Big Summer Ahead For Cavs

The NBA season ended on Monday night, meaning the draft, free agency, and trade season is upon basketball fans around the country.

That means we will see if Cavs’ president of basketball operations was serious when he said the wine and gold were not going to make big changes this summer.

There is some truth that Denver was patient throughout the past few seasons and reaped the benefit by winning the title, and the Nuggets have indeed built around Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, two players drafted by the team.

The counterpoint to that is the newly crowned champs are built traditionally. Yes, they have one of the best players in the world in the two-time MVP, but they have size in the backcourt, Murray is 6’4 and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is 6’5″.

As we have written many times since the Cavs were eliminated by the Knicks, Cleveland has a very small roster, with only Evan Mobley bigger than most players who play his position. And to be fair, Jarrett Allen is the height of most NBA starting centers.

So standing pat is kind of banking on every going the same way for the Cavs in the 2023-24 campaign. And can that way work in the playoffs?

Help isn’t going to come in the draft, so the Cavaliers have to rely on free agency and the trade market in order to improve. The question is do they have the resources to make the improvements needed to compete in the playoffs next year?

Sure, you can trade players like Cedi Osman, Isaac Okoro, or Lamar Stevens, but what is that going to get you? They don’t have enough room under the salary cap to go out and get a big-time free agent. Most teams in the league don’t.

Now, if Altman and GM Mike Gansey really think the Cavs just played a team that was a bad matchup in the first round, and they just need to run it back, okay. There is merit to that. Let’s say, Cleveland would’ve played the Nets in the first round, they likely advance to the conference semifinals.

Many people have speculated that Allen is the most likely to go, but the Cavs are already devoid of big men. Most of these people have the belief that either your power forward or center must be able to shoot threes to win in today’s NBA.

Our counter to that is yes, it does open up the floor, but it doesn’t have to be beyond the arc. If Allen and Mobley can be respectable from 15 feet, that would be very helpful.

And if other teams think the same way as Cleveland, then what kind of return would the Cavaliers get for Allen?

We still think it will be difficult, not impossible to win with a pair of small guards getting big minutes. We said this when Collin Sexton and Darius Garland were the starters, and raised the point when Donovan Mitchell was acquired.

You can’t move a guy like Mobley who has size, is a great defender, being able to guard on the perimeter as well as the post. He’s exactly the kind of versatile player needed in today’s game.

So that means another revamp of the backcourt.

Does the front office have the stomach for that? Two years ago, the Cavs experimented with three seven footers on the front line. Last year, they were a small team. Do they see if they can get to the conference finals with a second year of this group?

We’d like to see the experimental phase end. Even in today’s NBA, size wins. That’s Altman’s challenge this summer.

Too Early To Make Judgments On Ex-Cleveland Players

In the new world we live in, especially related to how sports is covered around the nation, a lot of what people see is highlights, a flash of what really happens. In baseball, most times it is the big hit that influences the game the most.

And of course, the biggest of those types of batting achievements is the walk off hit.

Recently, former Cleveland players Will Benson, now with Cincinnati, and Nolan Jones, currently with Colorado, delivered those hits for their teams. And naturally, the Guards’ fans went crazy wondering why the team dealt those players away.

We think most of this angst comes from the trade of Yandy Diaz following the 2018 season. Diaz didn’t hit for much power with Cleveland (just a .366 slugging percentage), but did get on base to the tune of a .361 on base average.

And Diaz did hit .312 in 39 games with the team in 2018. The Cleveland front office then made a bad deal, sending him and Edwin Encarnacion (salary dump) in a three team deal for basically Jake Bauers and Carlos Santana.

With the Rays, Diaz has an 814 OPS, a .378 on base percentage, and even though he hit just one homer with Cleveland in 299 plate appearances, he has 50 dingers in four plus seasons with Tampa.

And this season, he has emerged as an MVP candidate, with a .405 OBP and 953 OPS.

However, that doesn’t mean all players the Guardians cut ties with will do the same. Take Jones, for example. Cleveland moved him in order to protect some minor league players from the Rule 5 Draft.

In the organization’s eyes, Will Brennan had surpassed Jones, and after a fast start when he was called up, after the all-star break, he batted .203 with a 535 OPS albeit in 59 at bats.

