Can Cavs’ Be Patient This Summer?

The Cleveland Cavaliers just broke an 11 game losing streak last night, and as they continue to sink in the Eastern Conference standings, they are rising in the draft lottery standings, which we believe is more important to them.

Right now, they sit in a tie for the 4th worst record in the NBA with Orlando, but only two teams, Oklahoma City and Detroit have won less games than the Cavs, with the Pistons trailing (leading?) the wine and gold by just one win.

Quite frankly, we don’t believe J.B. Bickerstaff’s team will win again this season, and again, we don’t think that’s a major concern for the organization.

So, what does this mean going forward for the organization?

The draft has been projected to have five prizes, so if the Cavs hold their spot in the selection process, they would get one of those five players. And right now, they would have a 52.6% chance to be in the top five, meaning it is almost as likely they will be in the top five as it is they aren’t.

So our question is what do the Cavs do if they don’t get a top five pick? There needs to be an alternative plan to getting lucky in the 2022 draft lottery. And that’s our problem with the current ownership/front office. They seem to be stuck in the maybe lightning can strike twice mentality and the next LeBron James winds up in Cleveland.

That’s what we would like to hear, what happens if they wind up with the 8th pick this summer?

The first order of business should be to lock up Jarrett Allen, who is a restricted free agent, to a long term deal. There aren’t many 23-year-old big men as talented as Allen, who has averaged 13.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, and is shooting 62% from the floor since coming to the Cavaliers.

Hopefully, because of the de-emphasis on the big man in today’s NBA, it won’t take a max deal to keep Allen, who despite of the takeover of the guards currently in pro basketball, should still be in demand as a rim protector and rebounder.

Big men who are athletic and can play should always be in demand.

What about Collin Sexton, who can be a restricted free agent after next season? The Cavs could offer him a contract extension this summer, but we would wait before committing huge dollars to him.

It’s not an indictment of him, but with Darius Garland’s rookie deal ending the following season (2022-23), it wouldn’t be a good idea for the franchise to have three large contracts on the books and a losing record. It would be another form of cap hell.

Think about it. With the proliferation of high scoring backcourt players, what kind of market is there for Sexton? What teams would be willing to open the vault for him?

It would also give time for the front office to evaluate the roster, seeing who can be contributors on a winning team. We have said it many times before, everyone who plays in the NBA has incredible talent, but the key thing is can they be contributors on a winning program?

They also need to resolve the Kevin Love situation, which has become untenable. First, he did what anyone would have done when you wave $30 million per year in someone’s face, but the Cavs need to deal him for another bad contract or just buy him out.

If they trade him, they may have to attach him to someone of value, but if the return is there, it might make sense.

The point is to not rush into things and leave yourself with a team with a poor record and no cap space. The organization has asked the fans to be patient. Now it’s time for the front office to exercise some of their own.

We don’t hold out hope for that.

Time For A Change In Philosophy For Cavs

We know we are late to the party, but the Cleveland Cavaliers really are a depressing franchise unless it includes LeBron James on the roster.

The last time the Cavs won a playoff series without #23 in the wine and gold was 1992-1993, which is 28 years ago, and right now, it looks as though that streak could very well extend to 30 years before it concludes.

We are grateful for James’ time here, including that title in 2016, the only professional sports championship for the city since 1964. But the next time he will be part of a celebration in northeast Ohio will likely be his jersey retirement ceremony.

So, for the Gilbert ownership group, it’s seven seasons without James in a Cleveland uniform, and the most wins by any of those teams would be the 33 in 2013-14, the year before LBJ came back to town.

We suggest it is time for the ownership to re-examine the way they run the franchise, but quite frankly, it’s been mediocre at best under their guidance.

We understand that Gilbert spent and spent big when James was here in an effort to end the city’s title drought and we are grateful that he did. He should be commended in a big way for that.

However, the basketball decisions made outside of spending big could be described as a mess. His unwillingness to give any of his general managers second contracts, outside of Koby Altman, is well publicized, and really, none of the rebuilding movements after each of James’ departures has taken hold.

And Altman doesn’t really want to address it. He seems reticent to answer questions about what is going on with the franchise.

The time to change this is now.

After this season, it’s time to clean out the front office of this basketball team and provide a clear direction for the operations of the franchise going forward. Step one should be to stop hoping for lottery luck and the next great player in the NBA to fall in their lap like James did.

