Left On His Own, Altman’s Been Fine

With the Cleveland Cavaliers were going through their recent 10 game losing streak, the natives started getting restless. Should the franchise replace GM Koby Altman, who has been at the helm since June 2017, taking over for David Griffin.

Since Griffin was the architect of the only championship team the city has seen in the last 56 years, he is revered here so Altman faced an uphill trek because of that. And it didn’t help that he is the GM of record on the Kyrie Irving trade to Boston, which many feel had owner Dan Gilbert’s fingerprints all over it.

He did pull off the megatrade at the trade deadline of the 2018 season, bringing George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance Jr. to the Cavs, a deal that if isn’t made, the wine and gold probably do not make their fourth consecutive Finals appearance. Add to that, Nance has become one of the current team’s best players.

We feel in evaluating Altman, we should be talking about the man guiding the rebuilding of the franchise. It is difficult because early on in his tenure, it is difficult to judge what moves were made by Gilbert and which were made by Altman.

For example, we feel the signing of Kevin Love and the hiring of John Beilein as coach were moves made by ownership. Both were mistakes. Love’s contract seems to be an untradeable albatross, although we remember former GM Jim Paxson was able to move Shawn Kemp’s deal. And Beilein was an ill fit for the pro game, and left after half a season.

Several of Altman’s early moves were jettisoning veterans from the championship team for younger players. Kyle Korver brought Alec Burks, Hill brought John Henson and Matthew Dellavedova. Burks and Rodney Hood brought some spare parts and draft picks.

Altman has bad luck in the draft lottery too. The prize pick in the Irving deal, that of the Brooklyn Nets, was sabotaged a bit by Nets’ coach Kenny Atkinson, who made the team somewhat competitive, so it turned out to be the 8th overall choice. Would Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who went 11th, been a better choice? Perhaps, but over the last year or so, Sexton has shown he can be a solid NBA player.

Cleveland had the third worst record in the NBA in the 2018-19 season, but they fell to fifth in the draft and selected Darius Garland. The GM could be criticized for picking small point guards in consecutive drafts, but in this second year, Garland has shown signs he can be a player. And he added Dylan Windler late in the first round, and traded three second round picks for Kevin Porter Jr.

Porter looked like a solid pick, but the issues that caused a talented guy to drop to the last pick in the first round rose up again, and Altman was forced to deal hi to Houston.

The Andre Drummond situation seems to be a negative for Altman right now, but why not take a shot at getting a talented big man for virtually nothing. And when Drummond didn’t sign an extension, Altman got involved in the James Harden deal and picked up 22-year-old Jarrett Allen, who appears to be an all star in the making.

We know you cannot cancel parts of the schedule, but the Cavaliers just went through a brutal stretch of a schedule in which they played six games against top four seeds in each conference, and four more against likely playoff teams. Predictably, they lost 14 of 16.

Altman hasn’t been perfect, but no, repeat no GM is. He deserves to go through another trading deadline and draft to say what progress the Cavs can make in 2021-22. Besides, if he were to be replaced, it would likely mean a new GM would want to hire a new head coach.

Just think, since Altman got the gig, he inherited Tyronn Lue, and he was replaced by Larry Drew, John Beilein, and now Bickerstaff. J.B. will be the first coach to have an entire season since Lue guided the franchise to their fourth straight Eastern Conference crown.

There are more plusses than minuses right now for Altman, especially since the owner seems to not be involved. He deserves to see how it will play out.

LeBron’s Version Is A Bit Of Hindsight.

With LeBron James coming back to Cleveland as a member of the Lakers tomorrow night, the events of the summer of 2017 is being rehashed, particularly the trade of Kyrie Irving to Boston.

As we said and thought at the time, despite the narrative LeBron and his camp what to put out there now, this is what we think.

First, we don’t believe James and Irving could have co-existed in 2017-18, because Irving was tired of playing with James, and having two all star players not getting along is a recipe for disaster.

