The Cleveland Cavaliers remade their roster at the NBA trade deadline, and entered the All Star break on a four game winning streak.
Two of those wins were without the quartet of players acquired on February 8th, and the last two, over playoff teams on the road against Boston and Oklahoma City were with Rodney Hood, George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance Jr. on the roster.
The newest Cavs have provided a huge impact already. Their youth and shooting ability have both spread the floor on offense and improved the wine and gold on the defensive end as well.
No doubt there will be an adjustment, after all, the Cavaliers have turned over 40% of their roster, but they have LeBron James and the upcoming schedule is favorable too.
Because James is such a student of the game, he told reporters he was already studying his new teammates’ tendencies the night the deals were announced. The King likes to find out where the shooters like to catch the ball so they are in a shooting position upon receiving the pass.
For Hill, Hood, and Clarkson, being on the floor with James creates wide open looks from the perimeter. In the two games they’ve played with Cleveland, Hood is 7 for 14 from three point range, Clarkson is 4 for 7, and Hill is 3 for 8.
While Hood and Clarkson’s numbers aren’t sustainable, they are capable of having nights where they can change a game with their long range shooting.
And as we have seen with Kyle Korver, a long range shooter on a roll can make a huge impact.
The schedule is also a big boost. Cleveland comes out of the break with six of their first seven games at Quicken Loans Arena. The only road game comes Friday night at Memphis against the 18-38 Grizzlies.
Tyronn Lue’s squad does play some good teams during the stretch, opening Thursday night with the Wizards, and they also play the Spurs, 76ers, and Nuggets during this stretch, but they will be in northeast Ohio for the better part of two weeks.
The Cavaliers enter this stretch with a 20-7 home record, and only three teams have lost fewer than that number (Toronto-4, Houston-6, and San Antonio-6) in the NBA this season.
Cleveland has their second west coast swing after those seven games, and then have two more long homestands before the end of the regular season.
They are at home the week of March 19th for three games at The Q, and after a trio of games on the road, they are home from March 30th through April 5th, playing four games.
That’s more time in the gym, where they will have to be implementing Kevin Love back into the lineup by that time.
GM Koby Altman will also be adding another player to the roster this week, as NBA rules mandate the Cavaliers must get to 14 players by this Thursday, a week after the roster spots opened up.
Our guess is a big man will be one of the additions, perhaps Kendrick Perkins. Even though Nance was impressive on the offensive boards vs. Oklahoma City, early in the game, Stephen Adams did whatever he wanted.
It would’ve been nice to have someone with some bulk go against Adams.
Before the Cavs head west, we will have a much better idea as to the potential of this new group wearing the wine and gold.
If it goes like the last two games heading into the break, it will be a whole bunch of fun in downtown Cleveland.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 