On The Guards’ New Skipper

The Cleveland Guardians picked the successor to Terry Francona earlier this week when they tabbed Steven Vogt to be the new skipper of the Guards.

Is it a good move? We have no idea. Vogt just retired as a player after the 2022 season and spent last year as Seattle’s bullpen coach. He just turned 39 years old earlier this week. He made two all-star teams as a player.

That’s what we know about Vogt. We aren’t going to make any claims as to how he will do as a manager because he’s never done it before. And that doesn’t mean he will not be good at the job; it simply means he has no track record.

The front office did their due diligence reportedly speaking to Francona and other experienced skippers about what they feel was the best attributes to having success as a manager. They felt Vogt had those qualities and it is a good thing that he can still recall what it was like to be a player.

It reminds you what things you can ask a player to do.

Apparently, Sandy Alomar Jr. will remain on the coaching staff and his experience should be invaluable to Vogt as he navigates his way through a 162 game regular season. And Carl Willis, the Guardians’ long time and very successful pitching coach will also remain on the staff.

Vogt couldn’t hope for two better guys to be able to bounce ideas off, and hopefully, he listens to them as well in terms of communication from a manager’s standpoint, rather than that as a veteran leader.

He should develop a relationship with Jose Ramirez as soon as possible. Ramirez is the Guardians’ de facto captain and bonding with him and getting his support will go a long way into having the rest of the roster buying in.

Francona liked having veteran leadership in the locker room. In his first year in Cleveland, he had Jason Giambi in that role. Because Ramirez has been here awhile, an older player isn’t needed for that purpose, but Vogt and Ramirez need to be a team.

We would like to see the new pilot and the organization be a little more flexible about starting the season with rookies in everyday spots. Francona seemed to be a little more concerned with cold weather affecting the performance of rookies, but we would like to see them as opposed to mediocre veterans with track records.

It is a bold choice for sure and for that we commend the front office.

Speaking of the front office, they already improved the catching situation by claiming Christian Bethancourt on waivers from Tampa Bay. He belted 11 homers last season (635 OPS) and has a rocket for an arm, he pitched for a bit in the minors early in his career.

He doesn’t have a great strikeout/walk ratio, but is certainly better than Cam Gallagher, who put together one of the worst offensive seasons we have seen in a long time.

We don’t understand the other waiver pick up, 1B/OF Alfonso Rivas, who slashed .303/.422/725 with Pittsburgh and San Diego last season. He’s not an on base guy and doesn’t have a lot of pop either. He is having a good winter league season and had good numbers in AAA last season.

Just seems like a AAAA player right now. However, he may not be on the 40-man roster by the time spring training begins.

And that spring training will be guided by a new manager for the first time since 2013. Maybe Vogt can be the first World Series winning manager for Cleveland since 1948.

Workmanlike Win, Big Week Ahead For Browns

Workmanlike. Professional. Those are the words we are using to describe the Browns domination of the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Cleveland won 27-0 and moved to 5-3 on the season.

The Cardinals came into the game with a 1-7 record and were starting a rookie, Clayton Tune at quarterback. So, the Browns did what should have been expected by every fan going into the contest. They totally controlled the game.

Still, Arizona is in the NFL but the Cleveland defense held them to 58 yards of total offense and sacked Tune seven times. We didn’t get excited about the performance, but it was still satisfying, if that makes sense.

We wanted Deshaun Watson to play in this game in order to get the rust off before a couple of big divisional games against Baltimore and Pittsburgh, and he did just that, completing 19 of 30 throws for 219 yards and a couple of touchdowns.

He also ran three times for 22 yards, but there were a couple of plays early when he could have run and instead dumped short passes to Jerome Ford. We thought that was good thinking on his part and something the coaches reminded him of before the game.

However, even with Watson, Kevin Stefanski ran the ball a lot, 40 times to be exact, although that includes the three carries by Watson. Certainly, having Watson available is much better than playing P.J. Walker, but we couldn’t help thinking the Browns are a power run team, even though Nick Chubb isn’t playing.