Look at what happened in Chicago with Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose. Remember the whole Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant issues with the Lakers. You can’t force two guys to get along when one party doesn’t want it to work.

Second, the Irving trade rumors came before the ’17 Draft, and when David Griffin was still GM. Was Griffin working because owner Dan Gilbert wanted Irving out? Or did Irving ask the organization for a deal?

We believe Griffin knew the only way to improve the roster, and make it deeper, was to move a very valuable commodity in Irving. Getting a solid point guard in return and adding another young, athletic player would help the Cavs win another title.

That was supposedly the move with Phoenix, with Cleveland getting Eric Bledsoe and the 4th pick in the 2017 draft.

Were talks really going on with the Suns? We don’t know for sure, but the rumors were out there.

It was reported that James did not want the deal to happen, although, behind the scenes, he was perfectly happy with the move, because he thought (and we agree) that Irving plays for himself first, which is against James’ style.

However, when he was asked if he would commit to the Cavs long term if Irving was not moved, James declined.

Now, thinking about this at the time (not now with hindsight being 20/20), why would you hold on to Irving without a commitment from James to keep the “Big Three” together for a few more years?

If he wanted to, James could’ve killed the deal if we would have been willing to sign a contract extension.

Without that, the Cavs were looking at a rebuild after the 2017-18 season anyway, because a Irving-Kevin Love led team isn’t going to win an NBA title.

Look, he get that James didn’t (doesn’t) trust Dan Gilbert, and he has every reason not to, but Gilbert had to do what was best for the future of the Cavaliers. And if Brooklyn would have played to expectations a year ago, maybe Luca Doncic, Jaren Jackson, or another top rookie is in Cleveland today.

Kyrie Irving is a popular player in today’s NBA. He’s flashy, he can handle, and he is a tremendous finisher at the rim. In short, he’s a highlight reel player.

However, he’s a poor defender and not exactly a great or willing passer.

It’s not in James’ best interest image wise to say he was in favor of the Cavaliers moving on from Kyrie to improve ball movement and defense, which would have helped in beating Golden State.

Having James and Irving at odds going into last season would not have helped the wine and gold. Getting prepared for life after LeBron is just being prudent.

Now, the plan didn’t work because the Brooklyn draft pick wound up being the 8th pick and not a top five choice.

That’s the biggest problem with the trade.

Blaming Lue Is Lazy Way Out

With the Cavaliers losing the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors, there is, of course a lot of scrutiny on the organization, and what the Cavs will do going forward.

There is the matter of whether or not GM David Griffin will stay on in that capacity, and what changes in the roster will be made for the 2017-18 season.

One of the things the lazy fans and media have talked about is the possibility of a coaching charge, which we find ridiculous. You cannot point to anything Tyronn Lue did in The Finals to cost the Cavaliers the series.

Is this to say Lue is the greatest coach in the NBA? No, but we would put him in the upper tier of head coaches in the Association.

He was hamstrung against Golden State because his bench contributed basically nothing, so he was manipulating his reserves in order to get his starters some rest without the game getting out of hand. That causes him to be in a defensive coaching style.

On the other hand, a criticism of Lue was that he didn’t develop some of the players on the bench during the regular season. The Cavaliers played very well in February and Derrick Williams was a solid contributor during that month, yet he disappeared in March and throughout the playoffs.

We don’t go to practice, so we don’t know if something happened to cause Williams to fall out of favor, but he is the type of player who it seems could have helped against the Warriors.

Again, just because we think Lue is one of the NBA’s better coaches, doesn’t mean there aren’t things he should do differently next season.

The first is to establish more of a defensive mindset from the start of training camp. After the calendar switched to 2017, the ability to stop opponents from scoring fell greatly.

Once the playoffs started, the Cavs used some different schemes and the defense improved, that worked, but it shouldn’t come down to that.

And it has been reported that the head coach himself takes more of a role in the defense once the regular season ends. It starts with the individual, but perhaps there should be more of a mindset on that side of the ball right from the get go.

