Watching Saturday night’s Cavaliers game against the Chicago Bulls, both Austin Carr and Brad Daugherty both mentioned the same word multiple times.
The word was accountability.
Right now, the young Cavs don’t have it.
There doesn’t seem to be any personal accountability from the players themselves, and most of that seems to be because there isn’t any from the coaching staff.
This isn’t a blast on John Beilein because we believe the entire organization is invested in the development of the players drafted over the past two seasons: Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, Dylan Windler, and Kevin Porter Jr.
So, this is something that has to come from both the front office and the coaching staff. Together.
Beilein was brought in to teach, to guide the young players in learning the game, to play a style conducive to winning, but it seems right now like while these things are discussed in film review and in practice, there are no consequences for not doing what the coaches want.
There is a fine line between letting players learn while playing and taking away playing time for transgressions, and now that 46 games have been played, perhaps it is time for a velvet glove to be used.
The wine and gold have been blown out the past three games, all at home, by the Knicks, Wizards, and Bulls, all teams in the Cavaliers’ class, that is to say, none of that trio is making the playoffs.
We could understand the lopsided defeats if they were playing the Bucks, Lakers, and Clippers. Or if they lost close games to the lesser lights of the NBA. But getting smoked indicates something needs to change.
The Cavs are reverted to the same god awful defensive team they were last season, although they weren’t a juggernaut on that end of the floor earlier this year. However, looking at the box score, we see John Henson played 11 minutes and Matthew Dellavedova was on the court for five.
Doesn’t seem like defense is a priority for the team if you are playing those two just 16 combined minutes. And yes, we know Delly has had a horrific shooting year, but if defense is important he should play.
After getting blitzed in the third quarter Saturday to fall behind by more than 20 points, the 4th quarter opened with Garland taking a 30 foot shot, and no, the shot clock was not running down.
When Beilein says he doesn’t want Garland losing confidence in his shot, we are sure he didn’t mean a shot like that was okay. Why not take him out of the game at that point?
Later, Dante Exum, who has more size to guard Zach LaVine than Sexton or Garland, was doing a decent job on the Bulls’ leading scorer, but Beilein removed him to put Garland back in the game.
Look, we know winning isn’t the end game for the Cavs in 2019-20, but you have to have some success and also build a foundation for winning down the road, and that begins by having the players be accountable.
The coaching staff put Tristan Thompson on LaVine at times during the game, which isn’t fair to Thompson, who is a very good defender, but shouldn’t be expected to stop a 6’6″ shooting guard on the perimeter.
That’s the problem when you lack size though. The Cavs don’t have any guards long enough to be a deterrent to a guy like LaVine. Hopefully this is addressed soon.
It’s time to take the training wheels off some of the young guys and force accountability on them. Until that happens, get used to seeing games like the three played last week.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 