Cleveland has run for 150 yards or more in five of their eight games and has only been below 100 yards twice, the first two games after Chubb was injured.

Stefanski is still using a lot of not only two or three tight end sets, but he is using offensive lineman Nick Harris at fullback to add another blocker to help the running game. Right now, that’s the Browns’ offensive identity.

Also, this was the first game all year where the brown and orange did not turn the ball over. It was only the second time they won the turnover battle (the Colts’ game was the other) and they are 2-0 in those contests.

That trend will need to continue in the next two games against the Ravens and Steelers. Baltimore allows just 262.5 yards per game defensively, second to Cleveland’s 234.8. It shapes up as a rugged defensive battle.

Remember the Browns started Dorian Thompson-Robinson the first time these two teams met, and Cleveland turned it over three times, gaining just 166 yards for the game. And the 131 yards rushing Baltimore gained was exceeded only by Indianapolis’ 168 in the 39-38 win on the road.

Jim Schwartz knows Baltimore will want to establish the run, as the Ravens are the #1 running team in the NFL and making the job more complicated is having to keep Lamar Jackson in the pocket.

And it would also be nice if TE Mark Andrews was kept in check, he has killed the Cleveland defense so many times in his career, it borders on ridiculousness.

There are now only three teams in the AFC and five overall with less losses than the Browns are we are now into November. The next two weeks should serve as a measuring stick as to where this team, and both its offense and defense are as the holiday season commences.

We are still confident this is a playoff team. Here’s hoping next Sunday doesn’t shake that feeling.

Reviewing Cleveland’s Prospects From Five Years Ago

We believe that the basis for having a good organization in major league baseball is to have a very good player development program. Especially if you are a smaller market team.

Although we think every major league team could spend tons of money on players (after all, they are all millionaires or billionaires), many teams have a philosophy of not spending, a lot of them because the bang isn’t worth the buck.

For every Corey Seager or Marcus Semien from the newly crowned world champion Texas Rangers that works out, you have a Javier Baez or Jason Heyward.

However, in building a farm system, fans need to understand that the payoff rate for prospects is also not good.

We like to do this every winter, but let’s take a look at the Guardians’ farm system from 2018, five years ago. A system that ranked in the middle of the pack among major league teams, at #15.

Who has worked out, who hasn’t. Here is the list from Baseball America:

1). Francisco Mejia
2). Triston McKenzie
3). Bobby Bradley
4). Nolan Jones
5). Shane Bieber
6). Yu Chang
7). Willi Castro
8). Greg Allen
9). George Valera
10). Will Benson

In our books, there is one all-star type player from this list, and that’s Bieber, who won a Cy Young Award in the COVID shortened season of 2020. He’s 60-32 lifetime, made two all star appearances and thrown 200 innings twice. He has had injury issues in two of the last three seasons.

Although we think McKenzie is very good if he can stay healthy, and he was good in the second half of 2021 and in ’22 (11-11, 2.96 ERA), right now, there is concern over his elbow. But, if he can pitch, he’s a very good starting pitcher.

Mejia was the most highly regarded prospect, but we don’t think the organization felt he could be a full time catcher and traded him to San Diego for Brad Hand. In over 1000 big league at bats, he has a 678 OPS (.239/.284/.394). He never reached what was projected for him.

The book is still out on Jones and Benson, both of whom had very good seasons after being traded by Cleveland after the ’22 season. Jones had a 931 OPS for Colorado, but we worry about a strikeout rate that is over 30% in his time in the big leagues.

Benson had an 863 OPS with Cincinnati, but he fanned in 31.3% of his at bats. High strikeout rates don’t bode well for long term success in the majors.

Bradley, Chang, and Allen never found extended success in the majors, and although the latter two played in the bigs last season, neither are on 40 man rosters heading into the winter.

Castro was traded to Detroit, but had his best year with the Twins this season as kind of a super-utility player, playing six positions, and had a 750 OPS with 33 stolen bases.