The second change that needs to be made is monitoring minutes, especially for James, who will turn 33 years old during next season.

In conjunction with this, the coaching staff must come up with a plan to play better when James isn’t in the game.

Even when James is on the bench, Lue still has Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love on the floor, and it shouldn’t be difficult to make sure those two are on the floor when James isn’t.

The ball movement that is present when James is on the floor seems to stop when the best player in the game isn’t on the floor. The coach has to insist the same style of play occurs no matter who is on the court.

That was also evident in the playoffs when Irving was playing iso ball, and his shot wasn’t going down. That isn’t pretty basketball, in fact, it is conducive to the other team going on a run.

The point here is Lue was good enough to guide the Cavs to a title a year ago, and this year, some of his moves didn’t work because his bench didn’t help him out.

So save the hot takes to get a new coach. Tyronn Lue is the man for the job.

Cavs’ Decisions? Keep Emotion Out Of It.

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost the NBA Finals last night, dropping Game 5, 129-120, thus losing the series, four games to one.

Now, comes the silly season for the NBA and their fans. The draft, which the Cavaliers currently will not be part of, is in two weeks, and then the free agency period starts.

The first thing the Cavs’ front office will do, and we say the front office, because GM David Griffin is currently without a contract, is act without emotion, something fans cannot and will not do.

This particularly pertains to Kevin Love, who is consistently the team’s whipping boy for the fans. If the wine and gold do not win, it is obviously Love’s fault.

However, Love averaged 16 points, 11 rebounds, and two steals in The Finals, shooting 39% from behind the three point line. And he had the best defensive rating on the team.

This is not to say Love should not be traded. Our belief is anyone can be traded if the return in right.

For example, right now, no one would want to deal Kyrie Irving, correct? But if New Orleans called and offered Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins, you’d make the trade.

Kevin Love is a top 25 player in the NBA, if you move him, you have to get somebody who’s a better player. And that’s not easy to do.

You would have to replace Love’s size (he’s the only other offensively skilled big man on the team besides LeBron James), his three point shooting, his rebounding (he led the Cavs), and his passing.

Good luck with that.

What the Cavaliers need to do is upgrade their bench to contend with the Warriors, because Kyle Korver, Iman Shumpert, Channing Frye, and Deron Williams provided little in The Finals.

Those four contributed just 49 points combined in the five contests. Compare that to the 97 points supplied by Andre Iguodala, Shawn Livingston, and David West. You can make a very good argument that this is where the series was lost.

We believe Cleveland needs to get longer and more athletic on the bench. By longer, we mean players who are in the 6’6″ to 6’9″ range, with quickness and the ability to make an open shot.

Yes, they should be looking for “three and D” players.

Derrick Williams, who was missing against Golden State, would seem to be an ideal player. It is a little curious that Tyronn Lue didn’t find a role for him in The Finals.

When Cleveland had a great record in February, Williams was a key contributor.

This is not to hammer on Lue, who did a solid job considering he wasn’t getting anything from his non-starters.

We would guess some of the roster changes will come naturally. James Jones will probably retire, and he may be joined by Richard Jefferson, who hinted at doing so last season.

Will Deron Williams return, and what about Frye and Korver. The latter two provide shooting, so they would be useful, but they should be in a diminished role.

Also, Tristan Thompson needs to be more of an offensive player. He must develop a reliable shot from ten feet out so defenses have to pay attention to him.

As we said previously, the front office needs to step away for a few days, while the emotion of losing is still raw, and make decisions to get back to The Finals with a chance to win a title.

It could be an interesting summer at Quicken Loans Arena.

The Transformation Of JR Smith

It has been said many times that no player on the Cleveland Cavaliers have had to sacrifice more than Kevin Love.

Love was a star in Minnesota, the guy the entire offense ran through. He was a high scorer too, averaging over 26 points per game twice in his Timberwolf days.

With the Cavs, Love became a “third wheel” behind LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. His scoring dropping to around 16 points in Cleveland, before climbing to 19 this season.

