Can Cavs Finally Have Continuity in Playoffs?

We believe if you look up the term “a season in flux”, the picture that will accompany the definition will be that of the 2017-18 Cleveland Cavaliers.

It started in training camp when LeBron James was nursing a sprained ankle and missed virtually the entire exhibition season.

That cost the team valuable on-court chemistry time with all the new faces brought in during the off-season.

When the season opened, Derrick Rose, Jeff Green, Jose Calderon, and to a lesser extent, Cedi Osman and Ante Zizic never shared the court with The King.

After a slow start (5-7), Rose and Tristan Thompson got hurt, so Calderon went into the starting lineup, and the wine and gold had their best stretch of the season, winning 18 of 19 games, with the second unit led by Dwyane Wade and Kyle Korver making a huge impact.

Thompson came back first and then Isaiah Thomas returned to the floor, and things got out of whack, with the Cavs struggling in January (6-8) and particularly on defensive end of the floor.

Kevin Love then broke his hand, and Tyronn Lue started giving Osman more playing time, so there was another period of adjustment.

Really, the only constants in terms of good quality play to this point in the season were James and Green. The rest of the team either missed time with injuries or were up and down in terms of quality of play.

Next came the big move at the trade deadline when GM Koby Altman traded off half the roster, bringing in some youth with Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr., and Rodney Hood, as well as veteran point guard George Hill.

To this point, Hood and Hill still don’t look comfortable playing with James, and while the former has missed time recently with a back problem, Hill played his 16th game with LeBron last night.

When the Cavaliers went on a west coast trip, the players starting dropping one by one, as they finished the trip without Thompson, Nance, Osman, Hood, Korver, as well as Love.

That meant John Holland and London Perrantes, whose names James may or may not know (we are kidding, we think) were getting time.

Now, Love returns to the lineup, but the squad is missing their head coach, as Lue is taking time away from the team to take care of a medical issue that has plagued him over the past few months.

Thompson and Nance are said to be close to returning, possibly this week, and Osman and Hood should be back in another week, causing more combinations of players that probably haven’t spent much time on the floor together.

All this with three weeks remaining in the regular season.

Is it possible that the Cavaliers will finally get some continuity just as the playoffs are set to begin? It very well may be.

And the experience the younger players have gained with all of the injuries in the second half of the season will give Lue many options to go to depending on what the opposition is doing?

Getting Lue healthy is a key too. There is no question in our mind that when we aren’t feeling well, you aren’t thinking clearly.

This is not a guarantee of another appearance in The Finals. There are a lot of teams in the East that can cause a problem, and no question, Toronto is an excellent basketball team with plenty of playoff experience.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the injured guys came back next week, and the Cavs had three weeks of being able to play with the same players? We are sure everyone in the organization has that thought.

Cavs’ Flaws Coming Back To Haunt.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have recently played nothing like a team poised to make a deep post-season run since the All Star break.

They have went 4-6 in their last ten games after winning impressively in the two contests after the trade deadline leading up to the interruption in the season.

Kevin Love has been out for awhile with his broken hand, and now other injuries are starting to crop up. Rodney Hood has a sore back, Cedi Osman has a hip flexor, Kyle Korver has a foot issue, and Tristan Thompson sprained an ankle.

Not many teams could play well without half of their rotation players, but it feels like coach Tyronn Lue’s lack of structure is telling in the team’s struggles, and together with the front office’s ignorance of having big people on the roster, you can make a case the planning is at least culpable in the losing.

Cleveland opened the season with just three real big men–Love, Thompson, and rookie Ante Zizic, and he has been basically ignored by Lue.

The mere idea of entering a season with just three post defenders seems ludicrous doesn’t it? Especially in a sport, that although it has evolved in the past ten years, where size matters.

That’s the first thing that has come up to bite the Cavs right now.

The second thing would be the lack of development of young players like Osman and Zizic. Osman has proven to be a solid defender on the perimeter, but he has been marginalized by the coaching staff, a group that most definitely would rather play veterans.