And what may be worse in the Guardians’ view, he struck out 22 times vs. two walks. Keep in mind, the Guards want players who make contact first, and then will teach them to drive the ball. We get it, sometimes that doesn’t work.

With the Rockies, Jones has 18 hits in his first 54 at-bats with four homers. That’s impressive. He’s also fanned 19 times vs. five walks. It is something that should be tracked as the season goes on.

You know how we feel, if a batter cannot control the strike zone, it’s a matter of time before pitchers will exploit that. In the meantime, 50 at bats isn’t nearly enough to say Jones is the next Ted Williams.

By the way, the player Cleveland received for Jones, Juan Brito is just 21 years old and has an 858 OPS between Lake County and Akron this season. He’s walked 34 times vs. 29 whiffs.

Benson was in the same boat as Jones, Cleveland needed to clear spots on the 40-man roster, so he was traded to the Reds. He had a late season trial with the Guardians getting 61 plate appearances, hitting .182 (10 for 55) with just one extra base hit.

He struck out in 19 at bats, walking just three times.

With the Reds this season, he is 15 for 64 (.234) with three extra base hits and has fanned 20 times vs. six walks.

Also, keep in mind, both Jones and Benson are playing in notoriously friendly hitters parks.

Both Jones and Benson have less than 100 plate appearances for their new teams to date, so perhaps people should save their judgment for later in the season.

Maybe they will be Yandy Diaz or maybe they will wind up being just what the Cleveland front office thought. Let’s let it play out before we condemn anyone.

Is Guardians’ Patience Being Rewarded?

It hit us watching the Cleveland Guardians’ scintillating 10-9 multiple comeback win over Houston Friday night that it appears the 2022 edition of the Guardians may have returned.

And if they have, it’s a reminder that no matter how patient we can be as fans, and by the way most fans are not, the front office has more of it, and most times it pays off.

Terry Francona’s squad trailed after four innings by a 5-1 count against Christian Javier, who gave into the game with a 7-1 record for the Astros.

Quite frankly, based on how the season has gone, we were ready to file this one in the loss column. But Cleveland scored three in the fifth to get back into the game behind contributions from Myles Straw, Amed Rosario, and Andres Gimenez, three players who have had rough starts to the campaign.

There was a report that Will Brennan was on the verge of being sent back to AAA as the Guards headed to Baltimore and Minnesota for a seven-game trip.

Since then, the young left-handed hitter has gone 20 for 44 with a couple of home runs, 8 RBIs, and eight multi-hit games, and had the game winning hit on Friday. This has given the bottom of the lineup, a kind of wasteland for the first two months of the year, a kick start.

Early in the week, fans were expressing concern for the star of the team, Jose Ramirez, who was mired in a two-week slump. Well, he’s out of it now, crushing four home runs Thursday and Friday (three in the former game) and raised his slugging percentage to .494 and his OPS to 842.

We bet many casual fans of the Guardians wouldn’t realize that despite the offensive struggles Cleveland has had this season that Josh Naylor ranks fifth in the American League with 48 ribbies.

The question now is whether or not the offense can be sustained for the rest of the season. We don’t mean scoring 10 runs every night, but not reverting to the performance of April and May, when the batting attack was well below league average.

If it can, it could have a bearing on how long Shane Bieber remains a Guardian. The rumors are out there, but it will be interesting to see what the front office will do as currently Cleveland is just 2.5 games off the AL Central lead.

Yes, we know the former Cy Young Award winner’s velocity is down, and his strikeout numbers are as well. He also gives the team six innings per start and his ERA is a respectable 3.57.

With Gavin Williams on the horizon, there is a though the front office could move the veteran from a position of strength, but remember, management also wants to keep on eye on the number of innings Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen, and Williams will pitch this season, and Bieber can help with that.

Plus, he’s easily the starter with the most experience on the staff, and that can be a help down the stretch.

We do have an issue with some of the players we see people coveting for Bieber. Several of those guys are in A ball. The Guardians won 92 games a year ago, so they are not looking for someone who will help them in 2-3 years, at least not as the primary piece in a deal.

If they deal for a hitter, they want someone who can help right now. Also, remember the philosophy of the organization is contact. They want players who have good contact skills and then teach them to drive the ball.