Many people say Love became a glorified stretch four, a spot up three point shooter.

That’s crazy, of course, but we guess people figured he was going to continue to average 26 points a game with the Cavs, which would be almost impossible.

However, another member of the wine and gold has sacrificed greatly, and it largely goes unnoticed.

When GM David Griffin made the three way deal early in 2016 with Oklahoma City and New York, it was thought Griffin had his eye on Iman Shumpert, a wing defender, who was also athletic enough to run the floor.

Smith was regarded as a throw in on the deal, a player put in to balance the salary cap ramifications, basically (it was said at the time) if you want Shumpert, you have to take Smith.

JR’s reputation was that of a troublemaker. He has tremendous talent. He was sixth man of the year in 2012-13 when he averaged 18.1 points for the Knicks, a season in which New York won their division and lost in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

As the Knicks fortunes went south, so did Smith’s concentration. He liked the NYC nightlife, his scoring average and shooting percentage dropped, and the Knicks management wanted to unload him.

His reputation on the court was that he never met a shot he didn’t like, and fired the ball up at times to make his coaches grimace.

We remember NBA writers saying at the time of the trade, that when JR is on a good team, he is fully engaged, which will help him with the Cavs, they were a team ready to make a title run.

In game one of the Eastern Conference finals vs. Atlanta, Smith stole home court from the Hawks with an incredible shooting display, scoring 28 points by hitting 8 of 12 from beyond the three point line.

Smith can still knock down shots, but he is the guy Tyronn Lue turns to in stopping the opponents best wing scorer. He did a great job on Paul George in the first round, and gave DeMar DeRozan fits in the conference semifinals.

He had a thumb injury which required surgery this season so his scoring average dropped to under 10 per night (8.6) and his three point shooting fell from 40% to 35.1%.

But he is still a key member of the Cavs because of his defensive prowess, and it doesn’t hurt that fans around northeast Ohio love him. People here don’t care about your past, they judge you on how you treat them.

His emotional reaction to winning the NBA title on Father’s Day a year ago is something we will never forget. He thanked his dad for always standing by him.

So, while Love has certainly subdued his game in order to win, don’t forget how JR Smith has went from a player considered undisciplined to one his coach trusts to do a great job on defense against the top scorers in the NBA.

Sacrifice and unselfishness. Lue and LeBron James always talk about it and Smith is a grand example of what they mean.

Can Cavs-Warriors Be Analyzed Accurately?

It seems like a constant debate in Cleveland, Ohio every spring. Can the Cavaliers beat the Golden State Warriors?

Last year, there was a great deal of hand-wringing over this, but as we said then, in reality, the wine and gold doesn’t have to worry about Steve Kerr’s team until the Warriors win the Western Conference and the Cavs are the Eastern Conference champs.

Look, we understand Golden State is a great team. They won the title in 2014-15 in six games over Cleveland, and lost in seven games to the Cavs last year. You don’t get to the NBA Finals two years in a row unless you are an excellent squad.

And yes, the same can be said for Tyronn Lue’s club.

The question has gained traction again after the NBA trading deadline came and went, and Cleveland added Deron Williams and Andrew Bogut, who were waived and traded/bought out of their current situations and joined the Cavaliers.

When JR Smith and Kevin Love get healthy, Lue can legitimately go 12 deep with a solid core of talent.

Point guard? He can use Kyrie Irving and Williams.

#2 guard? He has Smith, Iman Shumpert, and Kyle Korver at his disposal.

Small forward? James is still the best player in the sport, and another recent acquisition, Derrick Williams provides incredible athleticism in reserve, and Richard Jefferson doesn’t seem like he is 36 years old.

The Cavs have Love and Channing Frye to play the four, and Tristan Thompson and Bogut who can handle the middle.

Does all the depth added by GM David Griffin translate into being better than a Golden State team that added one of the premier players in the sport in Kevin Durant.

To do that, the Warriors lost some of their famous depth, including Bogut, who is now wearing the wine and gold.