Actually, Gilbert didn’t even own the team when the Cavaliers won the lottery to beat all lotteries, getting James in 2003.

Bring in an experienced basketball executive that has playing experience if possible. It doesn’t have to be a former GM, but should be someone who has been around the game and has talent evaluation in his background. Find someone like James Jones, the current Phoenix GM, who played on the title team in 2016.

And then, stop meddling and give them time to build something.

The playing experience is important because with the movement towards analytics and looking at numbers, it’s important for someone who has played to be involved in building the team. Basketball is a game where it is important for the pieces to fit, it’s not just all about putting a bunch of talent together and hope it works.

Then, allow that new leader to hire the coach he wants to carry out the vision. And that vision should be something the organization can hang its hat on, such as defense, ball movement, etc. Players who can carry out the plan are the guys to keep.

They need to bring in someone who can teach the young players to win. We believe everybody wants to win, but some players need to be taught how to win. There are few players on the current roster that don’t put out effort.

We like J.B. Bickerstaff and maybe he’s the right guy, but if you hire a new GM, you have to give him the opportunity to bring in his own person.

Changing GMs, hoping to catch lottery magic isn’t working. Yes, the Cavs and all professional sports are in the entertainment business. And the goal of that business is winning, and that requires a plan, and allowing people to carry out that blueprint.

When the team wins, everyone can share in the credit. Look at the championship team. Yes, LeBron was the star, but this area loves players like J.R. Smith, Matthew Dellavedova, Richard Jefferson, and Channing Frye, who were key pieces to the title.

It’s okay to admit when something doesn’t work. That where the Cavs’ management should be right now. There is apathy surrounding this basketball team right now, and that has to change. It’s time to start winning again.

Defending Love (Kevin, That Is)

Sometimes, it is amazing to us how the news cycle works.

Monday night, Kevin Love got angry and you would think he set fire to an elementary school. His anger was directed to an official, he wasn’t mad at his teammates, and we understand he has shown displeasure towards some of them in the past.

The reaction on social media (yes, we know…) was swift and of course, way over the top, with people calling for Love to be suspended or worse, released by the Cavaliers for his action.

First, let us say, Love was wrong. The game was still close at the time, Toronto was up by four points, and the resulting three pointer, put them up seven. It didn’t mean the game was over, it was only the end of the third quarter.

Second, Love isn’t some kid. He’s 32 years old, and with 12 years in the league, he should understand officials miss calls, and he should keep composure. He didn’t.

He reportedly apologized to his teammates and that should be the end of it.

Love gets a lot of heat in northeast Ohio and really has since he arrived via a trade for first overall pick, Andrew Wiggins prior to the 2014-15 season. Why? We have no idea. Love probably sacrificed more than any other player when he came to the Cavaliers.

He was the man in Minnesota, the number one option. When he came to the Cavs, he suddenly was the third option, so instead of the 25 points, 12 rebounds per game he got with the Timberwolves, his averages dropped to 20 points and 10 boards with Cleveland. He took three to four less shots per game, so naturally he was going to score less.

He also gets criticized for his contract, which isn’t his fault either. We doubt anyone reading this would have turned down the $120 million extension the wine and gold offered him in the summer after LeBron James left for free agency.

We don’t know the conversation management conducted with Love when negotiating that contract, but we believe the front office still thought the Cavs could compete for a playoff spot in ’18-’19, with Love, Tristan Thompson, J.R. Smith, Kyle Korver, and Larry Nance Jr. on the roster.

Remember, six games in the Cavs fired Tyronn Lue, and wound up the year with a 19-63 record. Love played in only 21 games that year due to a toe injury, averaging 17 points and almost 11 rebounds.

He put up similar numbers last year, playing in 56 of the 65 games on the schedule.

Our guess is there is some frustration for Love. He wanted out of Minnesota because he was tired of the losing. The best season in his six seasons there was the 40-42 record in his last year with the Wolves. He knows how long a rebuild can take.

And we know he has shown some disdain for the way some of his younger teammates have played over the last three years. After all, say whatever you want about him, Love knows how to play basketball the right way. This year, though, we haven’t seen that.

Darius Garland, in particular, has gone out of his way to say how much he likes playing with Love, and J.B. Bickerstaff has run the offense through him a lot since he returned from his calf injury.

