No One Should Be Surprised By Tribe’s Lack Of Scoring.

The Cleveland Indians’ offense continues to struggle on a nightly basis. They have played 19 games this season, and scored three runs or less in 11 of them. Even if you have the best pitching in the sport, it’s difficult to win games when you can’t score.

On April 12th, the Tribe started an 18 game stretch (now 17 games with Wednesday’s game being snowed out) in which they were playing teams who figure to contend for the post-season.

In that stretch, they’ve seen some very good pitchers, guys like Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn, and Garrit Cole. They were no-hit by Carlos Rodon, and didn’t score over nine innings against Giolito, a game in which they won by the way.

Cleveland has played 11 of those games, and they are 3-8 so far. They have scored more than four runs (the league average is 4.41) in just two of those contests, last Sunday’s win over Cincinnati and the following game at home against the White Sox.

Of the eight games where Terry Francona’s crew has mustered more than three tallies, half of them have come against Detroit, who by the way has the worst ERA in the league.

There are people who will claim no one should make rash judgments because the season is just 19 games old, and there is some merit in that, we usually wait until 27 games (1/6th of the season) has been played.

However, it’s not like the Indians were an offensive juggernaut a year ago. They were 13th in the AL in runs per game at 4.13, almost a half run less than league average, which was 4.58.

And they let go two of their top five players in OPS a season ago, trading Francisco Lindor and letting Carlos Santana go as a free agent. The only proven bat they brought in over the off-season was Eddie Rosario, so it isn’t like the front office looked at a bad offense and said let’s address the problem.

You can make moves like that if you have a farm system with players going to be ready for the big leagues right away. Most of the Tribe’s top prospects won’t be ready until 2022 at the earliest.

No one should be shocked they rank 13th in the league in runs scored thus far.

By the way, for all the gruff directed at Santana for walking a lot, how would you like an occasional base on balls out of the players at first base? The two guys who replaced him have combined to go 10 for 66, which is a .152 batting average, with no home runs, and four walks.

We understand the ownership decided to not just lower the payroll, but take a chainsaw to it, and guys who can hit tend to cost money. Still, the free agents many people mentioned, players like Joc Pederson and Kyle Schwarber, haven’t produced either.

Going back to Santana, he was known to love it in Cleveland. Doesn’t anyone else think the two parties could’ve worked something out?

A big hope was Josh Naylor, who came over from San Diego in the Mike Clevinger deal, but he has struggled out of the gate, hitting .241 with no homers, although he has five doubles, and striking out 15 times vs. three walks.

We still have hopes he can be a solid offensive player, but he’s put up some bad at bats in key situations this season to date.

Listening to an interview with Chris Antonetti before last night’s game, he sounded confident the bats will turn around, but we are sure that’s one of those circumstances where that’s all he can say.

We don’t see where the offense is going to get better with the current roster, and dare we say, with the current coaching staff. We aren’t a believer in change for change sake, but the dugout personnel has pretty much remained the same as when Terry Francona took over.

The only changes that were made (outside of Jason Bere as bullpen coach) came from Mickey Callaway and Kevin Cash getting managerial positions, and of course, because Brad Mills retired.

At some point, perhaps the players aren’t listening to the message anymore.

It’s still early, yes, but it’s also starting to get late. A week from today, the schedule will move to May, and that 27 game benchmark will have been crossed.

Will the Indians start scoring runs by then? We’d have to say it’s doubtful they will be a run scoring machine.

Tribe Needs To Walk, And Walks Are Good.

It goes without saying that the Cleveland Indians are struggling offensively. We’ve discussed it before, but currently the Tribe is averaging less than four runs per game, 12th in the American League.

They are second last in batting average (.209), but weirdly lead the league in home runs. They have the largest percentage of their runs scored coming from homers, which might seem like a positive statistics, but really is a negative one.

They don’t score much unless someone hits a home run.

They do rank 5th in the AL in walks, and have dropped in recent days to a tie for third in striking out the least amount of times.

We are a big believer in the strikeout/walk ratio in determining the ability of a hitter.

While there are exceptions, hitters that have high strikeout totals and don’t walk a lot aren’t destined to have long careers in the big leagues. It’s fine if you have high whiff and walk rates. In Cleveland, think about players like Jim Thome and Travis Hafner.