Now the team needs Zizic, but because he didn’t get time early in the season, he doesn’t get the time of day, even in a game like last Friday night, when the Clippers big men destroyed the Cavaliers inside.

Another problem is a lack of emphasis on the defensive end. Lue’s squad ranks 28th in the league in defensive efficiency, and when the coach talks about his team, all he talks about is pace of play.

No mention about a defensive mindset or defense at all for that matter.

We would like to hear from the coach what exactly are the Cavs trying to accomplish on the defensive end. They don’t defend the three point shot well, they are terrible in pick and roll situations, and it doesn’t seem like they have some help defense principles.

So what is the plan on that end of the floor?

Lue’s reluctance to change things up is also mind boggling. JR Smith is second on the Cavs in minutes per game, despite having just 13 double figure scoring games in the last 40 contests.

Eight of those games came in an 11 game span from January 26th through February 22nd. This means that in the other 29 games, Smith has scored 10+ points in only five games.

He’s the Cavs’ starting shooting guard, by the way.

And because there isn’t a firm offensive game plan, no one knows where the shots will come on a nightly basis, except for LeBron James. It’s up to James to find where the other players want the ball, which he works hard to find out, but often (like Sunday night vs. the Lakers) it leads to the team going several possessions without getting good looks.

With the playoffs on the horizon, all of these things don’t bode well for a deep playoff run.

Here’s hoping the snooze alarm goes off for the coaching staffs and changes can be made, because it’s clear here that not all of the problems will be erased by Kevin Love’s return to the lineup.

The Tristan Dilemma

The Cleveland Cavaliers had already drafted Kyrie Irving in the first round in the 2011 NBA Draft when they took Tristan Thompson with the fourth overall selection.

At the time, the select of Thompson was a bit of a surprise, since he averaged just 13.1 points and 7.8 rebounds a game at the University of Texas.

We were hoping for Enes Kanter to fall to the Cavs, but he was taken by the Jazz at #3, and Jonas Valanciunas was still on the board, but remember, he was not going to play in the NBA that season, and the Cavs didn’t feel like they could wait a year after a 19-63 record in the first year after LeBron James departed for Miami.

As a rookie, he averaged 8.2 points and 6.5 rebounds, and increased those totals to 11.7 and 9.4 in his second season.

He stayed at those numbers in year #3, and it began to look like Thompson was a disappointment as the second best player on a team led by Irving.

Then, LeBron James and Kevin Love arrived, and that pushed Thompson down the food chain, where he became a role player on a title contender, a role he can and did excel in.

As a big man, Thompson had an ability to be able to guard smaller players when switching in pick-and-roll situations, a very valuable skill, and one that was a key in the Cavs’ 2016 NBA title.

He was also a relentless offensive rebounder, averaging 3.3 per game for his career and upping that total to 4.1 in the playoffs.

He was durable too, playing every game from his second year in the Association through his fifth year.

However, the last two seasons have seen a drop in Thompson’s game. First, he’s never developed an acceptable jump shot from around 10-15 feet out like former teammate Anderson Varejao did.

He has always been and still is a liability on offense, as his main skill is crashing the boards. Other than that, he doesn’t have to be guarded.

His defense has slipped as well. He had a defensive rating of 108 in the three years he played before James came back, and improved that to 106, then 104 in the championship season.

Last year, it fell back to his rookie level and is now a career worst 112.

Perhaps Thompson’s playing through the bumps and bruises all those years is coming back to bite him, because he’s missed 22 games this season.

Unfortunately for Tristan, the Cavs are 19-3 in those games, which brings into question Thompson’s role with the team not only this season, but going forward.

Since Larry Nance Jr. arrived at the trade deadline, there is a discernable difference in how the wine and gold play with Nance in the game as opposed to Thompson. Nance is more active and definitely a quicker leaper than TT, who needs to gather himself before jumping.

Thompson can still be an important piece for the Cavs, but he needs to be fully healthy, and it looks as though it should be as a guy coming off the bench.

