New Faces, Changing Places

Friday night’s matchup against the Wizards will definitely be a surreal experience. After shipping out six players in Thursday’s mammoth trade, the Cavaliers will have the league-minimum eight players dressed, including a pair of NBDL call-ups: Kaniel Dickens – a “stretch four” – and shooting guard, Billy Thomas.

The newest Cavaliers – Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak, Joe Smith and Delonte West – might be in uniform as early as Sunday night’s game against Memphis. The quartet, as well as all the players Cleveland traded on Thursday, will have to pass their physicals before they can suit up.

The city is still abuzz over Danny Ferry’s bold move. And even some of the remaining Cavaliers were taken aback by the deadline deal.

“Me and my sons were watching it – and they kind of get excited about hearing names – going and coming,” said Eric Snow, who will get the starting nod at point on Friday. “It was fun to see that with them. But also, this is an exciting time of the year. You’ve got a team that’s trying to win the Championship, and we’re trying to put the pieces together that’s going to help us accomplish that goal.

“You have to support it and embrace it and get ready for the stretch run.”

For all the money and glory, the trade deadline can be tough on players. They still have to uproot their families – sometimes in the middle of the school year at a moment’s notice. And for players like Donyell Marshall and Ira Newble, they go from a club that was contending for an NBA title to a team that’s in a self-induced implosion and aiming towards the lottery.

“I was sad to see those guys go because we had some good times, some good teams and they were good guys,” said Zydrunas Ilgauskas. “But also, we added some good players and now it’s just a question of how we’re going to mesh together and play as a unit.”

The Cavaliers are getting solid, playoff-tested veterans – which will help greatly with their assimilation. Delonte West will probably have the longest adjustment period, simply because of his age and the position he plays. And Mike Brown has already intimated that Snow and LeBron James will be handling “assistant coaching” duties on the fly. But overall, getting the new Cavaliers up to speed doesn’t seem like a huge concern.

“We’re getting veteran guys, here,” added Ilgauskas. “We’re not trying to send a man to the moon – it’s not NASA. At the end of the day, it’s still pick-and-roll, rebounding, defending. Obviously they have to learn the plays and that could take a little bit, but we all run similar plays and everyone here knows where the ball goes in the fourth quarter.”

In the meantime, it’s going to be a skeleton crew for the Wine and Gold. Billy Thomas, who played a little with the Wizards and averaged 15.7 ppg with the Colorado 14ers in the D-League, will get his shot playing next to LeBron – and he hopes to make the most out of the audition.

“Having only eight healthy bodies for tonight, the coaches made a point to me not to do much thinking, just go out and play basketball the way I was blessed to play,” said Thomas. “And that’s the way I’m going to approach it.”

The new Cavaliers will be on the North Coast soon enough and will probably get in a practice on Saturday before seeing action on the floor of The Q. Anderson Varejao – depending on how he feels during that practice – may join his new mates on Sunday night.

“I talked to ‘Debo’ – that’s my nickname (for Wallace) they called him ‘The Body’ in Detroit – last night and told him we were going to be shorthanded tonight,” quipped an obviously excited Coach Brown. “And he said, ‘I know, Coach. I tried to come out and get my physical today, but they wouldn’t let me.’ But, I know as soon as (the new guys) are ready, they’ll be in uniform.”