Signing Bynum Well Worth the Risk

Less than a week ago, we posted a blog criticizing the Cleveland Cavaliers relative inactivity since the NBA signing period started on July 1st.

Not that Earl Clark won’t help, but that’s not exactly the big splash fans of the wine and gold were looking for.

However, GM Chris Grant has caught our attention, and we are pleasantly surprised.

First, he inked free agent G Jarrett Jack, who we liked when he came in the league as a rookie out of Georgia Tech. He’s a solid combo guard, averaging 11.0 points and 4 assists per game for his career.

Jack should combine with Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters to form a solid backcourt. There are 96 minutes per game available at guard, and these three players should be able to divide them up without a significant drop off in production.

He’s a lifetime 45% shooter from the field, and 36% from beyond the three-point line. He also makes free throws, connecting on 85% since he entered the league.

His last two seasons, he’s averaged 15.6 points and 12.9 points per game.

It is not difficult to see him getting significant minutes for Mike Brown next season.

He was a star in the playoffs for Golden State this year, scoring 17.2 a game, but we caution not to get to carried away with post-season numbers. His regular season stats speak for themselves.

Then, Grant took a gamble and signed C Andrew Bynum to a two-year contract with only a reported $6 million guaranteed. An excellent low risk, high reward move.

If Bynum can play, he’s a quality NBA center, who will be just 26 years old next season, and has averaged 11.7 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in his career.

In his one season playing for Mike Brown, the big man scored 18.7 points and grabbed 11.8 boards per night. That was two years ago.

Unfortunately, that was the last time Bynum played, as he missed all of last season after being traded to Philadelphia with knee problems.

So, the Cavaliers should proceed by thinking anything Bynum gives them will be a bonus.

That means they still have to sort out the logjam at the power forward and center spots, and they still need a small forward.

There were several reports that Grant isn’t done yet, but you have to figure any future moves will come from trades, as the Cavs have only the mid-level exception left (approximately $2.6 million).

You would have to think if a deal is to be made, it will involve one of the big men that the wine and gold are stockpiling. And if you can parlay one of those guys (Varejao?) for a legitimate small forward, you would have to think long and hard about it.

That doesn’t mean it was a bad signing. If Grant doesn’t take a chance on the former Laker, then he signs a few more minor free agents which probably don’t make a huge impact on the Cavaliers.

This way, he gets Bynum, who if healthy is a top five center in the NBA and will be with the team for two years. And if he isn’t the parties can part ways at the end of the season, and Grant is free to pursue someone else.

That’s a win-win scenario if there ever was one.

Grant was patient and seems to have done a solid job. Here’s hoping he’s still working to improve the 2013-14 edition of the Cavaliers. The guess here is he is.

Brown Has to Develop Players

When the Cleveland Cavaliers rehired Mike Brown as head coach for the 2013-14 season, they knew they were getting a strong defensive presence, something the team needed the past couple of years.

The Cavs allowed the sixth most points in the league last season, and they allowed the highest shooting percentage against in the NBA as opponents shot 47.6% vs. the wine and gold in 2012-13.

However, in this tenure with Cleveland, Brown will also be charged with developing a bunch of young players, something he didn’t have to do in his first term as Cavaliers’ head coach.

Yes, we know he made LeBron James into a solid, if not great defender, but James is a different story. He was touted as being one of the league’s best from the minute he was drafted into the NBA.

In Brown’s first year as Cavs head coach, the only young player who received a lot of playing time was Anderson Varejao, then in his second season with the team, and he only appeared in 48 games that season.

Brown’s second season with Cleveland included a roster with Shannon Brown and Daniel Gibson as rookies. Gibson ranked 10th on the team in minutes, while Brown, the Cavs’ first round pick played just 202 minutes for a team than went to The Finals.

Granted, the Cavaliers were in a different mode then. They were trying to win titles, and there wasn’t time available for rookies, and it wasn’t a priority for the head coach to develop players.

The only rookie to get significant playing time in Brown’s final three years as Cleveland’s coach was J.J. Hickson, who has developed into a journeyman at best.

In the coach’s one full season leading the Lakers, again, he was guiding a team built to win and win now. There wasn’t time to bring a rookie in and give that player significant minutes.

Now, the Cavalier squad that Brown is guiding is totally different. It is a roster full of young talented players that need to be finished off and learn how to win. Brown can help with the latter by emphasizing defense, but it is unclear if he can make the young core of talent better players.

This is only because there is no track record of the coach doing just that.

