Road Back To Finals Will Be Tougher For Cavs

With the NBA playoffs starting this weekend, the common verse being sung by local fans and both the local and national media is the Cleveland Cavaliers should win the Eastern Conference and return to the NBA Finals.

Why? Because they have LeBron James and he will raise his game in the post-season to another level.

And? Because the Cavs have a very talented roster and eventually they will put everything together.

And?? That’s about all they have.

That’s worrisome from our point of view. And an awful lot to put on the shoulders of James, although the way he has played over the last month shows he may still be the best basketball player in the world, despite the Stephen Curry enthusiasts.

Look, this isn’t last season, when the top seeded team was the Atlanta Hawks, a team without a lot of playoff success in the past, and not a physically overwhelming roster.

The East is much better in 2015-16, making the Cavs route back to The Finals, much more treacherous.

In short, the wine and gold need to have their act together starting this weekend, which is tricky because they seem to be playing in a fog over the last month.

Yes, yes, they played well last night against Atlanta. It showed once again how good this team can be when they are clicking on all cylinders, but what happens when some adversity gets in the way, such as the opponents’ defense taking something away.

One of the members of the “Big Three”, Kyrie Irving, is in a huge shooting slump, and when he doesn’t shoot, he is dribbling an excessive amount of time.

Kevin Love has been starting games scoring a lot, but then he seems to disappear, mostly because it seems his teammates forget he is on the floor.

JR Smith has become a consistent three point threat, but “consistency” is not a word usually associated with Smith.

Post scoring? Forget it, unless it is James doing it. Timofey Mozgov’s minutes are dwindling by the week, and Tristan Thompson’s best offensive play is getting a rebound on that end of the court.

Mozgov seems to be marginalized by Lue, which we aren’t sure is a good move, because the Cavs will need him, particularly against Detroit and Toronto.

Iman Shumpert has struggled with his shot all year, although he is out there for his defensive ability. Matthew Dellavedova looks like a guy who needs a few days off before the playoffs start. His shot seems to have taken a siesta as well.

The other question is how will Lue handle himself in the playoffs. We said this a year ago with David Blatt, but the post-season is really the measure of coaching in the NBA because adjustments are needed to fit your opponent.

Can Lue make the tactical moves needed to offset what other teams are doing to Cleveland both offensively and defensively?

This isn’t a knock on Lue, we just don’t know if he can make the correct moves to counteract the other squad.

And he will be going up against some veteran guys with success in the post-season, guys like Stan Van Gundy, Frank Vogel, and perhaps the best bench coach in the league, Boston’s Brad Stevens.

Right now, based on the past several weeks, we have questions as to whether or not the Cavaliers can get back to The Finals, because it seems once again to be all on the shoulders of James.

There is no doubt he can carry the team there, but it doesn’t give the wine and gold much margin for error.

This we do know. It won’t be easy to return.

Tribe Farm System Starting To Pay

From the time Mark Shapiro took over as general manager of the Cleveland Indians to his departure last season, the overriding tale of the regime was lack of success in the amateur draft.

From 2000 to 2008, the most successful first round choice by the Tribe’s scouting staff was Jeremy Guthrie, and because he was signed to a major league contract, he appeared in all of 16 games for Cleveland, starting just once.

In 2008, the Indians drafted Lonnie Chisenhall, and while you can’t put him in the “star” category, he is a serviceable major league player, a step up from previous years.

In 2011, Cleveland selected a high school shortstop named Francisco Lindor, and since then the Indians’ first round picks show up among baseball’s top prospects, depending on the publication or website you are reading.

Lindor was followed by Tyler Naquin, who made the Opening Day roster this season, and Tribe fans are waiting patiently for the next group of top picks, namely Clint Frazier (’13), Bradley Zimmer (’14), and Brady Aiken (’15).

Both Frazier and Zimmer can be seen nightly about an hour south of Lake Erie, both toiling for the Akron RubberDucks. Aiken is recovering from elbow surgery after he was the first overall pick in 2014, and should pitch for one of the Indians’ minor league teams this summer.

