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Posted in ArtsCultureDrinksEatsEventsFreeOpeningPhotographySarah Valek[ May 23, 2013 8:00 pm to May 25, 2013 8:00 pm. ] Opening Fri 5/24 @ 7pm Excerpts from Silver Meadows includes new work from internationally renowned photographer Todd Hido. Excerpts is "cinematic in scope," a "darkly dramatic glimpse into a world that reflects both the alienation and dislocation in contemporary society and the inspiration of noir film and literature." The artist will be there to sign [...]

With many Cavaliers' fans already having their eyes on the draft, I've been scouting college basketball pretty intensely over the past couple of months. That being said, we are going to try to provide you with as many scouting reports as we can until the draft on June 27th. Today, we present Gorgui Dieng of Louisville. Dieng was possibly the most important piece of this season's NCAA champion Louisville Cardinals. His first name is somewhat apropos in this draft. "Gorgui" means "the old one" in Wolof, the native language of Senegal. At 23 years old, Dieng is certainly an old early entrant into the NBA draft. Along with being named to the First-Team All-Big East, he was also named the Big East Defensive Player of the Year. Measurements and Athleticism: Dieng stands in at 6'11" with a 7'4" wingspan, which looks even bigger on tape. He's about 230 pounds, having put on about 30 pounds since leaving Huntington Prep in West Virginia (same school as Andrew Wiggins). At the combine, he had the second-highest standing reach of anyone measured behind Rudy Gobert. He's very agile, moves well in space and laterally, and has some pretty decent leaping ability. He's also got pretty good stamina for a center, as he played nearly the full game on multiple occasions for the Cardinals. Offense: Dieng's got some potential on this end, but it's not particularly due to his post game. It's a pretty rudimentary, and he showed absolutely no left hand after breaking it earlier this season. He does have a pretty good touch around the rim - he shot about 72% at the rim this season according to hoop-math.com -- but his footwork seems slow and his instincts don't seem entirely natural from the low block. He can't really get his own shot when posting up a defender because it's easy to anticipate his only consistent move: a dribble into a right-handed hook shot from about 6 feet. It worked in college because he was longer and more athletic than other big men; but in the NBA everyone will be his size, therefore he will need to diversify his post game. Where he does show a lot of potential offensively is from the high post. First off, he's an extraordinary passer. While surveying and looking over the defense with his height, Dieng hits cutters at the rim and easily finds the open three point shot as the defense collapses around him. To top it off, he's shown fantastic potential as a set shooter from 14-17 feet. He has a high release point that makes it near impossible to block with excellent, consistent mechanics -- he keeps his right hand directly under the ball and his release point is very consistent. Finally, this is a small thing but it's worth mentioning: Dieng is an excellent screener. He was the catalyst for springing Peyton Siva free in Louisville's pick-and-roll-heavy offense innumerable times. He sets a super wide base with his long legs, making it difficult for defenders to get around him. He's not great at rolling to the hoop yet, but he could be an excellent candidate for pick-and-pop plays with his jump shot. Rebounding: Dieng is a solid rebounder who improved each of the last three seasons. One way that he should be able to get quick buckets around the rim is as an offensive rebounder, as he finished second and third over the past two seasons respectively in the Big East in offense rebounding. He's also a pretty solid defensive rebounder because of his superb motor and great length. He attacks the ball above the rim and has soft hands that allow him to secure the ball. He finished second in the Big East in Defensive Rebound Percentage and in overall rebounds per game, at 9.4 per game. Defense: Dieng is one of the best defensive big men in this draft. He's truly one of the guys in this draft that can affect a game without scoring (see: Final Four game versus Wichita State). As the true anchor of the Louisville defense, which finished number one in Ken Pomeroy's adjusted defensive rating, Dieng was th

Here are what blogs from Cleveland and around the country are saying about the Browns, Cavaliers and Indians. Featured today are Bleacher Report, Wahoo's On First and Fear The Sword.