The schedule isn’t getting easier, but the Guardians are starting to resemble the pesky squad that one the division title. Let’s hope that continues.

Guardians Can’t Get Traction, And Know When To Question Tito

Treading water. Two steps forward, one step back. Stagnant.

These are all words that can be used to describe the Cleveland Guardians’ season to date. They are 28-33 after 61 games, and almost half of their games have been decided by one run, 29 of them, and they are 12-17.

By the way, winning one run games is pretty much luck. Bad teams can do well in them. The Kansas City Royals are 18-43 for the season. They are 7-6 in one run games. The Oakland A’s are 8-11 in these contests, and they are 13-50.

Sixty games into the season, and the Guards haven’t swept a series, and they’ve only been swept in a series once, that by the New York Mets.

Because of all of the close games, the decisions made by Terry Francona become magnified by fans, and most of the second guessing comes from emotion. Never forget that the word “fan” is derived from fanatic.

And we understand the frustration. We have said many, many times that Francona is not infallible, he makes mistakes. All managers do, but we don’t watch every game of other teams, so people don’t see the mistakes.

When a team’s bullpen isn’t going well, particularly the back end of it, the failures get magnified. While Emmanuel Clase hasn’t been as dominant as last year, he still leads the league in saves, and he’s only allowed one home run and walked just seven batters.

Getting to Clase has been the issue. The two primary set up men starting the year, James Karinchak and Trevor Stephan, have been prone to the long ball, and giving up dingers turn around games in a hurry. Enyel De Los Santos has been getting the job done, but he coughed up a lead on in the opener vs. Boston.

So, what does the skipper do? Our guess is he will go back to Karinchak and Stephan, with some Sam Hentges mixed in. We’ll see how that works out.

To us, the more concerning thing is the continued playing of guys who simply aren’t producing. We understand it’s a long season, but 61 games have been played, and while we are not saying to release anyone, the continuation of writing their names in the lineup every day is an organizational problem.

The Guardians’ best position playing prospect is Bo Naylor, and he is playing at the highest level of the minor leagues. The current Cleveland catchers rank last in the American League in WAR (wins above replacement player).

Is the organization really telling us Naylor couldn’t help the big league club? We have noted that Naylor has walked 46 times at Columbus. Mike Zunino and Cam Gallagher have combined to walk 16 times. At the very least, Naylor would make less outs than the catchers in Cleveland.

The second lowest rank in WAR among positions is shortstop. The Guardians’ roster and minor league system are loaded with highly ranked middle infielders. Do the Guards need to play Amed Rosario each night or could we look at possible alternatives that possibly could do better.

If you want to question Francona or the front office about something, these latter two issues would be better things to complain about.

Keep in mind though, that usually their patience gets rewarded, like the use of Josh Naylor vs. left-handed pitching.

The easiest thing to second guess is bullpen usage, because if the pitcher who comes in doesn’t do their job, the Guardians lose. The problem is everything is magnified because the offense hasn’t been doing its job and every other game is decided by one run.

Analyzing The Browns? To Us, It’s All On Watson

Every once in a while, we talk about the sports media in northeast Ohio being obsessed by the Cleveland Browns. We have three major league professional sports teams in the area, but we believe it is safe to say at least 85% of the coverage, both print and broadcast wise, is focused on the NFL team in town.

Over the past two weeks, the organized team activities (OTAs) have taken place, and from what we have heard and read, we believe the Browns have a solid chance to win the OTA Super Bowl, because they have looked great these past two weeks.

Really, they are a glorified practice without pads and in shorts, akin to playing touch football. Now, we understand the coaching staff has started to put the schemes in place, so the players will be ready with training camp open for real at the end of July.

So, we aren’t saying they aren’t important, but remember, this week’s activities are the only ones that are mandatory. Players don’t have to attend, and some of the team’s best players have not been there, but somehow Myles Garrett is the one who appears to have been singled out by many folks.

Those critics will claim Garrett should be there because he’s a leader on the team, but we think Nick Chubb and Joel Bitonio are both important voices in the locker room, and neither have appeared at the OTAs. What makes Garrett different?

