Love Cavs’ Season To Date, But Playoffs Will Tell The Story

As the Cleveland Cavaliers keep rolling along, with an NBA best record of 47-10, it is time to remind everyone what we said during their 15-game winning streak to start the season.

It is definitely sad, but the real season for this group starts when the regular season ends, and the playoffs begin. And that’s not being a Debbie Downer. It’s just that the Cavs won a playoff series a year ago, and when your regular season record is as good as Cleveland’s, championship aspirations in play.

That doesn’t mean we aren’t enjoying the regular season either. The style of play this team uses and the togetherness they exhibit make it very enjoyable to watch. For example, last Friday we were looking for a competitive game against the Knicks, and instead it was a 27-point lead on the way to a blowout win.

But we can look ahead because there is no playoff race to speak of. Cleveland is going to be there. In fact, Sunday’s win over Memphis meant the wine and gold have already clinched at least a spot in Adam Silver’s “play in tournament”.

And there are 25 games remaining.

The NBA playoffs are just different. In the regular season, teams rely on what they do well and sometimes it causes an issue against a singular opponent because their strength isn’t something you are good at defending and vice-versa.

But in the playoffs, you are playing the same opponent for perhaps seven consecutive games. And if you can identify a weakness on the other side of the floor, you attack it until the other team adjusts.

Most Cavs’ fans will remember how in the 2016 NBA Finals, the Cavs went after Stephen Curry on the defensive end, taking advantage of the Warriors’ switching on defense until Curry was on LeBron James and/or Kyrie Irving.

That’s the sort of thing we are talking about.

So, as marvelous as Darius Garland has been this season, shooting a career high 49.3% from the floor and 42.5% from three, and a turnover rate the lowest of his career, there will be a lot of pressure on him once the post-season begins.

He would be the first to admit he didn’t play well in either of the last two playoff seasons, and opponents hunted him on the defensive end as well. And we don’t know if he will be better until we see it on the floor.

We were discussing Isaac Okoro over the weekend and agreed he is a very good defensive player. However, opposing teams are going to leave him open in a playoff series until he proves he is willing to take and make shots on the perimeter, particularly three pointers. If he cannot, Kenny Atkinson will have to be very judicious with his minutes.

Again, this is not to be a pessimist, rather it is exciting to see if the Cavs have learned from the past two campaigns and will be better for it.

We want to see this version of Evan Mobley in a playoff series. The All-Star version of Mobley. He’s averaging three points more per game than a year ago, while still remaining one of the best defenders in the league.

It is important to keep winning in the regular season and stay ahead of Boston in the conference standings if only to make them play New York in the second round. And the Cavs do have a six-game lead there.

Regular season success is nice, but in the NBA, teams are measured by playoff performance. And we will have to wait six weeks for that.

No Extra Games For Cavs (And Others) Isn’t Fair.

One of the common complaints about the NBA is the lack of competitive balance. Part of that comes from the nature of the sport itself.

There are just five players on the floor at any time, and if you have a great player, that’s a tremendous advantage for sure. And those great players seem to gravitate toward large media markets and warm weather cities.

It has been said many times before, but it still bears repeating. Since Magic Johnson and Larry Bird entered the league in the 1979-80 season, every championship team, save for the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons, have had an all-time great on the roster.

That torch has been passed from Bird, Magic, and Julius Erving to Isiah Thomas to Michael Jordan to Hakeem Olajuwon, back to Jordan, and then to Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, and then to Stephan Curry and Kawhi Leonard.

If you have one of those players, you have a chance to win. If you don’t? You better get one.

Adam Silver and his office, in conjunction with the player’s association, came up with a great idea to resume the season, and finish it in Orlando, Florida.

When the season was stopped in March, many figured (including us), that when the game returned, it would certainly just start with the playoffs, which is what the NHL did.

However, the roundball league likes to do things that seem contrived, and they couldn’t help themselves this time. The resumed the regular season, playing eight games, but not everyone was invited. Eight teams were left at home.

Now, one might say since the eight teams who were not invited to the bubble also had the eight worst records in the league, they deserve to be left out. After all, they are bad teams.

