Status Quo Not Working For Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers are in need of a jolt to their senses. After a stretch in which the wine and gold went 18-1 and looked every bit like a trip to their fourth straight NBA Finals was assured, they have looked, well, terrible.

The entire roster is responsible too, from coach Tyronn Lue, to all the players, and yes, that includes LeBron James.

We watched yesterday’s debacle against Oklahoma City and noticed several disturbing things.

The first was the terrible defensive concepts the Cavs use. There is no help concepts being used, they don’t force offensive players into help, and they play underneath the pick and roll more often than not.

We have watched basketball for a long time and we have never seen a player without the ball score. Yet, the Cavaliers consistently stay connected to the man they are supposed to be guarding, while the player with the ball is going to the basket.

This happens time and time again.

In the first half, Isaiah Thomas was guarding Russell Westbrook on the wing and Jae Crowder was near the paint to lend help. Instead, Thomas allowed Westbrook to go baseline for an uncontested lay up.

That’s horrific team defense.

Lue seems to be so passive, which is fine when the team is winning, but this team needs a spark.

In the first half, Thomas went to the basket and was fouled, which wasn’t called. That’s fine, referees miss calls. The very next play, Thomas was called for a touch foul defending Westbrook, who missed a jump shot.

In that situation, Lue has to challenge the official verbally. He has to defend his player, particularly when the contact was more severe against Thomas.

Later in the first half, Thomas was called for palming the ball, which we don’t believe has been called in the NBA since the 70’s, right in front of the coach. We would have had to have been restrained at that point.

Although we used Thomas in both examples, this isn’t about him. He pretty much says nothing when James is mugged going to the basket on a nightly basis.

When Lue took over as coach, his first move was to quicken the pace. He wanted the team to play faster. However, this squad is the oldest team in the NBA.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t talented, in fact, we still maintain they can win the NBA title…this year. But they need to slow the game down, particularly against younger teams who like to run the floor.

They have issues in transition, so they need to get good shots, which may not always be a shot within five seconds of the possession, so they can guard against opponents racing back up the floor.

Another problem may be the coach’s loyalty and how it affects the roster. Players know who should be playing, and don’t think for a minute they know how well Channing Frye played earlier this year, and wonder why he is out of the rotation.

The same thing happened a year ago to Derrick Williams, who played well in February last year, and then vanished.

The difference is Williams just joined the team. Frye has been here for more than two seasons, and is a veteran presence.

There is no question in our head that is a factor in the disconnect.

Cavs’ management can’t keep firing coaches at the first sign of trouble, but the best coaches recognize when the status quo isn’t working and a change has to be made.

Right now, the wine and gold need a new defensive philosophy and a more aggressive stance from their coach.

Let’s hope Lue can see the same thing.

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.

Trust In Cavs’ Playoff Hopes Are Based On LeBron

Since the first of March, we don’t know what to make of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

They went through that month sleepwalking on defense for the most part, and their three point shooting, a staple of their offense, began to get hit or miss.

Then, last Wednesday, they hammered the Boston Celtics, their rivals for the best record in the Eastern Conference during the regular season, in Boston no less, and it looked like they were on the right track.

But Friday night, the wine and gold was basically run off their home floor by an Atlanta Hawks’ team that gave their starters the night off.

It was similar to a year ago when Memphis was without many of their regulars and knocked off Cleveland at Quicken Loans Arena.

After the game, Kyrie Irving revealed that his knee was very sore on Thursday, yet Tyronn Lue played him Friday with a two game lead in the Conference standings.

Tristan Thompson is already out of the lineup with a sprained thumb, and Kyle Korver has missed several games recently with a foot issue.

Put all these factors together, and it doesn’t seem like it’s the formula for defending the NBA title the Cavs won last June.

In fact, there is only one reason for optimism. LeBron James plays for the Cavaliers.

Yes, you can talk about Russell Westbrook and James Harden for MVP, and we know Stephen Curry has won the award the last two seasons, but everyone knows that James is still the best player in the sport, and still its most dominant force.

For all of the talk about how Cleveland came back from a 3-1 deficit against the Warriors a year ago because Curry was banged up, Andrew Bogut was hurt, and Draymond Green was suspended for Game 5, no one talks about how James took that same Warriors’ squad to six games the year before without Irving and Kevin Love.

With Matthew Dellavedova and Thompson as his primary wingmen, he actually had the Cavaliers with a 2-1 lead in the series.

So despite the Cavs’ struggles over the last six weeks, we pin our hopes on James. And quite frankly, he’s earned that respect.

Lue should be called into question for some of the struggles. He has played James too many minutes, and Irving too, which many be a reason for his sore knees.

And after integrating the new players seamlessly a year ago, Deron Williams still seems lost, and Derrick Williams, who played well when he first came to Cleveland seems to be a forgotten man.