We know coach Tyronn Lue has loyalty to the guys who won a title, both Thompson and JR Smith, so will Lue be willing to make the change for the good of the team?

The other issue with Thompson is his contract, which pays him $16.4 million per year this season, and increases by roughly a million more in each of the next two campaigns.

That’s far too much for what the team is receiving in return, leading to speculation the front office would like to move him this summer.

The point is Thompson may have been the 4th or 5th best player on the team, a key piece, two years ago, but he isn’t that anymore.

Can he fix that this summer? Of course. Do we think it is likely? Our guess would be no.

It comes down to back for the buck. It is likely that Thompson performance and role this post-season determines his fate.

Players & Coach Need To Keep Adjusting For Cavs

If you understand the game of basketball, you can understand that the Cleveland Cavaliers are going through some growing pains.

After the fast start when the four new players showed up after the trading deadline, the wine and gold have split their first quartet of games following the all star break, and one of the wins was a close one over the lowly Brooklyn Nets.

Not only are the players getting to know each other, but Tyronn Lue also is going through an adjustment as to how George Hill, Rodney Hood, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance Jr. fit with the holdover Cavaliers.

One thing that continues to be an issue for the Cavs are slow starts, they have been struggling in the first quarter during the last three contests. The problems have a lot to do with the personnel that starts the game.

In the first game after the break, Cleveland led Washington after one, 31-22, with JR Smith leading the way with 9 points.

Unfortunately, in the last three games, the Cavaliers trailed by seven, five, and four points after the first quarter respectively.

Smith has scored 11 points TOTAL, in those three games. Could we make a case that the key in the first quarter is JR Smith?

The bigger issue here is that Smith, who has always been streaky, isn’t having hot streaks with the regularity he had earlier in his career.

So when you have Smith, Tristan Thompson, and Cedi Osman in the starting lineup, there is a real possibility you will not be getting anything offensively out of this trio, and that’s a problem.

That’s why Lue needs to balance out his starting lineup with a more accomplished offensive player. We would recommend moving Rodney Hood to the first unit.

Hood would also give the first unit more length, and more versatility on the offensive end. Smith is more of a three point specialist, while against Brooklyn, we saw Hood attacking the basket, taking just one three point shot.

Nance’s tendency to pick up fouls is the reason to keep Thompson opening the game, although it seems the latter’s offensive game has regressed since last season. If starting Thompson means ending the game with Nance, we are all for it.

As for Osman, he will go to the bench when Kevin Love is ready to play, but somehow Lue needs to keep giving him playing time because as his defensive versatility.

The rookie has been guarding the opponent’s best player, regardless of what position, at the start of games, so the coaching staff has confidence in him on that end of the floor.

If that would happen, who would be the odd man out in the rotation? As weird as it sounds, it could either be Smith or another veteran, Kyle Korver.

When Korver is hot, it is a thing of beauty. He can turn a game around by himself. However, his shooting is the extent of value. His defense should keep him off the floor in close games when stopping the opponent is important.

The reason the newcomers stand out is they are multi-dimensional. Players like Thompson, Smith, and Korver do one thing well, and that’s Lue dilemma, finding the right time to use them.

That’s what the last 22 games should be about, finding balance for the ten players in the rotation, so the lulls that occur within a game are minimal if they can’t be avoided.

New Cavs Are Exciting and Help Team, But…

There is tremendous excitement in Cleveland about the revamped Cavaliers. They went from a team that appeared would be lucky to win one series in the Eastern Conference playoffs to the favorite again for many experts.

The Cavs still have the best player in the league in LeBron James, and eventually Kevin Love will return to the lineup, giving Tyronn Lue another scorer and three point shooting threat.

The wine and gold have now surrounded James with a cadre of three point marksmen, players like Rodney Hood, JR Smith, George Hill, Kyle Korver, along with Love. All of them are shooting over 35% from behind the arc this season.