During that drought, thankfully, the Indians were very good finding prospects in other organizations, so they did have some good young players in the pipeline, such as Shin Soo Choo (Seattle), Asdrubal Cabrera (Seattle), Michael Brantley (Milwaukee), and Carlos Carrasco (Philadelphia).

That has continued in recent years too, as the front office basically stole Yan Gomes, now one of the AL’s best catchers from Toronto, and when they dealt Choo before he became a free agent, they received Trevor Bauer and Bryan Shaw from Arizona.

There may be two more players unearthed in another team’s system on their way as well, both coming from the Angels system.

A few years ago, with Vinnie Pestano no longer a dominant set up man, then GM Chris Antonetti moved him to Los Angeles for a starting pitcher in the Class A California League with an ERA over 5.00.

The deal was regarded as ho hum, Cleveland got a warm body. After coming over to Kinston, the right-hander had a 4.87 ERA.

The Tribe pitching coaches re-did his mechanics, and last year he posted a 2.73 ERA at Akron and 145 strikeouts in 158 innings pitched.

That’s the story of Mike Clevinger, one of the organization’s top ten prospects, and a guy you may see at Progressive Field some time this season.

When the Indians seemed to be out of the race last year and wanted to make room for younger players, they moved veteran David Murphy to the Angels for a young shortstop who looked to be all glove, no hit.

Eric Stamets had a very good training camp, and has gotten off to a good start (albeit a couple of games) at Akron.

Could he be the next success story for the organization?

For a mid to small market team like the Indians, they must be able to develop players. The fates of Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher show what can go wrong with the free agent experiments.

Over the last five seasons, the Indians have made tremendous progress developing young players. We picked them to win the division this season, and with the young talent on the horizon, it could be another long run of success on the corner of Ontario and Carnegie.

Optimism On Browns Doesn’t Mean Winning

When you are doing something different, you leave your self open for criticism. That’s what the Cleveland Browns are experiencing this off-season.

Look, we have no idea if the “analytic” approach will work, or whether Sashi Brown, Paul DePodesta, Andrew Berry, and Hue Jackson will get the Browns back to the playoffs.

What we do know is that they can’t be worse than what came before them.

Cleveland has lost ten games or more in seven of the last eight seasons. They aren’t exactly a model of success.

So, we don’t listen to the national experts about how an NFL franchise is supposed to operate. We understand that the new front office staff is trying something different, and that is absolutely fine.

Veteran NFL executive Bill Polian made the comment, presumably because of DePodesta’s presence that the Browns were conducting the equivalent of a baseball fire sales.

Polian might have been trying to be snarky, but he is correct. That is exactly what the Browns are doing. They are basically gutting the roster and starting over. And we say why not?

All of the losing has poisoned the locker room. These guys simply don’t know how to win, and they have been exposed to coach after coach without an idea of how to win, or the enthusiasm to do so.

So, if Jackson comes off as cocky and self-confident, he is a virtual extrovert compared to Eric Mangini, Pat Shurmur, and Mike Pettine.

Think about it, when did any of those guys show one ounce of bounce and pep on the sideline.

Think about how the players, even the good ones, talked as the season went on and the losses piled up over the years. How many of them were genuinely angry or ticked off?

Exactly. That’s why one by one, the front office is purging those guys.

It is also funny to hear players offer statements questioning the weight program over the past few seasons. Apparently, Jackson and his staff looked at Cam Erving, for example, and told him he needed to get a lot stronger.

Why didn’t anyone tell him before now?

We have said it will be apparent this season how poorly this team was coached over the last two seasons. We will not be surprised at all if players like Danny Shelton, Erving, Nate Orchard, Christian Kirksey, and Ibrahim Campbell can be solid to good NFL players with the correct leadership.

We don’t know how these guys will draft and what their eye for talent is, but they shouldn’t be condemned by the mistakes of the people who came before them.

More veterans will be let go or traded before the beginning of training camp and we are okay with that. We believe these guys are following our adage, that being the only worse than a bad team is a bad, old team.