Also, the calf injury the sidelined Love for 43 games this season, also sidelined the Lakers’ Anthony Davis for over two months this year.

It was a bad moment for sure for Kevin Love, but the overreaction was incredible. On the other hand, should the Cavaliers try to move the veteran this off-season? That would probably be best for both parties at this point in Kevin Love’s career.

Cavs Seem Out Of “Play In” Tourney. Did They Really Want To Be In?

The Cleveland Cavaliers keep saying they would like to qualify for one of the spots in the “Play In” tournament for the 7th through 10th seeds in each conference (a ridiculous concept, by the way), but are they really interested in getting in?

They currently sit at 21-40 with 11 games remaining in the truncated 72 game schedule this year, and are now 6 games behind suddenly red hot Washington, who sit in 10th place.

So, it doesn’t really look promising, does it?

We never really thought the Cavs, as an organization, were really gung-ho about going after the spot, because of recent coaching and personnel moves.

For example, after beating another contender, Charlotte, on the road on April 14th, the wine and gold lost at home to Golden State. That shouldn’t seem to be weird, as the Warriors are over .500 on the year.

When watching this game, what stood out was the lack of playing time for backup big man Isaiah Hartenstein, who played just three and a half minutes. Why was that strange? Well, Jarrett Allen, the Cavaliers’ starting center, was having a great game.

Allen made six of his seven shots, scoring 17 points and corralling 14 rebounds in almost 35 minutes. So, J.B. Bickerstaff wanted to play small ball when Allen was resting? Also, Allen was a minus one while on the floor, and it wasn’t as though the Warriors took huge advantage of Hartenstein being on the floor. He was a minus two.

The next game for Cleveland was at Chicago, with the Bulls not having their leading scorer, Zach LaVine, due to COVID protocols. The Cavs led at the half, but got blitzed in the third quarter and lost by ten. Oh, and by the way, the wine and gold were very much in the playoff chase at that time, a half game behind Toronto.

The strange thing about this game (and the Golden State game too) was a cut in minutes for Matthew Dellavedova. After missing most of the season with a concussion, when he returned, he was playing about 16 minutes per game, and the Cavaliers were 3-4 in the seven games he played.

Against the Warriors, Delly played just 13 minutes and versus the Bulls, just 10 minutes. Given he is usually a stabilizing factor for the young Cavs, don’t you think he could have helped when Cleveland was getting run off the court in the third quarter?

Now, he was a -16 and a -14 in the two contests, but he was a +9 in the win over Charlotte. Again, in viewing the game, we thought his absence was a little odd.

You also have the case of Taurean Prince opting for season ending ankle surgery following the April 21st win over the Bulls at home. Prince averaged over 20 minutes per game over the previous five games, averaging 12 points a game in those contests.

He had two 20 point games and a 19 point outing since returning from injury on March 29th. It doesn’t seem like Prince’s ankle was hampering him that much, as he was playing well, and there were only 14 games remaining.

If the Cavs were going for the play-in tournament, they could have used Prince’s outside shooting. He’s made 41.5% of his threes since coming to the Cavs, who shoot 34% as a club from distance.

To us, it sends another bad message throughout the organization. While we think the play-in tournament is a dumb idea, if you get a chance to get into the “real” playoffs, why not go for it? To continue to play for a chance to get a high draft pick, when you’ve had three picks in the top eight the last three seasons seems a little like the definition of insanity.

Winning starts when everyone is pulling in the same direction. Hopefully, that direction starts next season. There has been some progress this season, but a playoff berth, something this franchise hasn’t accomplished without LeBron James in almost 20 years, should be the goal and should be attainable.

But it starts at the top.

Cavs Need To Do A Deep Evaluation.

In the business world, well run companies periodically go through an internal audit. They look at their systems and processes to see if they make sense or could they be improved.

Even though the Cleveland Cavaliers have won 20 games this season, an improvement over the past two seasons with 16 games remaining on the slate, perhaps they should undertake the same endeavor.

Virtually the entire roster, save for Kevin Love, has been put together by GM Koby Altman, which means he saw something in each of them to make him want to secure them for the organization. However, should Altman’s evaluation of each player or his vision for the team be beyond approach.

