The Cleveland Cavaliers are going through a bit of a malaise to start the NBA season, highlighted by a terrible loss at home against Portland on Thursday night.
In that contest, they had a 16-point lead in the first half and wound up losing by 12 points to a team that has lost 12 of their first 18 games.
Coach J.B. Bickerstaff was upset after the game and rightly so, leading to conversation that his job could be in jeopardy. We have been critical of the coach, who has done a great job turning around a team that went 19-46 in the pandemic shortened season of 2019-20 (Bickerstaff was 5-6) and 22-50 in his first full season.
Bickerstaff set a defensive mindset with the wine and gold, but his substitution pattern has been questioned and his offensive sets seem to be very simplistic. The former could be a result of the roster construction which we will address later.
No one wants to have a hard conversation about this, but it is fair to ask if the backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland is working. Mitchell got the brunt of the criticism for the playoff loss because he is the team’s star and an all-NBA selection a year ago, but to us, Garland played worse in the first round series loss to New York.
Outside of the game two win and the third quarter in game four, Garland was pedestrian. Mitchell was still the leading scorer in the series at 23.2 points (down from 28.6 in the regular season), and shot 43.3% from the floor. He was way off from distance, making just 28.9% compared to his regular season number of 38.6%.
However, it was Mitchell who led the Cavs in assists in that series with 36 and had 19 turnovers. On the other hand, Garland shot 43.8% and had just 25 helpers with 18 turnovers. That type of carelessness with the basketball has carried over to this season.
This season, Garland has 88 assists and a whopping 64 turnovers in 15 games. The latter total is tied for the 7th highest total in the league, although all the players with more have played less games than the 14 Garland has participated in.
Also, all but Jayson Tatum, Stephen Curry, and rookie Victor Wembanyama have more assists.
Garland is too sloppy with the basketball, getting stripped a lot when he drives to the basket, and too often putting getting in positions where he has left his feet and has to make a difficult pass in a tight spot.
Add that to the defensive issues that come with having two starting guards who are both 6’1″, and you have to wonder if Cleveland can have long term success with Mitchell and Garland going forward.
There are several mitigating circumstances though. Our preference would be to put the ball in Mitchell’s hands and let him be the scorer/distributor, but you would have to get a long-term commitment from him, which would allow you to make a move with Garland.
Garland’s shooting has also dropped with season, dropping from 41% from beyond the arc last season to 33.3% this season. Along with several other Cavaliers, he has battled injury issues all season, but even his free throw shooting is down from his norms.
Koby Altman made a bold move getting Mitchell a year ago to give the team some star power, but that created the roster construction problem we discussed earlier, the smallish backcourt.
We wonder if Cleveland would be better off with a more traditional guard tandem with a #2 guard that is around 6’4″ or 6’5″, perhaps like Max Strus.
And Mitchell would have to change his game from being a scorer to a playmaker who can also score. It would make him a more well-rounded player.
Because Garland was drafted by the Cavs and has developed here, it seems like many fans are reluctant to be critical of him. On the other hand, Mitchell is the hired gun, and so it is okay to blame him when the team doesn’t play well.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 