What Brown has proven in his coaching career is that he stresses defense and he can win when he has the best player on the floor, which he had most of his tenure as the bench boss because he had James and Kobe Bryant.

Can he make Kyrie Irving the NBA’s best point guard? Who knows?

Can he develop Dion Waiters into a championship quality #2 guard who can average 18-20 points per night?

Can he transform Tristan Thompson and Tyler Zeller into big men who can play big minutes for a playoff team?

Can he show Anthony Bennett the ropes and make him a contributing player as a rookie?

The answer to all of these questions is that we just don’t know. But Brown will need to do at least three of those things if the Cavs are going to return to the NBA’s elite teams. It’s just another reason he was a curious pick to be the new coach of the wine and gold.

It should have been something that was taken into consideration. If the coach can’t make the young core better, then it won’t be long until Brown is looking for another gig.

Cavs Collecting Talent, Still Need Leadership

The Cleveland Cavaliers surprised quite a few people with the first pick in the NBA draft.

After weeks of speculation about Nerlens Noel and Alex Len being GM Chris Grant’s top choice, the Cavs went with F Anthony Bennett from UNLV at number one.

The question mark on Bennett is whether or not he is a tweener, too small to play power forward and not quick enough to guard small forwards. He does have an NBA body, measuring at 6’7″ and 240 pounds. He’s big enough to not get pushed around by older NBA veterans.

On the other hand, looking at him from the offensive end, he could be a match up nightmare for opposing forwards because with his size, he can overpower many small forwards in the league, and if other teams put a power forward on him, he will be too quick for them.

However, he needs work on defense, which he will get from coach Mike Brown. He reportedly also needs help with his aggressiveness on the boards, which again, the coaching staff will work on.

One question that will need to be addressed with Brown is how well he works with young players. He didn’t seem to have a lot of patience with guys like Shannon Brown, but he will need to tolerate rookie mistakes from Bennett, and the team’s second first round pick in Sergey Karasev.

Karasev is 6’7″ and can shoot the basketball, given a score of 10 out of 10 in shooting on NBADraft.net. He is reportedly a good passer and has a good feel for the game, but he needs to get stronger. It was reported that Grant had coveted him for a while, and the rumor was the Cavs were going to trade up to #13 to get him, but he fell to them at #19.

The problem with the Cavaliers right now is still the absence of a veteran to give guidance to all the young players. That is a definite need, someone who can teach Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, and Dion Waiters how to win in the NBA.

Also, Bennett was a good player in college, but we don’t feel he was a dominant one. Last year, Anthony Davis was clearly the best player in the college game. You can’t say that about Bennett, and if you can’t dominate at the college level, what makes anyone think he can be a great pro.

That’s why we advocated dealing the first pick if at all possible.

Right now, Cleveland has one potentially great player in Irving, and a bunch of other young players who might develop into solid NBA players, or they might not.

And they seem to be collecting guards with Irving, Waiters, Karasev, and second round pick Carrick Felix. They still don’t have a big man who can put the ball in the basket on a consistent basis.

Perhaps Tyler Zeller will be that player in his second year, but no one can be sure of that.

We realize they still could make a trade or do a sign and trade before the season started. But right now, it is tough to project this team as the playoff team owner Dan Gilbert said he wanted.

Hate to put a damper this soon on draft night, but if there no more moves for the Cavs, it looks like another long winter for the wine and gold.

Here’s Hoping It’s An Improved Brown for Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers were horrible on defense this season, allowing a league high 47.6% shooting percentage by their opponents. That followed the 4th worst figure in the NBA the previous year, allowing foes to shoot at a 46.7% clip.

The easiest way for the wine and gold to improve in 2013-14 is to get tougher on defense, and have them rank closer to the league average in points per game allowed (98.1) than the worst mark in the NBA (Sacramento at 105.1). Cleveland allowed an average of 101.2 tallies per night.

So, GM Chris Grant and owner Dan Gilbert hired a great defensive mind as Byron Scott’s successor in former Cavs’ coach Mike Brown.

We say the franchise needed to move in a different direction.

It would have been great to get a coach who understands the entire game of basketball, and the organization didn’t need to worry about how former players feel about the hire. They needed to get someone who understood both defense and offense.

And someone who can get the most out of the team’s best player, Kyrie Irving.

Brown certainly is a great defensive mind, but in watching his team play with the ball during his tenure here, it was surprising that he made it to the NBA level of coaching without having a clue as to what to do on offense.

