Players Guardians Wanted To Look At Haven’t Shown Much To Date

During the winter and even right before spring training, the message from the Cleveland Guardians’ management was the reason they didn’t sign any veteran hitters was they wanted to look at the organization’s young talent, particularly in the outfield.

Yes, we know it is spring training, and not only that, it’s early in spring training, but it would not nice if a few of these prospects were showing something in the exhibition games.

You have to look at numbers during spring training games with a jaundiced eye. Observers need to be mindful of what pitchers the hitters are facing. Are they big league arms or guys who pitched in AA last year, and have a slim chance of making the squad that comes up north?

And again, it is still early. One of these hitters could go on a tear starting today and play their way onto the 26-man roster and perhaps into the starting lineup opening day in Oakland.

Looking at those young outfielders, none have flashed to date. Estevan Florial, acquired from the Yankees and mentioned more than a few times by Steven Vogt, is off to a miserable start, going just 1 for 13 with 8 strikeouts. He has walked twice.

Johnathan Rodriguez, who played at both AA and AAA last season, belting 29 home runs in total, has started 3 for 15 with one walk and has fanned four times. He has no extra base hits to date.

Jhonkensy Noel, kind of an all or nothing slugger who hit 27 dingers at Columbus in ’23, is 3 for 15 with seven punchouts. He does have two doubles however.

And rule five addition Deyvison De Los Santos, who has to be offered back to Arizona if he does not make the big-league roster, has started 3 for 15, but has only struck out three times.

Our favorite to win the shortstop job, Brayan Rocchio, coming off an excellent winter league season, is 1 for 12 with a walk, but has not struck out. His main competition, Gabriel Arias, who finished the year as the regular, is 3 for 11 and a walk, but has fanned four times, which is a problem for him.

The most impressive young players to date are three top 10 prospects, of which two have little chance to make the team.

The latter duo would be INF Angel Martinez, who has banged out 8 hits in 14 at bats with a walk and two strikeouts. The switch-hitter who will likely play at AAA this year has also pounded two doubles and two homers.

The other is OF Chase DeLauter, who has gone 4 for 8 with a HR in the big league games. The lefty hitter is the Guardians’ 2022 first round pick and will probably start the season at AA Akron.

The last of this trio should have a good shot to make the team, 1B/DH Kyle Manzardo. The left-handed hitter is 4 for 9 with two walks (three whiffs) and a double thus far. Manzardo spent last year at AAA, hitting 17 homers.

Add to this the Guardians traded a big-league starting pitcher to get him, and as we have said before, unless he’s overmatched in camp, he should be on the Opening Day roster.

Again, it’s early. But as the saying goes, you only have one chance to make a first impression. Hopefully, these prospects can get it going sooner than later.

A Tough Stretch For Cavs Should “Let Us Know”

Since blowing out the Toronto Raptors on February 10th, the Cleveland Cavaliers have gone through a bit of a rough patch. It’s understandable because the wine and gold have been on fire since the calendar turned to 2024, winning 17 of 19 games through that contest in the Canada.

In the week leading up to the All-Star weekend festivities (we will ignore that abomination of a game), and after, the Cavs have a 4-4 record with one of those victories coming Tuesday when Max Strus hit a 59-foot shot to win the game against Dallas.

The wins came at home vs. Chicago in which the struggled, the Strus contest, and Ws against the hapless Pistons and Wizards.

They haven’t looked like the same team that rolled for the first six weeks of the new year.

Starting today, they will be tested in March with home games against the Knicks, who muscled them out of the playoffs last season and the Celtics, who are the best team in the East. It should give J.B. Bickerstaff a measuring stick of where his team is right now.

Following those games is a road game in Atlanta, then a three game homestand in which the team with the best record in the West, Minnesota comes in and so does the talent-rich Phoenix Suns.

The middle of the month has a road stretch, featuring two games vs. Miami (one is the only home game) and other road tilts at New Orleans, Minnesota, and Indiana. Overall, they have 11 road games out of 14 played, while the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse is hosting the Mid-American Conference tournament and the NCAA Women’s Final Four.