It’s one reason we were concerned about Amed Rosario, who last season had a 39/4 ratio.

What worries us is that if a batter doesn’t know the difference between a strike and a ball, pitchers figure that out pretty quickly, and realize they don’t have to throw the batter a pitch in the zone to get them out.

It’s also why we are anxious to see how young hitters like Tyler Freeman and Owen Miller do when minor league baseball starts in May. So far in their professional career, they make opposing pitchers throw strikes to get them out for the most part.

So far, the Cleveland hitters with the worst ratio in this regard are Austin Hedges (7 K’s/1 BB), Franmil Reyes (18/3), Andres Gimenez (10/2), and Josh Naylor (12/4).

Can you imagine how lethal Reyes would be at the plate if he could lay off pitches out of the strike zone? We understand some of that comes with experience, because hitters are anxious to come up with the big hit, rather than keep the line going and pass on the opportunity to the next batter.

On the other hand, here are the hitters who have good ratios: Jose Ramirez (8/7), Cesar Hernandez (13/10), Jordan Luplow (10/7), and Roberto Perez (14/9). This is one of the reasons, despite a .167 batting average thus far, we think putting Hernandez in the leadoff spot would be a good move.

It’s also why we are encouraged about Luplow, and why we think he should start seeing more at bats vs. right-handed pitching. He leads the team home runs and RBIs, despite having just 37 plate appearances, and is 3 for 6 with two dingers against righties. The outfield has not provided a lot of offense since the beginning of the 2020 season, so why not give Luplow more chances based on this success.

So far, the Indians have been dismal hitting with runners in scoring position, which is the biggest reason they have become so dependent on the home run to score. The more opportunities these selective hitters get, we should see better results, as long as they maintain patience.

Think to Tuesday night, when Luplow fanned with the bases loaded in the fifth despite being ahead in the count, 3-1. He swung at two pitches above the zone. That inning is different if he just takes the walk, which he has done the season for the most part.

On the other hand, keep an eye on players like Reyes, Gimenez, Naylor, and to a lesser extent, Amed Rosario, and see how many times they get themselves out.

We aren’t saying it’s easy to hit big league pitching, but it helps if you limit yourself to swinging at good pitches.

The encouraging thing about Tuesday’s contest was the Indians drew nine walks. They need the base on balls to help their offense.

Cavs Need To Do A Deep Evaluation.

In the business world, well run companies periodically go through an internal audit. They look at their systems and processes to see if they make sense or could they be improved.

Even though the Cleveland Cavaliers have won 20 games this season, an improvement over the past two seasons with 16 games remaining on the slate, perhaps they should undertake the same endeavor.

Virtually the entire roster, save for Kevin Love, has been put together by GM Koby Altman, which means he saw something in each of them to make him want to secure them for the organization. However, should Altman’s evaluation of each player or his vision for the team be beyond approach.

There are many general managers who have earned the right to not be second guessed. People like Pat Riley, Jerry West, R.C. Buford and Gregg Popovich in San Antonio have a proven record of putting teams together that can compete in the upper tier of the NBA.

Right now, Altman isn’t in that class, and it seems fair to bring in someone with a long background in the game to consult with Altman and make sure that his vision for the team can be attained soon, and how many players on the roster can be part of that success.

It has been brought up by several media members over the past couple of weeks what exactly will happen if the Cavaliers get one of the top five picks in the upcoming NBA Draft.

According to draft “experts”, of the top six players in the draft, five of them are either point guards or wing players, with only USC big man Evan Mobley being the exception.

Over the past three years, Altman has spent three top ten picks on players who play those positions, Collin Sexton (8th overall), Darius Garland (5th), and Isaac Okoro (also 5th). So, unless Mobley is there when Cleveland makes its selection, doesn’t the rookie take the place of one of these high draft picks?

The first question an outsider should have is what kind of team does Altman want to put together, and does his vision coincide with that of coach J.B. Bickerstaff?

Does he want to have a defensive oriented team, or a team based around the three point shot and one-on-one play? Because if you don’t have a vision on how to win in the NBA, how can you construct a roster?

Without a direction, you are simply just collecting talent, and as we have seen throughout the years, just putting together talented players doesn’t always lead to winning. The players have to play as a unit, complement each other.

