The Cleveland Cavaliers got everyone’s expectations raised when after losing their opener against Toronto, they reeled off eight straight wins, including the first two games on a west coast trip.
Perhaps they’d have been better off going say 6-3 or 5-4 instead of 8-1.
We jest, of course, teams should get wins whenever they can, but we feel a lot of fans and media people alike put J.B. Bickerstaff’s squad into the championship contender category when really, they are a young team that still needs more parts to reach title contention.
Since that start, the Cavs have gone 9-9, including 1-7 on the road, the lone win an ugly game against the lowly Detroit Pistons. They have stayed in the upper tier of the Eastern Conference by dominating at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, where they have an 12-2 mark.
Injuries and the resulting lack of depth have shown us that while this is still a team that should finish in the top six of the East and thus avoid the play-in tournament, the Cavaliers still aren’t a finished product.
Although Darius Garland missed much of the 8-1 skein after being hit in the eye, since that start, a number of other injuries have cropped up. Jarrett Allen missed some games, so did Caris LeVert, and now, Donovan Mitchell has missed two straight.
The season is a little over a third over, and only Evan Mobley, Isaac Okoro, and Cedi Osman have played in every game to date.
We felt the bench was a question mark coming into the year, but with Kevin Love’s fractured thumb and back issues, the second unit lost its primary scoring option. LeVert moved to the bench to help provide some points, but Mitchell’s injury put him back in the starting role.
There were some who thought Okoro and Dean Wade would be huge factors for the Cavs, and although Okoro is still a solid defender, offensively he is ignored by opponents, shooting just 40.2% from the floor in total, and making 10 of 43 three point shots.
Wade played in just 51 games a year ago and has already missed nine this season. And he’s not consistent when he does play either.
Cleveland still could use a legitimate shooter off the bench, which again points to what a huge disappointment Dylan Windler has been. The 26th overall pick three years ago with a pedigree as a shooter, the Belmont product has appeared in just 81 games total, and hit only 41.2 % of his shots, and has made just 32% of his three-pointers.
To be fair, his problem is he simply cannot stay healthy. He hasn’t played at all this season, either.
The point is the Cavs simply need more to be a legitimate contender. They have an excellent starting five, and they currently have an MVP candidate in Mitchell. But they lack depth.
Besides a shooter, they could also use another reserve big man, one who is a better quicker than Robin Lopez.
Ricky Rubio will be back in several weeks, and if he is close to the form he played at last season, the guard position will be in good hands.
The Cavaliers has probably somewhere between the team that started 8-1 and the team that has treaded around the .500 mark since. Watch the box scores, when they get production from two reserves, they usually win. When only one contributes, like Friday night’s loss, they lose.
They are still a work in progress. The red-hot start got people too excited.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 