Deron Williams seems to defer way too much to LeBron and Irving. Let him do what he has done throughout his career, run the offense. He’s not a good defender anymore, but he is almost in a shooting role, and he’s not making shots.

The bench has been struggling lately, and it has been missing youth and athleticism, both of which Derrick Williams can provide. And he showed he could defend when he arrived on the north coast.

Lue needs to give him some minutes, probably at the expense of Iman Shumpert, but with a lot of age on the bench, maybe just use the extra body and play the 30+ year olds a few minutes less per game.

A win on Friday night and a win today in Atlanta would have allowed Lue to rest his key players until the playoffs begin next weekend.

The most important thing for the post-season run is having James, Irving, and Thompson rested and ready to go. We would include Kevin Love too, but he missed six weeks recently and probably needs the court time.

Pinning hopes on James is a tried and true method of winning, and based on recent events, it’s the only hope fans should be putting any credence in.

What Needs To Be Done To Fix Cavs’ D

The Cleveland Cavaliers either have a huge problem or they are deceiving the rest of the NBA.

They haven’t played solid defense for most of the season, but over the last few weeks, the ease at which opponents are scoring has become alarming. Allowing over 125 points is becoming a regular occurrence.

We feel there are several factors at work here, some of which can be fixed prior to the beginning of the NBA playoffs, and some that may not be able to be repaired.

The first problem is familiarity. Since JR Smith was injured around the holidays, Cleveland’s roster has been in flux. Kyle Korver, Derrick Williams, Deron Williams, Andrew Bogut, and Larry Sanders have all been brought in, and Smith and Kevin Love missed significant time with injuries.

Those things, coupled with the lack of practice time NBA teams, particularly older ones, get during the regular season, make defensive rotations difficult to assimilate, and that shows in games.

There are many nights where the wine and gold look like they just met in a pick up game on the playground. Really, they pretty much did.

The second problem is the defensive schemes are very vanilla, and this is by design because Tyronn Lue and his staff aren’t showing anything for the playoffs. For the most part, the Cavs aren’t blitzing the pick and roll, and aren’t trapping point guards to force the ball out of his hands.

We are sure this will be done once the post-season starts. Think back to the Boston game early in March and last night’s contest vs. Washington. The Cavaliers pretty much guarded both Isaiah Thomas and John Wall straight up. That won’t be the case in a playoff series.

It looks ugly now, but why show either potential opponent your cards before you have to.

However, we can call into question Lue’s playing rotations. He has a deep roster, but still insists on playing LeBron James 38-40 minutes per game. With the playoffs beckoning, why not reduce that to around 32 per night.

He also has too many lineups on the floor with glaring deficiencies. For example, a group without Love and Tristan Thompson, which results in opponents getting second and third shot chances.

We see too many group on the floor without a solid defender besides James. It is his job to make sure there are at least two or maybe three players who can guard someone on the floor at all times.

He has cut back on the playing time of Derrick Williams, an young, active guy who has shown signs he can guard someone. Which is exactly what the Cavs need right now.

We know Cleveland wants to go into the playoffs healthy, but a big problem defensively is allowing dribble penetration out front. Kyrie Irving isn’t fighting through picks and isn’t staying in front of his man.

If you know the game, this leads to the interior defenders having to pick those men up, leaving their man open, or leading to ball rotation for an open three point look. You can’t have that in the playoffs.

Speaking of interior defense, all of the minutes and guarding on the perimeter seem to have taken a toll on Thompson, whose defense has slipped as the season has progressed.

His ability to guard smaller men away from the basket on switches was a key to last year’s title run.

The regular season games are winding down, meaning fixing the problem soon is critical to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

If they play defense like they have over the last month or so, they simply will not win the Eastern Conference again. Let’s hope our theory on being secretive about their plans is correct.

Griffin The Magician.

When JR Smith went down with his thumb injury around the beginning of the year, the depth of the Cleveland Cavaliers took a serious hit.

Coach Tyronn Lue was really only using three or four (depending on the day) players off his bench anyway, so he tried putting DeAndre Liggins into the starting lineup so he could still use Iman Shumpert, Richard Jefferson, and Channing Frye off the bench.

Unfortunately, opposing teams discovered Liggins can’t make an outside shot and they quickly left him alone, which allows them to close the driving lanes for LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.

So, Lue adjusted and moved Shumpert into the starting lineup, but it left a gaping hole on the wine and gold’s bench.

And with the short bench, James and Irving were forced to play more minutes than we are sure both the players and the coach would have liked.

Then, GM David Griffin sprung into action as he has each of the last two years.

First, he trading struggling outside shooter Mike Dunleavy to Atlanta and brought in Kyle Korver to replace Smith’s outside marksmanship. And unbelievably, Griffin saved salary cap money in this move.

Korver’s shooting accuracy has declined since his all-star season in 2015, but Griffin correctly thought it was just a slump and Korver has hit 50% of his three point shots since arriving in Cleveland.