There are many general managers who have earned the right to not be second guessed. People like Pat Riley, Jerry West, R.C. Buford and Gregg Popovich in San Antonio have a proven record of putting teams together that can compete in the upper tier of the NBA.

Right now, Altman isn’t in that class, and it seems fair to bring in someone with a long background in the game to consult with Altman and make sure that his vision for the team can be attained soon, and how many players on the roster can be part of that success.

It has been brought up by several media members over the past couple of weeks what exactly will happen if the Cavaliers get one of the top five picks in the upcoming NBA Draft.

According to draft “experts”, of the top six players in the draft, five of them are either point guards or wing players, with only USC big man Evan Mobley being the exception.

Over the past three years, Altman has spent three top ten picks on players who play those positions, Collin Sexton (8th overall), Darius Garland (5th), and Isaac Okoro (also 5th). So, unless Mobley is there when Cleveland makes its selection, doesn’t the rookie take the place of one of these high draft picks?

The first question an outsider should have is what kind of team does Altman want to put together, and does his vision coincide with that of coach J.B. Bickerstaff?

Does he want to have a defensive oriented team, or a team based around the three point shot and one-on-one play? Because if you don’t have a vision on how to win in the NBA, how can you construct a roster?

Without a direction, you are simply just collecting talent, and as we have seen throughout the years, just putting together talented players doesn’t always lead to winning. The players have to play as a unit, complement each other.

Should there be any untouchables on the current roster? We’ve identified at least one, although our guess it is not the same person the front office has in mind. It would take an awful lot for us to consider trading Jarrett Allen, a soon to be (tomorrow) 23-year-old 6’11” rim protector, who also has a good feel for the game.

In our eyes, height still matters in professional basketball. There are always exceptions to the rule, but if you can find players who have the skill set needed for a position, but are also bigger than average, that’s optimal.

We saw LeBron James at 6’9″ and 250 (conservatively) pounds playing small forward, because he had the skills to do it (heck, he has the skills to play anywhere), and he was dominating. His size isn’t the sole reason, but he was unguardable because he was larger than the guy trying to guard him.

The Cavs aren’t real playoff contenders this season, and it appears they don’t want to get in this year anyway. But when will this be unacceptable? It should be next season.

The organization can try all kinds of marketing schemes, different uniforms, etc. The best marketing tool is winning basketball. Are there any pieces that can lead to that already here? And are those pieces the same ones the front office thinks they are?

Biggest Consistency For Cavs? Inconsistency

In the 2018-19 NBA season, the Cleveland Cavaliers won 19 games. For the entire 82 game season. Last year, due to the coronavirus, the league’s schedule was shortened to 65 games, at least for the wine and gold, and they repeated their win total from the year before.

This season, the Cavs accomplished the 19 wins in 51 contests, showing that progress has been made by the organization whether or not anyone wants to admit it.

Part of it is the maturation of talent. Collin Sexton is now in his third season, and Darius Garland is now in his sophomore year in the league, and they have taken natural progression to their games.

And since the deal for Andre Drummond last year at the trade deadline, the organization has once again made size a priority. They traded for JaVale McGee in the off-season, and also picked up soon to be 23-year-old big man Jarrett Allen earlier this year.

When they moved McGee at this year’s deadline, they replaced him with another young big man in Isaiah Hartenstein, who since his arrival, and benefitting from Allen being out, has scored 10 points, grabbed 9.6 rebounds, and dished out 3.4 assists per contest.

The team needs to add one more thing however, before it can be considered a playoff contender, and it might be the toughest thing for a young team to get…consistency.

Since Kevin Love started being able to play more after a calf injury which has plagued his year, and Matthew Dellavedova came back from issues due to a concussion and appendicitis, the Cavaliers have started to pick up the pace even more with resounding wins on the road against San Antonio and Oklahoma City.

They followed up those two impressive wins with an embarrassing home loss to Toronto, who were playing without their three best players: Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, and Fred VanVleet.

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff came into the season talking about playing with grit and intensity, but the young Cavs forget that too often, and the result is allowing 87 first half points to a team that came into the game a half game better than Cleveland in the standings.

If you want to be a playoff team, you can’t lose games like that, particularly at home. And this is where we feel organizational culture comes in. If you brand yourself as a gritty defensive minded team, it is difficult to forget to play that way on a given night.

