The Cleveland Cavaliers have recently played nothing like a team poised to make a deep post-season run since the All Star break.
They have went 4-6 in their last ten games after winning impressively in the two contests after the trade deadline leading up to the interruption in the season.
Kevin Love has been out for awhile with his broken hand, and now other injuries are starting to crop up. Rodney Hood has a sore back, Cedi Osman has a hip flexor, Kyle Korver has a foot issue, and Tristan Thompson sprained an ankle.
Not many teams could play well without half of their rotation players, but it feels like coach Tyronn Lue’s lack of structure is telling in the team’s struggles, and together with the front office’s ignorance of having big people on the roster, you can make a case the planning is at least culpable in the losing.
Cleveland opened the season with just three real big men–Love, Thompson, and rookie Ante Zizic, and he has been basically ignored by Lue.
The mere idea of entering a season with just three post defenders seems ludicrous doesn’t it? Especially in a sport, that although it has evolved in the past ten years, where size matters.
That’s the first thing that has come up to bite the Cavs right now.
The second thing would be the lack of development of young players like Osman and Zizic. Osman has proven to be a solid defender on the perimeter, but he has been marginalized by the coaching staff, a group that most definitely would rather play veterans.
Now the team needs Zizic, but because he didn’t get time early in the season, he doesn’t get the time of day, even in a game like last Friday night, when the Clippers big men destroyed the Cavaliers inside.
Another problem is a lack of emphasis on the defensive end. Lue’s squad ranks 28th in the league in defensive efficiency, and when the coach talks about his team, all he talks about is pace of play.
No mention about a defensive mindset or defense at all for that matter.
We would like to hear from the coach what exactly are the Cavs trying to accomplish on the defensive end. They don’t defend the three point shot well, they are terrible in pick and roll situations, and it doesn’t seem like they have some help defense principles.
So what is the plan on that end of the floor?
Lue’s reluctance to change things up is also mind boggling. JR Smith is second on the Cavs in minutes per game, despite having just 13 double figure scoring games in the last 40 contests.
Eight of those games came in an 11 game span from January 26th through February 22nd. This means that in the other 29 games, Smith has scored 10+ points in only five games.
He’s the Cavs’ starting shooting guard, by the way.
And because there isn’t a firm offensive game plan, no one knows where the shots will come on a nightly basis, except for LeBron James. It’s up to James to find where the other players want the ball, which he works hard to find out, but often (like Sunday night vs. the Lakers) it leads to the team going several possessions without getting good looks.
With the playoffs on the horizon, all of these things don’t bode well for a deep playoff run.
Here’s hoping the snooze alarm goes off for the coaching staffs and changes can be made, because it’s clear here that not all of the problems will be erased by Kevin Love’s return to the lineup.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 