What was funny to us was that we’ve been talking about Valera for so long. He had an 816 OPS between AA/AAA in 2022, but fell to 718 at Columbus last season, fighting a lot of injuries. He has pop and patience, but the batting average in his minor league career is just .242, but he gets on base 36.3% of the time.

So, out of the top ten, the successes are Bieber, McKenzie, Jones, Benson, and Castro, although the latter three should be re-evaluated at this time next year.

Valera is still a prospect, probably still top ten in the Cleveland system. The other four simply didn’t pan out.

Keep that in mind when you look at the list that will come out this winter.

Maybe Cavs Need To Slow Pace, Play Better Defense

The Cleveland Cavaliers have entered the 2023-24 season with a seemingly endless list of injuries, and they are going to have their work cut out for them to not bury themselves in the standings.

They are 2-3 already and have two games against the Warriors and another game against Oklahoma City next week. If they don’t get Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen back soon, it shapes up as a very difficult early season for J. B. Bickerstaff’s squad.

Getting two players who made the all-star team two years ago will no doubt help the Cavs, but so far, we sense a difference about this team, and it’s not anything good.

Perhaps the Bickerstaff learned something in the first four games. Coaches always come into training camp talking about increasing pace, wanting to play faster. Of course, last season Cleveland played at the slowest pace in the league.

In the first four games, they increased the pace to 18th in the NBA and lost three of the first four. Last night, probably because they were still shorthanded, they slowed it down, and won.

Coincidence? Maybe, but maybe not.

Sometimes teams can handle things at the defensive end even though they are playing faster, and maybe someday the Cavs will be able to do that. Right now, it doesn’t seem like a good fit, and again, it could be because of the injuries.

However, we still see some things haven’t changed with this organization.

We have crusaded for the addition of more size for a few years now, and the Cavaliers don’t seem to think it is necessary. Not having Allen just shines a spotlight on this. Cleveland has just five players 6’10” or more on the roster, but outside of Evan Mobley and Allen, they really don’t use them.

Outside of Mobley, those players have accumulated just 62 minutes of playing time in the first four games, and 29 of those are from rookie Emoni Bates, who is essentially a guard or small forward. Tristan Thompson (6’9″) has been a tough inside force the last two games.

The Cavs have remained pretty close on the rebounding side of things, mostly because Max Strus has grabbed 7.0 per game, far exceeding his career rate of 2.3. But taller and bigger players can defend better.

And right now, the Cavs, who ranked 1st in defensive efficiency last season, are now 16th in the same category.

We know the organization put an emphasis on bringing in shooters this off-season, but it hasn’t paid off. Cleveland is certainly taking more threes, taking almost eight more per game than a year ago (37.8 vs. 31.6), but they are 20th in percentage of makes, down from 12th a year ago.

If your defense isn’t up to par, you need to have better shot selection. Right now, that’s not the case for the wine and gold.

The Cavaliers still seem to struggle to get Evan Mobley involved in the offense. Mobley ranks 4th on the team in shots, and two of the players ahead of him (Donovan Mitchell and Caris LeVert) have already missed a game. Sometimes within games, it seems like the big man is totally not involved offensively.

We are a believer in a hierarchy in getting shots, and with Garland and Allen out, Mobley should be getting the second most shots on the team.

There is no doubt the injuries have limited Bickerstaff’s use of the bench. Isaac Okoro, who has played very well to begin the season, has to start. Ty Jerome has missed two games with an injury, which pretty much leaves Georges Niang as the only second unit player in the role he was supposed to be in to start the year.

It’s just five games. And getting Allen, Garland, and LeVert back will surely help. But, the Cavs need to get back to their defensive roots and not be so dependent on the three-point shot.

That’s how they progressed from the time Bickerstaff started to being a playoff team. It’s their identity.

Key Turnovers Cost Browns (Again!)

We agree with the premise that play calling is overrated in the NFL. What this means is the execution is more important than the play call.

We are in the minority on this though, and that’s why we are sure that Browns’ coach Kevin Stefanski will be hammered throughout the week about the third down play with two minutes to go and the Browns holding a 20-17 lead in Seattle.