Can the Cavs repeat as champs if they play Golden State again?

First, the Warriors will probably have a tougher time getting through the West than Cleveland will, because of the presence of San Antonio, Houston, and the LA Clippers.

All three teams are better than the Cavs chief challengers, the Celtics, Wizards, and Raptors.

The other factor is it is difficult to evaluate the Warriors because of two things, one of which is the LeBron factor.

James is still the preeminent player in the game, and it is difficult to bet against him in a seven game series. When he is making a decent number of shots from outside, he is impossible to guard.

You also have to figure in the rest of the league’s fear of the Warriors.

We believe one of the reason’s the Warriors are 50-11 this season is most of the team’s in the NBA don’t play the style needed to beat them.

They try to play the Warriors’ style, which is not effective because they are better at it than everyone else, so you will probably lose.

You don’t see many opponents getting physical with Golden State, bumping them on picks, challenging Steph Curry defensively, etc.

Some of that is most team don’t have the personnel to do that like the Cavs do, but we feel some of that is the intimidation factor. Other teams are afraid of the Warriors embarrassing them.

The Cavaliers do not have that fear. They know they can beat Golden State. They lost in six games without Irving and Love two years ago, and overcame a 3-1 deficit to win last year.

We understand that on paper, the Warriors still look like the better team, but as we learned last June, the game is not played on paper.

That’s why it is tough to analyze a third title matchup.

Cavs’ Injuries Open Up Opportunity For McRae

The Cleveland Cavaliers are having players dropping like flies in the past week, and the best thing about that is that it is happening now, instead of March or April, right before the playoffs start.

Already playing one man short because of the Mo Williams situation, the wine and gold played the last two games without Kevin Love, who will be back (hopefully) on Friday, and then Chris Andersen blew out his ACL in practice.

Then they lost JR Smith to a broken thumb during Tuesday overtime victory in Milwaukee, and Smith will be out about 4-6 weeks, so he should be back around the beginning of February.

We have maintained since the beginning of training camp that the opening night roster would not be the same as the players who will take the floor for the first playoff game in April.

Mostly because we couldn’t see Tyronn Lue going into the post-season with a rookie back up point guard or using Iman Shumpert as Kyrie Irving’s replacement for about 12 minutes per night.

Teams trying to repeat as champions can’t use rookies in key roles.

The bright side of these injuries is it will give some players who haven’t been getting a lot of time on the floor an opportunity to either contribute or show Lue and GM David Griffin they can’t be counted on for the playoffs.

Mike Dunleavy has had a slow start to the regular season, perhaps trying to fit in to his new teammates. With the injuries, he has started to get more playing time, and is starting to knock down shots. He’s hit 46% of his three point shots over the last five games.

Dunleavy’s spot on the roster probably wasn’t in question, but it is good to see him getting more comfortable in the wine and gold.

The biggest opportunity with the players being out is in front of Jordan McRae, who seems to have played his way into Lue’s doghouse.

We had high hopes for McRae coming into training camp as a possible replacement in the rotation for Matthew Dellavedova. Our bet is that Lue wants McRae to play like the rest of the team, that is to say move the ball on offense and play solid defense.

McRae came into a close game against Memphis (Cavs were down by five) last week. He immediately shot the first three times he touched the ball, and within a couple of minutes, the Grizzlies’ lead shot up to 12.

Not the impression you want to make when you finally get some playing time.

McRae shoots the ball the same number of times as Dunleavy per game, and with a lot less minutes.

The young man would be better off putting a little more DeAndre Liggins into his game. Liggins has gained time and passed McRae in Lue’s eyes because of his ability to defend.

We understand that McRae is a scorer, that’s how he got to the NBA from the D-League. But in the NBA, playing time is distributed based on being able to defend. And that’s what McRae needs to show the coaching staff.

If McRae doesn’t impress the staff, he could be released with contracts become guaranteed or moved with either Andersen’s or Williams’ contract for a piece the Cavs need.