Should there be any untouchables on the current roster? We’ve identified at least one, although our guess it is not the same person the front office has in mind. It would take an awful lot for us to consider trading Jarrett Allen, a soon to be (tomorrow) 23-year-old 6’11” rim protector, who also has a good feel for the game.

In our eyes, height still matters in professional basketball. There are always exceptions to the rule, but if you can find players who have the skill set needed for a position, but are also bigger than average, that’s optimal.

We saw LeBron James at 6’9″ and 250 (conservatively) pounds playing small forward, because he had the skills to do it (heck, he has the skills to play anywhere), and he was dominating. His size isn’t the sole reason, but he was unguardable because he was larger than the guy trying to guard him.

The Cavs aren’t real playoff contenders this season, and it appears they don’t want to get in this year anyway. But when will this be unacceptable? It should be next season.

The organization can try all kinds of marketing schemes, different uniforms, etc. The best marketing tool is winning basketball. Are there any pieces that can lead to that already here? And are those pieces the same ones the front office thinks they are?

Lack Of Scoring Puts Tribe On Razor’s Edge

It is still early, very early in the 2021 Major League Baseball season. We still are just a middle past the middle of April, and the Cleveland Indians have only played 14 games, less than 10% of its schedule.

However, for many, including ourselves, who were concerned about the ability of Terry Francona’s squad to score runs, the trepidation is real.

Through the first 15 games, the Indians rank dead last in the American League in scoring. This current trip. which has included six games, have the Tribe tallying 14 runs, and two of those occurred in the ten inning win over Chicago last Tuesday, when the dumb MLB rules people gave Cleveland a runner on second to start the inning.

Wednesday night, they were no hit by Chicago’s Carlos Rodon in a game were their plate appearance got progressively worse as the night moved on.

Cleveland is last in the AL in on base percentage, 9th in slugging (mainly because they are 3rd in the league in home runs), last in batting average, and second last in OPS+.

Without a doubt, they are one of the worst offenses in the game to date.

In their 14 contests, they have scored two runs or less six times, three runs or less eight times, and four runs or less in all but three games. ‘Keep in mind, the average team in the Junior Circuit scores 4.5 runs in a game.

When you score that few runs, the other parts of your game have to be perfect. Your pitchers can’t have bad outings, and the Tribe had two of them (Zach Plesac and Logan Allen) this week. You can’t make defensive mistakes, which have cost Cleveland in both games in Cincinnati. You can’t make baserunning errors either, like Eddie Rosario’s in the 8th inning yesterday.

The entire team is living on the edge right now.

We felt going into the season, Francona had four, maybe five solid hitters in his lineup. When two of them are going through tough periods, like Cesar Hernandez and Jose Ramirez went through at the beginning of the trip, that means you have two or three hitters contributing.

That simply doesn’t cut it.

The front office had an entire season to find a centerfielder after Oscar Mercado lost the job, and they still haven’t found one. They seem to be trying to give the job to Amed Rosario, a converted shortstop who is more of platoon piece (he hits southpaws very well), and started the year using Ben Gamel there as well.

They seem hesitant to give Jordan Luplow, who also hammers lefties, a shot at a full time job out there, although the former Pirate didn’t have huge platoon splits in the minors.

The best thing you can say about the offense is they generally put the ball in play.

Former Tribe skipper Mike Hargrove used to say something to the effect of if you have a good leadoff hitter and a cleanup hitter, your lineup takes shape on its own. Right now, the Indians have no one who should hit first, except Hernandez, who has told Francona he doesn’t like hitting first.

He leads the team in walks with eight, and has a career .351 on base average.

They really don’t have a true #4 hitter either. Franmil Reyes is too streaky at this point in his career, and Eddie Rosario isn’t bad, but ideally should hit fifth or sixth.

That means Francona is left with putting together a puzzle every night, and that makes his job very difficult.

Where can the offense come from? That’s the million dollar question. Yes, there are alternatives in the minors, but we don’t a big impact will come from there.

Perhaps a change in approach by Francona? Maybe the team can be more aggressive on the basepaths, more steals, more hit and runs? They don’t strikeout, so the latter might be a plan.

The Indians have to start putting together a way to score more often, otherwise, the margin for error for this baseball team will continue to be very thin.

On The Clowney Addition & Other Stuff On The Browns

With two weeks to go before the NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns made probably their last splash in the free agent market, signing perhaps the best remaining player available in DE Jadeveon Clowney, who was with Tennessee last season.

