Where Is Cavs’ Improvement Coming From?

After the NBA season, Cavaliers’ GM Koby Altman said the plan was for the team to “take the next step” and at the very least get in to the play in tournament for the league’s playoffs, meaning we was hoping to finish in the top ten in the Eastern Conference.

In 2020-21, that spot belonged to Charlotte and they won 33 games last season. The wine and gold finished with just 22. How would the organization make up the ground and also pass up Chicago and Toronto, who finished 11th and 12th in the East?

We are confused because right now, we see no path which leads to the Cavs making that leap and training camp will be starting in about a month.

We said before the draft that picking Evan Mobley with the third overall pick is not the move of a team that wants to start winning next year and we stand by that. While very talented, especially for someone his size, because of his current build, we would be surprised if the rookie made a huge impact in 2021-22. Perhaps the talent was too much to pass up, but Altman’s words and actions seem to be at odd with each other.

The Cavaliers also ranked last in the NBA in three point field goal percentage and 25th in overall shooting percentage. Mobley is certainly not going to help with the former, and we doubt newcomer Ricky Rubio, a career 32.5% shooter from beyond the arc, will help much either.

In fact, of guys who played ten or more games for the Cavs last year, the best three point shooter was Taurean Prince (41.5%) and of course, he was the player Altman moved for Rubio. So, on paper, Cleveland’s long distance shooting got worse.

We understand some of the young veterans like Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, and Isaac Okoro will improve naturally and that should translate into more wins, but will it mean winning 36-40 games that will likely be needed to at least get the 10th seed, if not higher?

Garland averaged 18.8 points and 6.3 assists per game after the All Star Game, how much better can he do this year? Remember, that despite those numbers, Cleveland went 8-28 in the second half of the season.

Perhaps the team will be healthier this year, which would help. Maybe Kevin Love will play more 25 games and Larry Nance Jr. will be available for more than 35 contests. Both of those guys would help in the win/loss department, although you can debate whether or not the former will be on the roster at all this season.

Counting on the growth of the young players in order to make a quantum leap forward would seem to be dangerous if your job was depending on it, and recent reports say ownership is going to reevaluate Altman and coach J.B. Bickerstaff after the first half of the season.

So if Altman thinks his job is on the line (and quite frankly it should be), he is taking an odd approach or he is putting his trust in his evaluation of talent and hoping everything gels for this group of Cavaliers.

If we were making a wager on what will happen, we wouldn’t make any long term financial plans if we were Altman. His plan has a lot of blind faith in it.

Impressions Of Mobley And Other Cavs Stuff

The Cleveland Cavaliers are wrapping up the Summer League schedule, but the reason to watch the games ended last Friday when the organization made the decision to sit first round pick Evan Mobley after he played three games.

The third overall pick averaged 11.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 3 assists per contest in his brief appearance, but frankly, why he didn’t play more is a mystery. We have heard the arguments from folks saying it wasn’t needed, but we don’t think players get better from watching, so we would have had him on the court.

Of course, the organization didn’t do him any favors by not having a legitimate point guard on the roster. The playmaking duties fell to last year’s first round pick, Isaac Okoro, who played small forward last year, but in reality is probably a #2 guard.

Our impression of Mobley hasn’t changed after watching him in these games, and we understand these aren’t anything like regular season NBA games, especially in terms of the talent on the floor. What does stand out though is who plays hard, that’s where players can make a name for themselves.

The rookie is frighteningly thin, several times opponents bumped him from behind going for rebounds, and Mobley didn’t grab the ball because the contact. It wasn’t called a foul, nor will it be in the regular season. He also shot just 35% from the floor, again, when he got the ball near the basket, and some contact took place, he couldn’t power through it.

That’s not to say he will never be able to, he will get stronger, and be able to handle this, but for the upcoming season, let’s say we have our doubts.