Hopefully, the Cavs will find the formula that allowed them to be dominant from the time Darius Garland and Evan Mobley were injured to the week before the All-Star break.

Perhaps, the Cavaliers and the coaching staff were a bit in their own heads. The squad was sizzling putting the ball in Donovan Mitchell’s hands, and he played at an MVP level.

The Cavs talked about the different style of play adopted when Garland and Mobley were out. They pointed to the three-point shooting, but really that improvement came from increased playing time from Sam Merrill, who is still knocking them down at a 43.5% clip.

That’s way it was weird that Merrill received three DNP-CDs (did not play-coach’s decision) in a recent seven game period in which Cleveland went 4-3.

Dean Wade, who played 20 minutes or more in 11 out of 12 games in an 11-1 stretch throughout January, suddenly had his time reduced. He played less than 10 minutes in two games since play resumed.

We aren’t huge Wade supporters, but as we believe Charles Barkley once said, if it ain’t broke, don’t break it. It seems like Bickerstaff has decided to do just that.

Now, can he put it back together again? The obvious solution is that Merrill and Wade earned their time on the floor, and the adjustments should have been made by doing some slight trimming to some of the players getting heavier workloads.

After all, that would have them be fresher for the tough stretch coming up and then the playoffs.

Many of the national basketball media are having doubts about the Cavs making a deep run in the post-season. Playing well in a tough March slate could change some minds among folks who know the game.

Garland Is Very Good, But Maybe Not A Good Fit

After the Cleveland Cavaliers win over the Washington Wizards on Sunday, Donovan Mitchell took the opportunity to back his teammate Darius Garland against some criticism on social media.

Mitchell was being a good teammate, no question about that, although most of the criticism that comes on social media should probably be ignored by NBA players. Ours included.

There is a difference though in criticizing Garland’s play and thinking the Cavaliers might just be better exchanging him for another player.

Garland is a very good player. He’s made an all-star team and has been a starter since his rookie season, and the last three of those five years, the Cavs have been a pretty good team.

In 2021-22, he scored 21.7 points and dished out 8.6 assists, shooting 46.2% from the floor, 38.3% from three. Last season, playing his first season with Mitchell as a backcourt mate, he scored 21.6 points and had 7.8 assists. He also raised his percentage from behind the arc to 41%.

He’s always been a bit turnover prone, averaging 3.6 in his all-star year, but did improve to 2.9 a year ago. Remember, he does have the ball in his hand a lot. Our biggest issue is when he penetrates, he loses the ball too easily as it is knocked out of his hands.

However, in spite of the statistical success Garland and Mitchell had a year ago, the Cavs were handled quite easily in their playoff series against the Knicks losing in five games.

We thought it would be a very difficult matchup for Cleveland because of the physicality the Knicks bring every night, and also because we have our doubts about trying to win with two starting guards that are under 6’3″.

This season, it’s been a bit of a struggle for Garland. His scoring has dropped to 18.2 points and his three-point shooting has dipped to 34% thus far.

Early in the year, when Garland missed four games, the Cavs struggled, going 1-3. When he broke his jaw in December, he missed 19 more contests, but this time the wine and gold went 15-4.

The ball was put in Mitchell’s hands and the team and offense flourished. To be fair, when Garland returned, the Cavs kept rolling, winning the first seven games he appeared in and nine of twelve overall.

Again, we want to remind you that there is no question here that Garland is a very good NBA player. But in basketball, it’s not just talent that succeeds, it is how the players fit and play off each other.

And there is also the nasty part…the defensive end.

One of the issues with the smallish backcourt is defense. There is no question it is tougher to guard someone two or three inches taller than you, especially if you have a slight build, which Garland has.

Last year, coach J.B. Bickerstaff tried to have Garland check Knicks’ guard Jalen Brunson in the playoffs. It was a mismatch. Brunson just overpowered him, and he’s listed as just one inch taller.

