hot.
The Indians have shown no sign they will get hot, but two weeks ago, they also were in first place.
So if the team wants to take a glass half-full look, it can say Sabathia has pitched well after a slow start and Fausto Carmona will come back from his injury. Jake Westbrook is gone for the year, but the team does have starting-pitching depth.
What they need to do is hope this week's 39-run, four-game series in Texas was a real sign the hitters have straightened themselves out. Then they need to figure out the bullpen.
Rafael Betancourt seems dangerously close to losing his setup job to Masa Kobayashi, a move that probably needs to be made.
In this half-full view, these are all signs that things could get better.
Shapiro and Assistant GM Chris Antonetti are not paid to take a half-full look, though.
They're in their jobs to assess things realistically.
Which is probably why they will continue to wait regarding Sabathia.
The trading deadline is July 31. The ''waiver trade'' deadline is Aug. 31.
That means the Indians have four to six weeks before deciding what, if any, moves to make. In the interim, they, of course, should continue trying to acquire another hitter and set the groundwork for a possible future trade of Sabathia.
They need to focus on playing better. If that's possible.
Patience might not be the popular thing, but it's the sensible thing.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
We love our drama, don't we? Lest it concern high-schoolers.
• Paul Pierce looked like he needed to head to Wal-Mart for a new knee Thursday night, then 1:45 later trotted back on the court and made two 3s to give the Celtics Game 1.
• This is the point where you grab the tissue to wipe the tear from the corner of the eye.
• It was nice and all, but let's not — repeat, not — compare this to Willis Reed back in 1970. In that game, Reed was doubtful to play. He needed a shot just to drag his injured leg on the court. It was Game 7, not Game 1, and Reed's inspiring presence gave the New York Knicks a championship.
• In terms of drama, Reed was Shakespeare and Pierce was High School Musical.
• That NBA season in 1970 ended May 9, by the way. This season is due to end sometime around 2019.
• How good was Reed in that series? In the first four games he scored 37, 29, 39 and 23 points and averaged 15 rebounds. Against Wilt Chamberlain.
• Maybe it's me, but there's something ridiculous and wrong about a trainer admitting he gives a horse steroids, which trainer Rick Dutrow has admitted with Big Brown. Well, there's something wrong with giving the horse steroids, not just admitting it.
If steroids help humans by making them bigger, faster and stronger, why would the same not be true for a horse?
• What could be most amazing is that steroids are not banned in nine racing states.
• Four years ago, the same trainer was suspended 45 days a