Clowney is a former first overall pick in the draft and a three time Pro Bowl selection, but really, at this point in his career, he’s best suited to being a second banana in the pass rushing game, which he will be in Cleveland because of the presence of Myles Garrett.

And he’s coming off an injury, playing only eight games a year ago.

The real interest will come in how GM Andrew Berry creates cap space for this signing, because according to reports, the team now has just a little under $4 million remaining, which won’t cover the amount needed to sign the players they will draft in two weeks.

There have been rumors that DT Sheldon Richardson could be released or at least have his contract restructured to make room for Clowney. Richardson is a solid player, but he is 30 years old, and that seems to be a magic number to the front office.

Berry has targeted Clowney since he became the Browns’ GM before last season, so it is no surprise he finally got his man. If you trust his talent evaluations, and there is no reason to doubt it so far, then you have to feel good about the signing.

Kevin Stefanski described him as a “disruptive force” on the defensive line, and if he is, then the Browns should be improved up front.

They also added Takk McKinley and Malik Jackson since the end of last season. Being able to restructure Richardson and keep him would be icing on the cake. And don’t forget Andrew Billings, signed last year, but opted out of the season due to COVID-19.

Other stuff on the Browns–

***One thing about picking 26th in the first round, no one has any idea who will be available when your choice will be made. However, if one of the top cornerbacks start to drop in the first round, it wouldn’t be a shock to us if Berry traded up to get one.

Remember, the Browns have nine picks, and to us, it would be tough for all nine to make the final roster. So why not package some extra choices to get someone who can make an impact on the 2021 Browns?

In today’s NFL, you can never have enough corners, especially with the injury histories of Denzel Ward and Greedy Williams.

We also wouldn’t be surprised if Berry targeted a wide receiver early in the draft, either first or second round. There is a lot of cap space tied up in that position.

***There are still some fans with reservations about Baker Mayfield, but we recently heard one of the football talking heads (sorry, don’t remember which one) who said when you think about it, the 2019 season with Freddie Kitchens as head coach is the outlier in Mayfield’s career.

He was outstanding in his last two years at Oklahoma, did very well as a rookie and led the Browns to the playoffs in 2020. That’s four out of five years of high achievement, albeit just two of those in the NFL.

We are a big believer in disposing of the odd occurrence, which that season very well might be.

***We stated earlier it would not be a shock to us if the Browns took a wide receiver early later this month. Part of that is our reservation that Odell Beckham Jr. is still a game changer, even before he had major knee surgery last season.

When the 2021 season begins, we will be five years removed since Beckham was a top flite receiver in the NFL, grabbing 101 passes for 1367 yards and ten touchdowns.

He’s missed time in three of the last four years, and barely exceeded 1000 yards in receiving in two of those four seasons.

While Mayfield probably needs an explosive target to stretch the defense, can Beckham be that guy once again? And does the front office think the same thing?

Tough Three Week Stretch For The Tribe.

No one can or should complain about a 5-3 start for the Cleveland Indians. As former major leaguer and broadcaster Mike Hegan used to say, if you win three out of every five, you end the season at 96 wins, and that gets you in the playoffs more often than not.

After losing last night, if the Tribe wins tonight, they will have accomplished that at least for the first ten games of the season.

But the next three weeks should give us an idea of how good the 2021 Cleveland Indians are.

Through May 2nd, the Tribe takes on a quartet of teams who are projected to be serious contenders to be playing baseball in October: The White Sox (8 more games), The Reds (3), the Yankees (4), and the Twins (3).

Chicago and Minnesota rank 3rd and 4th in the American League in runs scored per game (Cleveland is 7th) while the Reds led the NL in scoring. To be fair, they haven’t faced the Cleveland staff, which is tied for the league lead in ERA with the Twins.

While the Tigers’ offense ranks 14th in runs, perhaps because they have played six games vs. the Indians’ staff, let’s look at the Royals. KC has scored 37 runs in seven games, ranking sixth in the AL at 5.29 per game.

However, in the two games against the Indians’ pitching staff, they scored five runs in two games. So, when they aren’t facing Cleveland, they are averaging 6.4 runs per contest, which would be second in the Junior Circuit.

