Why Stevens Has Better Rep Than Blatt

One of the story lines in the first round playoff series between the Cavaliers and Celtics is the impact of the young, basketball genius coach of Boston, Brad Stevens.

This isn’t to say Stevens hasn’t earned his reputation as one of the game’s best young minds.

He took a mid major program in Butler, from the same league as Cleveland State, to the NCAA Tournament Championship game two years in a row, losing to Duke and Connecticut, two of the sports’ power programs.

That said, in the first loss by a 61-59 score to Coach K’s Blue Devils, Stevens had the best player on the floor in Gordon Hayward, who averaged 19.3 points per game for Utah this season.

Getting to two straight finals is a tremendous accomplishment to be sure, and to do it without multiple McDonald’s All American high school players shows Stevens did a great coaching job.

And he’s done a very good job this year in Boston. Let’s face it, there isn’t one player who starts for the Celtics that would start for the Cavs, yet, the Celts had the second best record in the Eastern Conference after the all-star game.

Only the Cavs were better.

So Stevens has done a tremendous job with limited talent of getting the most out of his talent and getting his players to buy in and play hard every night.

He’s made his teams over achieve.

We will never know that about David Blatt as long as he has LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love on the roster.

So, the narrative is that Stevens is a better coach, the boy wonder of basketball, and he will out scheme Blatt and keep his team in every game.

That’s not fair to Blatt.

Heck, for all we know, Stevens may be the heir apparent to Larry Brown as the best basketball mind in the country, but the comparison with Blatt isn’t a fair one because the Cavs’ coach has the talent, and hopefully (for fans and Blatt alike), we will never find out what kind of record he could squeeze out of the Boston roster.

And when you coach a very talented team, it is very difficult to get credit, or be considered a coaching genius.

Gregg Popovich gets a ton of credit because of the way the San Antonio Spurs play, and because people refuse to acknowledge that Tim Duncan is one of the game’s all time greats. And Popovich has gotten a lot out of guys cast aside by other teams, like Boris Diaw, Danny Green, etc.

We have always “pooh-poohed” Phil Jackson’s coaching greatness because he never coached a team that didn’t have a great player on it. All of his title teams had Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and/or Kobe Bryant on the roster.

Blatt will never get any credit for the Cavaliers being successful because LeBron James is on the team, and he’s still the best player in the league.

Perhaps if he had the team he was hired to coach (no James, no Love) and guided the wine and gold to the playoffs, he would have the reputation as a great coach. But he didn’t. That doesn’t make him a coach who isn’t competent, it just makes him fortunate.

Even if the Cavaliers win a title this summer, the credit will go to the players. And the only credit David Blatt will get will be that he didn’t screw it up.

Now Is Blatt’s Time to Show His Stuff

The Cleveland Cavaliers ended their regular season last night and it truly was a tale of two halves of the season.

As everyone is aware, the Cavs struggled to get going. LeBron James was banged up and needed to rest his body, while the team got off to a 19-20 start.

When James returned, GM David Griffin sprung into action, revamping the roster with two major trades, and the wine and gold closed out the second half with a 34-9 record.

David Blatt has had his share of critics, both from the national media (who love to pick the Cavaliers apart), and also from the local media, who don’t seem to care for his arrogance, something you probably have to have if you are going to coach elite players.

But Blatt should get enormous credit for fitting in the new pieces, Timofey Mozgov, J.R. Smith, and Iman Shumpert, seamlessly. Many times, basketball teams make personnel moves and it takes time for the pieces to fit together and play well together.

Just think back to when the Cavs made a mega-move at the trading deadline in 2008, bringing in Ben Wallace, Delonte West, Joe Smith, and Wally Szczerbiak.

The Cavs were 30-24 at the time of the deal, and finished the season with a 45-37 record. They were basically a .500 team after the deal, and lost in the second round of the playoffs to Boston.

This Cleveland team hit the ground running after the deal, which is a credit to the head coach, the GM, who found the perfect pieces to fit this squad, and the players who made their new teammates feel at home.

Most felt the key to the moves was Shumpert, an active wing defender the Cavs desperately needed. But he was still hurt when he arrived here, which allowed Blatt to use Smith in the starting lineup.

The much maligned Smith fit like a glove, providing instant offense, knocking down open three after open three, playing off James and Kyrie Irving perfectly.