Those shooters provide driving lanes for Jordan Clarkson, Cedi Osman, and James to draw defenders so those shooters can get wide open looks.

Talk about success in the playoffs though is premature because outside of Hill, the newest Cavaliers have limited experience in the post-season.

In fact, Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. have never been in the playoffs, nor has Osman, who is a rookie.

Hood played 11 games last season, averaging 8.9 points and shooting 35.2%, (26% from three) from the floor, compared to his regular season numbers of 12.7 points per game, and shooting percentages of 40.8% and 37.1% from distance.

It’s a different game in the post-season because opponents prepare for what you do well, and trying to take it away.

This isn’t to say Hood won’t make adjustments or won’t learn from his experience a year ago and be better. Nor does it mean Clarkson and Nance’s performance will drop from the regular season because it is their first shot in the playoffs.

One thing in the Cavs’ favor is their major competition in the East isn’t exactly overflowing with post-season experience. Boston has Jaylen Brown, who wasn’t a featured performer a year ago (12 minutes per night), and Jayson Tatum, who is a rookie.

Toronto has more experience, but their bench, which has received glowing reviews for their success this year, doesn’t.

Plus, the Raptors and Celtics still have the same issue they have had over the past three seasons: They have no one to match up with LeBron James.

We understand finding players to can slow down James isn’t easy, but you need guys with size and experience. Young players who haven’t done it before have issues matching up to the speed and strength of playoff LeBron.

Don’t forget, the Cavs still have players who have been through the playoff wars with three straight trips to The Finals in Love, Smith, and Tristan Thompson, and Hill, who has played in 83 playoff games, making two appearances in the conference finals.

Hopefully, they can show the new guys the ropes, like James did in his first year back in Cleveland, when really only he and Smith had playoff experience among the guys getting the most playing time.

By the time they get to the conference finals, we will know how the newest Cavs have responded to the post-season. More importantly, Lue and James will know who they can trust during these important games.

Getting to the playoffs is a first step, and securing a good seed helps too, although home court isn’t as critical to the Cavs with James leading the way.

The newest Cavs will help with both of those things, but until we see Hood, Nance, Clarkson, and Osman play effectively in the playoffs, there will be some hesitation in believing the wine and gold can get back to The Finals.

LeBron, Schedule Should Ease Cavs’ Transition

The Cleveland Cavaliers remade their roster at the NBA trade deadline, and entered the All Star break on a four game winning streak.

Two of those wins were without the quartet of players acquired on February 8th, and the last two, over playoff teams on the road against Boston and Oklahoma City were with Rodney Hood, George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance Jr. on the roster.

The newest Cavs have provided a huge impact already. Their youth and shooting ability have both spread the floor on offense and improved the wine and gold on the defensive end as well.

No doubt there will be an adjustment, after all, the Cavaliers have turned over 40% of their roster, but they have LeBron James and the upcoming schedule is favorable too.

Because James is such a student of the game, he told reporters he was already studying his new teammates’ tendencies the night the deals were announced. The King likes to find out where the shooters like to catch the ball so they are in a shooting position upon receiving the pass.

For Hill, Hood, and Clarkson, being on the floor with James creates wide open looks from the perimeter. In the two games they’ve played with Cleveland, Hood is 7 for 14 from three point range, Clarkson is 4 for 7, and Hill is 3 for 8.

While Hood and Clarkson’s numbers aren’t sustainable, they are capable of having nights where they can change a game with their long range shooting.

And as we have seen with Kyle Korver, a long range shooter on a roll can make a huge impact.

The schedule is also a big boost. Cleveland comes out of the break with six of their first seven games at Quicken Loans Arena. The only road game comes Friday night at Memphis against the 18-38 Grizzlies.

Tyronn Lue’s squad does play some good teams during the stretch, opening Thursday night with the Wizards, and they also play the Spurs, 76ers, and Nuggets during this stretch, but they will be in northeast Ohio for the better part of two weeks.