The opportunity is there for Jordan McRae, it’s up to him what he does with it.

Adding Experience To Bench Should Help Cavs.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are still the NBA World Champions, but they didn’t stand pat this off-season.

Nor should they have. GM David Griffin made some subtle changes to the roster, and all of them look to be solid moves, except for the lack of a backup point guard, and our guess by the time the playoffs roll around, that will be addressed as well.

Obviously, the starting five was untouched (assuming JR Smith is signed soon), so once again the wine and gold will be led by LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love, with Tristan Thompson providing defense and rebounding, and Smith stretching the floor and also providing better defense than you would think.

Griffin added two veterans to the bench in G/F Mike Dunleavy (36) and C Chris Andersen (38). While many people always think get younger, adding these two vets to the bench to go with Richard Jefferson (36), who was a major contributor last year, is a great move.

Think about it. The problem for older players is maintaining production over 25-30 minutes per game and over an 82 game season.

These players don’t need to do this for the Cavs.

All Tyronn Lue needs from any of this trio is to provide no more than 10 minutes per game of solid basketball, and based on their past, it should be no problem for them to do just that.

You can add another older player, Channing Frye (33), to that mix as well. And we all saw the impact he made in the post-season a year ago.

Older players are great coming off the bench because a coach has a reasonable idea what he is going to get from those guys. Inexperienced players can be up or down. They could give the team a big lift or be down right awful.

Which is why Lue probably doesn’t want to rely on rookie Kay Felder as Irving’s back up.

And all of the veterans, outside of Andersen, can shoot the rock, and the Cavs management loves to surround James with guys that can knock down shots from behind the three point line and Dunleavy is certainly capable of that, making 38% for his career.

The only thing we would like to see if another big man make the regular season roster.

Right now, you have Thompson and Love as the starting center and power forward, with Frye and Andersen backing up. Frye is better than you think defensively, and “Birdman” is definitely a banger.

There would seem to be an opening for another C/PF, and the candidates would be 6’10” Eric Moreland, 6’9″ Cory Jefferson, both third year pros, and 6’9″ Jonathan Holmes, a first year player out of Texas.

One of those guys could take over the Sasha Kaun role of last year.

We are also anxious to see how G Jordan McRae will perform in the exhibition games. McRae can definitely score, as he showed in the regular season finale last season, but can he do the other things, like move the ball and play defense.

He will need to do those things to get minutes once the games start for real. It is our contention that it was McRae’s presence that convinced the team to part with Matthew Dellavedova this summer.

And we are also curious to see how winning a title enhances the games of Irving and Love. Our bet is their confidence will be out of this world because they are champions and their games will take a quantum leap.

For the first time in 52 years, a Cleveland team will be defending a title. We think this group is up to the task.

Cavs Get Older, But Better

It is incumbent for a champion to not stand pat, and the Cleveland Cavaliers are no exception.

Even though they delivered the first championship for the Cleveland area in 52 years, there is no question every other team in the NBA is now gunning for them, especially the squad they defeated in the NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors.

They signed one of the league’s top five players (probably top three) is Kevin Durant, to go with a unit that won an NBA record 73 games this past season.

We all know by now the wine and gold lost two players in free agency, Timofey Mozgov going to the Lakers, and Matthew Dellavedova to Milwaukee in a sign and trade scenario for a trade exemption.

Using that trade exemption and preying on the Bulls need to shed salary to sign Dwyane Wade, GM David Griffin picked up another veteran shooter for the bench in Mike Dunleavy.

Soon to be 36 years old, the 6’9″ former third overall pick is a career 38% shooter from behind the arc, but he’s been improving with age, making 40% of his shots from distance since turning 30.

To be sure, the Cleveland bench has a lot of age on it, adding Dunleavy to Richard Jefferson (36), Mo Williams (33), and Channing Frye (33). But if you limit these guys to 15-20 minutes per night, they can be highly effective for Tyronn Lue.