And Smith was active on the defensive end too, which allowed Blatt to give him more freedom on offense.

No one could have seen the huge impact Smith made on this team, and when Shumpert was healthy, Blatt kept things exactly how they were, and Shumpert came off the bench, where he has been very valuable to the Cavaliers.

However, playoff time is where Blatt will make his bones. And it starts right away, as he is matched up against one of the sports’ up and coming coaches in Boston’s Brad Stevens.

The Cavs have a decided talent advantage in the first round, but what we are looking for is how Blatt reacts and counters what other teams are going to do to keep the wine and gold at bay.

This isn’t to say Blatt isn’t capable of doing just that. He’s had success overseas in tournament play, but we are looking forward to seeing how he manages the playoff situation.

And it becomes more of a factor as the playoffs go on. Remember that Mike Brown could never figure out what Orlando was doing in the Eastern Conference finals in 2008-09. He never tried anything different or couldn’t come up with a counter.

Playing the same team a possible seven straight times brings the ability to scheme and coach into the forefront. David Blatt’s time to shine is right now. The playoffs start Sunday afternoon.

Why Mozgov Doesn’t Get Fourth Quarter Minutes.

Since the Cleveland Cavaliers had the audacity to lose a basketball game Friday night, even though it was to the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference, and it was on the road, of course the critics of David Blatt were out in full force.

Did we mention that the loss was also in the midst of a four games in five nights stretch and the Cavs won three of those games?

We constantly point out that when the Cavs do lose, it is the fault of either of two people, and sometimes both. Those people was Blatt and Kevin Love.

The criticism on Friday night was the lack of fourth quarter playing time for Timofey Mozgov.

The reason has everything to do with defensive match ups, and Blatt is no different from most NBA coaches in this respect.

He matches up defensively, particularly late in games, and that’s why Mozgov doesn’t see the court a lot at the end of the game.

It also has everything to do with the style of today’s NBA.

Most teams no longer have legitimate low post centers, instead, they favor guys who can get out on the floor and spread out the court. That is not the big Russian’s strength as a player.

The last thing Blatt and his staff want is for their center to get caught 15 feet away from the basket and have the opposition get point-blank lay ups or dunks.

So, the more effective defensive line up at the end of games is to have Tristan Thompson at center, because he is able to defend better out on the floor.

For comparison, Toronto only plays Jonas Valenciunas, he of the tackling of LeBron James on Wednesday night, just 3.7 minutes per game in the fourth quarter.

Why? For the same reason that Mozgov doesn’t get fourth quarter minutes.

The other night, if Valenciunas would have played most of the fourth quarter against the Cavaliers, then Mozgov would have been out there too.

Another Eastern Conference center is in the same boat as Valenciunas and Mozgov, and that would be another traditional big man, Washington’s Marcin Gortat.

Wizard fans are wondering why he only averages 4.4 minutes in the final quarter of games. And it is the same issue for Washington coach Randy Wittman, he doesn’t like the match up problems against smaller, quicker bigs.

A player like Joakim Noah is sound enough and quick enough to be able to guard a player who can stay away from the basket, and so is a guy like Al Horford, but both of those players are really power forwards masquerading as centers.

And you can see that it isn’t just David Blatt’s decisions either. Most coaches feel the same way about having a 7 footer trying to guard someone playing 15 feet from the basket. The inner defensive coach in each one of them don’t want to big man guarding someone out there.

Last night against Phoenix, Mozgov did demonstrate the ability to be a force defensively even though he wasn’t guarding a legitimate low post big man, and perhaps it will earn him some minutes late in the game.

However, when push comes to shove, coaches will go with the match up that causes them the least heartburn on the defensive end. And that’s why Mozgov and other bigs can’t get on the floor in the fourth quarter.

Is This Most Talented Cavs’ Team Ever?

The Cleveland Cavaliers certainly haven’t had a glorious history. Their all-time record since joining the NBA is more than 300 games below .500.

However, they have been to the NBA Finals in 2007, and lost in the Eastern Conference finals three times. And without disrespecting the ’06-‘o7 conference champs, the best team in franchise history may just be the last wine and gold squad to fall one step short of The Finals, the 2008-09 team that one 66 games in the regular season.

That team is a regular on lists of the best teams to not win an NBA title.

