As Paul Silas enters his second season as head coach of the Cavaliers we know that he has an affinity for jack hammering square pegs into round holes. 

When I first heard that Silas planned to play Jeff McInnis and Eric Snow in the same backcourt I thought there was a way it could work.

Early last season when he was still with the Portland Trailblazers Jeff McInnis played some shooting guard in place of the oft injured Derek Anderson. McInnis put up some very solid numbers being paired in the backcourt with Damon Stoudamire. Eric Snow is his years starting alongside Allen Iverson routinely guarded bigger guards instead of the diminutive Iverson. Logically, I thought it would be a situation where Snow would run the team with McInnis at shooting guard and the two would cross match defensively with Snow taking on bigger guard as he did in Philadelphia and leaving McInnis matched up against point guards something that he is much more accustomed to.

Instead, to my surprise, Silas announced as training camp began that McInnis would be the point guard citing how McInnis had earned that right with his play last year which is fine but it puts Eric Snow in a tough situation. Reinforcing Silas sentiments was McInnis adamantly stating that he is a point rather than a shooting guard with no desire to play the position. Essentially, this was McInnis marking his territory entering a contract year knowing that at 30 years old this is his last chance to earn a secure long term contract and isn't likely to get one from the Cavaliers or some other team being a shooting guard.

These circumstances have left Eric Snow in a situation where it will be nearly impossible for him to thrive. For Snow's entire career including college he has been a point guard and simply doesn't have the offensive skills of an NBA shooting guard. While Snow has worked extremely hard in his career to become a competent shooter he still lacks range on his shot and at the age of 31 is never likely to develop it. He is a career 20% three point shooter and definitely not the player you want run off screens to outside shots or to spot up and spread the floor. Snow, for all his strengths as a player, doesn't provide what the Cavaliers need in their starting lineup. Eric Snow is known as one of the league's good guys who puts team first. He has a long term contract with Cleveland being a place where he has always wanted to play so I'm pretty sure he would be willing to play less minutes in a role he would be more effective in for the good of the team.

What Silas needs to do, and he has been toying with the idea already, is to start Lucious Harris at shooting guard. Now is Harris the answer full time? No. Harris a career backup and is ending the near of his NBA road at 34 years of age but, his strength of shooting the ball is what is needed to compliment the other Cavaliers starters. Without Harris Jeff McInnis becomes the best three point shooter in the starting lineup which simply isn't enough. It leaves the Cavaliers in the same position they ended last season when they talked about acquiring more outside shooting. Another advantage of starting Harris is that he would serve as a stopgap until Luke Jackson is ready start. Jackson, who should be more than third string behind Ira Newble, has the skill set to be another catalyst to the starting lineup much in the same way McInnis has become. In addition to his good outside shot Jackson's all around ability to pass, handle the ball and run the floor combining with his basketball IQ just seems like a perfect fit with Jeff McInnis, LeBron James, Drew Gooden and Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

The ripple effects of sliding Snow to the second unit are also evident in that he is only point guard on the roster capable of playing long stretches with DaJuan Wagner. Snow's considerable experience with playing with an undersized shooting guard could prove to be invaluable to Wagner. Also, very few NBA teams have a starting quality backup point guard like Eric Snow and with him leading the backups you may not have the drastic drop-off between the starters and backups that was evident last year when the Cavaliers bench was a disaster. Having a veteran floor leader like Snow Silas could be less hesitant to put an Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic on the floor since they would have a steady veteran like Snow to shepherd them.

At some point Silas has to get past his stubbornness. He messed around with Darius Miles at point guard, DaJuan Wagner at point guard, etc., etc. for too long until the obvious decision to scrap the experiments finally got to him. Maybe the reason why his teams do better in the second halves of season is because they aren't ready to start the season. Everyone knows what kind of player Snow is and what he can and cannot do and one doesn't need a training camp and eight preseason game to see that he isn't an NBA shooting guard. Silas' efforts to appease a sometimes moody Jeff McInnis and show respect to the veteran Eric Snow whom the franchise has coveted for years will do nothing but take time away from units that need to be together in order to develop some chemistry.

The proper lineup change now may preclude the team from a typical Silas slow start.