In fact, we thought for the upcoming season, Mobley might be best equipped to play the small forward spot. He’s a very good passer, as he showed in summer league, finding some easy baskets on backdoor cuts, and he did show a good ability to be able to defend on the perimeter.

No doubt, it would be tough for the man he was guarding to be able to get a clean look at the basket.

At playing him at the three would give him a chance to contribute while getting stronger for an inevitable move closer to the defensive rim. We aren’t saying use him at the spot exclusively, but it would be something to try.

As we said earlier, the Cavs’ front office didn’t do Mobley (or really anyone) any favors by not having a legitimate point guard on the roster. More and more, we have no clue what Koby Altman and his staff are trying to accomplish this season.

It was reported that the team was talking to Collin Sexton about a contract extension because attempts to trade him came up empty. So, you couldn’t get back in trade something commensurate to the value you think he has, and the solution is to give him a big contract?

It would seem that someone has the wrong value on the player. Either way, there doesn’t seem to be a huge market for Sexton, so why would the Cavs get involved in a big contract with him? We have said it before, we would wait until have this season to have any talks with him.

Since the season ended, the Cavaliers have drafted Mobley, and traded Taurean Prince for Ricky Rubio. If that’s all Altman does, we would anticipate another season where fans are hoping to be lucky in the draft lottery.

It looks right now like even a spot in the play in tournament is a long shot.

Cavs Sitting Back And Hoping

Since last Thursday night, the NBA has been full of action with the annual draft and then the beginning of free agency. Teams all over the Association have been making moves, trying to get into next year’s playoffs.

We guess the exception would be the Cleveland Cavaliers.

When you’ve won 60 games like the Cavs have done, you probably don’t need to do much. Oh yeah, those 60 victories have come in the last three regular seasons combined.

We realize there is still time, but more and more it looks like GM Koby Altman continues to be delusional in thinking the island of misfit toys roster he has assembled right now is going to result in at least a spot in the (very stupid) NBA play in tournament.

Right now, J.B. Bickerstaff has two players with the correct size and skill set for the NBA, point guard Darius Garland and center Jarrett Allen. Quite frankly, those are two pretty good building blocks to start.

But the rest of the starting lineup is made up of Collin Sexton, a relentless scorer, but still undersized compared to most of the teams in the NBA at 6’2″, Isaac Okoro, a 6’5″ small forward (by the way, on the Summer League roster, he is listed at 6’6″ and as a guard), and if they are starting rookie Evan Mobley at the four, he certainly has the height, but not the bulk.

Besides the drafting of Mobley, the major acquisition so far this summer is Ricky Rubio, a point guard, further crowding the backcourt. Bickerstaff now has to find enough minutes for Garland, Sexton, Rubio, and Okoro, who again, should be playing guard, although is his offense good enough to play that spot.

And although they might not be reliable sources, rumors are out there that Altman is pursuing a shooter, who likely will also add another body to the backcourt.

The roster screams for someone in the 6’7″ or 6’8″ range that can put the ball in the basket. We haven’t forgotten Larry Nance Jr., who probably should start at SF, but while he does a lot of things very well, he isn’t known for his scoring prowess.

We also know technically Kevin Love is on the roster. Actually, Love would be a good fit (still) at the #4, and would allow Bickerstaff to break in Mobley slowly, but if he’s not buying in to yet another rebuilding season, it’s best to move on.

This rebuild is moving at an iceberg’s pace, because Altman didn’t accumulate any draft picks. He did use some draft capital to get Kevin Porter Jr. two years ago, but we know how that ended. Nor, did he have any cap space, and apparently Cleveland couldn’t really participate in free agency because they didn’t have cap room.

We also think he made a mistake in not offering a qualifying offer to center Isaiah Hartenstein, who came over in the JaVale McGee deal last season. The big man showed he can play, and the Cavs shouldn’t be losing those types of players for nothing.

We know the drafting of Mobley precipitated the move, but you can’t get rid of players who have talent when you have one of the worst records in the NBA.