Put all those things in the mix and it may be Garland isn’t a good fit in Cleveland if Donovan Mitchell decides to sign a contract extension.

The big word in that last sentence? “If”.

Browns Need To Get Pay Off On Investment On Watson

When the Cleveland Browns traded a boatload of draft picks and spent a ton of money on QB Deshaun Watson prior to the 2022 season, we are sure they felt their quarterback issues were taken care of for several years.

However, Watson has not been under center since the move was made more often than he has played due to league suspension and injury. And really, when Watson has played, he has not resembled the player who put up 4823 yards through the air in 2020 with the Texans.

Of the five highest yardage games for the Browns in the 2023 season, Watson was at the helm for one of them, the 26-22 loss to Pittsburgh in week two. The Browns moved well that day, and Watson completed 22 of 40 throws for 235 yards, but had an interception on the game’s first play and two fumbles, one of which resulted in another Pittsburgh touchdown.

The other four games which resulted in the most yardage gained with the quarterback who played:

428 yards vs. the Jets (Joe Flacco)
418 yards vs. the Texans (Flacco)
389 yards vs. the Jaguars (Flacco)
385 yards vs. the Seahawks (P.J. Walker)

To be fair, if we extend this to the top ten games, Watson played in three of those–Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Tennessee.

In Watson’s first year, in which he was suspended for the Browns’ first 12 games, the game he moved the ball in the best was a 23-10 loss to the Bengals in week 14, which ranked 9th for the Browns that year.

Watson was 26 of 42 in that one for 276 yards with a TD throw and an interception.

Of the five lowest yardage games for Cleveland, Watson was at the helm for four of them.

That has to be concerning for the organization.

The Browns changes offensive coordinators this season, bringing in Ken Dorsey, who had success working with Cam Newton in Carolina. This was done to “unlock” Watson, to get him back to the player he was in Houston.

They talk about adding more weapons to the offensive, giving Watson more to work with. However, we keep coming back to these facts: Cleveland scored 30 or more points five times last season. Three of those games came with Flacco behind center, one came with Watson, and the other with Walker.

We think there should be a meeting in the middle with the QB. There is no question so far the offense runs better with other quarterbacks than the one the Browns have made a substantial investment in.

So, bringing in a coach more in tune with Watson’s style of play is fine, anything to make him more comfortable is a good thing. However, Watson should also be making an effort to fit with what worked at the end of 2023.

There is no question the Browns moved the football better and scored more points with Joe Flacco at the position. It’s probably the reason the changes were made to the coaching staff, the front office is concerned about the huge investment that was made.

For the Browns to succeed in 2024, they need more consistent play from Deshaun Watson. They’ve invested a lot of draft capital and money in the former Texan, and so far, it hasn’t paid off.

Hopefully, the new coordinator can help Watson, and he can put his ego aside and go ahead and run the offense like it was in the second half of last season.

Maybe Being Slightly Better At Some Spots Will Work For Guards

We have been critical of the inactivity this winter by the Cleveland Guardians. The Guards fell from a division winner in 2022 to last year’s 76-86 record, and really haven’t made any moves to get better.

However, we remembered that when the team gets to the trade deadline, we always remind people that it’s not always a blockbuster move that is needed, sometimes an incremental move works just fine.

So, in that spirit we have cut the front office a bit of slack. We still think going after one or two veterans to have around as a backup plan would have been a smarter play, and of course, we will remind folks of that if what they are doing doesn’t work out.

And that’s not a second guess.

New manager Steven Vogt has talked a few times about newcomer Estevan Florial taking over in centerfield and we have pointed out Florial’s struggles in making contact and his fall from ranking as a top 100 prospect.

Then we remembered he would be replacing Myles Straw at the spot. Last year, Straw was the third worst hitter in the American League with his 597 OPS. The only players who were worse were Javier Baez and Tim Anderson.

If Florial can have a 650 OPS this season (league average is 728), the Guardians’ offense will be better than last year. Heck, overall, Cleveland centerfielders had a 626 OPS, the worst on the team.