Every team has a clunker, but the wine and gold have lost 13 games by 20 points or more this season, by our count. Some of those have come against the elite teams in the NBA, but they’ve been blown out by these teams as well: Orlando, the Knicks, Boston, and tonight’s opponent, New Orleans.

Those are games where you have to take the mindset of “we should win tonight”. And perhaps they do, leading to thinking maximum effort isn’t needed.

The good teams in the league can do that, young teams trying to develop an identity cannot.

And to be fair, Cleveland has had their share of injuries too, which affects consistency. Allen and Larry Nance both have missed the last several games.

We are sure the “draft lottery maniacs” out there, love to see the Cavs lose games like last night, but that is a loser’s lament. Bickerstaff and the organization should be stressing wins, because winning can be a habit, and it’s the kind of habit you want to have.

Kevin Love, Matthew Dellavedova and Nance have developed that habit, the younger guys like Sexton and Garland have not.

Last night’s pathetic performance will serve as a wake up call that the young Cavs cannot afford to take anyone lightly. This is the NBA after all.

It will be interesting to see what kind of attitude the Cavs come out with tonight

The Sexton Dilemma

When discussion regarding the Cleveland Cavaliers’ future comes up, a talk about Collin Sexton is sure to follow. He is a polarizing figure to be sure.

Sexton was the 8th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, taken with the choice secured from Boston, originally that of the Brooklyn Nets, in the Kyrie Irving. There is a lot to like about the former Alabama standout, who just turned 22 years old earlier this season.

He is a gym rat to be sure. He is a tireless worker. There are stories during his rookie season that he had to be thrown out of the Cavs’ practice facility because he was consumed by basketball.

He can score the ball too. He is averaging a career high 24.0 points per game this season, a step up from 20.8 a year ago.

But the question for many, including ourselves, is this: Can he be the best player on a contending team?

Our answer is no, but could he be a contributor on a good team? We think so.

Watching him play, he doesn’t seem to have good basketball instincts. And what we mean by that is he doesn’t have a good feel in getting the ball to his teammates where they can succeed. However, again, he can flat out put the ball in the basket.

When the Cavs are struggling offensively, he can keep them in a game. We think about the recent contest against the Lakers where Cleveland led at the half because Darius Garland and Larry Nance Jr. were playing great. Sexton was out with an injury.

In the second half, the Lakers’ defense determined someone other than Garland and Nance were going to have to score. No one else could. That’s exactly the kind of game where Sexton could have been a huge factor. That’s when you need to have the “scorer’s mentality”.

The other thing is can a backcourt of Garland and Sexton be successful defensively. Perhaps, but that’s where Jarrett Allen and another big (Isaiah Hartenstein?) are needed.

Toronto won a title with small guards, but they had Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, elite defenders behind them. And Utah has the best record in the league this season, and have shot blocker extraordinaire Rudy Gobert protecting the rim.

Can Sexton be a part of Cleveland’s success going forward? Yes, he can, but to do so, it might have to involved taking a step back. Getting his teammates involved more, and then scoring when needed or just let Garland run the offense and be the finisher.

And take the open shots when they are there. We have seen Sexton have a good look, and dribble his way into the defense, thus causing a more difficult shot.

Maybe more direction is needed from the bench too. Being a young team, sometimes you have to tell the players where they want the shot to come from and who they would they want shooting.

Perhaps some of that comes from having veterans Kevin Love and Matthew Dellavedova back on the floor.

Many NBA players, including Michael Jordan, have had to learn to do this. So, Sexton can definitely learn this skill. Our question is anyone in the organization telling him this? For the Cavs to start playing consistent winning basketball, we think that’s what is needed.

Evaluating The Cavs Rebuild.

Our thoughts on the Cleveland Cavaliers seem to vary on a weekly basis. That’s probably because they are so inconsistent.

They are a very young team, the third youngest team in the NBA, behind only Minnesota and Oklahoma City, so the ups and downs are understandable. And the biggest thing the team needs is probably stability, so the organization has to grow together, the front office, coaching staff, and the players.

Recently, it has come to light that owner Dan Gilbert’s son, Grant, is taking more of a role in the organization. Grant Gilbert is just 23 years old, and hopefully, he will realize what the smartest people can do, realize what he doesn’t know.

