INDEPENDENCE – When Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry first tossed out the idea prior to training camp, coach Mike Brown did a double-take.
Start Mo Williams and Delonte West, who qualify as NBA midgets, in the same backcourt? Ferry, whose suggestions to Brown are usually quickly discarded to begin with, had fallen totally off his rocker this time.
From 6-foot-5 Larry Hughes to 6-7 Sasha Pavlovic and Wally Szczerbiak to even 6-8, 250-pound phenom LeBron James early in his career, Brown had an affinity for big guards.
Start the 6-3, 180-pound West at shooting guard? Team him with a point guard who was only 6-1 and 190 pounds? Ferry`s idea sounded outrageous to Brown.
“At first, I thought he was a little crazy,” Brown said Wednesday afternoon following practice at Cleveland Clinic Courts. “I`m not a big fan of what I thought would be a small backcourt.
“I was having some struggles with it at first, but I thought about it, thought about it, thought about it.”
The more Brown thought about it, the more he liked the idea, especially when he realized very early in training camp just how tough and versatile West was and saw the tremendous chemistry he was developing with Williams.
Even when West was gone from camp for 12 days while being treated for a mood disorder and bouts of depression, Brown couldn`t let go of the idea.
Heck, even while starting Szczerbiak, Pavlovic and Daniel Gibson next to Williams in Cleveland`s first four exhibition games, Brown knew who his starting shooting guard was going to be.
In a move that was “absolutely” surprising even to James – “I thought Delonte was going to be the backup point guard,” he said – it was going to be West, who had started at the point for the Cavaliers the previous season after being acquired at the trade deadline.
“I learned something new about Delonte every day,” Brown said Tuesday night after the Cavaliers defeated the Atlanta Hawks 99-72 in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series. “Because we had such a short amount of time before the playoffs (last year), I had him in a box. I didn`t let him really be Delonte West.
“This year, with him in training camp, with us having him the whole year, you know, you kind of sit back in practices and you sit back throughout the course of the game and go, ‘Wow, Delonte can do this? Wow, Delonte can do that?`
“I don`t know if there is a single thing that he cannot do offensively. He has one of the most complete games I`ve ever been around. His pace and demeanor offensively are uncanny.”
The versatile West showed that against the Hawks in Game 1, putting up 13 points, four rebounds and nine assists, but the defensive end of the floor is where the man the Cavaliers call “Red” has really made his mark.
“In my mind, he`s one of the best (defensive players) in the league,” Williams said. “He guards the best (perimeter) player on every team. — Nine times out of 10, that guy has a height advantage on him, but you see how Delonte works and harasses them.
“Delonte plays well above his height because of his heart. He`s more athletic than you think and he has long arms. He is basically a 6-6 guard with his athleticism.”
In Cleveland`s first-round sweep of Detroit, West held 6-6 shooting guard Richard Hamilton, the Pistons` leading scorer during the regular season, to .356 shooting from the field.
Despite giving up four inches and 50 pounds, he held Atlanta`s 6-7, 240-pound Joe Johnson, the Hawks` leading scorer during the regular season, to 11 points in Game 1 of the conference semifinals.
“He`s tough,” Brown said of West. “Teams try to attack him. That`s probably not a good thing to do, but teams do it. We welcome it.”
West, who averaged 11.7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists during the regular season, got no votes from league coaches in NBA All-Defensive results released Wednesday, but his teammates love what the 25-year-old does on that end of the floor.
“I`ve been saying it all the time about Delonte`s presence on the defensive end,” first-team All-Defensive selection James said. “He is a very, very solid player who doesn`t get a lot of credit sometimes for what he does. He is one of the most complete players we have on our team. He is an offensive threat and he is a defensive threat.”
Beyond that, West`s toughness and fun-loving personality have endeared him to his Cleveland teammates.
After breaking his right wrist in a horrific first-half fall in a Jan. 15 game in Chicago, the left-handed West was back on the bench and wanted to play in the third period. He ended up missing the next 16 games, but was always around to cheer for his teammates and keep them loose.
One of the loosest and funniest guys on the team, West, who rarely speaks to the media on non-game days, often breaks into crazy dances when the Cavaliers do individual drills after practice.
In team skits shown on the overhead screen during timeouts at Quicken Loans Arena, West`s antics almost always draw the biggest laughter from fans.
“If you know him, you love him,” James said. “If you don`t know him, you probably won`t like him because you don`t understand him.”
The Cavaliers now understand their starting shooting guard perfectly – “He`s our unsung hero,” Williams said – and give him a great deal of credit for the team`s NBA-best 66-16 record during the regular season.
“We run a lot of the same plays for him that we do for LeBron,” Brown said. “That`s how talented the guy is.
“I`m still learning from him. He can be a very, very good basketball player in this league for a long time because he knows how to defend and he is athletic, long and tough. On top of that, he can do a lot of good things for you offensively.”
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

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