It will be interesting to see how the Pale Hose, Reds, and Twins fair against the Tribe staff, which hasn’t allowed more than five runs in a contest to date.

And while the Cleveland hitters knocked around the Detroit pitching staff, the series in the Windy City will see Indians’ hitters facing some accomplished hurlers like Lucas Giolito, Dallas Keuchel, and Lance Lynn, while they will also probably see the Reds’ Luis Castillo in the last game in the Queen City.

We have already noted the Twins’ pitching ranks tied for first with the Tribe in ERA, and the Yankees are currently third. Will the Tribe be able to score runs against real good pitchers, which honestly, the Indians have not faced yet.

And will the contact Cleveland hitters have been making, they have still struck out the least amount of times in the league, suit them well and can it continue against top flight pitching?

Look, we aren’t downgrading the Tribe’s success to date. We have always said when folks have complained about beating bad teams, would they rather they lose to them? Of course not, there is something to be said for beating teams you are supposed to have success against.

Unfortunately, the schedule makers have only allowed Cleveland 38 opportunities to play the Royals and Tigers, meaning there are 124 other contests on the slate.

There is an old baseball adage that says you split with the contenders and beat up on the poor teams on the schedule, so we aren’t looking for Terry Francona’s team to dominate over the next three weeks, although that would be nice.

They just need to hold their own against them. And as we said, we are anxious to see how the lineup cobbles together runs against the likes of pitchers like Giolito, who has pitched well vs. the Tribe in the past two seasons, and Lynn.

That might give us a truer picture of how the 2021 edition of the Indians will fare this season.

Biggest Consistency For Cavs? Inconsistency

In the 2018-19 NBA season, the Cleveland Cavaliers won 19 games. For the entire 82 game season. Last year, due to the coronavirus, the league’s schedule was shortened to 65 games, at least for the wine and gold, and they repeated their win total from the year before.

This season, the Cavs accomplished the 19 wins in 51 contests, showing that progress has been made by the organization whether or not anyone wants to admit it.

Part of it is the maturation of talent. Collin Sexton is now in his third season, and Darius Garland is now in his sophomore year in the league, and they have taken natural progression to their games.

And since the deal for Andre Drummond last year at the trade deadline, the organization has once again made size a priority. They traded for JaVale McGee in the off-season, and also picked up soon to be 23-year-old big man Jarrett Allen earlier this year.

When they moved McGee at this year’s deadline, they replaced him with another young big man in Isaiah Hartenstein, who since his arrival, and benefitting from Allen being out, has scored 10 points, grabbed 9.6 rebounds, and dished out 3.4 assists per contest.

The team needs to add one more thing however, before it can be considered a playoff contender, and it might be the toughest thing for a young team to get…consistency.

Since Kevin Love started being able to play more after a calf injury which has plagued his year, and Matthew Dellavedova came back from issues due to a concussion and appendicitis, the Cavaliers have started to pick up the pace even more with resounding wins on the road against San Antonio and Oklahoma City.

They followed up those two impressive wins with an embarrassing home loss to Toronto, who were playing without their three best players: Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, and Fred VanVleet.

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff came into the season talking about playing with grit and intensity, but the young Cavs forget that too often, and the result is allowing 87 first half points to a team that came into the game a half game better than Cleveland in the standings.

If you want to be a playoff team, you can’t lose games like that, particularly at home. And this is where we feel organizational culture comes in. If you brand yourself as a gritty defensive minded team, it is difficult to forget to play that way on a given night.

Every team has a clunker, but the wine and gold have lost 13 games by 20 points or more this season, by our count. Some of those have come against the elite teams in the NBA, but they’ve been blown out by these teams as well: Orlando, the Knicks, Boston, and tonight’s opponent, New Orleans.

Those are games where you have to take the mindset of “we should win tonight”. And perhaps they do, leading to thinking maximum effort isn’t needed.

The good teams in the league can do that, young teams trying to develop an identity cannot.

And to be fair, Cleveland has had their share of injuries too, which affects consistency. Allen and Larry Nance both have missed the last several games.

We are sure the “draft lottery maniacs” out there, love to see the Cavs lose games like last night, but that is a loser’s lament. Bickerstaff and the organization should be stressing wins, because winning can be a habit, and it’s the kind of habit you want to have.

Kevin Love, Matthew Dellavedova and Nance have developed that habit, the younger guys like Sexton and Garland have not.