The Cavaliers enter this stretch with a 20-7 home record, and only three teams have lost fewer than that number (Toronto-4, Houston-6, and San Antonio-6) in the NBA this season.

Cleveland has their second west coast swing after those seven games, and then have two more long homestands before the end of the regular season.

They are at home the week of March 19th for three games at The Q, and after a trio of games on the road, they are home from March 30th through April 5th, playing four games.

That’s more time in the gym, where they will have to be implementing Kevin Love back into the lineup by that time.

GM Koby Altman will also be adding another player to the roster this week, as NBA rules mandate the Cavaliers must get to 14 players by this Thursday, a week after the roster spots opened up.

Our guess is a big man will be one of the additions, perhaps Kendrick Perkins. Even though Nance was impressive on the offensive boards vs. Oklahoma City, early in the game, Stephen Adams did whatever he wanted.

It would’ve been nice to have someone with some bulk go against Adams.

Before the Cavs head west, we will have a much better idea as to the potential of this new group wearing the wine and gold.

If it goes like the last two games heading into the break, it will be a whole bunch of fun in downtown Cleveland.

Cavs’ Putting Ball Back In LeBron’s Hands

When comparing LeBron James to the greatest players of all time, and the conversation inevitably turns to Michael Jordan, the comment that usually made is James is more Magic Johnson that MJ.

That has never been more true than this year, because James has been the point guard of the Cleveland Cavaliers all this season.

Derrick Rose started the season at the point, but when Rose went down with an ankle injury, Tyronn Lue went with a big lineup using James at the point.

When that didn’t work, he put Jose Calderon in the starting lineup. Because Calderon is 36 years old, and couldn’t play a lot of minutes, James spent a lot of time running the offense.

James is averaging a career high 8.9 assists per game this season, following last season’s 8.7 average, when he played the spot a year ago while Kyrie Irving was resting, or used in sets where Irving was basically playing the shooting guard spot.

This season, James had just three games with five assists or less in the first 36 games of the year. Why did we pick that point in the season? The next game on the schedule was Isaiah Thomas’ first game with the wine and gold.

In the next 16 games, prior to the 140-138 overtime win against Minnesota last Wednesday, James had four games of five assists or less. He also had seven games of five or more turnovers in that span.

This isn’t to pile on Thomas, who wasn’t 100%, and was in a free agent year, so perhaps he was trying to hard on the court, but it does point out that James seemed to be deferring to Thomas, trying to get him going.

Besides the fact that the since dealt guard was shooting at 36% during his tenure with the Cavs, and that he was shooting with more frequency than anyone else besides James, it was also taking the ball out of the team’s best playmaker’s hands.

That could be why James seemed to be very frustrated during the month of January. Not only was he giving up the opportunity to make plays for his teammates, the man he was trying to get going wasn’t making his shots.

Have you ever played hoops with someone who not only monopolizes the basketball, but can’t hit a shot or throws the ball away? It doesn’t give you a decent chance to win and it’s not a lot of fun.

That’s what James was watching for the last 30 or so days.

And we aren’t even talking about Thomas’ issues on the defensive end of the floor.

Watching the games, it’s obvious that James is setting up the offense on most possessions. Lue is having someone dribble the ball up past halfcourt, and then find James to initiate the attack.

That’s when the team has played its best for the most part.

Newcomer George Hill, the new starter at point guard, is really here because of his ability to knock down open three point shots. Sure, he will initiate the offense during some sets to give James a blow, but his main role is to spread the floor and hit threes, and right now he leads the league.

With Thomas moved on to Los Angeles, there is no question who is the distributor on offense. LeBron James is the man. He will draw the defense, and you better be ready when he finds you.

Cavs’ Roster Make Over…Wow!

Wow! That is our first reaction to the wheeling and dealing done by Cleveland Cavaliers’ GM Koby Altman on the day of the NBA trade deadline, in which he turned over 40% of his team’s roster.

The Cavs were the NBA’s oldest roster and they were showing it over the last six weeks, losing 12 of their last 19 games and getting boat raced by every good team they played, and some average teams as well.