So, optimistic may be the wrong word regarding our thoughts on the Browns, perhaps a healthy curiosity is a better choice. At this point, you have to think that what they are doing makes sense.

And that doesn’t mean we think the Browns are going to win in 2016 either. If they win three or four games, that’s probably an accurate prediction.

But we can feel good about it as fans if they are doing it with young players and those guys are showing process on a week to week basis.

That would show a promising future, and if they do a good job with this year’s draft, we can all be anxious to see what they can do with another high pick and a bunch of choices later in the draft.

In the meantime, there is nothing wrong with trying something different. It just may pay off in the long run.

Kyrie’s Biggest Problem? He’s Lost His Shot

After Sunday’s 112-103 victory over the Charlotte Hornets, LeBron James proclaimed the Cleveland Cavaliers ready for the playoffs.

And with a 3-1/2 game lead over Toronto in the Eastern Conference standings and just five games remaining, the wine and gold’s magic number for home court advantage within the East is just three.

The guess here is the Cavs “big three” could see a lot of rest between now and the regular season.

The biggest concern for Tyronn Lue the balance of the schedule, besides making sure everyone is healthy is getting Kyrie Irving back on track.

Irving’s shot is off, although there is evidence that he is taking the “shoot your way of a slump” approach.

In the first 32 games, the former first overall pick was active this season, he took 20 or more shots just eight times.

In the last 17 games he has played, he has hoisted 20 plus field goal attempts seven times. And in total, he has fired 20 or more shots nine times in the last 23 games, dating back to the first game vs. the Lakers, when Kobe Bryant urged him not to lose his aggressiveness.

Shooting would be fine if Irving’s shot was going down, but he has only knocked down 33 of the 104 shots taken in his last six games (32%).

Not only that, but the former three point shot champion has made just a little over 30% from behind the arc since the beginning of March.

For the year, Irving is making just 31% of his threes. Last year, he made 41.5%.

The Cavs simply need Irving to regain his shooting eye if they want to get back to The Finals, because the road will no doubt be tougher this season with the Raptors challenging, and don’t sleep on the Boston Celtics.

Perhaps he is still regaining the strength in his leg after the dislocated kneecap suffered in last year’s championship round, and that’s the reason for his shot being off, but Cleveland needs the Irving who is a threat from outside.

That could be why Kyrie is forcing his way to the basket so much. His confidence in his shot has waned, so he is dribbling too much trying to get to the hoop.

On the other hand, he often takes a quick outside shot without the Cavs offense having an opportunity to run anything resembling an offensive set.

Irving is not a strong defender and isn’t exactly a willing passer, so if he’s not making shots, Lue has better options on the roster to play so the team performs better.

That seems like a slam on Irving, but it’s really no different than saying if Tristan Thompson wasn’t able to rebound well, he shouldn’t play.

We have joked that Irving not playing means better ball movement and Kevin Love will have a good game.

The point is that LeBron James’ outside shooting percentage declining, and Iman Shumpert not shooting well, the Cavs need consistent shooting from three point land to stretch the floor.

Right now, only JR Smith, Love, and Matthew Dellavedova (as long as he is spotted up) provide bona fide threats from outside.

Channing Frye is a specialist. If he’s not hitting shots, we doesn’t get much time.

That’s why it is so important that whatever is ailing Irving’s shot gets cured before the playoffs begin.

We can live with the weaknesses in his game if he’s not scoring by taking a heavy volume of shots.

Going forward though, to become a truly elite player, Irving needs to be more of a team player and a better defender.

But the shot is the thing that has to get fixed. And as soon as possible for the Cavs.

Why Tribe Will Win The Central

All winter long, we have been critical of the off-season for the Cleveland Indians’ front office.

They did make a lot of sound, solid moves, but we questioned whether or not they did enough to get the squad back to a win total in the upper 80’s or low 90’s, so they could return to the post-season.

After careful consideration, we think they have and Terry Francona’s crew will win the AL Central Division in 2016.

By the way, we aren’t homers and don’t predict the Indians to win every year either. We think the last time we did make that pick, it was 2007-08.