It would be prudent to level off the talent instead of having the roster super-stacked at two or three spots and devoid of players at other spots.

We have read that the team is targeting 2023-24 because they will have some cap room. That would mean five years of wretched records for the Cavaliers. That’s a tough sell to the ticket buying public.

Again, there is still time to make moves, but it doesn’t look like anything is imminent. Maybe all of the Cavs will get a lot better and their games will magically fit. That doesn’t seem like a good plan for success.

Cavs Take Mobley, Hopefully More To Come?

It has been rumored for the last couple of weeks that the Cleveland Cavaliers were taking Evan Mobley with the third overall pick in the NBA Draft, and they did just that last night.

Mobley, 7’0″, 215 pounds has tremendous skills, and is a shot blocker. Our concern with him is his weight. Can he withstand the pounding playing interior defense or if an opponent can get into him, could he be pinned to the floor.

We assume the Cavs want to retain Jarrett Allen, making a qualifying offer to the restricted free agent, so can Mobley and Allen play together?

Mobley has talent, but can he be an impact player next season? Because that’s what the wine and gold need, not another developmental piece. If he and Ricky Rubio (more on him later) are the only significant moves for Cleveland, our fear is another season of 25 wins or less might be the result.

Again, not categorizing Mobley as a bad pick, it’s just hard to see him being a guy who can play 30 minutes a game effectively next season. In three years? He could be a stud. If you want to tag on another two seasons among the bottom of the league, then we would guess you are okay with this.

GM Koby Altman has still assembled an odd roster. He has Darius Garland, who looks like he can be a good point guard in the league, but he has also drafted an undersized #2 guard in Collin Sexton and is using player who has #2 guard size at small forward in Isaac Okoro.

Now he has the twin towers in Allen and Mobley. Can this group win together? Maybe, we never rule anything out, but the general history of professional basketball says they would face an uphill battle.

One would assume the addition of Mobley also means the end of Kevin Love in Cleveland, probably as the result of buyout, meaning Altman gets no return for a key piece of the 2016 title team.

And it wouldn’t be a draft day without Altman getting another guard, this time trading Taurean Prince to Minnesota for Rubio and a second round pick. Rubio, who will turn 31 in October, will take over the Matthew Dellavedova guard mentoring role, except the Spaniard is a better player.

Rubio has been a starter for the majority of his seven year NBA career, and knows how to the play the game. He averages 7.6 assists per night for his career. He’s an excellent free throw shooter at 86.7%, but not a three threat from beyond the arc, just 32.5% lifetime.

There is still a long time between now and training camps opening in September, but it still feels like the Cavaliers need to retool their roster. They appear to have some rim protectors, which they will probably really need because the defense out front isn’t very good. Remember, J.B. Bickerstaff used Okoro on virtually every opponent’s best scorer, which created mismatches in other places.

Hopefully, more moves to change the roster will be coming with the free agent period starts, which is another time the league sees a lot of deals. They still need a legitimate scorer at small forward. They need more size in the backcourt or the ability to use Okoro there.

Said it all along, collecting talent is fine, putting talent together that fits and leads to wins? That’s a tough job.

Maybe Cavs Need Fit More Than Talent.

By the end of this month, it is very likely the roster of the Cleveland Cavaliers will look quite different. The Cavs have the third pick in the draft, and rumors persist of a trade coming involving leading scorer Collin Sexton.

While it may be absurd to many people for a team with one of the worst records in the league over the last three years to move their best player, you have to remember that basketball is not a sport where the best talent wins all the time, there has to be a good fit.

You can’t take players’ statistics and add them together when talking about possibilities. For example, a team made up of Stephen Curry, Bradley Beal, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jayson Tatum, the leading scorers at their respective positions, would not average 146 points per game, which is the accumulation of their scoring averages in 2020-21.

