The Reshaping of Cavs Should Be Complete

The one thing you can say about Cavs GM David Griffin is that he isn’t afraid of change.

After watching his basketball team struggle more than expected, Griffin didn’t sit back and hope things would get better, he did something about it.

It has been painfully obvious if you know the game of basketball that the main problem for the wine and gold has been on the defensive end. They have ranked among the best teams in the NBA in offensive efficiency. The two trades made in the last few days have addressed the problem when the opponent has the ball.

The Cavaliers have had problems stopping perimeter jump shots and also have had breakdowns when opponents have gone to the basket. Picking up Iman Shumpert helps with the first issue and is a solid enough defender to stop penetration as well.

And if they do get to the hole, Griffin’s latest acquisition, Timofey Mozgov will be there to provide resistance.

Quite simply, Mozgov is a large man at 7’1″ and 250 pounds. He averaged 8.5 points and almost 8 rebounds (7.8) per game and is a career 51.3% shooter from the floor. Those numbers were compiled playing a little over half the game at 25.6 minutes per night. And he’s not horrible from the line either at a little over 73%.

But the biggest thing is he provides a presence and size inside that the Cavs haven’t had all year. Let’s face it, Tristan Thompson and Anderson Varejao are really power forwards masquerading as centers, and while they are solid defenders, they don’t provide the bulk or height needed to make opponents think twice about going to the hoop.

And Brendan Haywood hasn’t been dazzling when he has received minutes either.

Many people have questioned the deal because of the cost, as Griffin gave up two first round draft picks, a steep price for a player who averages less than 10 point and 10 rebounds per night.

However, if Mozgov has the desired effect, then the cost shouldn’t be an issue.

Not to compare the big man to Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond, but what if the same thing happens now as when Thurmond arrived in November of 1975.

When Thurmond was dealt to Cleveland on November 27th of that year, the Cavaliers were 6-11 after losing to the then Kansas City Kings 95-91. Bill Fitch’s squad went 43-22 the rest of the season and advanced to the Eastern Conference finals.

Nate only averaged 17 minutes per game for that team, but he was the right fit at the right time.

If Mozgov proves to be a good fit and the Cavaliers get healthy and make a good playoff run, then giving up two first round picks, neither of which will probably be in the top half of the round, is inconsequential.

And it’s not as though Mozgov is an aging player, he’s 28-years-old, and should be a solid NBA player for many years.

That’s another good thing about the moves Griffin made. Shumpert will not turn 25 until after the end of the current season, so his future is in front of him as well.

When LeBron James and Shumpert get back from their injuries, you have a starting five of those two, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and probably Mozgov. That will enable David Blatt to bring these players off the bench: J.R. Smith, Mike Miller, Shawn Marion, Thompson, and his favorite, Matthew Dellavedova.

If Blatt doesn’t give the subs minutes then, maybe he doesn’t have an NBA future.

And in making the deals now, it gives the Cavaliers more time to learn each other prior to the playoffs. If he had waited until the deadline, it would have put that process behind another five weeks.

Regardless, kudos to Griffin for seeing the current roster wasn’t working and going out and trying to fix it. He gave it plenty of time, more than 25% of the season.

Now, let’s see how this version of the Cavs works out.

Griffin Makes the First Move To Improve Cavs Roster

The recent struggles by the Cleveland Cavaliers are partially the result of the injuries, but also an indication that the current roster wasn’t working.

We just wrote a couple of days ago that it was incumbent on GM David Griffin to do something to improve the bench.

That’s the reason Griffin chose to make a significant change, dealing Dion Waiters to the Oklahoma City Thunder as part of a three team deal that netted guard Iman Shumpert and swingman J.R. Smith.

Griffin parted with veteran Lou Amundsen and rookie Alex Kirk as part of the deal.

Really, it appeared more and more that Waiters wasn’t accepting his role with the current group of Cavaliers. In Sunday’s loss to Dallas, he kept trying to drive to the basket when a lane wasn’t there and took a series of questionable shots that didn’t appear to be part of the offense.