Certainly, we know the Indians have the starting pitching to do it, perhaps the best rotation in the American League, and maybe in the sport when you figure the lack of DH in the National League, and that the AL is better overall.

The rotation is strong enough that a pitcher who threw 176 innings for the Tribe a year ago, Trevor Bauer, will apparently start the ’16 season in the bullpen.

And T.J. House, a big factor in 2014 and a very good prospect, Mike Clevenger, will open the season in Columbus.

We all know the key for the Indians in 2016 is the hitting, can they score enough runs to avoid losing a bunch of games because they score three runs or less, which they did in half of their games a year ago.

It is ridiculous to think Francisco Lindor will hit .313 as he did in 99 games a year ago, but if he hits .270, that’s an improvement over what the Tribe got from the spot in the first half of the ’15 campaign.

Team president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff appear to have taken some dead spots in the lineup from a year ago, and have put players who should be able to help at the plate in their places.

While we like Giovanny Urshela’s potential, the fact remains last year he had a 608 OPS, way below average. This year, Juan Uribe, who had a 737 OPS will be the primary third baseman, with Jose Ramirez, who we think will breakout this season, getting time there as well.

And if Uribe doesn’t hit (he is 37 years old), Urshela had a solid spring at the plate and should improve on his offensive ability.

Tyler Naquin and Rajai Davis should do better than what Michael Bourn gave Cleveland until he was dealt to Atlanta in late July, and the platoon of Lonnie Chisenhall and another vet, Marlon Byrd should do better than the Brandon Moss/David Murphy/Jerry Sands trio in RF.

And we believe that Mike Napoli will be the best of the veterans the front office brought in this winter, and Yan Gomes is ready to pick up where he left off in 2014, before being hampered by injuries.

Those additions will augment Michael Brantley, who hopefully will be back by the end of April, and Jason Kipnis at the plate

The only concern we have is in the bullpen.

Cody Allen should be fine, but we worry about Bryan Shaw and wonder if the heavy workload finally catches up with him.

We also worry about Jeff Manship, because let’s face it, in his seven years in the big leagues, he’s had three good months, the second half of last season.

On the other hand, the Tribe has depth in the organization with bullpen arms. Shawn Armstrong and Austin Adams are ready to contribute if someone fails.

Lastly, there’s the Francona factor. Although we may disagree with him strategically at times, he knows how to use each player to the greatest advantage.

That cannot be underestimated.

It will be an Indians summer at Progressive Field in 2016. And if they can get off to a good start, people will start returning to be a part of the excitement.

Browns Have More House Cleaning To Do

A few weeks ago, we wrote about the Cleveland Browns’ need to get younger because it’s bad enough to stink, but to have many old players and stink is worse.

Since then, the Browns have cut ties with Karlos Dansby, and Alex Mack departed via free agency. Both were over 30 years old.

However, Sashi Brown and coach Hue Jackson still have a bunch of grizzled veterans who wouldn’t seem to have a place on a building football operation.

Notice he didn’t use the term “rebuilding” because something needs to be in place at one time, and having two winning seasons in 16 years doesn’t really qualify.

Cleveland still has 10 players over 30 years old on the roster, nine if you disqualify punter Andy Lee, because he should be able to kick a football effectively for a few more years.

That leaves this group with their ages listed:

Josh McCown (36)
Tramonn Williams (33)
John Greco (31)
Joe Thomas (31)
Gary Barnidge (30)
Desmond Bryant (30)
Andrew Hawkins (30)
Paul Kruger (30)
Donte Whitner (30)

We would get rid of all of them, and we feel most will no longer be with the team after the NFL Draft occurs in late April.

Rumors already have the brown and orange shopping McCown now that Robert Griffin III signed here as a free agent.

Brown, Paul DePodesta, and Jackson are probably holding on to most of these guys trying to move each of them for additional draft picks during the draft, and if trades can’t be made, many of them could be released shortly after the selection meeting.

The most controversial name here is Thomas, a nine time Pro Bowl player.