To go really old school, the 1967-68 Los Angeles Lakers won 52 games and went to the NBA Finals behind two of the great players of the era, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. They also had Archie Clark, who averaged 19.9 points that year. Clark was a prolific scorer, with a career scoring mark of 16 points per contest, with a high season of 25 PPG.

That off-season, the Lakers, feeling they needed something to push them over the top, combat Boston and Bill Russell, and win their first title in LA, traded Clark, center Darrell Imhoff and Jerry Chambers to Philadelphia for Wilt Chamberlain, who we still believe is the greatest center in NBA history.

Surely, the combination of three all time greats would lead to a championship.

The addition of Wilt the Stilt got the Lakers back to The Finals, where they again lost to Boston in 1968-69. Chamberlain missed all but 12 regular seasons the following season, but was back for the playoffs, where again LA lost in seven games to the New York Knicks.

After a loss in the conference finals to Milwaukee in ’70-’71 (Baylor was injured and retired early the following season), the Lakers inserted Jim McMillan in the starting lineup for Baylor and the team became unbeatable, going on a 33 games winning streak (still the all-time record), and won a then league record 69 games and won the title.

McMillan was a good player, not a great one (18.8 points, 6.5 rebounds in the championship season), but was a perfect fit for that team.

The Cavaliers are a losing team, winning 19, 19, and 22 games the last three seasons, and although Sexton was the leading scorer the past two years, he wasn’t the Cavs’ leader in win shares in any of the years he has been on the team. The first two years it was Larry Nance, and last season it was Jarrett Allen.

Based on this, we can see why the Cleveland front office is hesitant to give Sexton a contract extension, and may feel moving him now to bring in some pieces who might fit better with guys like Darius Garland, Allen, and whoever the wine and gold take with the third overall pick.

Although it is difficult to believe, it isn’t always about the talent in basketball, it’s about how that talent fits and the combination of players can play off of each other.

Look at the transformation Chris Paul made with Phoenix. His presence changed the dynamic of the roster.

That happens a lot in the NBA, and could be the answer in Cleveland. We understand that thinking.

Asking Questions About Cavs And The Draft

The NBA Draft is three weeks away, and the rumors abound not only about what the Cleveland Cavaliers will do, but what the teams who have the first and second selections will do as well.

It is the silly season, that’s for sure.

There have been rumors about the Cavs trading up to #1, presumably to draft Cade Cunningham, the consensus (at least he has been) best player in the draft.

However, we have heard a lot of crazy stuff for sure since the draft lottery put Cleveland in the #3 position.

We heard one pundit say Jalen Green is going to average 30 points per game someday. Does that guy understand how hard that is?

Since 2010-11, there have been 10 occurrences of a player averaging 30 points per game, and six players have accomplished the feat: James Harden (3X), Bradley Beal and Stephen Curry (both twice), and Damian Lillard, Russell Westbrook, and Kevin Durant.

That’s it.

We aren’t saying Green will never be able to do it, but predicting that is just insane to us.

We have also seen a lot of discussion about the Cavs taking Evan Mobley if he is sitting there when the Cleveland picks. We would be very, very careful about that pick, mostly because we don’t know if Mobley can defend inside.

Yes, he will be able to block shots, but can he handle the pounding he will receive with his slight frame? We heard someone saying he might be a good NBA player in 2024, and that’s exactly the point here. We aren’t sure Koby Altman and J.B. Bickerstaff can wait.

It is our opinion that pretty much everyone who plays in the NBA can put the ball in the basket. Obviously, the best players in the game are the ones who can do it on an every night basis, but unsung guys will have games where they score 25 points one night. It happens all the time.

However, playing time is earned on what you can do on the defensive end. Yes, yes, we’ve heard folks who don’t understand the game say no one in the NBA plays defense. We would instruct those people to watch a few of the more recent All Star Games, where no one is really interested in stopping anyone.

So our question is can Mobley be good enough defensively to get significant playing time or is he a project? And if the latter is true, it’s difficult to use the third overall pick on him.