Our feeling was that collection of players failed because of Mike Brown’s failure to adjust to what Orlando was doing offensively in the conference finals, and because of the playoff schedule.

If you recall, the Cavs swept each of their first two series against Detroit and Atlanta, and had to wait nine days, from May 11th when they eliminated the Hawks, until May 20th when they took on Orlando.

The Cavaliers were rusty in Game 1, losing on their home floor, where they lost just twice all season long.

By the way, that team won 18 of their last 21 games in the regular season.

Since the current Cavs have now won 16 of their last 18, we decided to compare the current roster to perhaps the best team in Cleveland professional basketball history.

The starters on that team were LeBron James, Mo Williams, Delonte West, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Ben Wallace.

Anderson Varejao also started 42 games that season, getting the nod when Ilgauskas and Wallace had injuries. Sasha Pavlovic also started 12 games, mostly for West.

James, who was 24 at the time, averaged 28.4 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists per game, which is comparable to this season’s figures of 26 points, 6 boards, and 7 assists.

However, that team had no one who can compare to Kyrie Irving, who is blossoming into the superstar in front of our eyes. The fourth year player out of Duke is getting 22 points and five dimes per night as offensive option #2.

Williams filled that role in ’09, getting 18 points and four assists. Irving is taking more shots than Williams did, with both making almost 47% of their tries.

Ilgauskas was the team’s third leading scorer at 12.9 a game, with 7.5 boards and shooting 47%. Kevin Love is the third leading scorer this year at 16.8 points, with 10.3 rebounds. He is shooting just 43% from the floor, although he attempts far more three point shots than Big Z did.

That group’s bench was led by Varejao, Boobie Gibson, and Wally Szczerbiak, while the current Cavs use Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert, and Matthew Dellavedova as the primary bench options.

We would give David Blatt’s crew an edge because the second and third best players on this team are much better than those on the 66 win team.

Even the bench appears to be better. Varejao scored 8.6 points and 7.2 rebounds as the first big man off the bench in ’08-’09, and Thompson has better numbers at 9.1 and 8.4 respectively.

That group was stronger defensively, because Ilgauskas was still a force inside and Wallace was one of the best defensive players in NBA history up front, and West was a very good defender too.

However, the three Cavs who joined the team in January are helping greatly on the defensive end. Since Timofey Mozgov joined the squad, he has provided the inside presence Blatt’s team sorely needed. And Shumpert and J.R. Smith have given the wine and gold better defense on the wings.

Can this team go farther in the post-season than the ’09 team? That remains to be seen. But it is looking like this might be the most talented roster ever to play in Cleveland.

That’s how quickly things have changed in the last month or so.

No Deadline Moves for Cavs, Who Did Heavy Lifting a Month Ago.

The NBA all-star break has come and gone and the season will continue for the Cleveland Cavaliers tomorrow night at Washington against the Wizards.

It’s the first of a tough 14 game stretch for the wine and gold which will likely determine whether or not they can finish the season as the #2 or #3 seed in the Eastern Conference.

It was a quiet trade deadline for GM David Griffin because he did all of his heavy lifting in January, curing much of what ailed the Cavs by getting Timofey Mozgov, J.R. Smith, and Iman Shumpert basically for Dion Waiters and a first round draft pick.

Those two deals seemed to have turned the season around for the wine and gold, who responded by winning 14 of their last 16 games.

So, the big moves made today, in which 37 players changed teams, were made a month ago by Griffin, transforming his team instantly, and correcting the moves made during the off-season (except for getting LeBron James and Kevin Love), which failed.

The bad news is the Cavs still have two weaknesses. The good news is that they involve the ninth and tenth men in coach David Blatt’s rotation, an extra big man and another point guard.

The loss to Chicago right before the break demonstrated Cleveland can only go three deep at the center and power forward spots, and if someone is missing (like Love that night with an eye injury) or one of them get into foul trouble (like Mozgov did), Blatt’s alternative is to use James Jones, a three-point specialist, at the #4, or dust off Brendan Haywood, who it appears has nothing left in the tank except his favorable contract.

That means Griffin is left to go after one of the big men who could get a buyout after being traded.

The biggest candidate would Kendrick Perkins, dealt by Oklahoma City to Utah today. The 6’10”, 280 pound center has plenty of playoff experience with 135 games, including three trips to The Finals.