While the focus of many have been on the enigmatic Smith, the real key to the trade is Shumpert, a 24-year-old who can be the wing defender needed by the wine and gold.

Although he is currently sidelined with a shoulder separation, Shumpert is a capable shooter from behind the arc (34% lifetime), but he makes his bones on the defensive end. And that has been a huge problem for the Cavs over the last month.

Smith is a scorer, averaging 13.3 points per game in his career, and is known as a guy who when he gets it going can turn a game around. He has made 37% of his three-point shots during his time in the NBA.

Smith will take the role that coach David Blatt wanted Waiters to have, that of instant offense off the bench, and Griffin picked up a solid wing defender as well. And outside of James Jones, who is limited in other areas, mainly defense, Smith is needed because Mike Miller hasn’t provided the outside shooting the Cavs thought they were getting when they signed him.

And, by the way, picked up a first round pick from Oklahoma City, which can be an asset in a future move, probably in bringing a big man, which the Cavaliers also need.

Which brings us to Samuel Dalembert, who was released by the Knicks as part of this trade. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Dalembert, who is a solid, defensive oriented big man, eventually winds up in Cleveland for the veteran minimum.

He’s a “rim protector”, the new lexicon for a guy who can block shots and rebounds.

The deal will likely put Shumpert in the starting lineup at the two guard with Miller going back to a reserve role, along with Smith to provide shooting. If they sign Dalembert, it would give the coach four solid players off the bench along with Matthew Dellavedova.

And Shumpert and Dalembert should also improve the defense which has been the main weakness for the Cavs over the last month.

With the trade exemptions and the first round picks Cleveland possesses (Memphis and Oklahoma City), Griffin still has ammunition to go out and get yet another big man. Even when Anderson Varejao was healthy, the wine and gold was one big short, so there is still a need to add another.

Yes, the adjustment period will probably get longer now with new players coming aboard, but if the Cavs are clicking in March, they will be the team no one wants to face in the playoffs. And with the core still being LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love, they can still make a long run in the East.

Maybe James’ Best Leadership Would Be Backing Blatt

The way basketball fans in this area talk about the Cleveland Cavaliers, you would think their record is below .500 or something like that.

In reality, the Cavs are 18-11 with a little over one-third of the season being played, in firm grasp of a playoff spot (they are seven games ahead of the current ninth seed), and no doubt will get better as the season plays on.

Once again, if you look at the teams who have the best record in each conference currently, Toronto and Atlanta in the Eastern Conference, and Golden State and Portland in the West, you find teams that basically are the same as last season.

Certainly, none of those teams made the changes the wine and gold did over the off-season.

And for those fans who have been critical of coach David Blatt, his area of expertise coming into the season was offense, and the Cavs have the fourth most efficient offense in the NBA right now, behind just the Raptors, Mavericks, and Clippers.

Clearly, the offense isn’t the problem, despite reports from the national media (read: ESPN).

On the defensive end, that’s another story. They rank 21st in the league in efficiency on that end of the floor (just ahead of Dallas, by the way), although they are right in the middle of the pack in points allowed (14th).

Because the Cavs have LeBron James back and brought in Kevin Love as well, there is no doubt extra media attention on everything the team does.

That includes last night when Love didn’t play in the fourth quarter in the win over Orlando, because the five who were out there were playing well. Blatt did the same thing less than a week ago, when Dion Waiters sat out the entire second half because Mike Miller and Matthew Dellavedova were playing well.

The next game, Waiters received his normal minutes.

One thing that hurts Blatt is that James hasn’t made many supportive comments about the head coach, and really, has never made any comments backing any of his coaches over the years, outside of phrases like “he’s the coach”.

Over the years, superstar players have been linked to their coaches. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant with Phil Jackson, Tim Duncan with Gregg Popovich, Magic Johnson with Pat Riley, and even Bill Russell with Red Auerbach.

James never has had that relationship, that the coach has the best things in mind for both LeBron and the franchise in total.