We also believe in size. Of course, everyone can come up with cases where an undersized player or team has succeeded in the NBA, but by and large, if you have skilled bigger athletes who can play the position, you have a better chance.

Why is LeBron James so great? One reason is he has the skills of a small forward, and is bigger than pretty much anyone he plays against. Someone once said about him that if you are as big as him, you aren’t as quick, and if you are as quick as him, you aren’t as big.

That sums it up.

And that’s another reason we feel the Cavs’ roster needs an overhaul, no matter who they draft at the end of this month.

If they draft Green, he could play small forward, but then where does Isaac Okoro fit in? Height-wise, Okoro is probably a #2 guard, but the Cavaliers already have Darius Garland and Collin Sexton. And Green probably fits better as a scoring guard anyway.

The same is true if they draft Jalen Suggs, the point guard out of Gonzaga. The players who fit the team’s biggest need, a small forward, would be the players considered to be the 5th and 6th best players available, Jonathan Kuminga and Scottie Barnes.

Then you have the age old problem of drafting for need instead of talent. That would be a tough thing to do considering the Cavs are a team that needs impact talent too.

We are interested in seeing how it all plays out…

What Should Cavs Do With Third Overall Pick?

The Cleveland Cavaliers got some lottery luck Tuesday night. moving up in the process to get the third overall pick in this summer’s draft.

Now, the speculation can begin. What should the Cavs do this summer so they can win more often during the 2021-22 season.

You have to assume the Pistons will select Cade Cunningham with the first overall pick, so Cleveland will be reliant on what the Rockets will do with the second overall pick. But likely they will have to choose between USC big man Evan Mobley, Gonzaga point guard Jalen Suggs, or Jalen Green, who spent the season in the G League.

Any of those choices would likely cause of reshuffling of the roster, at least to us.

Why take the 7’0″ Mobley if the wine and gold will be offering Jarrett Allen a long term contract this off-season? Our other issue on him is his weight, he likely needs to put on 30-40 pounds to withstand the pounding NBA big men take inside. He will surely have to play there on the defensive end.

As for drafting Mobley and dealing Allen? We know the type of player Allen is and he is just 23 years old. He’s demonstrated he can play and will likely continue to get better. If Allen were approaching 30, trading him might make sense. Right now, he seems to be a guy you should be building around.

Green is a 6’6″ shooting guard, which would seem to put four players (Green, Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, and Isaac Okoro) at guard, but only two can play at a time, and you can only get enough minutes to keep three of them happy. We understand Okoro played small forward much of his rookie year, but his size would seem to indicate his future is at guard.

The second best player in the draft after Cunningham just might be Suggs, the 6’4″ lead guard who helped take his college team to the NCAA title game. If Houston passes on him, the Cavs almost have to take him, right?

GM Koby Altman’s history has been to pick the best player available, so if Houston passes on Suggs (they have John Wall, although they are probably trying to move him), do the Cavs take him? Again, if they do, it would seem they would have to reshuffle the roster, particularly in the backcourt.

He’s strong, a good passer, and can defend either guard spot.

For us, we would take either Suggs or Green and then see what you can get for one of the starting guards currently on the roster, and try to fill the biggest position of need (as we see it) on the roster, that being at small forward. Cleveland desperately needs someone at that spot that demands attention from other teams defensively.

Which leads us to the other debate surrounding the Cavs this week, would/should they try to get Ben Simmons if Philadelphia wants to move him?

That answer is unequivocally yes. Simmons is probably one of the top 25-30 players in the league, his playoff performance vs. Atlanta not withstanding.

No, he’s not a good shooter, but on the other hand, he knows it and does force shots. He’s a very good passer, good rebounder, and was runner up for defensive player of the year, something the Cavaliers need badly.

Now, the question is do the Cavs have what the Sixers want? My guess is they would want Garland and Larry Nance Jr. for starters. That’s the bigger question.