The second worst spot was rightfield, where the players manning the spot combined for a 629 OPS. The favorites to play there in 2024 are Will Brennan and Ramon Laureano in a platoon role.

Brennan had a 695 OPS vs. right-handed pitching in ’23, while Laureano had a 794 OPS against southpaws. And remember, the latter didn’t join the team until August last season.

If they repeat those numbers, the offensive production out of that position will be improved.

And the third worst spot should be better because it is the catching position and Bo Naylor should get the bulk of the playing time there. Barring the dreaded sophomore slump, that is.

Naylor put up an 809 OPS, belting 11 home runs in the 67 games he played last season. And he’s patient at the plate, drawing 30 walks. That’s nothing new, he had a .348 on base percentage in his minor league career.

We have no question that he can boost the production from that position, after all, the Guards unbelievably gave 149 at bats to Cam Gallagher last season, who put up a woeful 322 OPS.

Baseballprospectus.com listed Steven Kwan and Andres Gimenez as the most likely players to have improved numbers at the plate this season. And we agree they will probably be better in 2024.

With the Central Division being what it is, perhaps those things, coupled with the usual solid pitching, can vault the Guardians back to the top of the division standings.

We still would rather have invested some money (we know, we know) into getting a decent hitter or two to improve the roster instead of trying to project how a 20-year-old who has never played higher than AA can make an impact. The front office is back to their Dusty Springfield approach.

For younger people, she was a singer who had a big hit called “Wishin’ and Hopin'”.

Maybe we just have a case of Spring Training Fever. After all, exhibition play started yesterday.

Are The Cavs Limiting Themselves?

The Cleveland Cavaliers are a very good basketball team. They enter the second half of the season (post-All-Star break) with the second-best record in the East and tied for the fourth best record in the Association (with the Clippers).

There is no question they will make the playoffs this season. Basketballreference.com has their playoff probability at 100%. And a look at the balance of the schedule has some challenges such as a pair of home games in early March against the Knicks and Celtics, and a late season west coast trip, but it doesn’t appear to be a gauntlet.

So, they are playing for playoff seeding the rest of the campaign, and the lure of finishing in the top two in the conference is home court advantage in at least the first two playoff series.

One thing that is concerning is a report that the Cavs’ goal as an organization is to win a playoff series. Our problem with this is when you have that as a goal, then you plan that way, and that would seem to be the reason nothing was done at the trade deadline.

The defending champion Nuggets lost in the first round the year prior, lost in the second round the season before that, and last went to the conference finals in 2019-20. And while the previous champs, Golden State, had a championship pedigree, they have missed the playoffs the two years before they won.

And yes, we are aware of the injuries that hampered the team.

The point is there is no step ladder to win titles in the NBA anymore, like there was in the 80’s, when the Pistons had to lost to the Celtics before they could win, and the Bulls had to lose to Detroit before they could get to The Finals.

However, the Cavs still seem to look at things that way. They wanted to contend for a playoff spot two years ago and make a seven-game series last year. They did accomplish those goals, but that was it.

It’s fine after the season ends to take stock of what you accomplished and be happy about it, but putting a limit on expectations often puts a limit on what a team can do.

Our thought is looking at the East, the only team clearly better than the Cavs is Boston, and we would have made a move, a small one, with the Celtics in mind. Perhaps another wing defender with some size to help against Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

We would have the mentality that if we can beat the Celtics, the Cavs can get to the NBA Finals. Moreso, making a move to strengthen the team lets everyone know, including a star player who can be a free agent soon, that winning the title is the goal. Every year.

When people talk about the culture of the Miami Heat, that’s what they are talking about. Every member of that team knows what the goal is, to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Maybe holding on the #2 spot in the East or maybe even getting higher (the wine and gold are six games behind Boston) changes the expectation for the front office. We certainly hope so.

Non Money Moves Made Or Not Made By Guardians

We have talked about this a lot since the calendar turned to 2024, but it has been a very, very quiet off-season for the Cleveland Guardians. Outside of a few transactions around the time a team had to offer arbitration to its players, it seems like the construction around Progressive Field has closed the front office too.