It seems kind of arbitrary though. For example, the Cavaliers stayed home because they won just 19 games, but the Washington Wizards, who won 24 games, gets to play eight extra games.

Worse yet, the Charlotte Hornets, another young team trying to improve, have to sit home even though they won one less game than Washington.

Most of the teams who don’t get the extra games are younger teams who could most definitely use court time.

There was talk of a second bubble for these eight teams to play each other, thus getting the same advantage of some additional contests, and Cavs’ GM Koby Altman was a leading voice to create one, but there is growing belief it will not happen.

We are sure the Cavaliers would have loved to see more of rookies Darius Garland and Kevin Porter Jr. in new coach J.B. Bickerstaff’s system. Heck, they could have watched fellow rookie Dylan Windler actually take the floor in competitive games, something they didn’t get a chance to do all year because of his leg injury.

But they will not be getting this opportunity and quite frankly, in a sport where fairness can be questioned at times, it’s not fair to the teams who aren’t there.

When will we see the Cavaliers next? Quite possibly, it could be in November when training camps will start for the 2020-21 season.

It’s a lost opportunity for the league and the eight teams who aren’t in Orlando.

While NBA Players Have Power, Who Is Worrying About The League?

The NBA off-season reached its zenith Friday when Kawhi Leonard made his decision, going to the Los Angeles Clippers as a free agent, after the Clippers made a trade bringing Paul George to LA from Oklahoma City.

So, there aren’t any “superteams”, like the Golden State Warriors the past few seasons, nor like the Boston Celtics of the late 2000’s, or the Miami Heat earlier this decade.

But there are a decided shifting of great players to major markets. The five players who made the NBA’s top three all league teams and moved this off-season, all went to big market teams.

Now, some were already on big city squads, like Kawhi Leonard going from Toronto to LA, and Kyrie Irving going from Boston to Brooklyn.

But George went from Oklahoma City to the Clippers and Kemba Walker went from Charlotte to Boston.

So, the only players on small market teams remaining on the first, second, or third team All-NBA squads are Nikola Jokic (Denver), the reigning MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee), Damian Lillard (Portland), Rudy Gobert (Utah), and Blake Griffin (Detroit).

The year before, Anthony Davis and Jimmy Butler were listed and both of them moved to big markets (Lakers and Heat, respectively).

This is not meant to criticize the players. They have earned the right to free agency, and because of that, they earned the right to play where they choose.

The question is how this affects the league, which the players don’t and shouldn’t worry about.

The NBA is without a doubt, a multi-billion dollar business, and the players are the reason for that. They are the league, and the names are recognizable by first name or nickname: LeBron, Kawhi, Steph, KD, Giannis, etc.

However, if all of the league’s superstars gravitate to big markets and warm weather climates, how does that affect the Association?

Part of the reason the NBA makes a lot of money is it has 28 markets (two teams in Los Angeles and New York). Now, the younger fans are more attracted to players rather franchises, but the league is helped by those stars traveling to 28 cities around North America.

What would happen if eventually, four of those franchises went away because attendance fall off, mainly because the people who can afford tickets to NBA games figure out their franchises don’t have any chance to be competitive in the long term.

Or four of those teams relocated to let’s say, southern California or the New York metropolitan area, again reducing the number of markets to draw fans?

Is that good for the health of the NBA?

Again, the league has become global, so maybe it doesn’t matter, and perhaps they will eventually relocate smaller American markets to Europe, Mexico, or other countries, growing the NBA in that matter.

We aren’t going to say the championship the Cavaliers won in 2016 will be the last one by a smaller market because the Bucks still have Antetokounmpo, and that makes them a threat to get a title.

But the growing number of players looking to get out of smaller cities continues to grow. And let’s face it, if James isn’t from northeast Ohio, does he come back from 2014-15 to 2017-18 and the Cavaliers get to raise a banner?

As we said, it’s not the players’ job to worry about the league, but someone should be concerned. Shouldn’t that be the commissioner? Again, maybe he just doesn’t care about the middle of the country.