It might be time for that now.

When the Cavs struggle this season, it’s because they seem to drift off into bad habits. In the Christmas Day loss to Miami, the wine and gold tied up the game and then spent the last ten minutes playing a lot of one-on-one style, and at one point missed nine shots in a row.

This is the opportunity for the team’s best player to say the Cavs need to do what Blatt wants them to do: share the ball and make an effort on the defensive end.

If LeBron says that publicly, and develops a partnership with Blatt, that will unify a team that still seems to fragment at times.

After all, Blatt is a pretty renowned coach around the globe. He’s not Mike Brown and Eric Spoelstra, guys who were around the league for a while but never had success before they had James on the roster.

He’s had success coaching the sport for a long time, maybe not at the highest professional level, but he’s got more of a track record that the others we’ve mentioned.

Developing that relationship would show the rest of the roster just who is in charge, and just may be the catalyst for a very successful season.

That might be the biggest statement LeBron James can make as the leader of this squad.

A Plan to Rest LeBron

During the Cleveland Cavaliers’ slow start, David Blatt received a lot of criticism from people who expected the wine and gold to be 82-0 for the regular season. After all, they added the best player on the planet, LeBron James and another all-star in Kevin Love to Kyrie Irving.

Now that the Cavs have won four in a row, some of that criticism has subsided, but there is one area that the new to the NBA coach needs to make an adjustment. That would be controlling the minutes of James, who will turn 30 years old at the end of the month, and has a lot of miles on his legs, having spent 10 full seasons in the league, plus playoffs, and his stints with USA Basketball.

James is currently averaging 37.7 minutes per night, which is right in line with the last three years he spent in Miami. However, he has accumulated more than 40 minutes in a game seven times in the season’s first 16 games.

That’s not going to help him or the Cavs if they do indeed make a deep run in the NBA playoffs.

So, Blatt has to make a conscious effort to limit James’ minutes, especially during this time of the regular season, when, let’s face it, the games don’t have a heck of a lot of meeting.

We are sure Blatt intends to give James around 35 minutes per night going into each game, but our guess is his competitive nature gets in the game, and as the contest goes on he wants LeBron on the floor so the Cavs have a better chance for victory.

Part of it could also be adapting to a 48 minute game too. In a shorter contest, resting a player five minutes gets them to 35 minutes on the floor, in the NBA, a player has to sit out for 13 minutes to be at that kind of playing time.

As a compromise, we would suggest James sitting out the last three minutes of the first quarter and the first four minutes of the second quarter. Currently, he is playing the entire first stanza. This would give him seven minutes off in the first half, and if Love and Irving are on the floor at that point, the Cavs shouldn’t be in any danger of getting blown out.

In the second half, the coach can keep James off the floor the last two minutes of the third quarter and first two minutes of the fourth quarter. That get James to 37 minutes per night. And when the Cavaliers get a blow out win, he will get even more time off.

We also think having LBJ on the floor as much as he is provides a crutch to the players coming off the bench, meaning they think James will handle things, and they are reluctant to step up.

While James is resting, why can’t Dion Waiters pick up the scoring slack? We know Waiters can put the ball in the basket, and if he can produce when he’s in there, it means LeBron can watch from the sidelines.

And that will also make the Cavs a stronger team.

If you spend as much time in the Association as James, it takes its toll. That isn’t to say LBJ is no longer a dominant player, but he does need to start cutting back on his minutes if he is to be at top form when the playoffs start. David Blatt knows this, he just needs to stick to the plan.

Way Too Early To Blast Blatt

It is amazing that with the NBA season just 10 games old, there are fans who are dissatisfied with Cavs’ coach David Blatt.

We know the reason. The wine and gold brought in the best player on the planet and another all-star to play for the team and they are only 5-5 after the first ten contests, so it must be the coach that is the problem.

After all, there were idiots out there projecting that the Cavs would win 70 regular season games in 2014-15, something only one team in history has done. So, really Blatt’s problem is the unrealistic expectations of the fan base.