We wouldn’t move the future Hall of Famer unless Cleveland can secure a first round draft choice for him. This is likely the last time Thomas would be able to garner such a haul, and our guess is the “analytical” approach of the front office tells them the same thing.

If Thomas is dealt, the Browns may keep Greco to keep at least one veteran on the offensive line. Barnidge will likely stay as well, since the team signed him to a friendly three year deal last season.

For the rest of the players, well, let’s say we wouldn’t get involved in long term lease arrangements.

In our opinion, the new regime wants to get rid of the losing attitude that has hovered over the locker room over the past ten years. It’s no disrespect to these players, who play hard for the most part, but when you lose 10 or more games year in and year out, it is human nature to insulate yourself against all the losing and you begin to accept it.

You lose your will to be angry about it.

The Browns need to build around this draft class and the young players from the past couple of drafts who can play.

We also have a feeling that we will see what a terrible coaching staff this team had the past two years, and perhaps Danny Shelton, Cam Irving, Nate Orchard, and some others aren’t as bad as originally thought.

Basically, the Browns need to do a thorough cleaning of their locker room, getting rid of the losing stench.

So, we anticipate more roster adjustments will be made. In one month, this roster will look completely different from the one who ended the season.

Thoughts On Tribe Opening Day Roster

The Cleveland Indians open the regular season less than a week from today, and they virtually finalized their roster over the past few days.

We are surprised by Terry Francona’s decision to keep just one left-hander in the bullpen, and even more surprised it was Ross Detwiler. However, Detwiler does have a 615 OPS against vs. left handed hitters, holding them to a .233 batting average.

Our guess is that because Detwiler is a former starter, 76 big league starts, including seven last year with Texas, Francona and Mickey Callaway feel he can be more than a guy who just faces one left-handed hitter.

We would be disappointed if the Indians keep 13 pitchers to start the year because they don’t need a fifth starter for much of April, and having nine relievers is a bit much.

We are also hoping there is nothing going on with Tito’s not naming Trevor Bauer to start the fourth game of the season against the White Sox.

Although Bauer is inconsistent, he is a better choice to be in the rotation from the get go than Josh Tomlin, who has struggled all spring.

Perhaps GM Mike Chernoff is working on a trade, because Cody Anderson has thrown very well in Arizona, giving Francona six solid options in the rotation. Anderson may have to begin the season in Columbus.

He would head up a very good rotation in AAA which would include T. J. House and camp sensation Mike Clevenger. A lot of major league teams would love any of that trio among its starting staff.

As for the ‘pen, Detwiler joins closer Cody Allen, set up men Bryan Shaw and Zack McAllister, and Joba Chamberlain, Jeff Manship, and either Bauer or Tomlin as relievers.

We would keep an eye on Manship, who has a 5.40 ERA in exhibition play, and outside of his 2015 season, has had a mediocre major league career.

In the outfield, Lonnie Chisenhall and Michael Brantley will begin the year on the disabled list, meaning the starting outfield from the end of last year, including the suspended Abraham Almonte, has had to be replaced.

The front office brought in a lot of outfielders during the winter, hoping someone would claim a job(s). Rajai Davis was a given to make the team when he signed, but the other spots were claimed by a Marlon Byrd, who signed during camp, and rookie Tyler Naquin, who flat out refused to be ignored.

Somehow, out of all the veteran scrubs brought in, the winner of the “competition” was Collin Cowgill, who will probably start opening day because of David Price pitching for Boston, despite his career .236 batting average and 633 OPS.

To be fair, he has come on strong in the last week, but is still hitting a robust .178 in Arizona.

He makes the team basically because he can play centerfield and either he or Davis can spell Naquin against a tough southpaw.

The infield is pretty well set.

Terry Francona will have to be very adaptable this season, and he has demonstrated he is very good at doing this.

He will mix and match his lineups, making sure to play the percentages based on platoon differences and giving some of his older players occasional days off.

Jose Ramirez will be a key in doing just that.

It will be interesting to see what moves will be made once Brantley and Chisenhall are ready to go.

Can Cavs Put It Together Before Playoffs?