Perkins would clog the middle, and although he is limited offensively, could give Blatt another defensive minded post presence. And he would only need to play around 10 minutes per night.

The Clippers are said to also be interested, as Perkins played for Doc Rivers in Boston, but Cleveland would seem to present a better chance to play in June.

Despite Atlanta’s play thus far, many experts still expect the Eastern Conference to come down to the Cavaliers and the Bulls, and with Chicago having Joakim Noah, Paul Gasol, and Taj Gibson, it would serve the Cavs well to have another experience big man to battle the Bulls’ trio.

JaVale McGee, traded to Philadelphia today, would be another possibility, but the Sixers are said to be keeping the oft-injured big man. He has only played 22 games over the last two seasons, but two years ago averaged 9.1 points and almost five boards a night in 18 minutes.

As for a point, the Cavs can probably afford to stay with Matthew Dellavedova, because James is the primary ball handler, and it would be seamless to use LeBron along with Shumpert and Smith on the floor together with Love and Mozgov or Thompson.

In fact, that group would make the wine and gold very long defensively.

Most of the top teams in the standings did the same as Cleveland today, that is to say stand pat. Griffin was proactive and re-shaped his squad a month ago, giving them a 30 day head start on the teams than made moves today.

Hopefully, that pays off when spring arrives.

Forget the Numbers, Love is Still a Key Component

Every time the Cleveland Cavaliers lose a basketball game, the reaction from the fans on social media is predictable. Two people take the brunt of the blame.

It is either David Blatt’s fault, because that’s who we are in Cleveland, it’s always the coach’s fault. God forbid, we ever make the players responsible for a defeat.

The second person who gets hammered for a loss is Kevin Love. The only reason we can think of for this is that Love was apparently expected to average 25.0 points and 15 rebounds per game when GM David Griffin traded this year’s first overall pick, Andrew Wiggins and last year’s first overall pick, Anthony Bennett, along with other stuff to get the Timberwolves’ best player.

It’s not fair to Love, who certainly isn’t playing terrible, he’s averaging 17.1 points and 10.5 boards per contest. And most basketball people realize it was Love who had to make the biggest adjustment among the Cavs’ stars, certainly more than LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.

He is taking the least amount of shots since his second year in the league at 13.1 per game, down from the 18.5 he took per night with Minnesota a year ago. He’s also making less, hitting just 42.7% compared to his career mark of 45.1% with the Wolves. And his three-point accuracy is down slightly from his lifetime figure of 36.2% to 34.7%.

We have noticed that Love has been tentative in taking open shots at times, most notably in last Friday’s loss to Indiana which ended the wine and gold’s 12 game winning streak.

That and his decreased shooting percentage are the only problems we can find in the former UCLA star’s game.

There are some who think the Cavaliers would be better off with Tristan Thompson in the lineup instead of Love. They are showing a lack of understanding of basketball when making that statement.

The Clippers’ Doc Rivers said it correctly when talking about Love last week. You have to guard him. Even if he’s shooting for a lower percentage than his norm, defenses have to pay attention to him. And when he’s standing out around the third point line, opponents have to respect him, and that opens up driving lanes for Lebron James and Kyrie Irving.

That’s a key for the Cavaliers’ attack.

Conversely, Thompson doesn’t have to be guarded. He has to be kept off the offensive boards, where he is very effective, but most teams would be thrilled if the fourth year pro out of Texas would shoot anything beside a lay up or a dunk.

People who only look at the raw numbers only don’t understand this dynamic. Sometimes it is not what the player does, it’s what he is capable of doing that counts.

So, as long as Love is a threat, he is a very important piece of this Cavalier team.

It appears that Love realizes that his shot is off and he is putting time in to correct that. We also believe that James’ “fit out” comment had more to do with the tentative play of the former all-star. Love was told to be himself and not “fit in” during the preseason, and James sees him thinking too much and not playing his game.

In the meantime, just be patient. Love will regain his shooting touch, and when he does, this offense will be even better.

The Cavs are getting better on a game by game basis. Hopefully, that will continue well into the spring.

Cavs Are Improvising in Blatt’s Offense.

It has been said that basketball is to sports as jazz is to music.

The game has structure, but the players improvise, and they have to in order to be successful at it.