We know no one will want to do this, but why doesn’t the coach get credit for an offense that gained 385 yards, the second highest total all year (week 2 vs. Pittsburgh) without their starting QB and without Nick Chubb.

The Browns also controlled the clock, chewing up almost 37 minutes in time of possession.

The pass that would up being intercepted (off the helmet of a Seattle player) was a safe throw, but not executed properly. We asked someone who played QB in college and NFL Europe if it was a bad play call and was told no, the passer has to know where pressure is coming from and go somewhere else with the ball.

And there were two other receivers open.

The people saying the Browns should have run the ball in that situation are using the same logic the head coach used. Stefanski called a safe play and if Walker completes it, the Browns run out the clock and win the game.

The “should’ve called a run play” folks are assuming if the Browns do, they make the first down. There is no guarantee of that either.

And we are sure Seattle was playing run first.

While that pass was kind of flukey, having it deflect off a helmet, having P.J. Walker playing quarterback continues to be a problem because of turnovers. He was responsible for three more yesterday, giving him seven in the three games he’s appeared in this season.

FYI, that’s way too many.

Really, it’s amazing Cleveland is 4-3 on the season considering they have lost the turnover battles in six games in 2023! They are -9 on the season, and that simply isn’t a recipe for winning games in the NFL.

If Andrew Berry doesn’t trade for a veteran QB by today’s deadline, why not take another look at rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson against Arizona this Sunday? We know the rook struggled in his first start vs. Baltimore, but he didn’t get all the practice reps that week because the organization thought Deshaun Watson was going to be able to go.

Maybe, DTR can hold on to the ball better, and yes we know what he did against the Ravens.

And if you want to second guess Stefanski for something in Sunday’s game, we are curious as to why Kareem Hunt wasn’t in the game in the fourth quarter.

Hunt was Cleveland’s leading rusher on the day, and as usual, ran hard, getting 55 tough yards on 14 carries. This isn’t to denigrate Jerome Ford, who gained four yards per carry playing most of the final quarter, but Hunt is a dependable back for sure.

All in all, a victory next Sunday at home puts Cleveland at 5-3, and only the division leaders in the AFC have less losses and they all have two. Without Watson and Chubb, that’s not bad.

And we will say the same thing as we said after the week two loss to Pittsburgh. Eliminate the mistakes and things will be okay.

Browns Have To Improve Passing Game…By Trade?

The NFL trading deadline is on Halloween and there are rumors the Cleveland Browns will be active. However, if they are active, what will they focus on.

With Deshaun Watson’s shoulder issues, they should be on the hunt for a serviceable backup quarterback.

The Browns are built to win this year. They have a tremendous defense and GM Andrew Berry spent a lot of salary cap space on that side of the football, bringing in several defensive linemen to help out new defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.

Simply put, the Browns do not have a functional pass offense. Even with Watson playing the first three games, Cleveland ranks second last in the NFL in passing yards, ahead of only the New York Jets.

They won the last two games with yeoman efforts from the defense, not allowing San Francisco to move the ball after an opening drive and creating turnovers against the Colts which led to at least 17 points.

Logic says that is not likely to continue.

P.J. Walker inspires no confidence even though he was at the helm in the last two games. He’s completed just 50% of his passes, hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass, but he has thrown three interceptions.

And it’s not like Walker is a running threat either. He’s run the ball just six times for four yards.

When Watson returns to the field again is anyone’s guess, and that’s not an insinuation that he doesn’t want to play, which we agree is total nonsense. It just seems like this is an injury where he could return next week against the Cardinals or he could be out another month.

No one seems to want to set a firm timetable, and we get that.

Because of that, Berry has to go out and get another quarterback. There is too much at stake for this season.

This may sound contradictory, but we also don’t want to pay an exorbitant price in a deal either. This is because we don’t want to replace Watson, we simply want to find someone better than Walker.

Here is what we mean about having a professional passing attack. The Browns’ opponent today, the Seattle Seahawks have five receivers with 10 or more catches and averaging over 10 yards per reception.

