The Cleveland Cavaliers are teetering on the brink right now.
They haven’t played well since the holiday season started, the defense is getting progressively worse, and now, Kevin Love will be out for awhile after breaking his hand in last night’s loss at Detroit.
Some team’s would look at the injury and band together, strengthen their resolve to win games without their all-star. Look at Washington last night in their first game without John Wall, a 102-96 victory over Oklahoma City.
Unfortunately, we do not see that happening with this group of Cavaliers.
LeBron James looks disgusted with what is going on, and we are sure he and Dwyane Wade can’t believe what is happening.
The defensive effort on this team is putrid. We saw at least four times last night where Pistons went the length of the floor for layups without anyone stopping the ball.
That’s taught in fifth grade basketball.
We have watched probably thousands of basketball games and we have yet to see someone score without the ball. You have to stop the ball.
It’s time for strong leadership from Tyronn Lue, and we hope he has it in him.
It’s time for the coach to start holding players responsible.
If you aren’t going to put forth effort on the defensive end, you should be on the bench. And that means anyone, including LeBron James. The correct tone has to be set.
We found it ludicrous that Cedi Osman was inactive for last night’s contest, and when Love went down, that decision came back to bite the head coach.
Meanwhile, Iman Shumpert, who has been out since the middle of November with a knee injury, and when he came back fired up a three point shot 24 seconds after entering the game, was dressed, but he didn’t play, even when the game got out of hand.
So, the Cavs had to have Channing Frye and Wade playing in garbage time because Lue didn’t want to disrespect Shumpert and Derrick Rose by putting them in in that situation, even though neither played to that point.
Why didn’t Rose play? Outside of Sunday’s game vs. Detroit, he had played pretty well since returning from the ankle injury, averaging 10 points on 15 of 24 shooting. He has an off night Sunday and gets buried on the bench?
Lue’s rotations are often criticized and this is another case of a puzzling move.
Why was Frye benched when Tristan Thompson returned? Why did Derrick Williams lose playing time a year ago when he played well? It’s due to loyalty to veterans, and sometimes that’s not good.
Right now, the Cavaliers are getting very little on a nightly basis from Isaiah Thomas, JR Smith, and Tristan Thompson, all of whom are currently starting.
Besides James, which players are playing well? Jeff Green, Wade, Frye, and Kyle Korver come to mind. The problem is all of those players are over 30 years old, so limiting minutes for them has to be done to keep them effective.
Good players want to be coached. Wade is always pulling players aside to offer insights on the game, but it’s time for Lue to start basing playing time based on performance right now, and not the past.
It’s a critical time for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They need leadership from their coach.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 