Last night’s pathetic performance will serve as a wake up call that the young Cavs cannot afford to take anyone lightly. This is the NBA after all.

It will be interesting to see what kind of attitude the Cavs come out with tonight

It’s Early, But Tribe Bats Haven’t Quelled Any Fears

First of all, let us start that it is way too early to make any conclusions about any major league baseball teams after five games.

However, if you thought coming into the 2021 season that the offense would be a problem for the Cleveland Indians, they have done nothing to make you feel differently.

Remember, the Indians ranked tied for 13th in the American League in runs scored last year and dealt one of their best hitters in the off-season. So, it’s not like there isn’t a reason for concern.

In the season’s first five games, the Tribe scored two runs or less in three of them, and let us remind you that even with Cleveland’s usually excellent pitching, winning when the team scores two runs is very, very difficult.

The average American League team scored 4.58 runs per game on average last season, and the Indians were best in the Junior Circuit in run prevention, allowing 3.48 runs per contest. So, scoring two runs usually means adding one to the “L” column.

Thank goodness for Jose Ramirez. The AL MVP runner up belted a pair of two run homers yesterday, accounting for the only runs in the Tribe’s second victory of the season.

There are some good things to take note of thus far, although you can look at them in different ways.

Cleveland is last in the AL in striking out, and even in today’s game where hitters fan a lot, that’s a good thing. The counter to that is they haven’t faced any of the game’s big strikeout pitchers. Detroit and Kansas City ranked in the lower half of the league in that category last season. In fact, the Tigers pitching staff was last.

And they’ve been drawing four walks per game, which has to be a staple of their offense. They probably won’t see a premier pitcher until they visit Chicago next week to take on the White Sox.

They have also hit some home runs. Ramirez’ two yesterday give the team seven on the season, and partially because of that, they rank 8th in slugging percentage.

However, some of the things we were concerned about have reinforced those feelings.

Terry Francona has for some reason decided the bat the centerfielder in the leadoff spot, and while Jordan Luplow has had tremendous success against lefties in his career, so it makes sense with him, hitting Ben Gamel first raises some eyebrows.

The veteran has a .331 on base percentage for his career (his best mark was .358 with Seattle in 2018), so it’s tough to find a reason for him to bat first. Luplow’s has a lifetime .379 OBP vs. southpaws as a contrast.

To be fair, we know Cesar Hernandez is a better hitter than he has shown so far (2 for 18 with four walks). But the offense can’t be solely dependent on Hernandez, Ramirez, Eddie Rosario and Franmil Reyes either.

Another problem for the attack has been the inability to get runners on base early in innings. Too often, the Tribe gets a couple of hits with two outs, making it tough to score. And they’ve also banged into five double plays, third in the league to date, so they aren’t putting a lot of pressure on opposing pitchers.

They’ve also scored only two runs before the sixth inning. So, starting pitchers haven’t been able to protect any leads thus far.

Again, it’s early, so it is way too early for concern. But the Indians could have eased the minds of many supporters with a good start at the plate.

If they can score, then they can surprise in the AL Central.

The Sexton Dilemma

When discussion regarding the Cleveland Cavaliers’ future comes up, a talk about Collin Sexton is sure to follow. He is a polarizing figure to be sure.

Sexton was the 8th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, taken with the choice secured from Boston, originally that of the Brooklyn Nets, in the Kyrie Irving. There is a lot to like about the former Alabama standout, who just turned 22 years old earlier this season.

He is a gym rat to be sure. He is a tireless worker. There are stories during his rookie season that he had to be thrown out of the Cavs’ practice facility because he was consumed by basketball.

He can score the ball too. He is averaging a career high 24.0 points per game this season, a step up from 20.8 a year ago.

But the question for many, including ourselves, is this: Can he be the best player on a contending team?

Our answer is no, but could he be a contributor on a good team? We think so.

Watching him play, he doesn’t seem to have good basketball instincts. And what we mean by that is he doesn’t have a good feel in getting the ball to his teammates where they can succeed. However, again, he can flat out put the ball in the basket.

When the Cavs are struggling offensively, he can keep them in a game. We think about the recent contest against the Lakers where Cleveland led at the half because Darius Garland and Larry Nance Jr. were playing great. Sexton was out with an injury.