This is not to say that Blatt has made a seamless transition from the European leagues to the NBA. He hasn’t used his bench much and that’s a big key for an 82 game schedule. This is the time of year where you develop your bench, giving reserves minutes so they can contribute as the season progresses. That has to change, and tonight’s game would be a good place to start.

He’s also using LeBron James too much. James was averaging a little over 39 minutes a game prior to Wednesday’s game against San Antonio, and played 34 minutes vs. the Spurs. That’s more in the realm we’d like to see going forward to keep him fresh for the entire season.

Also, giving James more time off would allow Kevin Love assert himself more offensively. Love admitted he is struggling to find out his place in the offense, and having him on the floor with James resting would make him the primary offensive option.

Blatt is also trying to figure out who he can trust, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. The knee injury to Matthew Dellavedova was a bigger blow than most think because he is one of the few guards on the roster who can defend. His absence has caused more playing time for rookie Joe Harris, which will help in the long run.

But once again, it is still very early in the season, the Cavs have played 12% of the regular season and once again, they have a roster where roughly 2/3’s of the players are new. We know sports fans in northeast Ohio hate the word, but it’s a “process”.

If the same issues are still in place once the calendar turns to 2015, then we can have a meaningful debate about the merits of the coach. Blatt is a smart man, and he’s not a head coach for the first time, just the first time at the NBA level. He has a lot of experience coaching professionals.

He’s not a former player without a background in x’s and o’s either. He knows the game, and he knows from a strategic standpoint how to coach it. But he does have to adjust to the NBA’s 48 minute contests. If you think about it, he rests his starters like they are playing the 40 minute games he is accustomed to.

The critics are forgetting that it’s a new coaching staff and the majority of the players also just joined the team over the summer. It takes time to develop chemistry and cohesion, mostly in terms on knowing where players need the ball to be effective, and also on the defensive end where trust in mandatory.

Guys who played for Blatt in the past have raved about him, and there’s no reason to think his style has changed drastically. The things he has struggled with early in the season should be correctable.

This team will show progress, we are confident in saying that. Blaming the coach is the knee jerk reaction in these parts. Let’s allow David Blatt to coach for a while longer before it is determined that he is the problem.

Cavs’ Defense Needs to Start With Guards

The most recognized weakness experts thought the Cleveland Cavaliers would have going into the season was on the defensive end, and to this point in the campaign, that has been the case.

The wine and gold currently rank 24th in the NBA in points allowed at 104.3, 7th from the bottom, and are third last in the association in defensive field goal percentage, allowing opponents to make 48.4% of their shots.

In regard to the points, the Cavs are scoring 106.7 points per night, meaning they are outscoring their opponents by 2.4 points a game.

In defending three-point shooting, Cleveland is in the middle of the pack, allowing a 35.8 % rate, meaning the bigger problem is inside the three-point arc.

Now, this is no question that the defense is definitely affected by the number of new people on the roster. Playing well on that end of the floor requires knowing where your teammates are and having the trust that if you leave your man to help, someone else will cover for you.

That comes from playing together, and there isn’t a question here that the Cavaliers will be a better defensive team after the All Star Game than they are right now.

However, any improvement to be made on the defensive end has to come with a better effort from the backcourt, particularly Kyrie Irving.

First, let’s remember that a good portion of defense is “want to”. Working hard on that end of the floor is half the battle.

Let’s also remember that Irving has plenty of quickness. He is a superb penetrator on offense with the ability to seemingly get to the rim any time he wants to. So, there shouldn’t be any reason why the likes of Ty Lawson and Rajon Rondo blow past him time and time again during a game.

When this happens, we all know what comes next. Either Tristan Thompson, Anderson Varajao, or Kevin Love have to stop the man going to the basket, allowing a player like Rondo to dish to the vacated teammate. Rondo wound up with 16 assists against the Cavs last Friday night, and Lawson had 12 last night.