Brian Hoyer was signed by the Browns next week and details of his two-year deal are starting to surface. See, unlike depth-chart speculation, this is actually news regarding Brian Hoyer and the Browns. Brian Hoyer’s 2-year deal w/the Browns is worth $1.965M. $250k of his $715k ’13 base salary is GTD. There’s a ’14 base salary escalator. — Joel Corry (@corryjoel) May 20, 2013 Brian Hoyer’s ’14 escalator could be similar to Jason Campbell’s ’14 escalator worth up to $2M. It’s likely that only of them will earn it. — Joel Corry (@corryjoel) May 20, 2013 So, as you can see, regardless of whether or not Michael Lombardi thinks Hoyer can start in the NFL or not, nobody, including Hoyer’s representation was holding out for starter-level cash. Far be it for me to look down upon on a couple million bucks, but with only $250k guaranteed in 2013, he’s by no means a lock to be on this team as the Browns easily retained flexibility in the deal to move on whenever they deem it appropriate. Also keep in mind that Jason Campbell’s deal was for two years and $3.75 million. [Related: Scott Raab on Chris Perez, Browns vs. Klosterman, NHLinCLE and relationships with editors – WFNY Podcast – 2013-05-20]

The Indians swept the weekend series from the punchless Mariners behind strong starting performances from Ubaldo Jimenez, Zach Mcallister, and Justin Masterson, but the real excitement of the weekend came from the walkoff heroics of Jason Kipnis and (to a lesser … really lesser … really completely far, far lesser extent) Mark Reynolds.  In today’ B-List, Buff notes that while the starting pitching has been a lot of fun, sometimes the bullpen has not, and instead the combination of longballs and baserunning has been the source of True Joy.

It seems a case has been made for the Cavs taking every top prospect with the exceptions of Ben McLemore and Anthony Bennett, So I'm going to play a little Devil's Advocate and see if I can't create a case for Mr. Bennett. There are two immediate objects to drafting Bennett. 1. He doesn't fit the Cavs, with TT already at the PF position it appears redundant to draft another PF especially an "undersized" one at that. I concede that it is hard to imagine a team starting two power forwards making a finals run with them at the center of the team. However I think its a pretty big mistake to look at draft prospects for a 20 win team and say "this guy slots in at PF and then next year we draft a SF, and then sign a C and our championship team has a starting lineup of V, W, X, Y and Z." Realistically the Cavs are several years away from contention and how that contending team shapes up in the end is still far from clear. How much do Waiters/TT/Irving/Zeller progress? Does one get injured or bust? Can we land a big name FA and fill a position without a pick? Can we trade for an established star? With all the uncertainty about how the final core of the team shapes up I think the pertinent questions about draft picks boil down to two. A. How good of a prospect is he and B. Can we get him on the floor to develop and see what we have while showcasing him to teams that might be shipping out an all star level player (ie Love, Horford, Cousins) I'll cover A in a sec but I think B can be done quite easily. Here is a list of big man mins played for the Cavs last season. TT- 2500 Zeller- 2000 Andy- 900 Walton- 850 Speights- 700 Jones- 300 Samuels- 200 Leur- 100 For TT thats 82 games at 31.3 mins a game. He might go 2-300 more total that that but not much higher in the long run than 34-35 mins a game. Zeller did not produce at a high level for those 2000 and if he doesn't progress a lot in this offseason I would expect them to be cut way back. Andy obviously we hope to see him play more but he has only 2 seasons in his career playing > 2,000 mins in 9 years as a pro, while playing fewer than 50 games 5 times. From these three I keep TT~ the same # of mins for 2013/14 and TZ and Andy's mins combined at a similar rate with (hopefully) Andy taking ~1800 and Zeller looking at ~ 11-1200 (~15 mins a game with a few missed games). We are left with a hodgepodge of players that I think most fans would be happy to not see on the floor next season who totaled ~2200 mins. at 25 mins a game over say 75 games for Bennett that leaves ~ 400 mins left for random D leaguers as injury fill ins or to be spread out among the other three mentioned above. AS an example of a team that has done something similar recently the Jazz managed to get significant mins to 4 big men this past year (all playing in 70+ games) while fielding a fringe playoff team -they barely missed in the West and would have been the 7 seed in the east and only 2 games out of the #5 spot. They did this without having a single player outside of those 4 big men rack up a PER over 17. Objection #2- Bennett is undersized for a PF. Simply put I disagree. Three of the top PFs of all time, Barkley, Rodman and Malone, were 6'6", 6'7" and 6'8". If you consider Duncan and Garnett Centers you could argue that the top three PFs of the past 25 years have all been Kevin Hetrick over at Hardwood Paroxysm (he also posts on Cavstheblog) did a series on this year on what combine measurements are positively correlated with success at each position. Here was his conclusion for PFs For big men, increased length lightly corresponded with improving power forward offense, with reach providing the best correlations. On defense, and for centers at both ends of the court, size measurements frequently, and surprisingly, calculated as very-low and often negative correlation with performance. Over two-thirds of the correlations betw

