Remember when you were just out of high school and you and your friends went up to the local YMCA or playground to play some basketball?
And your team could run, jump, and make behind the back passes beating other teams in your age group, right?
Then you met up with some guys in their 30’s, and they did all the right things, like making the extra pass, getting the ball to the hot hand, being in the right spot defensively, and getting position under the boards. They kicked your butt.
That team has morphed into the Cleveland Cavaliers, who quietly have won eight straight games, their record now 13-7, one of the league’s best.
They are 7-3 on the road, a win total away from home that is only behind Houston and Boston in the NBA.
It has been the bench that has keyed this stretch of good basketball. We understand that +/- isn’t the be all statistic in professional basketball, but on a nightly basis, the wine and gold’s leader in this category are frequently Kyle Korver (36 years old), Dwyane Wade (who will turn 36 in January), or Channing Frye (34).
The other key member of the bench is a young pup by these standards, but Jeff Green (31) was perhaps the most overlooked player Cleveland had coming into training camp, but he has been a major contributor.
The most interesting player is Wade, a superstar in the league for most of his career, a three time champion with Miami.
A lot of players in his place among NBA history have a hard time taking a lesser role as they get older, but perhaps because of his friendship with LeBron James, he has been a tremendous force since the Cavs turned their season around.
He has been malleable, contributing something different each night, depending on who is matched with. If a smaller guard is defending him, he posts him up. If it’s a bigger player, he takes him to the hoop.
All the while he is getting the rest of the players involved. He’s averaging 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists per game in 23 minutes per night.
Korver has shot the Cavaliers to two wins this season with epic fourth quarter performances, scoring 19 points in the last stanza. He’s shooting 43.6% from three point range, and he always gives an effort on the defensive end.
Frye wasn’t supposed to get a lot of playing time, but when Tristan Thompson went down, he got an opportunity, and made the most of it, scoring a little over seven points per contest in the last seven games, and has had a positive +/- in six of those contests.
Green was coming off a season with a bad Orlando team, in which he scored 9.2 points per game and shot 39.4% from the floor.
This season, he is scoring 10.0 points a night, shooting 49%.
He’s also been effective guarding smaller players on the perimeter, most notably doing a good job against Houston’s James Harden and Charlotte’s Kemba Walker.
When Isaiah Thomas returns, this veteran group could include Jose Calderon (36) to the mix.
Wade plays the most minutes out of the quartet at 23, with Korver and Green getting around 20, which should keep them fresh throughout the long season.
These four are a big reason the Cavs can play even with opponents while James is on the bench. And because they can do that, it should lead to James getting more rest during games as the season goes on.
The “old guys” are getting the job done.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 