Cleveland has one, Amari Cooper who has caught 24 balls for 389 yards. Donovan Peoples-Jones is averaging 12.1 yards per catch but has just nine receptions on the season.

The Falcons rank middle of the pack in the league in passing yards and they have four receivers who fit this profile.

Elijah Moore and David Njoku rank first and third in terms of receptions for the Browns and both average just nine yards per catch.

Since Watson has been out, Cleveland QBs have not thrown a TD pass and has six picks. That’s just not acceptable, let alone for a team poised to make a playoff run.

Berry has to find someone who can complete simple 10-15 yard passes on a regular basis, something that shouldn’t be difficult to do.

We know coach Kevin Stefanski said he is happy with the quarterback room right now, but really what is supposed to say?

We don’t want to hear about trading Josh Dobbs, because no one was outraged about it at the time, and although Dobbs hasn’t played poorly, Arizona has only reached 20 points once in the last four games.

The Browns and Berry simply can’t take any chances. They have too much at stake to not have a decent passing attack.

Is The Cavs’ Weakness What They Think It Is?

There is a lot of optimism about the Cleveland Cavaliers heading into the 2023-24 NBA season. After all, in the last three seasons, the Cavs have gone from 22 wins to 44 and then 51 in the last three seasons.

They are coming off a playoff season but were manhandled by the Knicks in the first round losing in five games. The organization said all year that was the goal and they reached it.

However, we don’t like that messaging. In our experience, when you set a modest goal and reach it, there is a tendency to let up. President of basketball operations Koby Altman seems to embrace the “one step at a time” mentality that permeates throughout the league.

Instead, we think the franchise should keep pushing the envelope.

The Cavs added a lot of shooting in the off-season, probably overpaying for it. Right now, they are making Max Strus a starter, despite him starting just 49 games over the last two seasons with Miami. And Strus’ three-point shooting percentage dropped from 41% in 2021-22 to 35% in 2022-23.

Shooting is why the Cavs believe they lost to the Knicks. We believe they are wrong, they lost because they were not physical enough. The wine and gold shot 45% from the floor in the series, New York shot 42%.

From long distance, Cleveland shot 32.7% while the Knicks made 28.2%.

Altman seems to be like the new NBA fans who look at only one thing in watching games these days: Shooting. The reality is there is so much more to basketball, like defense, passing, rebounding.

The one sport where size matters is basketball and the Cavs’ organization has seemed to go away from that since they jumped from 22 victories to 44 in 2021-22 using a front line of three guys over 6’11”: Lauri Markkanen, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen.

And that doesn’t mean we didn’t like the trade for Donovan Mitchell.

This is something to watch as the season goes on, is there a difference of opinion in how to win between the front office and J.B. Bickerstaff?

Bickerstaff likes size and since he took over as head coach has emphasized defense. Besides Allen and Mobley, there is little size on the Cavaliers. They signed Damian Jones to be a backup at center and power forward, so hopefully he can provide quality minutes.

Tristan Thompson was also signed, but based on what we saw in the preseason, we aren’t really optimistic he can be a rotation player. He is simply too limited on the offensive end.

And they need rim protectors because they really don’t have strong defenders on the perimeter, let alone not much size. Darius Garland and Mitchell are listed at 6’1″ and Strus is 6’5″.

Bickerstaff, like every other NBA coach, has said he wants to play faster this season. But if this causes the team to give up defense and thus lose games, we will bet the Cavs will go back to playing the way they were successful.

Again, being successful in a half-court game requires size, and that’s where the team is lacking.

It will be interesting to see how the beginning of the season plays out.

Garrett Wills The Browns To A Road Win

If you read this web site on a regular basis or follow us on social media, you know we are very critical of the NFL officiating. We believe it is the worst in all of professional sports.

Someone on X (Twitter) made a comment that they saw Browns’ running back Duke Johnson holding the football at the bottom of a pile and an official award the ball to the opponent.

So yes, the Cleveland Browns were probably the beneficiaries of some poor calls by the officials. But they happen all around the league every week, so there is no need to feel remorse about a win on Sunday if you are a fan.