Our guess is winding up with the third pick will mean a roster shakeup for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and a reshuffling of what has been ridiculously called the “Core Four”.

Get ready for an interesting basketball summer.

Cavs Working Hard To Sell Fans That Plan Is Working

You wouldn’t think there would much debate about the merits of an NBA team that has won 60 games total over the past three seasons. The normal school of thought would be the team isn’t very good, right?

Welcome to Cleveland, Ohio where there is a lot of discussion about the rebuilding process involving the Cavaliers. There are plenty of people who will tell you the franchise is making progress toward a return to the playoffs, and an equal number who contend the team is stuck in the mud.

We fall in the latter category, mostly because we take a traditional view in terms of how successful teams are built in any sport. Yes, someone may come up with different approach that gets some success in the short term, but usually what happens is the smart people within the sport figure out how to combat the new view and render it meaningless.

Examples in other sports are the “wildcat” formation in the NFL and launch angle in baseball. In the latter example, teams started teaching pitchers to throw higher in the strike zone.

The supporters of the direction of the wine and gold talk about the “exciting, young core” of talent GM Koby Altman has accumulated since LeBron James departed via free agency three years ago, but you would be hard pressed to find anyone outside of Cleveland who shares this viewpoint of Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro, and Jarrett Allen.

And we have said this before in this space, but don’t talk to us about statistics when trying to evaluate players. To us, the last thing we use to figure out who played well in any basketball game is the stat sheet. The old saying of a player does things that don’t show in the box score is very true in hoops.

Players have to fit together, play off each other, and do things to make their teammates better. If they do that, the team is better and the ultimate statistic to determine that is in the wins and losses columns. Right now, those columns show the rebuilding effort is not working.

The 2020-21 Cavs weren’t a team that played tough most nights and just came up short either. This is a team that lost 17 games (by our count) by 20 points or more. They ranked 28th of 30 teams in offensive rating and 25th in defensive rating, meaning they weren’t any good on either side of the floor.

This isn’t an indictment on the players, and certainly not a criticism of their work ethic either. We have given credit to Altman in the past for not have any “knuckleheads” on the team, guys who get in trouble off the court. Kevin Porter Jr. had some issues and the team moved on from him quickly, perhaps too quickly.

We also aren’t picking on players who just came into the league either. We love watching Luka Doncic and Ja Morant play. We have had an issue in the past with Trae Young, but it appears Nate McMillan spoke to him about being more like an NBA point guard, and less trying to be the next Stephen Curry. Doing that helped transform the Atlanta Hawks.

This is a big summer for the Cavs’ organization. Next season will determine whether or not they can be like Atlanta and be a playoff presence or Sacramento or Minnesota, franchises continually floundering.

However, they need to stop presenting all kinds of reasons why they are going in the right direction. It’s a bit like peeing in the wind and telling the fans it’s raining.

Where, Oh Where Is The Cavs’ Front Office?

It is kind of a tradition for the point man for professional sports teams to be the general manager, and normally that person speaks to the media when a major event happens or when the season ends.

That’s why it is peculiar at best that Cavs’ GM Koby Altman has not been neither seen or heard from since he completed the Jarrett Allen trade on January 13th.

Look, we get it. It’s not a pleasant task to discuss what went wrong after a losing season, especially one that ended as dismally as the Cavaliers did, losing 13 of their last 14 contests.

On the other hand, as we tell our children, would you like a list of things we have to do that are part of our job that we don’t particularly care for? It’s part of the gig to stand up and talk to the media about both the good things and bad things that occurred during the season, and to answer questions about the future.

The underlying question must be is Dan Gilbert contemplating a restructuring of the front office. Will Altman emerge from the restructuring with his job or just a new boss? That has to be the only option, because otherwise not having availability with the media after the season concludes is either a bad look, or just plain fear.