And that isn’t criticizing the give the ball to LeBron James and everyone else get out-of-the-way theory that Brown seemed to espouse. Heck, Scott used the same theory at the end of games with Kyrie Irving, and probably had more success because Irving converted some shots.

The wine and gold offense was very stagnant under Brown’s guidance, and that means a lot of standing around and very little motion within the offense. While most of the NBA depends greatly on the pick-and-roll, you still need some movement by the players to force opponents to be honest on the defensive end.

In Brown’s years in Cleveland, the Cavs ranked 15th, 19th, 24th, 13th, and 9th in points scored per game. The dramatic jump came when Brown hired John Kuester to handle the offense. In his lone full year in Los Angeles, the Lakers finished 15th in scoring, despite having Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum on the roster.

The offensive weakness really showed in the playoffs, when teams would double and triple team James, daring the Cavs to have someone else to step up. Brown never developed an attack that would have helped the other players succeed on offense.

And don’t buy the “no help for LeBron” crap, either? The Cavs’ best chance, with the team that lost to Orlando in the Eastern Conference finals, had Mo Williams, Delonte West, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Ben Wallace, and proven veteran scorers in Joe Smith and Wally Szczerbiak.

If you were drafting one team out of the Cavs and Magic, James and Dwight Howard would have been the top picks. When would the next Orlando player have been picked?

Brown will demand Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters play defense, and that’s a good thing. However, can and will he utilize two players who can be good offensive players and in Irving’s case, one who can be an elite point guard in the NBA.

It appears that Gilbert and Grant overreacted to the wine and gold’s lack of defense to hire a coach who will take care of that, but little else. They had a chance to get someone who could impact both sides of the court, but they missed the mark like a Dwight Howard free throw.

Does Scott’s Style Work for Cavs?

It was a frustrating week for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

First, they play great for two and a half quarters against the Miami Heat on Wednesday night, building a 27-point lead, but then blew all of it in a three-point loss that extending the Miami winning streak to 25 games.

Then on Friday night, the Cavs went to Houston and got completely blown out of the building, something that has happened far too many times this season.

That brought out the critics talking about the performance of Byron Scott as coach.

Scott provides a steady hand to a young group of players, but sometimes it appears his players are not listening to the message he is sending. Far too often, the wine and gold appear like they have no idea what to do to attack or stop the opponents.

It reminds of the scene in “Bull Durham”, when Crash Davis tells a befuddled manager how to handle his team. “They’re kids, scare ‘em”.

Sometimes it seems like Scott should take that same tact, and threaten these guys who don’t seem to put out a great effort every night, particularly against the lower tier teams in the NBA.

He did it in a recent game against the Washington Wizards; benching the starters four minutes into a game they were trailing 10-0 at that point.

However, you can’t do that every night. It gets old, and the players don’t feel it’s genuine when you use that all the time.

One of Scott’s few veteran players, Shaun Livingston, has been vocal about his teammates seeming lack of urgency when it comes to doing things needed to win basketball games.

What can GM Chris Grant do?

There are NBA coaches who do display a great deal of fire and intensity on a nightly basis, but those guys don’t have a long shelf life with a team. The coach who best fits that mold is Scott Skiles, who usually provides an initial spark when he takes over a team, but wears out his welcome after a year.

Byron Scott is not that kind of guy, and if you look at the coaches who have been on the job for a significant amount of time, you will find the kind of leaders who treat players like men, and pick their spots as to when they show the players who the boss is.

You would assume that Scott wants to take the persona that will keep him employed for a long time.

Unfortunately, the emotionless coach doesn’t play well with the fans, particularly if the team is losing.

You would hope that today’s players have respect for Scott because he played in the league, and was a good player for a long time on some great teams. Still, it would be better if they played like they respected him.

Perhaps, the coach is taking his time and working with Grant to get the kind of players he wants going forward. And when those players are in place, a consistent effort will be seen every night.

And behind the scenes, hopefully, Scott is stressing to Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters, and Tyler Zeller the way to play basketball on the professional level.

It is maddening for the fans when the Cavs perform so schizophrenic; it’s probably more frustrating for the head coach.

However, this is probably the last year Scott will get the benefit of the doubt from the fans, and perhaps more importantly, his owner.

Should Cavs Shut Down Kyrie?

For a city that hasn’t won a professional sports title in almost 60 years, Cleveland sports fans are a relatively patient group. When their teams are mediocre and floundering, they understand that rebuilding is needed and usually they can accept it.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are a good example.