A few weeks ago, he signed Derrick Williams, the guy picked right after Irving in 2011, as a free agent after he was released by Miami.

Williams is a tweener, not big enough to play exclusively at power forward and not quick enough to play exclusively at small forward. However, in today’s NBA, Williams can be an effective bench player, which he has been here, averaging 10 points per game in the seven games with the Cavs.

Plus, Lue is also giving him tough defensive assignments too. He guarded Derrick Rose against the Knicks and Jimmy Butler vs. the Bulls. His length and quickness are perfect for Cleveland on the defensive end.

It’s still a small sample size, but the early returns look like Williams can be an asset for the Cavs.

Yesterday, Griffin added another piece to the bench by signing veteran Deron Williams after he was released by Dallas. Williams is a three time all star and played with James and Kevin Love on the 2012 US Olympic team.

Williams should ease the ball handling/play making role that seems to be solely on James and Irving. He played 40 games with the Mavericks this year, averaging 13 points and 7 assists in 29 minutes per night.

You have to think Williams can be very effective in less minutes and also surrounded by James, Irving and the rest of the Cavs. His presence should allow those two to play less minutes through the end of the season.

And it also seems likely that Griffin will add another big man, possibly Andrew Bogut, to the bench, perhaps as early as next week.

The price for all these additions? Dunleavy and a first round draft pick.

Griffin also kept Cedi Osman, a Turkish player whom Cleveland has the rights to, and supposedly can play.

Lue and James are the other keys to these moves. The organization has shown a tremendous ability to integrate new players quickly and seamlessly. That’s a tribute to how they run the locker room.

The Cavs may just have the deepest roster in the league right now, particularly when Love and Smith are healthy. That should be huge as the season goes down the stretch and heads into the playoffs.

Can Griffin pull another Larry O’Brien Trophy out of his hat for his next trick?

Experts Agree: No Clear Cut Choice for Cavs

After the Cleveland Cavaliers secured the first pick in the NBA draft, sports talk shows in the city rounded up the noted draft experts around the country to inform fans on who GM Chris Grant should choose when the selection process starts.

Unfortunately, there were several names that kept coming up. Either the person told us Nerlens Noel, from Kentucky, was going to be a solid NBA big man once he gets bigger and stronger, or they said Kansas’ Ben McLemore has the smooth shooting stroke to succeed in the league.

Others said Georgetown’s Otto Porter would be a good small forward, or UNLV’s Alex Bennett, who could become a similar player to former Rebels’ standout Larry Johnson.

There are two problems with this talk.

First, there is no clear-cut guy at #1. The lack of a consensus player coming out is a problem. Even if there were two players such as when Kyrie Irving and Derrick Williams came out, it would be better for the Cavaliers.

Second, there are a lot of maybes, woulds, and similar in the comments listed above. That means scouts are drafting on potential, not on actual performance.

According to NBADraft.net, here are some of the comparables for the first five players they project in next month’s draft:

McLemore–Ray Allen
Noel–Larry Sanders/Dikembe Mutombo
Porter–Tayshuan Prince
Victor Oladipo–Tony Allen/Terry Teague
Bennett–Rodney Rogers/Jason Maxiell

There are two all-star type players mentioned here, Allen, who is one of the great shooters of all time, and is still a productive player in his late 30’s, and Mutombo, a tremendous defensive player for many years, and an eight time all-star, but a guy who never had much of an offensive game.

Prince is a nice player, a starter on the Piston team that won a title, but he was not the primary scorer there, and Allen might be the best wing defender in the NBA. However, both have been role players for much of their careers. Good ones, but still role players.

Sanders is an up and coming player, who averaged 9.8 points and 9.5 rebounds for Milwaukee this season.

Now, we understand that the web site doesn’t want to compare players to all time great, because if the player doesn’t become that it looks bad.

So , let’s look at the site’s comparables for the 2012 draft:

Anthony Davis–Kevin Garnett/Marcus Camby
Bradley Beal–Eric Gordon/Marcus Thornton
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist–Gerald Wallace/Andre Iguodala
Harrison Barnes–Glen Rice
Thomas Robinson–Derrick Williams/Patrick Patterson

Of that group, Garnett is an all-time great player, and Iguodala and Wallace have made all-star teams in their careers. Rice averaged 18.3 points a game for his career and made three all-star teams.

Gordon has been held back by injuries, but most people think he will be very good if he stays healthy.

It just reiterates what we’ve been saying about this draft all along, it’s very speculative. Whoever the Cavs draft, there is potential for a good player, probably not a great one, and there is also the possibility the player will be a huge bust.

For a franchise that has publicly stated they want to make the playoffs next season, it appears to make that leap, they will have to find an impact player somewhere else. It doesn’t look like that guy will be available in the draft.