If the younger Gilbert takes over the operations of the team, what does that mean for Altman? And if the latter is let go, does the new man in charge hire someone with a long history in the NBA.

Again, the rumor mill has Brock Aller, the vice president of basketball operations and strategy with the New York Knicks, and former Cavalier front office employee (in general terms, he was the “capologist”) returning to head up basketball operations in Cleveland.

Aller is well respected within the league, but he’s an analytics guy. And that might work as long as it comes along with someone who knows the game, who understands how players work together and fit with each other.

The game isn’t all about statistics.

If we were asked who the best player currently on the Cavs is, the answer would probably surprise you. We are sure most fans would say it’s Collin Sexton, averaging 24 points and a little over four assists per game.

We would certainly say Sexton is the best scorer, but the best basketball player, in our opinion, is Larry Nance Jr., averaging just 10 points per night, but adding in seven rebounds and three assists during a usual night’s work.

Certainly, by the amount of supposed interest in Nance at the trade deadline, a lot of NBA teams also see the value in the skill set of the one time Revere High School standout.

This isn’t to denigrate Sexton. If you watched the Cavs’ loss to the Lakers Friday night, you could see they needed someone who can put the ball in the basket, which Sexton can do. Our question has always been, can the two small backcourt players (Sexton and Darius Garland) work long term in the NBA, even today’s version of it.

As for Altman, he should certainly get big kudos for the trade which netted Jarrett Allen, who at 22 years of age, has all kinds of upside. He should be a huge building block for the franchise going forward. We don’t mark him down for the Andre Drummond situation. The Cavaliers gave up nothing to get the big man, and it just didn’t work out.

But what is his second best move? Drafting Sexton? You can make an argument, an analytical argument, that Sexton is the third worst player (using VORP–value over replacement player) in the draft.

And Garland is the worst player using that category in the 2019 draft.

By the way, our eyes don’t agree with those ratings.

And in the most recent draft, Altman drafted a defensive player with a limited offensive game in Isaac Okoro with the fifth overall choice. He’s been a mainstay in the lineup all year, but at 6’5″, he’s too small to play small forward, which is where he spends most of his minutes.

To us, the biggest problem is this is year three in the second post-LeBron James era, and we still really don’t know what the direction of the franchise is. Is it too soon to think that should be the case?

However, if Grant Gilbert takes over the team, he may start asking what is going on with the franchise. And if he doesn’t like the answers, there could be another change at the top for the Cavaliers.

No Big Moves For Cavs, But A Change That Can Still Be Made.

There is one thing that is certain with the Cleveland Cavaliers. And that one thing is change. You can be pretty certain every season that the roster that opens the season will have major changes by the end of that year.

We understand why. The Cavs are far from a finished product, in year three of the second post-LeBron rebuild, and GM Koby Altman should be looking for assets to keep the franchise moving forward.

Cleveland already took part in the biggest trade of the season, the one sending James Harden to Brooklyn, which netted the wine and gold center Jarrett Allen, a major building block for the rebuild, and forward Taurean Prince. The only roster player Altman surrendered in the transaction was guard Dante Exum.

This year was relatively quiet at the deadline, with the Cavs dealing veteran big man JaVale McGee to Denver for a pair of second round draft picks and a young big man, Isaiah Hartenstein.

Hartenstein is a seven footer, a second round pick of the Houston Rockets in 2017. He’s played in the league for three years, appearing in 81 games, averaging 3.3 points and 2.7 rebounds per game.

He’s a project and can also play some power forward, something McGee really couldn’t do. And since he’s averaged just nine minutes per game in his time with the Rockets and Nuggets, he figures to get more time in Cleveland.

As for McGee, the franchise did right by the veteran. We will skeptical what kind of attitude he would come to town with, considering the Cavs’ rank in the league, and that he has played most of the latter part of his career with championship teams (Warriors and Lakers), but he took the veteran leadership role to heart and was a solid guy, by all reports, in the locker room.

The Nuggets have aspirations of getting to The Finals this year (they traded for Aaron Gordon from Orlando today as well), and getting a big man with McGee’s experience should help in that regard.

So, what do the Cavs do going forward? We would like to see playing time start to be based on merit rather than draft status.