One of the most looked-at properties in Gordon Square finally has been spoken for. The long-running City Grill, which closed a few years back, has been purchased and will be renovated into a new restaurant.… [ Read more ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Shane Larkin is poised to make noise in the NBA. (This is Part 14, the final in the series that I published at Hardwood Paroxysm throughout the year.) The 2013 NBA combine is behind us.  After thirteen parts attempting to quantify what it all means, now it is time to declare winners & losers.  Let’s start with the crew deserving a bump in their draft status. Winners Shane Larkin – If his NCAA-leading points produced through pick & rolls (scores plus assists) didn’t impress you, or his 24 points per game during Miami’s ACC Tourney run, then how about his joining this crew: Derrick Rose, Russ Westbrook, Mike Conley Jr, John Wall, Nate Robinson, and Jerryd Bayless?  Those were the drafted underclassmen point guards with sprint speed below 3.15 seconds and no-step vert of 30” or more.  Ignore concerns about his tiny stature; this Hurricane is primed to do big things. Otto Porter – Tall small forwards rate as the NBA’s most-productive two-way players.  Who stood  tallest of the 2013 small forward class?  Of course, Otto Porter, also the draft’s most productive 19-year old.  I see a strong NBA career, despite middling athleticism tests…which aren’t consistently reflective of NBA success or failure for a small forward, anyways (actually, most of those correlations were negative). Phil Pressey – He surpassed 3.2 seconds in the sprint and 11 seconds in the agility drill as a draft-worthy upperclassmen point guard.  That’s been a can’t-miss combination over the last thirteen years and a great source of late value.  Peyton Siva also bested these thresholds, but currently ESPN and Draftexpress include him outside the likely draftees*; at nearly 23, he has never been a particularly effective collegiate offensive player.  This serves as opportunity to say, don’t overrate players that otherwise may not warrant drafting, just because of favorable combine results (obviously an Olympic track athlete isn’t likely to find NBA success). Nerlens Noel – Did I bump my head?  I am giving Noel the benefit of the doubt here.  The small group of very long, very speedy prodigy centers is fairly glamourous.  Nerlens’ 110” reach meets one criteria, and I have faith that his sprint speed bests 3.3 seconds. Victor Oladipo – The complete list of underclassmen (Oladipo is still 21 as of February 1st, 2014) shooting guards with first-round talent and a 6’ – 9” wingspan, 31” no-step vert and 35” max vert in the last fourteen drafts is: James Harden, Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardson, Joe Johnson, Eric Gordon, Ronnie Brewer and Jeremy Lamb.  I expect the young Hoosier will fit nicely into this list.  Ben McLemore also leapt over 31″ from a stand-still, exhibiting a trait often portending success for first-round, underclass shooting-guard talent.  Allen Crabbe barely missed the combination of qualifiers that Oladipo met. Cody Zeller - His sprint speed ties the third best of the centers evaluated by this study.   His no-step vert rose the highest of the entire 2013 Combine.  Given the precedent of these traits predicting success in underclassmen centers, this helps solidify Zeller in the top-ten. Norvel Pelle flashed an exciting blend of speed and length…who is he?  I don’t know, but as a late second round project, he may be worth a look. Losers Rudy Gobert – Here’s the shocker; my big, contrarian view.  Also, this may not be fair, because this project focused solely on NCAA players.  But heading into May 16th, reports of his wingspan were 7’ – 9”…now it’s a confirmed 7’ – 8.25”.  Why would this bump his draft stock?  As an anecdotal case, the players in the draftexpress.com database with wingspan greater than 7’ – 8” include: Mamadou N’Diaye, John Riek, Alexis Ajinca, Saer Sene, Michael Olowokandi, Chris Marcus, and Boban Majanovic.  Is this a list that inspires confidence?  Detailed here and here, as a general rule, increased size did not correlate to improve