As Bill Parcells famously said, you are what your record says you are, and the Browns are 4-2 after a 39-38 win over Indianapolis on Sunday.

Even though they gave up 38 points, the story of the game was still the Cleveland defense. Over the first five games, opponents couldn’t move the football with much success, but Sunday, the Colts did move the ball, getting a handful of big plays to help them amass 456 yards.

They flipped the script because they created turnovers, four of them in fact, scored a defensive touchdown, blocked a field goal, and had the best player on the field in Myles Garrett.

Garrett’s first half was unbelievable, Lawrence Taylor-like if you will. Immediately after the pair calling the game said they hadn’t called Garrett’s name; he recorded a strip sack which led to the Browns’ second touchdown, tying the game at 14.

Next, he leaped over the offensive line to block a field goal, which Denzel Ward picked up and moved into Colts’ territory, setting up a Cleveland field goal.

Then right before halftime, he did it again, this time in the end zone and Tony Fields recovered the ball for a defensive touchdown, putting Cleveland up 24-21.

So, while the defense had its worst game of the season in terms of giving up points and yardage, it scored a touchdown directly, and set up at least 10 more points. We say at least because after the Fields score, the defense forced a three and out, setting up another Dustin Hopkins’ field goal.

Can speaking of Hopkins, how big was the trade for him before the season started? Andrew Berry knew he couldn’t go into the season with Cade York’s lack of consistency, so he acquired the veteran from San Diego.

His statistics showed he was good inside the 50 (almost 90% for his career), but so-so beyond that distance at 15 for 30.

However, he’s become a tremendous weapon for Kevin Stefanski, making 16 of 18 field goals, including 7 for 7 from 50 yards or more. He made four kicks Sunday, three from past midfield, including a career long 58 yarder.

The Browns have won two straight games without much of a passing attack, and everyone know that cannot continue. Hopefully, Deshaun Watson continues to get better and can play going forward, but he may have to change his style.

If he can’t put as much zip on the ball because of his shoulder, then he needs to make an adjustment. Plenty of quarterbacks have been successful later in their career despite losing MPH on their throws. Peyton Manning and Joe Montana come to mind.

But the offense needs to be better in the passing game for sure. We were happy to see David Njoku used more because we continue to believe he is only behind Amari Cooper in being a big play threat.

As Stefanski said last week, the Browns need to continue to stack wins, and they have another opportunity to do just that in Seattle next Sunday. It won’t be easy because the Seahawks are 4-2 and they have one of the game’s best coaches in Pete Carroll.

On the other hand, their last three wins are against Carolina, the Giants, and Cardinals.

We will bet the Cleveland defense will be much better next week.

Can Guards Deal From Strength And What Would That Mean.

People say the best baseball trades come when a team is dealing from a strength. That almost certainly means if the Cleveland Guardians make a deal this winter, it will involve someone from their pitching staff, right?

We would say the offensively challenged Guards can’t move anyone who shows any talent when swinging the bat. However, Cleveland still has a glut of middle infielders, on both the big-league level and the high levels of the minor leagues.

How they rate (and how other teams rank for that matter) the talent at these positions will show everyone how they feel about these players. Unfortunately, based on how they handled the players this past season, we don’t have a lot of confidence they will do the right thing.

And by the way, that doesn’t mean we think the front office should be revamped. It does mean we hope whoever the new manager will be can change the minds of Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff.

Maybe, hopefully, the decision makers move off of the great defense above all else when it comes to the middle of the diamond and they settle for solid glovework with an ability to swing the bat a bit.

You would think that any move made to strengthen the lineup would involve a trade for a starting pitcher, but which player to move?

Many people would say to move Shane Bieber, the most accomplished of the starting rotation, but he is also a free agent after the 2024 season. How much could he bring in return? We believe it wouldn’t be as much as you might think.

Besides the contract situation, Bieber’s price could be muted by injury issues in two of the last three seasons. Although he pitched 200 innings in 2022, he threw just 97 frames in ’21 and 128 innings last season.