After the shock of losing LeBron James to the Miami Heat, Cavs’ fans realized that it would take more than one year to get back to the playoffs. After watching a team which suffered through a 26 game losing streak the following season, supporters of the wine and gold rejoiced when Cleveland won the draft lottery and picked Kyrie Irving.

Irving was better than expected, winning rookie of the year honors, and the Cavaliers win total jumped from 18 wins in 2010-11 to 21 the next year in a lockout shortened season. They have matched that total so far this season in 61 contests, mostly by winning 12 of their last 21 contests.

Finally, Cavs’ basketball is worth watching again.

Irving is now an all-star, and many experts feel he will be one of the NBA’s ten best players in a year or two.

Then yesterday comes the news that the front office may shut Irving down for the rest of the season because he has a sore knee.

Maybe the former Dukie’s knee may be damaged worse than the public has been led to believe, but watching his performance in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s win over Utah, it looks like he’s pretty healthy.

If his knee is bad, he should be held out of games until it is ready to go, but if he can play on it without risking further damage, he should be out on the court and helping this team learn how to win again.

A possible decision to hold the reigning Rookie of the Year out of games smacks of tanking, a tactic other NBA teams, including the Cavs have used in the past.

It’s just not a good decision for the 2012-13 Cavaliers.

First of all, since the Memphis trade which brought Marreese Speights and Wayne Ellington to Cleveland, the wine and gold are playing well. They are learning how to win and they shouldn’t be looking to take a step backwards now. Especially because of the next point.

There is no consensus #1 pick in this year’s NBA draft. College basketball expert Jay Bilas, who also works on the draft coverage (talking about wingspan) recently said that Michigan’s Trey Burke is probably the player of the year in college this year, but the first selection in the draft will depend on that particular team’s need.

The point is that GM Chris Grant is going to have one pick in the top ten and another (assuming the Lakers can make the playoffs) in the mid teens, and there isn’t a franchise maker available this season. The Cavs will get good players, but not a slam dunk all-star.

So, it comes down to what is more important to the future of the franchise, winning games now and developing a winning mentality, or moving up a couple of spots in a weaker draft.

With Irving in tow, and Dion Waiters showing improvement every month, the Cavs need to learn how to win, to get used to the feeling. If you don’t think that’s important, then you haven’t been watching this basketball team since Speights and Ellington arrived.

They came from a winning atmosphere in Memphis and it has rubbed off on their new teammates.

No one is asking Kyrie Irving to play if he is injured, he is too valuable to the franchise for that. But holding him out of games to improve draft position isn’t what the Cleveland Cavaliers need right now if they want to start winning as soon as next season.

TIme for Cavs and Irving to Show Progress

It most certainly has been a disappointing year in sports in Cleveland. All three of our professional sports teams have pretty much stunk in 2012.

One bright spot fans on the north coast thought they had been watching the progress of the Cleveland Cavaliers. They had the NBA’s Rookie of the Year in Kyrie Irving and two other top four picks in second year forward Tristan Thompson and rookie Dion Waiters.

So far, the wine and gold have been a huge disappointment, starting the season at 5-22 and on pace for another season of less than 20 victories.

The biggest problem is not the physical ability to play the game, the Cavs have some talent. Look at the teams they have defeated this year.

The Lakers are struggling, but they have talent. The Clippers have one of the NBA’s best records at 19-6. Philadelphia made the playoffs last season. Atlanta currently has the third best record in the Eastern Conference.

All have lost to the Cavaliers, whose lone win over a bad team was an Opening Night win over the Wizards.

They also have close losses to Miami (16 -6), New York (18-6), and Memphis (16-6).

On the other hand, they’ve lost at home to teams like Toronto (8-19), Detroit (7-21), and Phoenix (10-15).

They seem to play to the level of their competition, which has to frustrate their coach, Byron Scott, to no end.

It is true that the Cavaliers are a young team, but it has to drive Scott crazy to see them play with teams like the Heat and Knicks on the road, and then get whipped at The Q by a team like Toronto.

They need to have that same drive and determination in games they can win, particularly at home, as they do against the big boys in the NBA.

Too often, it looks like they play with the attitude of we’re at home and since he can hang with the Heat, we’ll win tonight. They don’t have a professional attitude on a night-to-night basis.

They’ve lost 16 straight games within the Central Division!

Right now, the Cavaliers don’t have anything they can hang their collective hats on. They should, and it should be on the defensive end.

Cleveland has the worst defensive field goal percentage in the league, allowing opponents to make over 47% of their shots. Much of that problem stems from their best player, Irving, struggling at the defensive end.