Cleveland Jackson, Alex Raffalli, David O'Leary and I collaborated on an email chain over the last couple weeks that evolved into a pre-lottery mock draft. We completed it just in time to revise this mock draft as soon as the lottery positions are assigned on Tuesday night. For now, though, Part 1 is below. Part 2 is coming later. Team need was considered with each selection in combination with an overall talent ranking. 1- Orlando Magic (Brendan) - Nerlens Noel: His weight is a bit concerning along with the fact that he won't be healthy enough to make his rookie debut until Christmas. But Noel is the best shot-blocker in the country while also possessing a combination of size and athleticism you can't teach. It would be hard for Orlando to pass on a replacement-ish player for Dwight Howard here with the Kentucky freshman on the board. 2- Charlotte Bobcats (Jack) - Ben McLemore: This is the portrait of an athlete, a human shooting guard machine standing 6 foot 4 and a half inches in sneakers. McLemore has superhuman quickness, explosive leaping ability and picture perfect shooting mechanics, which have at times been compared to Ray Allen. He’s so good, that he could go first overall in this draft if a team had concerns about Noel’s health. His athleticism makes him excellent on defense and he has every tool to become a star in the league and his weaknesses are only in areas where he has undeveloped potential. There may be a conversation someday as to whether McLemore should have gone #1 in this draft, and I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of the debate. If the Cavs somehow end up in a lottery position to take this guy, you draft him and figure out how to make it work later on. 3- Cleveland Cavaliers (Alex) - Otto Porter: The Cavaliers need everything Otto Porter brings, and they need it now. He has the length, the shooting ability, the basketball IQ and the defensive mind to fit in the Mike Brown mold and help the Cavs greatly at a position where they have been so bad since LeBron James left. He is the biggest upgrade the team could wish for. Of course, he isn’t the most athletic guy or the strongest (he needs to put a good 20lbs on his frame to defend bigger wing players, but what rookie doesn’t need to put up some weight anyway?) and might not be the most talented possible pick, but he will help the Cavs win! Also, given that his name means eight in Italian, I think he should be forced to have jersey #8. I mean, makes sense, right? (the only problem with this logic is that the most famous man named Otto in history is most likely Von Bismarck and he was German... Doesn’t make sense anymore, does it? And of course, I’m waiting for suggestions on “more” famous Otto's) 4 - Phoenix Suns (David) - Anthony Bennett: I don’t know if there’s a team more in need of help at either forward spot than the Suns. Bennett is a low post animal with an insane wingspan who’s already very accomplished at finishing in a crowd and while absorbing contact. Sure, he’s a tweener and he’ll have trouble guarding small forwards most of the time, but he could be real good real fast. Plus, he’s a brute who’ll bully his way to buckets from day one. The only downside here with this pick is that we could break up the possibility of the Suns starting both Morris twins next year, which for obvious reasons would have been brilliant on about 37 different levels. 5- New Orleans Pelicans (Brendan) - Victor Oladipo: This guy successfully completed a 360-dunk in a Big Ten Basketball game while also completing 19 credit hours to graduate from Indiana in three years. He wowed scouts at the combine with a 42-inch vertical, while also suggesting that those concerned with his height (6'4.25") simply round up to the nearest tenth and then he's 6'5". Relax. According to Oladipo he is "abnormal", which in my

A tip of the hat to Michael McIntyre and his Tipoff column for the phrase "mandibular mowers" in reference to the quaint herd of sheep grazing and fertilizing mostly vacant lots along the East Shoreway. Yes, the 24 sheep and one protective llama are setting to work once again on the grassy plains of Cleveland.… [ Read more ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]