That’s why we think it is funny when we hear the Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t running the offense that coach David Blatt wants to run.

The wine and gold are getting more confident with Blatt’s system, which is designed to move the ball without a lot of dribbling, because we are seeing the passing game more and more each game. But the players still go back to one-on-one play from time to time.

Of course, that may be the coach’s compromise to the players, especially guys like LeBron James and Kyrie Irving who can probably break down the player guarding them at any point in the game.

Coaches want the players to be players, not robots. So, if a play is designed and the player sees someone open under the basket, good coaches want the man with the ball to make the right basketball play.

That was in evidence in the Cavs’ win over the Clippers a couple of weeks ago late in the game.

Blatt designed an inbound play late in overtime, with James as the inbounder. Apparently, the play was to get the ball to Kyrie Irving around the three-point line, so if someone was to be fouled, it would be the team’s best free throw shooter.

However, James saw Tristan Thompson break to the hoop, uncovered. So, we made the correct read and fired it to Thompson for a dunk, while being fouled. That’s what coaches want, break the play, especially if it leads to an easy hoop.

No coach wants to run set plays every time down the floor. It’s one way to get the players to carry a grudge against the guy in charge.

Of course, there are coaches who are control freaks and want to micro-manage everything their team does, but usually those coaches have a very short shelf life.

Most coaches probably don’t even want to call plays, because that would mean a lot of transition baskets, and their players would know where the ball should go and when it should move.

Take Wednesday’s win over Portland, which extended the Cavaliers’ winning streak to eight games. Irving was really the only player who had things going for Cleveland, and the coach and his teammates recognized that and got him the basketball.

The result was a 55 point night for the former first overall pick, and a win for the Cavs.

The previous game, only James and Irving were hitting shots vs. Detroit, so they carried the load.

To be sure, that wasn’t the coach’s design going into the game, but everyone adapted, and it led to a victory.

Blatt doesn’t want his team to have to depend on huge nights by his two all-stars to win every night, but right now, a few players are struggling to make shots (yes, Kevin Love is in a bit of a slump), so James and Irving are carrying the load. There is nothing wrong with that.

Tonight, perhaps J.R. Smith might get it going or Love can get hot, or Timofey Mozgov will be able to score inside, and the players will depend and feed off of them. That’s the kind of sport basketball is.

Early in the year, there was too much one on one play and too many players looking for their shots, and the offense struggled. That seems to be changing.

That means the Cavs are playing as a team, and selfishness is disappearing.

That’s a good thing and it could mean better things are yet to come.

Cavs Biggest Problems: Defense, Three Point Shooting

By the end of this week, the Cleveland Cavaliers will have played half of their NBA schedule, and no one thought they would be struggling this much.

They are currently sitting below the .500 mark at 19-20, far from the juggernaut many experts predicted before the season started with LeBron James returned to the team, and GM David Griffin traded for Kevin Love.

Yes, there are a lot of new players that started the season with the wine and gold, and the recent trades made by Griffin have added three more new players (one of whom, Iman Shumpert hasn’t played yet), and that makes continuity and knowing your teammates very difficult.

The biggest problems seem to be on the defensive end, where right now it appears there isn’t a consistent effort on a nightly basis.

Part of the problem is the lack of quickness on the players defending the perimeter. That problem means they play off of the opponent to stop penetration, and then cannot recover to contest the jump shot. This has led in part to allowing a 51.6% defensive field goal percentage thus far, second worst in the league behind only Minnesota.

It seems like teams hit an inordinate amount of three-point shots against the Cavs, but the wine and gold ranks 19th defensively against the long distance shot. That’s not great, but they are getting hurt inside the arc.

In terms of defensive efficiency, the Cavs rank as the sixth worst defense in the NBA. That needs to improve and quickly.

Yes, we understand that Love and Kyrie Irving aren’t good defensively, but you can cover that up by team concepts. Right now, the team scheme needs to be revamped because it’s not getting it done.

Cleveland allows the sixth most dunk attempts in the league, but don’t allow a lot of layup attempts. However, opponents convert a good percentage of those layup attempts, which Timofey Mozgov should help with.

Where the Cavs get killed is on jump shots of between 16 feet and the three-point line, as opponents are making 46.3% of their shots, two percent more than the next worst team Toronto. Besides the Raptors, no one else is giving up more than 42.6% of these shots.