The NBA playoffs are less than a month away, but it feels like the Cleveland Cavaliers are further away than that from competing for an NBA title.

There are many people confident that the Cavs will put it all together before the post-season begins and they will march through the Eastern Conference and get to The Finals for the second consecutive year.

We are not one of those people.

Shortly after Tyronn Lue took over as head coach of the wine and gold, we wrote about how the Cavs had to get mentally tougher as a team in order to win a title.

After more than 30 games with Lue at the helm, the Cavaliers still seem to be shaky in terms of attitude.

There are several reasons for these thoughts:

The Constant Clunkers It seems like this team can’t play more than three good games in a row without following up with a simply horrible outing.

The home loss to Memphis and a terrible performance on Thursday against a bad Brooklyn team are just the two latest examples.

Perhaps they are bored and looking towards the playoffs, but it feels like it happens too often. What’s worse is the coaching staff doesn’t seem to have an answer.

Over-reliance On The Three Ball In the loss to the Nets, the Cavs went 9 of 37 from behind the arc. That’s 24.4%.

When Cleveland loses these days, it is usually because they are not making their threes, so they’ve become a live by the three, die by the three type of team.

The Cavaliers rank 9th in the NBA in three point shooting percentage 35.7%, taking the fourth most in the league.

However, when they aren’t going in, the team doesn’t seem to have or better yet, look for another alternative. They just keep chucking them up from deep.

That would be fine if they didn’t have players who have other options. Both LeBron James and Kyrie Irving can take the ball to the hoop with anyone in the league. And Kevin Love can score in the post and has a solid mid-range game.

JR Smith is also versatile offensively even though he is best known for his long range marksmanship.

When the three ball isn’t falling, the wine and gold have to try another attack.

Defense Or lack of it, we should say. Since Lue took over and wanted the Cavs to play at a faster pace, the defense has suffered. And in the playoffs, you have to be sound at the defensive end.

Too often, Cleveland defenders allow opposing point guards to get into the paint which causes the big men to cover up for them, which in turn, allows their men to get lay ups and dunks.

If that singles out Kyrie Irving, then so be it. He simply has to do a better job keeping his man in front of him.

Which brings us to…

Kyrie Irving Irving has always been a scorer, but he’s becoming a major ball stopper. We don’t have a problem with him scoring, it’s the way it’s being done.

Mostly, he stands around the outside dribbling looking for a lane to drive to the basket. When the defense doesn’t allow that, it creates bad, long range shots to beat the shot clock, and fast break opportunities for the opponents.

Irving needs to move the ball, and then move without it to get open, and then get it back. That would seem to alleviate both problems.

Improvement in these areas would make us feel better about the Cavaliers’ chances.

Do they have the talent to get back to The Finals? Of course. But, the East is better, so without shoring up these areas, it will be difficult to get back.

Why Not Take A Look At RGIII?

First, it was Colin Kaepernick, but it appears that has fallen through, and now the big rumor is the Cleveland Browns are close to signing former Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III as a free agent.

We have no idea if Griffin can regain the magic of his rookie season, when he completed 65.6% of his passes and had 20 touchdowns and just five interceptions as Washington went 10-6 and made the playoffs.

The former second overall pick in the 2012 NFL draft hurt his knee at the end of that campaign and never really has regained the magic.

Since he is only 26 years old, perhaps Hue Jackson wants to find out if he can rebuild Griffin’s career. It wouldn’t be unheard of.

Even with all of the injuries, the former Baylor standout has completed 63.9% of his throws.

For all of the people who think Josh McCown had a solid season for the Browns last season, he completed 63.7% of his passes last year.

What is pretty apparent to us is that Jackson simply doesn’t want to have McCown as his starting quarterback. That’s why he pursued both Kaepernick, whose price was way too high.

The combination of the San Francisco QB’s bloated salary and that the Niners wanted the Browns third round pick was too rich for Sashi Brown and the rest of the front office.

Look, McCown is a lot of things. He’s a great teammate, he has a huge heart, and did a good job being a steadying influence for Johnny Manziel. He took a great deal of punishment last season, even to the point of taking a couple of snaps with a broken collarbone.