In three big moves, the wine and gold got younger, more athletic, and in our opinion, more likely to retain LeBron James when he becomes a free agent after the season.

Of the six players moved, the biggest impact looking to be the departure of Channing Frye, a veteran glue guy who provided leadership in the locker room.

Dwyane Wade, who went back home to Miami for a second round pick, will also be missed. Wade, no longer with the athleticism he had in his prime, still made the correct play, and tried to impart that to his teammates.

The other four were disappointments. Isaiah Thomas didn’t seem to fit in with the Cavs, and neither did the guy who came over from Boston with him, Jae Crowder.

Thomas is a good player, but was not 100% after the hip injury, and since he was a free agent to be at the end of the season, the Cavs couldn’t afford to see how that story ended.

Crowder scored more than five points per game less than he did a year ago, and was shooting five percentage points less in 2017-18.

Derrick Rose and Iman Shumpert have been injured much of the season.

In return, Cleveland got three players in their mid-twenties in Rodney Hood (25), Larry Nance Jr. (25), and Jordan Clarkson (25) and George Hill, who will turn 32 in May.

Hood, coming from Utah, is enjoying his best season as a pro, averaging 16.8 points per game, shooting 38.9% from three point range. He’s long too at 6’8″, and a good free throw shooter at 87.6%.

Nance Jr. is coming home, where his father’s number hangs in the rafters. He’s a solid defender, can jump through the ceiling, and is scoring 8.6 points and grabbing 6.8 board per contest.

Clarkson is a combo guard, with a career scoring average of 14.5 points per night. He can knock down threes, although he’s kind of a streaky shooter. He is getting 3.3 assists per game in an average of just under 24 minutes.

Hill is the veteran and will likely take over starting duties. He’s 6’3″, and currently leads the league in three point shooting at 45.3%. He is scoring at 10.3 points per game with Sacramento this season, after getting 16.9 a night last season.

This quartet makes the wine and gold longer and that should help the defense. Hill keeps his man in front of him, something not seen much in Cleveland this season.

We have begged coach Tyronn Lue to slow down the pace because of the age of the team, but with the younger legs, he should be able to get the ball up the floor quickly going forward.

But now the Cavs have some young players who can get better going forward to go with James, and that may be enough, along with a draft pick that could be in the top five by the time the season is over, to entice him to re-sign in northeast Ohio.

That pick could be used on draft night to bring in another star player in a trade.

The biggest thing for the fans is hope that the Cavaliers, who looked very little like a team that can make deep playoff run over the last few weeks, now can do just that.

It may take some time for the new pieces to gel, but if and when they do, there is no question the Cavs are in a better place than they were two days ago.

And that’s a good thing.

Gilbert Should Be Careful What He Wishes For

When it comes to Cleveland sports, many times we point out reasons why we can’t have nice things. Apparently, the same is true of the people who own the teams here as well.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, owned by Dan Gilbert, currently have the best player in the sport of basketball playing on the team. However, from many reports, it appears the owner has fallen in love with the same thing football fans look forward to every year, the draft process.

LeBron James, the best currently playing basketball, and the leader of the team that won the only professional sports championship the city has in the last 54 years, can be a free agent after this season. And Gilbert seems to be making the decision very easy for him.

The Cavs do possess what is certain to be a lottery pick in this summer’s draft. Now, we would not give up that pick for a rental player, but we would deal it for a younger player who could wear the wine and gold for at least a few years.

We are sure James would understand that, but what is disturbing to the ownership and the star player aren’t getting along again. We know they will never be friends after what happened when James left for Miami following the 2010 season, but Gilbert should understand the ways of the NBA by now.

It has been reported that the owner “wants his team back”, which is theory should be the case, but not in professional basketball. Like it or not, the star players carry a tremendous amount of clout.

James should finish his illustrious career with the Cavs, and in our opinion, we believe he would like to do just that. Unfortunately, the situation seems to be pushing him away from the franchise.