What is puzzling is that Rondo is not renown as a good shooter from outside and Lawson was 0 for 6 from behind the arc last night. This begs the question, why not give either player a step defensively and force them to beat you from outside first?

It still comes back to Irving making a commitment to be a solid player on the defensive end. Yes, it’s still early in the season and to be sure, LeBron James has to be in his ear about getting better in that area, but the two-time all-star has to get better on that end of the floor.

David Blatt cannot continue to have to put James or Shawn Marion on the opposition’s point guard when Irving can’t handle the job. They will get worn out sooner than later.

When Matthew Dellavedova gets back, you may see him take that responsibility at the end of games.

The point is this, Kyrie Irving has too much ability to be this poor of the defensive player and any improvement in this area for the Cavaliers rests on him being able to stop the parade on opposing guard going toward Cleveland’s basket.

As Cavs’ announcer Austin Carr likes to tell the story of what Jim Chones would say to him when he didn’t keep his man in front of him. Chones would tell him he was going to let him score, rather than pick up a foul.

This edition of the Cavaliers can score the basketball, but they won’t be an elite team, a championship team until they can stop the other team. Irving is the key to making that happen.

Will Bosh’s Feelings Affect Love?

We have always had the thought that everyone likes to win, but we’d rather have players that hate to lose.

We will find out this season if the Cleveland Cavaliers have enough of the latter.

All of the holdovers from last season’s team have to be thrilled to have players like LeBron James, Kevin Love, Mike Miller, and Shawn Marion join the roster, because the days of finishing under .500 are over. The sheer talent brought in this off-season pretty much guarantees that.

However, if all of those players loathe losing, then the Cavs have a chance to be something special.

We bring this up because of Chris Bosh’s comments today about playing with a guy like James, more specifically the adjustments that Kevin Love will have to make coming from being the best player on a also-ran to being the second or third best player on a great team.

We agree with Bosh that some guys can make that transition and other guys can’t.

Going back in NBA history, we can think of at least two times where a superstar player subjugated his game for the good of the team.

The first is when Wilt Chamberlain did it twice, first with the 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers, and again with the Lakers in 1971-72.

In the first case, The Big Dipper’s scoring average dropped from 33.5 to 24.1 and his assist total jumped from 5.2 to 7.8 playing with the likes of Hal Greer, Chet Walker, and Luke Jackson.

With the Lakers in 71-72, Chamberlain’s scoring average dipped drastically again from 20.7 to 14.8, allowing Jerry West, Gail Goodrich, and Jim McMillian to do the heavy lifting in the scoring department.

Earl Monroe made a similar transition when he went from prolific scorer with the Baltimore Bullets (20.0 plus average) to fit in with a very good New York Knicks group.

In recent times, we saw the Boston Celtics put together Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen to go with Paul Pierce, and win a title in their first year together. All three had to change their games for the greater good.

If you think that is normal, think about how many titles Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant could have one if either decided taking a step back was worth it to collect more hardware.

The fact that the situation in Miami the past few seasons seems to irritate Bosh slightly is probably the reason it didn’t work in the long run. And if Bosh hated losing, he wouldn’t have cared how many touches he would be getting, as long as the Heat kept collecting Larry O’Brien Trophies.

Comparing Love to Bosh, remember that Love wanted to come here once James announced his return because he wanted to escape the losing. He didn’t come to Cleveland as part of a plan devised by friends while playing together on the US National team.

Plus, passing has always been a part of Love’s game, going back to his college days. We were struck watching him at UCLA the good court vision he had, and that was before he became an outside shooting threat.

Only time will tell of course, but it seems that Love has the disdain for losing that is needed to play with James. There is no question that players like Love, Miller, Marion, etc. came to Cleveland not only to play with LeBron, but to play with him knowing a title was very much possible.

The bigger question is can they all, including James, sacrifice individual stats to accomplish that goal.

Another huge question is how the holdover Cavs handle the culture change as well. With the youth in that group, that could be the bigger challenge.

Cavs’ Circus Begins Tomorrow.