However, there is one thing McCown isn’t, and that is a competent NFL starting quarterback. His lifetime record as a starter is 18-39 and is 8-27 since 2007.

He’s also going to be 37 years old, and that is a huge consideration for the Browns, who want to get younger.

We get that the local media likes McCown. He’s a stand up guy, a hard worker, and talks to reporters no matter the situation.

We are sure Jackson’s thought is if we are going to go with a question mark behind center, it would be better if that guy is 26 years old, not 37.

Quite simply, who has the better chance to improve?

We also aren’t saying that RGIII solves the Browns’ quarterbacking issues. We would still take a QB with the 2nd or 32nd overall picks (or if they trade for a late first round pick), and having Griffin would allow Jackson to have the rookie play when he’s ready and not a minute before.

If Griffin plays well, and the rookie develops, the Browns can move either one of the players, and since they are quarterbacks, they can get a king’s ransom.

And if Griffin’s career doesn’t bounce back to his rookie year level, all Cleveland lost was money, and they certainly have plenty of salary cap space.

RGIII has to have been humbled by what has happened to a promising career, and because of that, he should be a willing student for what Jackson is teaching.

That’s why it’s a no risk move for the Browns.

But don’t read the possible signing as Cleveland finding an answer at QB, but rather it’s they feel McCown has no upside and Jackson has no interest in the veteran being his signal caller this season.

Cavs’ Play Should Make Griffin Nervous.

Now that it has been about two months since Cavaliers’ GM David Griffin decided to make a change in the coaching ranks, the results haven’t been earth shattering.

Nor have they brought instant success, because their record the day Blatt was canned was 30-11, and since then they have gone just 20-9.

Advantage Blatt.

More so, Griffin talked about how there was no team happiness when they won games, that the Cavs needed to bring joy and togetherness to the locker room, and more “kumbaya” stuff, we guess.

Instead, if you listen to different media reports, now you have players pointing fingers at one another, mostly about selfish play and lackluster efforts.

Not to mention a virtual collapse on the defensive end of the floor, led by new assistant coach Mike Longabardi, hired from the perennial great on that end of the floor Phoenix Suns.

To be fair, Griffin’s move was a tremendous gamble, he did what he felt was right for his team. On the other hand, he’s got to be very nervous right about now.

We said at the time that making such a move made a championship the only alternative to justify the firing.

Lue was said to be a man who would hold the players more accountable, but really, has anyone seen any evidence of that?

He and Griffin wanted the wine and gold to play at a faster pace, and their points per game average has gone up, but it seems that is at the expense of effort at the defensive end of the floor, which on some night’s has resembled a colander.

It is possible to be a good defensive team and push the tempo, and all you have to do is look at the defending champions to see an example.

Also, we aren’t convinced that the faster pace would work in a possible rematch with the Warriors if it comes to that this June.

We all witnessed (pun intended) San Antonio’s win over Golden State on Saturday night and yes, the Spurs did play very good defense, but they also played the game at their pace, which the Cavs did in winning games two and three of The Finals last summer.

We believe that if you try to play up tempo against the champs, you play into their hands. They do it better than you, and they will wear you out.

For all of the talk about the locker room culture, the Cleveland locker room doesn’t seem very happy.

JR Smith called out his team after a terrible Sunday afternoon performance against Washington.

And according to Plain Dealer beat writer, Chris Haynes, there wasn’t joy amongst the team after Kyrie Irving’s 33 points, 1 assist outing in a win over Dallas a week ago.

Also, we would bet some teammates are irritated with LeBron James and his smiling conversation with Dwyane Wade at halftime of a game in which the wine and gold were having their collective heads handed to them.

So, it doesn’t seem like Griffin’s move has galvanized the locker room. And it doesn’t seem like the team has responded to the coaching change by playing better.

If the Cavs don’t get back to The Finals, Griffin will be the man that has to answer questions as to why they “took a step back”.

That’s why he should be a little nervous right about now.