It appears the bench will get another veteran soon, as Lue intimated the organization is talking to another of LeBron James’ former Miami teammates in big man Chris Andersen, who just turned 38.

He’s a guy who doesn’t need to score, just wanting to play defense and rebound. He grabbed 4.5 per game in 18 minutes with Memphis last season.

As we have said before, we also expect Jordan McRae to be a rotation player for 2016-17 too, getting many of Dellavedova’s minutes.

Rookie Kay Felder has shown in the summer league that he has some ability, but when you are the defending champs (that sounds awesome, no?), it will be difficult for Felder to see minutes in Cleveland.

More likely, he will be getting a lot of minutes for the Canton Charge.

We would like to see the Cavs somehow get another younger player to help out next season. We like Terrence Jones, who played with Houston last season.

Jones will start the season at 24 years old and is 6’9″. He averaged 12 points per game in his second year in the league, but saw his minutes drop a year ago.

The league is putting a premium on guys from 6’7″ to 6’9″ who can play out on the floor, and Jones fits that bill.

He is a free agent, and might be worth a look for the Cavaliers.

Of course, the most important signatures that Griffin needs to get on paper are James and JR Smith, who are both free agents. It has been reported that Smith is close to a deal, and James has already told the world he will be back to defend the title.

The Cleveland Cavaliers appear to be better than they were the night they won their first NBA Championship, and we doubt Griffin is finished trying to improve the team, because he is always looking.

To be sure, he will be creative in getting this done.

Cavs’ Play Should Make Griffin Nervous.

Now that it has been about two months since Cavaliers’ GM David Griffin decided to make a change in the coaching ranks, the results haven’t been earth shattering.

Nor have they brought instant success, because their record the day Blatt was canned was 30-11, and since then they have gone just 20-9.

Advantage Blatt.

More so, Griffin talked about how there was no team happiness when they won games, that the Cavs needed to bring joy and togetherness to the locker room, and more “kumbaya” stuff, we guess.

Instead, if you listen to different media reports, now you have players pointing fingers at one another, mostly about selfish play and lackluster efforts.

Not to mention a virtual collapse on the defensive end of the floor, led by new assistant coach Mike Longabardi, hired from the perennial great on that end of the floor Phoenix Suns.

To be fair, Griffin’s move was a tremendous gamble, he did what he felt was right for his team. On the other hand, he’s got to be very nervous right about now.

We said at the time that making such a move made a championship the only alternative to justify the firing.

Lue was said to be a man who would hold the players more accountable, but really, has anyone seen any evidence of that?

He and Griffin wanted the wine and gold to play at a faster pace, and their points per game average has gone up, but it seems that is at the expense of effort at the defensive end of the floor, which on some night’s has resembled a colander.

It is possible to be a good defensive team and push the tempo, and all you have to do is look at the defending champions to see an example.

Also, we aren’t convinced that the faster pace would work in a possible rematch with the Warriors if it comes to that this June.

We all witnessed (pun intended) San Antonio’s win over Golden State on Saturday night and yes, the Spurs did play very good defense, but they also played the game at their pace, which the Cavs did in winning games two and three of The Finals last summer.

We believe that if you try to play up tempo against the champs, you play into their hands. They do it better than you, and they will wear you out.

For all of the talk about the locker room culture, the Cleveland locker room doesn’t seem very happy.

JR Smith called out his team after a terrible Sunday afternoon performance against Washington.

And according to Plain Dealer beat writer, Chris Haynes, there wasn’t joy amongst the team after Kyrie Irving’s 33 points, 1 assist outing in a win over Dallas a week ago.

Also, we would bet some teammates are irritated with LeBron James and his smiling conversation with Dwyane Wade at halftime of a game in which the wine and gold were having their collective heads handed to them.

So, it doesn’t seem like Griffin’s move has galvanized the locker room. And it doesn’t seem like the team has responded to the coaching change by playing better.

If the Cavs don’t get back to The Finals, Griffin will be the man that has to answer questions as to why they “took a step back”.

That’s why he should be a little nervous right about now.