We aren’t going to get into the financial stuff here, we have been well informed on the whole broadcast revenue with Bally Sports and how the Guardians have claimed it prevented them for spending this winter.

However, there are things we would have liked the organization to do this off-season which would not have caused a financial burden. Here are some things we wish they’d have taken care of:

Ease The Middle Infield Glut. If you have five shortstops do you have one? Once the exhibition games start, new skipper Steven Vogt will have to decide who will get the majority of the playing time in the middle infield, particularly at short.

We say that because the Guards seem loathe to move Andres Gimenez, who played 400 games in the minor leagues at shortstop to that spot in the big leagues. So, the primary candidates are Gabriel Arias and Brayan Rocchio, with Tyler Freeman and Jose Tena on the outside.

They gave Arias a full shot at the job a year ago after Amed Rosario was traded, and he had a 643 OPS in the second half, batting .227. Rocchio had an outstanding winter league season, and frankly, we have felt he was regarded as the heir apparent to the spot by the organization.

We would give Rocchio the spot to start and see if the winter league carries over. The back up plan for us would be moving Gimenez to SS and seeing if Freeman can hit like he did in the minors with regular at bats.

Catching Reserve. Last season, the Guardians employed Cam Gallagher as the backup catcher all year, first behind Mike Zunino and then Bo Naylor. He received 143 at bats and hit .125 (322 OPS).

We dare you to find anyone worse with a bat in their hand. Early in the off-season, they claimed Christian Bethancourt from Tampa. He hit .225 but banged 11 homers and had a 635 OPS. Not Babe Ruth production but better than what Gallagher provided.

But then they let Bethancourt go and re-signed veteran Austin Hedges for a second go round with the Guards. Hedges is an excellent defensive catcher, but he can’t hit.

In 199 games with Cleveland, he has a .169 batting average and 502 OPS. We get he is a great clubhouse presence, but he can’t hit.

Have we mentioned the Guardians need hitting?

Find A Taker For Straw. Vogt and Chris Antonetti have both talked about giving the Guardians’ young outfielders an opportunity this year, but that may prove difficult because Myles Straw is still on the roster.

The problem for the Guards is Straw still has two years on his deal, worth an estimated $13.8 million. A second problem is as we said before, the Guardians need offense and Straw has been one of baseball’s worst hitters over the last two seasons.

We get that no one wants to take that contract unless it is included in a bigger deal, as many proposed in possible trades involving Shane Bieber. But the Guardians usual move is to play Straw because they owe him the cash. That’s the real problem.

And based on the Guardians’ history, if he is on the roster, they will feel obligated to put him in the lineup.

What Is Plan B To Help Guardians Score Runs?

The first clue came at Guardians’ Fest when owner Paul Dolan said the reason for not signing any free agent outfielders is they wanted to give the young players in the farm system a chance.

Then in the past few days, manager Steven Vogt and president Chris Antonetti mentioned the same thing.

To us, this is a pretty risky plan especially if the organization has designs on making the playoffs. Remember, this shouldn’t be a “rebuild”, they won the division title just two years ago with the youngest roster in the sport.

It is universally known that the Guardians have a problem scoring runs, ranking 12th in the American League a year ago. We believe to have a solid major league lineup, a team needs to have six, maybe even seven solid bats in the batting order.

In our opinion, right now, the Guards have four: Jose Ramirez of course, Josh Naylor, Steven Kwan, and Andres Gimenez. Bo Naylor showed promise a year ago, but he has less than 250 big league at bats, and can’t be counted as of yet.

And we are pressing the definition of “solid” with Kwan (710 OPS) and Gimenez (712 OPS), each would be the 6th or 7th best hitters on very good hitting teams.

The front office could have signed a veteran free agent to a one-year contract (there are no such things as bad one-year deals) to add a proven stick to the order. Players like J.D. Martinez (career 874 OPS) and Tommy Pham (786 OPS) are still on the market.