It’s time for the organization to start bringing some mental toughness for the players. Yes, they are a very young squad, made even more so with today’s trade. The oldest guy who gets significant playing time is Larry Nance (28). The second oldest is Prince (26), who is currently injured, followed by Cedi Osman at 25.

There needs to start being accountability for the players. We understand fans want the team to lose and gain a higher pick in the NBA Draft, and maybe Altman feels the same way. And while the team might wind up getting a very talented player, you can’t have the other young players thinking losing is acceptable.

If a Lamar Stevens or a Brodric Thomas are giving Bickerstaff more than say, former first round pick, Dylan Windler, then play the former. This isn’t youth sports where everyone should get an equal chance. If you produce, you earn more playing time.

Ask Dean Wade. He took advantage of his opportunity even though some people, including us, thought he looked unplayable.

It’s called culture, and the Cavaliers franchise has been in a malaise since James departed for Los Angeles. The rest of this season should serve as the beginning of a change.

Cavs Should Consider All Avenues To Improve.

One of the worst things an organization can do to tie an excessive amount of promotion into a player who is either just coming into professional sports or hasn’t made their bones at the professional level.

The Browns kind of did this with Baker Mayfield, especially after his rookie season, when the team went from 0-16 to 7-8-1. It was all Baker, all the time in northeast Ohio, and Mayfield admitted he didn’t work as hard in the off-season after his rookie season. The result following was a 6-10 disappointment.

Mayfield learned and led the Browns to an 11-5 mark and the playoffs last season.

It appears the Cavaliers have painted themselves into the same corner with Collin Sexton. Sexton’s work ethic is not in question, the man is a tireless gym rat.

However, even before the third year pro out of Alabama was drafted, the pick he was taken with was held up as the ultimate prize in the trade that sent Kyrie Irving to Boston. It was Brooklyn’s choice, but they spoiled it by playing tough minded ball, and instead of being projected as the NBA’s worst team, they won 28 games.

So, Cleveland wound up with the 8th pick overall, and selected Sexton, who has put up numbers in his two and a half season with the Cavs, a career 19.6 scorer, shooting 45.6% from the floor, and 39% from three point range.

He became the symbol of the new Cavs, the post-LeBron Cavs, although the team went 19-63 his rookie year, and then 19-46 in his second season, shortened by the coronavirus.

There have been many reports with the NBA trade deadline coming up, that GM Koby Altman has told teams several players are untouchable, Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro, and Sexton among them.

To be fair, the drafting of Sexton was followed by picking another ball dominant small backcourt player in Garland, under the guise of taking the best player available. While that is generally a solid concept in drafting, it is usually done with the expectation of trading from strength at some point to improve a position of need.

But the organization has said they are going to keep both smaller backcourt players. So, that theory goes out the window.

Sexton puts up numbers. He’s improved to 23.9 points and 4.2 assists per game, but his shooting percentage has leveled off from last year. He’s scoring more because he’s shooting more. His second year partner at guard, Garland, is scoring at 16.5 points and 5.9 assists per night, taking on the facilitator role.

Watching games, it is noticeable how much better the offense flows when Garland is on the floor.

Sexton doesn’t seem to have point guard instincts right now, and when Garland isn’t in the game, the offense should run through him, but it doesn’t. Too many times, he reverts to trying to do everything himself.

Cavs’ analyst Campy Russell said after Friday night’s loss to San Antonio, that the teams’ young guards have to learn to get everyone involved.

In our opinion, Altman should consider any move to improve the 2021-22 edition of the Cavaliers. However, there are players we wouldn’t trade either. It would be difficult to find a big man more skilled than Allen, so he stays. And the team needs (we might say desperately) someone with the feel for the game Larry Nance Jr. has. So, we wouldn’t move him either.

And we think Garland shows all the signs of being able to be a solid player in this league, but can a backcourt of Garland and Sexton co-exist and be successful in the NBA? Even the three point happy NBA?

Keep in mind, Sexton is coming off his rookie deal and the Cavs have to start paying him.

Put promotion aside. Yes, the organization held up Sexton as the first piece of the rebuild following the departure of James, but they need to listen on the young guy if they think it can help the wine and gold get back to the playoffs sooner.

We aren’t saying Sexton has to be moved, but we would not be opposed to listening. We are aware we go back and forth on the young player, at times, he looks like he has this game figured out. But then he reverts back.

It’s not easy to build a competitive basketball team.