We are sure Garrett has been in contact with Kevin Stefanski and new defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and is up to speed on what the team is doing these past two weeks. Heck, he may be talking to both of them on an everyday basis.

If those two aren’t concerned, then the media and public shouldn’t be either, not that we would know if anyone in Berea is upset. They generally don’t tell anyone anything.

But we digress.

There is so much conversation about the Browns when really the evaluation of this football team is quite simple to us. It hinges on QB Deshaun Watson.

Quite simply, if Watson plays like he did in his last three seasons in Houston, the Browns will be playoff contenders at the very least.

In those three years, Watson completed 68.3%, 67.3%, and 70.2% of his throws and had at least 3800 passing yards in each, culminating in a league leading 4823 yards in 2020. Houston went 11-5 in the first of those years, and 10-6 in the second, before their defense allowed the sixth most points in the NFL in ’20, resulting in a 4-12 record.

If Watson plays like he did in his six game return a year ago, with a 58.2% completion rate, then the Browns will not be any good, and likely will be looking for a new coach for 2024.

And if the latter occurs, Cleveland is basically screwed because of the enormous price the franchise paid for Watson, which of course included three first-round draft picks.

It would also start once again the search for a franchise quarterback, something the Browns have been looking for since Bernie Kosar started getting banged up physically. That’s a road no one should be willing to revisit.

So, whether people like it or not, it’s all on Watson. Personally, we feel he was one of the top five QBs in the sport in Houston and we see no reason why he cannot return to that form.

However, it’s seeming weird that folks want to invent all kinds of other scenarios for the Browns’ success. They added a top-notch defensive coordinator with a history of success.

The roster is dotted with stars on both sides of the ball.

If Watson is the Watson of old, there is no reason for not having a playoff season.

The Rosario Dilemma

Last season, Amed Rosario was a key cog in the Cleveland Guardians winning the American League Central Division championship.

He was third in the league in hits with 180 and led the AL in triples with nine. He was a big reason the Guardians’ offense put pressure on opposing defenses. Along with leadoff man Steven Kwan and #3 hole hitter Jose Ramirez, the Guards would go first to third relentlessly with three speedsters at the top of the lineup.

Rosario isn’t an on base machine, because he rarely walks, but he hit .283 and had a .312 on base percentage, so he was effective where he was at.

However, the shortstop’s value as an everyday player comes from his batting average because as we said, he doesn’t walk, and he really isn’t an extra base hit machine either.

For example, last year Rosario slugged .403 about the same as Kwan. What makes Kwan a better than average offensive player was his .373 on base average, about 60 points higher than the man who follows him to the plate most nights.

FYI, Kwan’s OBP has dipped this season to .342.

The three seasons Rosario had an OPS+ of over 100 (that’s average), his batting averages were .287 (2019), .282 (2021), and .283 (2022). If he’s not hitting at around the .275 level, he’s a poor offensive player. Right now, he’s at 65.

Now you make think that’s true for everyone, but it’s not. Currently, Josh Naylor has an OPS+ of 109 and he’s batting just .253. But Naylor walks a bit more and has 16 extra base hits, making his slugging percentage .437.

The right-handed hitter currently has the worst OPS+ among Cleveland regulars, yes worse than Myles Straw (77), Mike Zunino (73), and Will Brennan (82). Another disappointment for the Guardians is free agent signee Josh Bell, and he’s at 92.

Cleveland lives with Straw’s below average offense (for how much longer, we will see) because he’s an elite defensive centerfielder, a Gold Glove winner a year ago.

Rosario is a below average defender. He ranks last on the Guardians in defensive runs saved, just behind Zunino. You can probably make the argument that of the shortstops currently on the big league roster, including Andres Gimenez, who played the position in the minor leagues, he’s the worst defensively.

That list would include Gabriel Arias, Tyler Freeman, and Brayan Rocchio, who has played a pair of games there.

So what gives?

We realize many people will use the argument that Rosario is a close friend of Jose Ramirez, who lobbied for a contract extension for him last season, but we refuse to believe that’s the reason, management keeps writing his name in the lineup.

We think it’s the usual patience vs. stubbornness we see from the organization all the time. They believe based on the past two seasons, Rosario will get hot any day now, and the team will reap the benefits.