Cleveland acquired Estevan Florial from New York over the winter and he had a big year in AAA last season and was a former top 100 prospect. George Valera has also been on this list, but he’s never been in the big leagues and has battled injuries the last two seasons.

Otherwise, the candidates the team is depending aren’t on the list of the top prospects in the game, nor are they on the Guardians’ top 10 list, at least among the outfielders.

So, our question is this: What is Plan B if none of the young players the brass is talking about come through in 2024?

In 2022, Will Brennan slashed 371/479/850 in the minor leagues, at both the AA and AAA levels. Last year, in the big leagues, Brennan had a 655 OPS, with both the on base and pop he showed in the minors in ’22 having disappeared.

This isn’t to say Brennan is a bust, for right now, we simply will call it growing pains, but the fact remains he didn’t provide much offense for the Guardians last season.

In three seasons at AAA, Florial has slashed 358/490/848, similar numbers to Brennan. And although he has only 134 plate appearances in the big leagues, he has a 609 OPS, striking out 41 times.

Another hopeful is Johnathan Rodriguez, who in 47 games at Columbus last season was outstanding 376/560/936. With 476 plate appearances in AA, his numbers are 334/497/831. Solid, but not overwhelming.

Jhonkensy Noel, a minor league slugger, is also in the mix, but in a full season at Columbus last year put up these numbers: 303/420/723.

Kyle Manzardo is a Guardians’ top 10 prospect, and it seems like the organization wants him to start in AAA. Perhaps, it’s because he’s not already on the 40-man roster. In AAA last season, he had an 802 OPS.

And no, we don’t consider a player with a 676 OPS a year ago to be a solid bat. We are talking about Ramon Laureano, claimed on waivers from Oakland last season in August. His last season with an OPS over 750 was 2021.

Could things fall into place and Brennan bounces back, Bo Naylor continues to hit like he did in the second half last season, and Brayan Rocchio hits like he has in winter ball? Of course, and if that happens, the offensive woes could be solved.

We like having a backup plan, though. Of course, that costs money. Hence the problem for the front office.

The NBA MVP “Ladder” And Should Mitchell Be On It

One of the dumber things we see in sports is the “MVP Ladder” listed weekly by one of the NBA’s sponsors. It starts in the second week of the season, for goodness sakes. Why not wait until say, the All-Star break to start talking about the award.

We feel like in the NBA the media tries to give the award early and then spend the rest of the season justifying it. And usually, it’s because it is a specific player’s “turn”. For example, Jayson Tatum’s name always comes up early in seasons, but by the end of the year, others have passed him up.

What’s worse is other sports have started the same nonsense. But we digress.

We bring it up because the Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell has started to come up in conversations about the league MVP. Charles Barkley even said Mitchell should be discussed for the honor.

Mitchell is having an incredible year. In scoring, he is even with last year’s career high of 28.3 points per game, but it’s the other numbers that are more impressive.

He’s dishing out assists at a career high pace, with 6.3 per contest, beating his previous best by one assist. His turnovers are consistent with the rest of his career.

His rebounding has also increased over his career best, as he is grabbing 5.4 boards per night. And his shooting percentage has increased since arriving in Cleveland, as he shot 44.1% with Utah, and in his two years here, that is up to 48.4% last year and 47.5% this season.

Most importantly, when Darius Garland was injured, and J.B. Bickerstaff essentially put the ball in Mitchell’s hands, the Cavs have won 22 of 27 games, roaring to the 2nd seed in the Eastern Conference standings.

He has boosted his numbers since the day Garland went out to 29 points and 7.3 assists per contest. And it is not like he has been on the floor too much. After the first two games in this stretch, he’s played over 40 minutes just once, partially because of all the blowouts the team has played.

There have been games were he flat out carried the wine and gold. He had 45 points and 12 rebounds in the Paris game against the Nets. We woke the team out of a malaise against Detroit on January 31st, scoring 45 with 8 assists and 6 rebounds.