There is no question that Irving is the team’s best player, now he needs to become a leader, even if he is just 20 years old. He needs to be the guy who takes Scott’s defensive mantra to the floor and show everyone else on the team that he buys in.

That’s the responsibility of being a great player instead of a very good player.

The young Cavaliers have to learn this is a business rather than a game and they need to win games at home against mediocre teams, which you can read as squads of their ilk.

When we see them beating the likes of the Bobcats, Hornets, Pistons, Bucks, etc. with regularity, then they will be turning the corner toward improvement.

The first step toward respectability and then the playoffs is winning the games you are supposed to win. The Cavs need to do just that and do it soon.

Cavs Tough to Evaluate

The Cleveland Cavaliers have hit the quarter mark of the NBA season, and to be sure, everyone in the organization thought they would be better than 4-17 at this point.

Still, it is difficult to see exactly where the wine and gold are in their second rebuilding season following the departure of LeBron James.

It is only their second year because the franchise had no back up plan for James’ departure, which if you want to criticize the organization for that, it is understandable.

But the injuries to two key players, Rookie of the Year Kyrie Irving and this year’s first round pick, Dion Waiters, make it difficult to judge whether or not any progress has been made.

They were supposed to be the centerpieces, along with Anderson Varejao, to any success and growth the Cavs would experience in 2012-13.

However, Irving has missed 11 games thus far and Waiters has missed the last four. Without two of their top scorers, it has been tough for Byron Scott’s team to score enough points to win.

In the off-season, we commented that the Cavalier roster was made up of a lot of good bench players, but unfortunately, for Cleveland these players have to start.

Players like Alonzo Gee and Tristan Thompson will carve out a long career in the NBA because they can be contributors, but they are miscast as starters, although it may be too early to say that about the latter.

With Irving and Waiters out, that means Scott is forced to start four players who should be playing 15-18 minutes per night off the bench.

That usually doesn’t translate into victories.

With both Irving and Waiters perhaps playing tomorrow night, the time to really start the evaluation process will start. If the Cavs hit the halfway point at the season at 8-33, then the questions about the direction of the team can start.

The injuries aren’t an excuse or reason for some evaluation though.

The biggest bright spot for the wine and gold has been the unbelievable play of Varejao, who leads the league in rebounding and is scoring almost 15 points per night.

It is time to stop saying the Brazilian big man is simply a hustle player and give him his due as a true basketball talent.

It’s not hustle that puts him in position for rebounds and easy lay ups off of the guard’s penetration, Varejao understands the game and has an instinct for it as well.

He’s a great player and deserves an all-star berth this year.

The disappointments have to be Thompson and his lack of progress and free agent swingman C. J. Miles.

Thompson will be haunted for a long time because he was the fourth selection in the 2011 draft, and he did average 8.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per night. However, he hasn’t taken a quantum leap forward in his second year, improving to just 8.9 points and 7.5 boards thus far.

GM Chris Grant hasn’t said it, but he has to be disappointed that whatever work the second year big from Texas put in this off-season hasn’t translated to more production.

Miles has done a little better as of late, but still missed six games due to Scott’s decision. He’s shooting just 34% from the floor and has taken just 11 free throws, least of any player who has logged 100 or more minutes with Cleveland this season. He was thought to be able to provide some points, but so far hasn’t been able to fill that need.

So, after the first quarter of the season, you would have to grade the Cavaliers with an incomplete. The injuries to its starting backcourt has made it tough to judge progress, and given them a built-in excuse after 20 games.

Cavs Thoughts: Waiters, Andy, and Lack of Bench

Before the NBA season started, we wondered about who would pick up the scoring load for the Cleveland Cavaliers. At least through the first six games, it looks like it will be rookie Dion Waiters.

And at this point, GM Chris Grant can tell all his critics “I told you so”.

As of today, Waiters is averaging 16.7 points in 29 minutes of action, shooting almost 49% from the floor and a crazy 53% from the three-point line.

Now, the shooting percentages will probably not last, but so far so good on the selection of the rook out of Syracuse. He’s been arguably the second best first year man in the league, after first overall pick Anthony Davis of New Orleans.

We understand though, that many rookies come into the league and set it on fire initially, only for the rest of the league to get a “book” on him and start taking away what the player likes to do. So, before fans send Waiters to Springfield, a little patience is needed.

We also expected last year’s rookie of the year, Kyrie Irving to improve a great deal in his second year, and so far he is doing just that. He’s elevated his scoring average to 23.3, a figure that if it continues will put him in the top ten in the NBA at the end of the season. He’s still passing out 6.5 assists per night while grabbing four rebounds.