But that’s the problem with hitters whose entire worth is based on batting average and another problem with players who don’t have an idea of the strike zone. Rosario’s strikeout to walk ratio for his career is 607:136, he’s never walked more than 31 times in a season.

His walk ratio is actually up this year (5.8% compared to his lifetime mark of 4.5%), but his strikeout rate (22.3%) is also higher (19.9%). Pitchers usually figure out they can get these guys out without throwing strikes, thus the effectiveness wanes.

We aren’t saying to “run away” from Rosario, as Francona likes to say. However, we are saying perhaps it’s time to see what Freeman and/or Arias can do with increased playing time.

That Rosario can be a free agent after this season, doesn’t help his argument.

Cavs Need More Than Tinkering To Advance Next Year.

In watching the NBA playoffs, we continuously think about the Cavaliers’ first round defeat in five games at the hands of the New York Knicks. We think about it because the Eastern Conference’s 8th seed, the Miami Heat, advanced to the NBA Finals

We also think watching the Heat and this is a huge off-season for the Cavs’ organization, and the heat should be turned up on the seats of both Koby Altman and J.B. Bickerstaff.

In reading wrap ups about the series, it seems the scapegoats for fans and some media are Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen.

Mitchell takes blame because he is the star player, and when many national analysts look at a team’s failure, they perceive the problem as the best player simply didn’t play well enough.

Allen takes blame because Cleveland was hammered on the boards, and since he’s the center, it’s his fault. We aren’t saying he’s blameless, but part of the problem was the Cavs’ defensive philosophy. Allen was in help mode and was caught out of position.

Our feeling is the coaching staff did little to help either player. The Knicks were trapping Mitchell and Darius Garland to force them to give up the ball, but it seems the coaches never came up with a counter.

Why not move Mitchell off the ball and have him run off screens to get open and get the ball where he can just shoot it with a good look? As of Allen and Mobley, it doesn’t seem like the wine and gold run anything for either offensively. Therefore, teams don’t really need to guard them to take away anything.

As for Altman, he gets a lot of praise for getting Mitchell and drafting Mobley. While we can debate the price for the former, it doesn’t take a special basketball mind to go after a multiple time all-star player. It takes guts to give up what is needed, but it’s not like he found a diamond in the rough.

He did take a chance on Mobley in some regards, as we didn’t think he would have made an impact so quickly because of his slight build. But there is no questioning his talent.

NFL general managers make their reputation on finding gems in the later rounds of the draft, the 4th, 5th, and 6th rounds. To us, NBA GMs make their bones finding solid players to make up the bench.

Right now, we would say Altman has not done a good job in that regard, and let’s face it, he whiffed on the Isaac Okoro pick at #5, despite what the organization continues to tell you.

Of the 58 players in that draft who played in the NBA, Okoro ranks 51st in VORP (Value Over Replacement Player). Among the players the Cavaliers could have selected are Tyrese Haliburton, who made the all-star team this season, Onyeka Okongwu, who was selected with the very next pick (9.9 PPG, 7.2 RPG this year), and the player we wanted, Obi Toppin, a 6’9″ player who can play on the wing.

Because of injuries, Dylan Windler simply hasn’t contributed, and when he has played, he’s made just 32.2% of his threes, belying his reputation as a shooter.

And the bench just isn’t there. The front office has decided to sign veteran big men the last two years who simply can’t play anymore (Ed Davis and Robin Lopez). They’ve put an immense amount of trust in Dean Wade, who we feel would be at the bottom of most team’s rosters.

He signed Sam Merrill after the trading deadline, apparently to add shooting, but Merrill has been hanging around the NBA for three years and has played in 11 games since his rookie year.

Despite Altman’s comments about staying the course this off-season, if the Cavaliers want to contend for a spot in at least the Eastern Conference finals, they have to bolster the roster from spots #8 through #10, and get much better at small forward.

Doesn’t sound like tinkering, does it?

Guardians Have To Solve A Problem. This Time A Good Problem.

In baseball, there is an adage that you cannot have enough pitching. Terry Francona offers a corollary when he says when you think you have enough pitching, you go out and get some more.

In the next week or so, we will find out what the Cleveland Guardians will do when starting pitchers Triston McKenzie and Aaron Civale come off the injured list.