That’s because the perimeter defenders are having a problem closing out on shooters.

Oddly, this ties into the other problem, the lack of three-point shooting. Cleveland ranks 18th in the NBA offensively, which is disappointing for a team with Irving, Love, Mike Miller, and James Jones on it. The thought before the season was with all the ability the Cavs have going to the basket, these guys would have plenty of good looks from beyond the arc.

Irving shot close to 40% in his first two years in the league, but shot just 36% last year and is sitting around that mark again this season.

Love came into the season hitting 36% of his shots from distance, but he’s dropped to 34% this season.

Miller has been over 40% each of the last three seasons, but he’s dropped to 35.3% in 2014-15.

Jones is a career 40% shooter that is making 36.8% of those shots this season.

The latter two are big problems because they don’t provide the perimeter defense the Cavs need, and they aren’t making as many shots as they have in the past. And quite frankly, if Miller and Jones aren’t hitting shots, there is no reason to put them on the floor.

David Blatt would be better served playing Joe Harris, who is a little better defensively, at this point in time.

At this point, the Cavs still seem to be using the roster turnover as an excuse, which it shouldn’t be half way through the season. They really need to just start playing hard, especially defensively.

One other thing. This team needs to get out and run, but if the other team keeps scoring, it’s difficult to get transition buckets.

The defense has to get fixed right now.

Griffin Makes the First Move To Improve Cavs Roster

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

James’ Injury Doesn’t Mean Cupboard is Bare

No doubt it has been a crazy week for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

They’ve lost three of their last four, including a loss on Christmas Day at Miami, and then received a beatdown a few days later at home to the lowly Detroit Pistons.

Then, rumors started to fly that the management wasn’t happy with the job coach David Blatt is doing, and that LeBron James apparently talked to Dwyane Wade about an on-court reunion if things didn’t get better with the Cavs.

And yesterday, it was announced by the club that James will miss two weeks with lingering back and knee issues.

Phew!

With James out, there is the usual Cleveland doom and gloom in the air, with people feeling the dream season they envisioned for the wine and gold is slowly slipping away.

First of all, remember that even with LeBron on the sidelines, the Cavs still have two all-stars on the court in Kyrie Irving, who is having his best season as a pro, and Kevin Love. It’s not as though they are the Philadelphia 76ers.

This should allow and encourage Love to take more of an aggressive role offensively. So far, the former Timberwolf has seen to struggle to find his niche with Cleveland, so this will give him an opportunity to do just that.

Hopefully, it will also make Dion Waiters be more aggressive too, at least in the concept of the offense. Waiters has gone back and forth this season, either shooting too much or not enough. Now, the Cavs need his points and he should try to score more, but not do it in the one on one style he has used too much this season.

In fact, it would be a good opportunity for Blatt to move Waiters back in the starting lineup.

James’ absence could also improve how Blatt’s offensive system flows.

This isn’t to say that LBJ is circumventing the coach’s game plan, rather we think Blatt has moved away from his motion based attack to accommodate the four-time MVP’s ability to take pretty much anyone in the league off the dribble.

Now, without him, perhaps the offense will stay with the passing game more often. We have noticed in several contests that moving the ball gets Cleveland the lead or back into a game, and then the squad reverts to isolation basketball and they have trouble.

The stretch early in the fourth quarter against the Heat was a perfect indication. The Cavs tied the game, then missed nine consecutive field goals, most without running offense, and couldn’t recover.

This is where Blatt can put his stamp on the team. He can go in the locker room tonight and tell this team it doesn’t matter if James is out, there is still plenty of talent on the current roster to continue to win while he is out.

As for James, many have suspected that he hasn’t been healthy since training camp, and this is a good opportunity for him to heal up and come back strong for the rest of the season. And when he does, the coach needs to do a better job managing his minutes.

He shouldn’t be playing more than 35 minutes per game.

It would be nice if the Cavs had the best record in the Eastern Conference right now, but it is more important if they are playing their best ball in March and early April, heading into the playoffs.

We think a lot of fans think the post-season starts in the couple of weeks. We haven’t even reached the halfway point of the season.

If this is the best the Cavs can do, then there is a problem. However, we feel they will get better as the season goes on.