We also have to mention the great play of Anderson Varejao, who is averaging 14 points and 14 rebounds per game.

When experts around the league talk about the Cavaliers void in talent when #6 of the Heat was playing here, they neglect to realize how good the Brazilian big man is.

Everyone talks about his all out style of play and his ability to take charges defensively, but the truth is Varejao is an excellent basketball player.

Not a jaw dropping player with out of this world athleticism who is going to wow people with flashy dunks and above the rim play, but as someone who knows how to play the game.

For proof, watch the game between the US Olympic team and Brazil this summer. You can make a very good case that Varejao was the second best player on the court that night, behind only LeBron James. He makes an impact on virtually game he plays. That’s why it is so important that he stays healthy.

Coach Byron Scott and Grant both understand how important the big man is to this franchise.

One problem that needs to be rectified is the play of the bench, which after six games has been horrible. If Scott can’t come up with at least decent production from the subs, the starters will not be able to stay fresh as the season goes on.

The best players from this group has been Daniel Gibson, who can play when healthy, but isn’t that often. He averaging 8.7 per night with his normal good shooting. Rookie Tyler Zeller has also done a good job with 7.5 points and 4.5 boards a game, but he’s missed the last two contests with a concussion.

C.J. Miles was supposed to the leader of the second unit, but he has struggled, shooting just 23% while scoring 4.5 points a game. Perhaps switching him with Alonzo Gee, a player who has been very effective as a sub would help.

That’s no slight to Gee, who is a very good defender and is scoring 10.7 ppg, and certainly his minutes (31 per contest) should be cut, but Scott needs to get Miles going.

All of these thoughts are based on just six games, so it isn’t time to panic, that is unless you are the Lakers and you put together a roster of players who don’t match with each other so you fire the coach.

There is still plenty of season to go. Even at 2-4, this is a team that should be better after the calendar turns a page to 2013 than it is right now.

A Little Worried About Waiters

The Cleveland Cavaliers will not start the regular season until the end of this month, but it would be nice to see something more out of rookie guard Dion Waiters during the exhibition contests.

Waiters, the 4th overall pick out of Syracuse in June’s draft, was considered a gamble at that choice. Most scouts had him in the top ten choices, but very few had him in going in the first five picks.

The rookie had to be pulled out of one game because coach Byron Scott felt he didn’t have a grasp of the plays, and has largely been inconsistent. He’s shooting just 36% from the floor, and there is a possibility he won’t start opening night.

To be fair, last year’s rookie of the year, Kyrie Irving, is shooting 34.3% in the games that don’t count.

Still, other rookies picked after Waiters are making a bigger impact thus far. The guy many people wanted to take with the fourth pick overall, Golden State F Harrison Barnes, is shooting 50% and scoring 10.4 per contest.

Granted the regular season is still over a week today, and there will be five and a half months to evaluate Waiters, but there certainly can be some concern.

Yes, we know that Scott was also the fourth pick in the draft and said he didn’t start until halfway through his rookie year, but he was drafted by the Lakers, and his teammates included Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, and Jamaal Wilkes.

Also, Scott was a solid NBA player, but he was never considered an elite player.

GM Chris Grant and Scott need Waiters to be the second building block (with Irving) in the Cavs’ return to playing in the post-season. They need more than a solid performer.

And don’t forget that the rook was out of shape going into the summer league, another thing that raises eyebrows.

In today’s NBA, title contending teams need three all-star type players if they hope to mount a serious challenge to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

The Cavaliers had three picks in the top four of each of the last two drafts and right now can only claim Kyrie Irving as a future star.

This is not to write off either Tristan Thompson or Waiters because the former has played just one season and the latter hasn’t yet played a regular season game.

The greatest improvement many players make is between their first and second year, so we should have a better read on Thompson after this season, and he’s averaging 8 points and 7 rebounds in a little over 20 minutes in the pre-season.

It appears he can be the double-double guy Scott hoped for as early as this year.

Again, this is not to call Waiters a bust. It’s far too early for that. However, he certainly hasn’t had that “wow” moment yet during exhibition play. He had one really good game, which came right after he was yanked out of the game, but hasn’t followed up with another one.

When Waiters was drafted, we said this was a huge gamble by Grant that could either pay off handsomely or cost the GM his job down the line.

Right now, Grant should feel a little uneasy. Waiters needs to show more, both for himself and for the Cavalier franchise.