Tomorrow, perhaps the most important non-sporting sporting event in Cleveland will occur when the Cavaliers have their media day.

So, the circus that will surround them all year will start then and there.

The biggest focus for everyone will be LeBron James, who hasn’t really sat down to speak about his return to Cleveland, except through his essay in Sports Illustrated and his welcome home party in July in Akron.

To be sure, he will be asked about his future with the Cavaliers because he signed a one year deal with an option, even though he has stated publicly that he will finish out his career in wine and gold.

There will also be considerable attention on the NBA’s newest “big three”, James, recently acquired all-star Kevin Love, and the MVP of both last year’s All Star Game and the FIBA World Championship, Kyrie Irving.

To be sure, they will be compared to the Celtics recent grouping (Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce) and Miami’s famous, or infamous trio of James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. Will the Cavs group have the same success as Boston, winning a title in their first year together?

There is no question than not only do the Cavs have a core of all-star players, but they also have put together a deep roster of solid role players, something Miami didn’t have at least last season.

Besides the holdovers from last season, Dion Waiters, Anderson Varejao, Tristan Thompson, and Matthew Dellavedova, who are all solid NBA players, GM David Gilbert also brought in Shawn Marion, Mike Miller, and James Jones, and don’t forget big man Brendan Haywood, who missed last season with a stress fracture in his foot.

The deep roster will allow James to cut back on his minutes, as our guess is all parties would like him to average around 33 minutes per game in 2014-15, compared to the 37.7 he played last season in Miami, and the 39.5 he averaged throughout his time in the NBA.

The only thing this team doesn’t have on paper is a big time shot blocker or rim protector in the new vernacular, and that could be Haywood if his feet can hold up.

And while some critics will say there aren’t a lot of lock down defenders in this group, right now James, Marion, Varejao, and Dellavedova would be considered the best defensive players, the name of the game is scoring more than your opponents, and this edition of the wine and gold should be very proficient in putting the ball in the basket.

The coolest thing about all this is the amount of focus that will be on Cleveland, Ohio this winter. The two best teams in professional basketball might just be here and in San Antonio. The national media has to be going crazy. We will probably hear about how the league is in trouble because it doesn’t appear its hallmark franchises (Celtics, Lakers, Knicks) will be in the championship mix for a while.

Also, the Cavs will be embraced throughout the league too. James was named the most popular professional athlete in the country this summer, in part because he did the right thing in many people’s eyes by reversing the wrong committed four years ago and returning to Cleveland.

As we have traveled around the country this summer, most basketball fans are genuinely happy that The King is back in northeast Ohio.

It all starts tomorrow. And the wait to Opening Night will be excruciating.

Cavs Give Everyone Reason for Extreme Optimism

We realize that the average Cleveland sports fan has no real sense of success, so they don’t understand how to handle it.

This has become particularly evident in regards to the city’s basketball team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Since the regular season ended, another non-playoff campaign just like everyone since the departure of LeBron James, nothing but good things have happened to Dan Gilbert’s franchise.

First, despite overwhelming odds, the Cavs got the first pick in the NBA Draft. Cleveland had the ninth worst record in the league, with just a little over 1% chance to get the pick, yet it came up for them.

Unbelievably, the next great thing that occurred was James returning to the franchise, still the best player in the sport, and this made the wine and gold an instant playoff team, and a contender for a title, even if nothing else was done.

Unlike James’ first tenure here, he started actively recruiting for the Cavs, and told all-star forward Kevin Love that they should team up and try to win titles in little ol’ Cleveland, Ohio.

So, GM David Griffin apparently has packaged this year’s first round pick, Andrew Wiggins and last year’s pick, Anthony Bennett sending them to Minnesota to bring Love to the Cavs.

The Cavaliers will now feature their own big three of James, Love, and two-time all-star Kyrie Irving, and are the favorite to win the Eastern Conference and advance to The Finals for the second time in history.

They’ve also added veterans Mike Miller, James Jones, and Shawn Marion, all with championship rings to add support for Cleveland’s all-star trio. And they may also add another well-accomplished veteran in Ray Allen soon.