In the second half, the Lakers’ defense determined someone other than Garland and Nance were going to have to score. No one else could. That’s exactly the kind of game where Sexton could have been a huge factor. That’s when you need to have the “scorer’s mentality”.

The other thing is can a backcourt of Garland and Sexton be successful defensively. Perhaps, but that’s where Jarrett Allen and another big (Isaiah Hartenstein?) are needed.

Toronto won a title with small guards, but they had Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, elite defenders behind them. And Utah has the best record in the league this season, and have shot blocker extraordinaire Rudy Gobert protecting the rim.

Can Sexton be a part of Cleveland’s success going forward? Yes, he can, but to do so, it might have to involved taking a step back. Getting his teammates involved more, and then scoring when needed or just let Garland run the offense and be the finisher.

And take the open shots when they are there. We have seen Sexton have a good look, and dribble his way into the defense, thus causing a more difficult shot.

Maybe more direction is needed from the bench too. Being a young team, sometimes you have to tell the players where they want the shot to come from and who they would they want shooting.

Perhaps some of that comes from having veterans Kevin Love and Matthew Dellavedova back on the floor.

Many NBA players, including Michael Jordan, have had to learn to do this. So, Sexton can definitely learn this skill. Our question is anyone in the organization telling him this? For the Cavs to start playing consistent winning basketball, we think that’s what is needed.

Go Away, Hue. No One Wants To Hear From 3 Win You.

Fans of the Cleveland Browns have had a fun ride over the last 12 months. After wandering around in the desert that is losing, new head coach Kevin Stefanski came aboard and took the team to the playoffs for the first time since 2002.

The team finished 11-5, the most victories for the franchise since 1994, when Bill Belichick was guiding the brown and orange.

With the NFL Draft coming to the city later this month, and the prospects of another winning season dancing in their collective heads, all is good if you are a pro football fan in northeastern Ohio. Heck, the Browns are even mentioned as, wait for it, Super Bowl contenders.

So, with all of those things being positive, something had to poop on the good feelings.

Hue Jackson reared his ugly head.

Why? We guess to remind everyone what a terrible dysfunctional organization the Browns, still owned by Jimmy Haslam used to be, even as recently as four years ago.

Jackson came aboard when Sashi Brown was put in charge of the organization, and his strategy was to stop putting bandages on things and strip the roster down to an expansion team level. Basically starting over.

Brown traded a lot of veterans and accumulated draft picks. We have to imagine Jackson was told what was going to happen when he took the gig, so he shouldn’t have been surprised.

Other teams have followed the same strategy in recent years, notably the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. WIth Todd Bowles leading the Jets, they still won four games in their worst season (we aren’t counting the 2020 season, when they supposed had their quarterback), and Miami went 5-11 in Brian Flores’ first season at the helm, after the team gutted their roster.

Jackson went 1-31 over a two year span. We bring up those other teams to show it is difficult to be that bad in the NFL. Usually, the worst teams win at least three games.

Not the Browns though. They won one stinking game over a two year period.

What’s worse is Jackson used his position, reporting directly to ownership (part of the dysfunction) to complain about Brown and the plan he appears to have signed up for. That led to Brown being fired and John Dorsey coming to Cleveland as the GM.

Dorsey famously brought in Baker Mayfield, Denzel Ward, and Nick Chubb in the draft and of course, traded for Odell Beckham Jr. The rest of the draft picks both in 2018 and 2019 have not really been franchise changers, the best of the lot might be LB Sione Takitaki.

Anyway, the complaining about Brown which brought forth Dorsey, basically cost Jackson his job, because the new GM didn’t like the coaching the next year (2018) and fired Jackson after a 33-18 loss to the Steelers. Remember, Dorsey also traded Carlos Hyde during the year because Jackson was playing him instead of Chubb, who went on to gain 996 yards this season.

That’s how we see Jackson’s legacy as a head coach in Cleveland. Among coaches who have coaches at least a full season with the Browns, including men who coached just one season here, Jackson has the least victories with three.

Rob Chudzinski won four. Gregg Williams, the interim coach who took over for Jackson, won five. Even the much maligned Freddie Kitchens won six.

Go away Hue. Things are looking up for the franchise and its fans as the 2021 draft approaches. You have your place in the history of the Cleveland Browns, and it’s not good.