Civale made two starts at the beginning of the season, while McKenzie was injured at the end of training camp and has been out the entire season.

The Guards weathered the storm with the help of their so called “pitching factory”. They used Hunter Gaddis, who was going to make the Opening Day roster out of the bullpen as a starter to replace McKenzie, and when Civale went down, they went with Peyton Battenfield first, and then went to Logan Allen and Tanner Bibee, when Gaddis struggled.

Battenfield went 0-5 with a 5.19 ERA before he went on the IL with should soreness, but Allen and Bibee seem to have earned the right to stay on the big league roster.

Allen, a lefty, has made seven starts covering 39.2 innings and posted an ERA of 2.72 striking out 43 batters, walking 11, and allowing 39 hits. He really has had just one bad start, that vs. the Angels, who peppered him with eight hits in 4+ frames.

Otherwise, he has given his team a chance to win in every other start.

If possible, Bibee has been even better, going 1-1 with a 2.88 ERA in his six starts, pitching 34-1/3 innings, allowing 28 hits and fanning 34 batters, walking eight. He too had a struggle in just one of his outings, a 3-2/3 inning effort vs. Detroit where he allowed seven hits and four runs.

It is safe to assume both have earned their place on the varsity roster, but remember, the organziation will likely want to manage the innings for both as the season goes on.

Both pitched 132 innings a year ago, their most since turning professional. Conventional wisdom would say the brass will want to keep them around 150-155 this season. Adding 20 innings per season is kind of the mark in trying to avoid arm issues.

There is one open spot in the rotation, the one Gaddis currently holds, so according to reports, Civale will take the next turn against Minnesota on Friday night.

As for McKenzie, do the Guardians go with a six man rotation to limit the innings for Allen and Bibee? Or could have move Cal Quantrill back to the bullpen to help a relief corps that is searching for outs.

Right now, McKenzie is scheduled to pitch the series finale in the Twin Cities this weekend.

The problem with the Quantrill move is once you do it, it would be difficult to bring him back to the rotation if the two rookies start to falter.

Another option would be a modified six man rotation is which Shane Bieber pitches with his preferred fifth day, and the others worked off of that.

Allen could have made the decision a bit easier, but he threw an absolute gem yesterday, allowing just three hits and whiffing 10 in seven shutout frames.

We will see what Terry Francona and the front office decides later in the week.

Guardians Failing In All Aspects Right Now

The Cleveland Guardians are close to reaching the 1/3rd point of the season, so claims that it is “still early” are ringing hollow. Right now, there are more negatives about certain facets of the ballclub than positives.

The offense has been abysmal, ranking last in the American League in runs scored, behind even to woeful Oakland A’s, and a quarter run per game behind the next lowest squad the Detroit Tigers.

The league average OPS is 721 and the Guards have exactly one player above average, their perennial all-star Jose Ramirez. The players who rank behind Ramirez(804) are Steven Kwan (678) and Josh Naylor (670).

That is, of course, unless you count Tyler Freeman in his 20 plate appearances. Freeman sits at 771 in a very, very small sample size.

As a team the Guardians are last in OPS and slugging percentage and are 13th in on base percentage. It doesn’t take a genius to tell anyone that if you don’t get players on base and once they are on, you cannot move them, you are going to have a problem scoring runs.

They pride themselves on making contact, but too often they aren’t very patient at the plate. Last night, Will Brennan’s first plate appearance involved Cardinals’ pitcher John Flaherty making five pitches to get him out, and not one was a strike.

The pitching staff is respectable, ranking 7th in the AL in staff ERA, but the bullpen has been a big issue as of late, and the signs tell us Terry Francona is losing a bit of faith in his relief corps.

Last Sunday, he allowed Shane Bieber to go the distance in spite of having a jam in the bottom of the 8th inning. Bieber also stayed in perhaps one hitter too long Friday, walking an extra hitter, before Trevor Stephan came on.

Stephan had to be relieved in the bottom of the 8th after getting into trouble, but thankfully, Enyel De Los Santos got a double play grounder.

James Karinchak has walked 16 in just 21.1 innings. So, he can’t be used in a close game unless there is absolutely no other option.