Still, fans are complaining, worried that the team still needs a big man, someone who can block shots.

Let’s put it this way. If the Cavs suited us up with James, Love, and Irving, along with another member of the Cleveland blogging fraternity, they likely would make the playoffs.

This team is a definite title contender barring injury as currently constituted.

They have Irving and Matthew Dellavedova at point guard. At the wing spots, they can put James, Dion Waiters, Miller, and Marion on the floor. They will have Love at power forward and Anderson Varejao at center, or they can bring the latter off the bench, and use Tristan Thompson, who averaged almost a double double last season as a starter.

It is true that the last move to make would be someone who can block shots, and based on the moves made already, we have no doubt that Griffin will add one to those to the roster.

The Cavs still have several first round picks that can deal as well as some non-guaranteed contracts picked up in the deal that sent Carrick Felix to Utah.

That’s the beauty of the situation that has been created here, not only do the Cavs have James, Love, and Irving, but they aren’t hamstrung in the ability to make moves.

That’s why James structured his deal (two years with an opt out after the first year) the way he did. He saw what happened in Miami, where the Heat management didn’t want to go over the luxury tax threshold, and the Heat couldn’t add some younger pieces to keep the title train going.

If you aren’t optimistic about this basketball season, you would probably complain about the taxes if you won the lottery.

Some fans will still complain though, that’s the Cleveland way.

Cavs’ Griffin A Man of His Word, So Far

When he was hired as Cavaliers’ GM, David Griffin said the team needed to improve its basketball IQ, and get some players who can make shots.

So far, Griffin is a man true to his word.

Of course, it helps a great deal when the best player in the league decides he wants to come home and play for your team.

LeBron James was the smartest basketball player on the court when he was here previously, and with even more experience, it is doubtful he has lost his ability to play the game the correct way.

James took a lot of heat early in his career so making the right basketball play, that is to say, he hit the open man rather than force up a bad shot.

We can remember times when James wasn’t in the game where the Cavaliers took poor shots when the team needed a basket. We said at that time the rest of the Cavs could have learned from watching the younger LeBron play basketball.

His younger teammates should be in learning mode, and when the teacher happens to be a four-time league MVP, if they aren’t willing to gain knowledge from James on how to play the right way, they likely will not be in the wine and gold for long.

Griffin’s other two free agent signings help with the shooting problem the team had last season.

Last year, Cleveland didn’t have a lot of consistent shooters from the perimeter. Yes, Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters had their moments from outside, but their strength is more taking the ball to the basket.

Signing Mike Miller and James Jones as free agents addresses the need for players who can put the ball through the hoop from outside.

And they should get plenty of open looks with the way James, Irving, Waiters, and rookie Andrew Wiggins can go to the basket.

Miller, now 34 years old, enjoyed a bit of a career renaissance this year, playing his most minutes since 2009-10. He’s a lifetime 46% shooter from the floor, including 41% from beyond the three-point circle.

Last season with Memphis, he shot 46% on three pointers.

Jones is more of a three-point specialist, with more than half of his shots in his career coming from behind the arc.

He will be 34 years before the season starts and he’s made 40% of his threes over his career.

Neither Miller nor Jones will be starters.

Miller will probably be a rotation player, backing up at both the off guard and the small forward spots.

Jones only played in 20 games for the Heat last season, so he will probably be used as a specialist, playing in situation where three-point shooting is needed, maybe for plays at the end of a quarter.

The point is, both of these signings are minor in terms of neither player will be getting 30 minutes per night, but they are bringing a skill set needed on the wine and gold, and also another veteran presence for a team that doesn’t have many experienced players.

They will help James get the message to the young players and relate what is needed to win an NBA title.

Neither player is killing the Cavs in terms of salary cap space.

So far, Griffin is keeping his word in terms of rebuilding this franchise. It helped immensely that James returned to the franchise, but getting shooters, something lacking for Cleveland, is a great help too.