He’s likely also headed for his second all-NBA appearance in two years with Cleveland, which would make him only the third Cavalier to receive that honor more than once. The other two are LeBron James, who was named ten times (8 first team, 2 second team) and Mark Price, who received the honors four times (1 first team, 3 third team)

Mitchell made the second team last season.

He finished sixth in the MVP voting last season after leading the Cavs to a 50 win season, and they are on pace to surpass that mark in 2023-24.

Mitchell isn’t likely to win the award. Since the turn of the century, the only guards under 6’5″ to win it are Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Steph Curry, and Russell Westbrook. But if the Cavs can finish second in the East, perhaps he can get to the top five.

Either way, he’s having a heck of a season. People who know the game know it, even if the national love isn’t there.

Cavs Didn’t Add, But Should They Have?

The Cleveland Cavaliers roared into the NBA trade deadline on a roll and have extended their winning streak to nine games and 17 wins in the last 19 contests with wins over Brooklyn and Toronto after the deadline.

We can understand not wanting to upset the proverbial apple cart by making a trade, after all, the Cavs are not just winning, they are blowing teams out.

Over the past couple of seasons, we have felt the Cavs’ organization wants to take incremental steps toward a title. They were satisfied with making the play-in tournament in 2021-22.

They wanted to get to a seven-game series the following year (2022-23) and they did just that but lost in five games to the Knicks. This year, our guess is the goal is a playoff series win. If they get further, that’s great, but winning a series is most important.

We think that is short sighted.

In our view, the Cavaliers should be looking at the rest of the Eastern Conference and be thinking the only obstacle in our way is the team on top of standings, the Boston Celtics.

The Celtics didn’t let their gaudy record get in the way of improving their roster, trading for big man, Xavier Tillman, from Memphis.

The other contenders at the top of the East, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and New York also added to their rosters. Yes, Cleveland is hot, but that doesn’t mean they should have stood pat. And you have to add insurance if nothing else.

Look, the Cavs are playing beautiful basketball. We watch the games and think some of these teams have no chance because either they aren’t talented enough or aren’t experienced enough.

This isn’t a criticism of the wine and gold, because we certainly don’t want them to lose to inferior teams, but we will say it again, they haven’t beaten many juggernauts in this stretch.

Beating the Clippers, the hottest team in the West, was a very good win, and so was the second game in Milwaukee against the Bucks.

When Darius Garland broke his jaw, it was during the second loss in three nights to Boston. Evan Mobley didn’t play in either of those games. In this 27-game stretch, in which Cleveland has gone 22-5, they have only played four games against the top four seeds in either conference.

Three of those against the Bucks, and one of those was without Giannis Antetokounmpo.

We would have liked the front office to add another big man. We bring this up all the time, but the Cavs simply don’t have enough players in their rotation that are over 6’8″.

Maybe they sign one from the buyout market, but to get to the NBA Finals, which should be the goal, they will have to go through some bigger great players.

Hall of Famer Becky Hammon ruffled some feathers recently when she said it is tough to win in basketball if your best player is the smallest player on the court. She was referring to the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson, but she could’ve been talking about the Cavs.

Donovan Mitchell is no doubt the Cavs’ best player, and he’s listed at 6’3″. Boston’s best players are 6’8″ Jayson Tatum, 6’6″ Jaylen Brown, 7’2″ Kristaps Porzingis, and 6’4″ Jrue Holiday.

Milwaukee has Antetokounmpo at 7′, and if Joel Embiid is ready to go in the playoffs for the Sixers, he’s seven foot as well.

The Cavs have Jarrett Allen and Mobley both at 6’11”, but we just feel they could use a little more length to combat the Celtics, who are probably the only team in the East with an edge over Cleveland.

As for the remaining schedule, there are some measuring sticks. There are home games against the Knicks and Celtics on March 3rd and 5th. Phoenix will provide a solid challenge and the Cavs have home and road games with them.

And of course, there is a west coast trip the first week in April, where besides the Suns, the Cavs get the defending champion Nuggets, the Lakers, and the Clippers.

Here’s hoping the organization doesn’t put limits on what this team can accomplish and seriously looks at getting bigger if players become available.