With James, the Cavaliers should be a contender to get to the NBA Finals every year. The superstar, even at 33 years old, is still a force in the NBA. He’s also a global icon, meaning Gilbert’s team in relevant on a worldwide basis.

Trying a rebuild through the draft is a slow, tedious process, and quite frankly doesn’t have a great success rate.

Anthony Davis is arguably the most talented player to enter the NBA in the past 10 years. His teams have made the playoffs just once in his first five seasons in the league.

How many years would Cavs fans have to wait before another playoff experience?

Gilbert is a smart man, making billions of dollars in the business world. However, he’s not smart enough to know what he doesn’t know, which is how to put together a winning basketball team.

Surely he has to know the value of the Cavaliers greatly diminished without James on the roster. It certainly did when LeBron left the first time.

The way the team is constructed right now, it doesn’t look good for this season, but that’s the beauty of having LeBron James. With the right roster adjustments, the Cavaliers can make a fourth consecutive trip to the championship round.

But if ownership has decided one title is enough, James won’t stick around. His legacy within the sport is based on winning titles. If that opportunity doesn’t exist in Cleveland, The King will go elsewhere.

Heck. former Indians’ president Mark Shapiro was vilified here for saying the best fans can hope for was to contend once every few years, and now Gilbert feels one championship is enough?

Gilbert and his partners will have their team back, but will anyone care?

Time For Lue To Be A Leader.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are teetering on the brink right now.

They haven’t played well since the holiday season started, the defense is getting progressively worse, and now, Kevin Love will be out for awhile after breaking his hand in last night’s loss at Detroit.

Some team’s would look at the injury and band together, strengthen their resolve to win games without their all-star. Look at Washington last night in their first game without John Wall, a 102-96 victory over Oklahoma City.

Unfortunately, we do not see that happening with this group of Cavaliers.

LeBron James looks disgusted with what is going on, and we are sure he and Dwyane Wade can’t believe what is happening.

The defensive effort on this team is putrid. We saw at least four times last night where Pistons went the length of the floor for layups without anyone stopping the ball.

That’s taught in fifth grade basketball.

We have watched probably thousands of basketball games and we have yet to see someone score without the ball. You have to stop the ball.

It’s time for strong leadership from Tyronn Lue, and we hope he has it in him.

It’s time for the coach to start holding players responsible.

If you aren’t going to put forth effort on the defensive end, you should be on the bench. And that means anyone, including LeBron James. The correct tone has to be set.

We found it ludicrous that Cedi Osman was inactive for last night’s contest, and when Love went down, that decision came back to bite the head coach.

Meanwhile, Iman Shumpert, who has been out since the middle of November with a knee injury, and when he came back fired up a three point shot 24 seconds after entering the game, was dressed, but he didn’t play, even when the game got out of hand.

So, the Cavs had to have Channing Frye and Wade playing in garbage time because Lue didn’t want to disrespect Shumpert and Derrick Rose by putting them in in that situation, even though neither played to that point.

Why didn’t Rose play? Outside of Sunday’s game vs. Detroit, he had played pretty well since returning from the ankle injury, averaging 10 points on 15 of 24 shooting. He has an off night Sunday and gets buried on the bench?

Lue’s rotations are often criticized and this is another case of a puzzling move.

Why was Frye benched when Tristan Thompson returned? Why did Derrick Williams lose playing time a year ago when he played well? It’s due to loyalty to veterans, and sometimes that’s not good.

Right now, the Cavaliers are getting very little on a nightly basis from Isaiah Thomas, JR Smith, and Tristan Thompson, all of whom are currently starting.

Besides James, which players are playing well? Jeff Green, Wade, Frye, and Kyle Korver come to mind. The problem is all of those players are over 30 years old, so limiting minutes for them has to be done to keep them effective.

Good players want to be coached. Wade is always pulling players aside to offer insights on the game, but it’s time for Lue to start basing playing time based on performance right now, and not the past.

It’s a critical time for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They need leadership from their coach.