It’s hard to imagine he would get the kind of haul in terms of bats that the Guardians would be looking for.

We also would be very reticent to move either Tanner Bibee and/or Gavin Williams. We believe both hurlers have ace potential. Bibee made 25 starts last year, compiling a 2.98 ERA in 142 innings pitched, and maybe pitched his best in the biggest games when the team was still in the race.

Williams looks the part at 6’6″, 250 pounds and fanned 81 hitters in 82 big league innings. The walks may have been more than we would prefer, and he had periods where he may have given major league hitters more credit than they deserve.

So, the most enticing piece to move might be lefty Logan Allen (7-8, 3.81 ERA in 125.1 IP). We like Allen, but as they say, you have to give up something to get something. And if they move the southpaw, they would still have Bibee and Williams, and the durable Cal Quantrill.

We still don’t know about Triston McKenzie’s reliability because of his elbow injury. He did make two starts at the end of the year, totally six innings. He did walk nine hitters in those two starts. Hopefully, he can be a fixture in next year’s rotation, but we can’t feel confident in him being available for all of 2024 right now.

Trading Allen would mean someone would have to emerge from the minors, perhaps Joey Cantillo or Hunter Gaddis to fill out the rotation.

And even if they got a bat in return for a pitcher and Kyle Manzardo hits like projected, the Guardians probably still need another bat to have a very good offense.

Like To See Improvements In These Areas For Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers start the regular season next Wednesday when they travel to Brooklyn to take on the Nets before coming home for the home opener a week from tomorrow against Oklahoma City.

So finally, we can start evaluating players against true competition. We know fans want to get excited about players, especially young ones, in exhibition play, but they are probably getting time against guys who will be in the G League much of the 2023-24 campaign.

Still, there are some things we are anxious to see from the wine and gold when the season starts in earnest next week.

First, we would like to see Darius Garland be stronger with the basketball. Garland is a very good player, no question, with one All Star berth in his young career. His three point shooting reached a career high last season at 41%.

However, we would like him to cut down on turnovers, especially when he drives to the basket. Too often, Garland gets into the paint and loses control of the basketball. It was particularly noticeable in the playoffs last season.

If he can be stronger and maintain possession inside, imagine how many more free throws he would get. And he knocks down 86.3% of his shots at the line.

Because today’s game is obsessed with three-point shooting, everyone wants Evan Mobley to be able to make shots from beyond the arc. We want him to be a threat in the mid-range game. It would open up his game greatly.

Last season, Mobley made just 35.2% of his shots from 10 to 16 feet, and only 40.1% from three to ten feet. By comparison, his frontcourt partner, Jarrett Allen, knocked down 47% from 10 to 16 feet and 51% from three to ten feet.

If Mobley can knock down those types of shots on a regular basis, he will increase his scoring and also open up driving lanes not only for himself, but for his teammates. He doesn’t need to make threes, but he needs to be more effective away from the basket.

We would also like to see J.B. Bickerstaff develop a legitimate third big man, and we mean rim protector for when Mobley and/or Allen are on the bench or if they have to miss any time during the regular season.

Koby Altman signed 6’11” Damian Jones who played in 41 games with the Lakers and Jazz a year ago, averaging 3.5 points and 2 rebounds per game. He had 21 blocked shots in his limited opportunities.

The last two seasons, if the starting big men couldn’t play, Bickerstaff didn’t have a real alternative. Two years, it was 32-year-old Ed Davis, who was really brought in for leadership more than anything else. And when Jarrett Allen got hurt late in the season, they signed 7’2″ Moses Brown, but didn’t hold on to him.

Last year, it was Robin Lopez, who lacked the mobility to guard anyone away from the basket.

So, let’s see what Jones can do. Hopefully, he can be a suitable backup for Mobley and Allen. Yes, we know Tristan Thompson was signed as well, but we put him in the Davis and Lopez category.

We know Dean Wade is solid defensively and he is 6’9″, but we don’t think he is a deterrent around the basket for other teams.

The Cavaliers are a good team for sure, but improvements in these areas could make them a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference. We will start finding out next week.