We have said before we believe someone else needs to be involved in the future planning of this basketball team and that person cannot and should not have the last name of Gilbert. It needs to be someone who has played or coached in the league, and should be someone not that far removed from doing those things.

And in our opinion, it needs to be someone from outside the organization, meaning someone with a fresh viewpoint on the players on the team. For example, the Cavs have put a lot of stock in Collin Sexton, but what do others not in the Cleveland organization think of him? Who does that person think should be the building blocks of the next winning team wearing wine and gold?

We understand Sexton is a lightning rod among Cavs’ followers, so we can pick out another example. Can Dean Wade be a key piece for a playoff team? He averaged 6 points and 3.4 rebounds playing 19 minutes per game, playing in 63 of them. He’s a stretch four, shooting almost 37% from beyond the arc in 2020-21.

However, to us, he’s a 10th-12th man on a good team. We watch the NBA playoffs and we can’t see him getting meaningful minutes. We don’t think he’s a good enough defender to play at that level.

We think it’s time for a second set of eyes at this point. Perhaps someone new will come in and think Altman is 100% correct with his assessment of things, and if that happens, it will still give another basketball person a chance to evaluate players.

But if that person thinks the future of the franchise is best served by going in another direction, say, building around Jarrett Allen, then that should be the course taken going forward.

We maintain the problem isn’t talent, nor is it coaching, it’s fit. And we are right, then Dan Gilbert and his family have to do the right thing.

People have always taught us that the smartest people know what they don’t know.

Cavs Need A Large Step In The Winning Direction

People’s views on the just finished Cleveland Cavaliers’ season probably depend on what their definition of progress is.

Yes, the Cavs have improved in each of the last three years since LeBron James departed for a second time via free agency. In the first season, they were 19-63, a .232 winning percentage.

The following season, the win total stayed the same, but due to the COVID pandemic, the season was shortened to 65 games, so they won at a 29.2% rate. That was followed by an increase in the win column, from 19 to 22, again in a non-traditional 72 game slate, so the winning percentage increased to .306.

The last two seasons came with a draft pick selected in the top five.

If you like a slow rebuilding process, these Cavaliers are for you. But at this pace, the wine and gold will make the playoffs around when this decade ends.

That may not be fair, but this franchise hasn’t made the NBA playoffs without James since the 1997-98 season, so pardon everyone if they are skeptical about the future of this team.

It has been reported that owner Dan Gilbert is contemplating making some changes to the front office, so we guess that would put the man at the top in the not so patient class.

If Cleveland had approach the 30 win mark this season, a figure that should have been attainable, we doubt anyone would be calling for a review of how things have been done over the past three seasons. As Bill Parcells famously said, you are what your record says you are.

However, there is more to putting together a basketball team than collecting talent. And we don’t know if Altman and the current front office understands this. You need players that can play off each other, amplify the strengths of their teammates and minimize the weaknesses.

In short, you need players who play for the rest of the men on the roster.

You also need someone with a vision. Can they see the team winning with Darius Garland and Collin Sexton getting the most minutes at the guard position? And if you go forward with them as a backcourt duo, what do you have to do around them to lead to victories.

And what to do with Isaac Okoro, who played well as a rookie and took the task of defending the opposition’s best scorer pretty much on a nightly basis. Okoro can play in the NBA, but his size screams that he’s a two guard. Can he provide the offense that position requires?

The point is all three of those players have talent. In a vacuum, you would say Altman made solid choices on each player. But can you win with them playing point guard, #2 guard, and small forward? We wouldn’t bet our career on it.

We have said this before, but improvement in the win column has to be a priority. No matter what happens with the draft lottery this season, it should be made clear the franchise doesn’t want to be involved in it again following the 2021-22 season.

We believe winning is a learned skill, and it hasn’t been taught around this franchise since James left. That has to change right now, and that starts with ownership and Altman, or whoever is in charge of the basketball part of the operation.

The Cavs don’t need to be a playoff team at this time next year, but they need to take a significant step in that direction.