Closer Emmanuel Clase leads the league in saves with 17, and also he’s not walking people (5 in 25 IP) and not giving up the long ball (just 1 HR allowed), his strikeouts are down (18) and the balls put in play are finding holes.

Cleveland relievers are giving up the long ball in bunches, and last weekend’s series in New York was a microcosm, as home runs allowed changed the course of two games.

There is an old baseball axiom the says, you show me a bad bullpen and I will show you a bad team.

The defense also hasn’t been up to par. Amed Rosario has messed up some routine plays and the wild pitch epidemic continues, the Guardians were 11th in this category a year ago, and sixth this year.

And in trying to create time for Gabriel Arias, he’s playing rightfield and let’s just say the inexperience shows every so often.

Also, because the hitters cannot get on base, Cleveland cannot use the running game. The Guardians had two stolen bases twelve times in their first 27 games. In the last 23 contests, they’ve done it just once.

Right now, the Guardians are lacking in every aspect of the game. Yet, they are still just 4.5 games out of the division lead. We are getting to the point in the season where patience and stubbornness is becoming one.

We Agree Cavs Need Shooting. They Need Taller Shooting Though

In examining where the Cleveland Cavaliers need to go this off-season, we have focused on the need for size. The Cavs are small in the backcourt and at small forward, and we believe they need to get bigger in order to grow as a team.

They also need shooting. Cleveland finished 12th in the NBA during the regular season in three point field goal percentage at 36.7%, but they were 24th in attempts from beyond the arc. Their top three long range shooters, Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Caris LeVert took 53% of the team’s threes.

To be fair, Golden State’s top three-point makers, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Jordan Poole took 57% of the Warriors’ shots from beyond the arc, but Curry and Thompson both make over 40% of their threes.

If you look at the number of threes taken per game for Cleveland, Mitchell took 9.3 (probably too many), Garland 6.0, and LeVert 4.4. (Note: Kevin Love took 4.8/game). Cedi Osman is next at 4.1/game. Beyond that, you have Dean Wade, Ricky Rubio, and Isaac Okoro, and none of that trio attempted more than three per contest.

And only Okoro ranked in the top eight in minutes played for the season.

In looking at the NBA’s final four teams remaining and the Milwaukee Bucks, who had the best record in the league, only Miami’s top three long range shooters in attempts (Strus, Herro, and Vincent) took more than 50% of the Heat’s three pointers.

Here are the other teams mentioned–

Denver (Porter Jr., Murray, Caldwell-Pope) 47.1%
Boston (Tatum, Brown, White) 44.8%
Los Angeles (James, Brown Jr., Walker IV) 35.4%
Milwaukee (Holiday, Allen, Lopez) 34.5%

It doesn’t seem like taking a lot of threes leads to success. The top five in attempts per game were Golden State, Boston, Dallas, Milwaukee, and Utah. Three playoff teams. However, the top five in percentage made (Philadelphia, Golden State, LA Clippers, Denver, and Brooklyn) all qualified for the post-season.

It’s too easy for opponents, especially when it comes to the playoffs to guard three-point shooters if you only have a few, particularly when one of those three are bringing the ball up the floor. It’s also tougher when two of your primary long distance shooters are smaller players.

Over the weekend, several players were mentioned as possibilities for the Cavs over the offseason. Players like Donte DiVincenzo (6’4″), Max Strus (6’5″), Jordan Clarkson (6’5″) and Seth Curry (6’2″) were discussed. Our problem with this group is it still makes the Cavaliers a very small team outside of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.

We know it won’t be easy, but we believe if the Koby Altman and Mike Gansey are looking to upgrade the wing positions, it should be with someone in the 6’7″ or taller height wise.

Perhaps someone like Jerami Grant (6’8″) who the Cavs probably can’t afford after he averaged 20 points per game with Portland. But you might be able to get Jalen McDaniels (6’9″) who averaged 9.4 points splitting the year between Charlotte and Philadelphia. He shot just 33% from three this year, but shot 38% a year ago.

A dark horse would be Keita Bates-Diop (6’8″), who averaged a career high 9.7 points/game with San Antonio, shooting 39.4% from behind the arc.

Yes, the Cavs need shooting. Moreso, they need taller people who can shoot. It’s the proverbial killing two birds with one stone.