Brown Not Right Guy to Lead Cavs in Future

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ slim playoff chances seem to be dwindling everyday, meaning soon it will be time to look forward to the 2014-15 season, and another appearance in the draft lottery.

It also means the organization has to look within, examining whether or not they have the correct people in place.

Has acting GM David Griffin done enough to keep the job going forward? His deal for Spencer Hawes looks good, and here’s hoping the wine and gold can keep the big man for the future because he can do one thing desperately needed on this squad, he can shoot.

Whether or not Griffin stays, one thing is clear: The Cavaliers need to find a new head coach next season because Mike Brown isn’t the guy to change things around here.

Brown is a great guy, but he came here with a reputation as a defensive coach, but so far the results aren’t there. Cleveland ranks in the middle of the pack (16th) in field goal percentage against, and 17th in the league in scoring defense.

That hardly speaks to a great defensive mind.

While some will say that this is his first year with this group of players, why have other new coaches have success around the league?

Memphis hired Dave Joerger to replace Lionel Hollins after a successful season last year, and Joerger still has the Grizzlies third in the league in points allowed and 10th in defensive field goal percentage.

Charlotte hired Steve Clifford, an obscure NBA assistant, and he has turned the Bobcats into one of the league’s better defensive squads, ranking 5th in points allowed and 7th in shooting percentage against.

The Cavaliers have played 64 games already this season and they are still trying to figure out how to play effective defense? That doesn’t reflect well on the relationship Mike Brown has with his players, who obviously haven’t bought in to what he is teaching.

The Cavs still give up too many easy shots, allow players to get to the basket with ease, and have lapses at inopportune times on the defensive end.

And as the old saying goes, you can’t fire 15 players, so it’s the coach who has to go.

Besides the lack of progress on the defensive end, Brown’s offensive game plan is highly simplistic and is based pretty much solely on having players takes their man off the dribble. When the defense takes that away, there is no alternative.

And Brown has no history of developing young players either, and the Cleveland roster is full of them.

First overall pick Anthony Bennett hasn’t contributed much this season, but in the team’s recent six game winning streak, he was getting some minutes and averaged eight points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

Since, he played more than 15 minutes in a game just twice.

In last night’s loss to the Knicks at home, second leading scorer Dion Waiters played a grand total of 14 minutes. How does that happen?

Tristan Thompson hasn’t improved, Luol Deng, a two-time all-star in the NBA looks lost on the court, and even the Cavs’ franchise player, Kyrie Irving’s numbers are down across the board from last season.

One of last year’s first round draft picks, Tyler Zeller, has his minutes fluctuate on a nightly basis.

Mike Brown has had success in the NBA as a head coach, but in every year but this one, he has coached one of the sport’s best players, be it either LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. Without one of them on the team, he looks like just another guy.

The 2014-15 version of the Cavaliers needs a head coach who will demand and command the respect of the young players on this roster. If Dan Gilbert wants this team to move forward, he needs to find that man.

It won’t happen with Mike Brown.

Cavs Ignore Shooting as Part of Game

While we are always critical of Cavaliers’ coach Mike Brown’s offense strategy, he does work under the handicap of not having an excellent shooter on his roster.

The Cavaliers rank last in the NBA in field goal percentage, making just 42.3% of their shots from the floor. And from beyond the three-point line, they are slightly better, ranking 21st among the 30 teams at 35.0%.

To illustrate the importance of shooting, here are the top five teams in the league in making shots: Miami, San Antonio, Houston, Oklahoma City, and Dallas. All five of those teams would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

Now, this percentage can be raised by fast break opportunities which lead to high percentage layups and dunks.

So, a more accurate gauge of pure shooting would be the three-point field goal percentage, and again, out of the top five in this category (Spurs, Pelicans, Wizards, Trailblazers, and Warriors), four of them would also reach the post-season.

Why is having shooters important? Well, the obvious answer is the score is kept by putting the ball through the basket.

Still, the real reason you need them is to spread the floor, especially when you have put together a number of guards who excel at driving to the basket like Cleveland has with Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters.

And when the shot clock is running down, you can get the ball to a shooter who has a decent chance of making a long shot.

The closest thing Mike Brown has to a threat from outside is swingman C.J. Miles, who hits 39% from outside the arc. Acting GM David Griffin did take a good stride in this direction in obtaining Spencer Hawes, who is making 40.5% from distance this year.

There is no one else on the roster that opponents need to respect when they are standing beyond the arc.

To be fair, former GM Chris Grant did covet Bradley Beal in last year’s draft, but Washington snapped him up before the Cavs turn with the fourth pick which turned out to be Waiters.

Beal is currently 13th in the NBA in 3 point field goal percentage, making 41.9% of his shots.

Brown’s mentor, Gregg Popovich has embraced the three pointer, with two players among the top 20 in accuracy, and to be fair, when Brown was here before, he had snipers like Damon Jones, Donyell Marshall, and Boobie Gibson on the roster, all guys who could knock down the open three.

Irving is the Cavs’ most frequent shooter from outside and makes 36% of his attempts, but he is one of the guys who make their living driving to the hoop, and opponents want him to take that shot because he is so lethal going to the basket.

Waiters is the same type of player, but when you watch a game, don’t you wish we would go to the hoop more instead of shooting long jumpers? Opponents do too.

The Cavs need a player like Kyle Korver or Jamal Crawford or Marco Bellinelli, a pure shooter that defenses respect and are forced to account for when they are on the floor. Players like that also provide useful targets for Irving and Waiters when they penetrate.

Grant may have started to address the situation by drafting Sergey Karasev last year, but right now Brown considers him too green and too much of a defensive liability to get off the bench.

That’s not helping the current team, and it put too much of a burden on guards to get to the basket to create any kind of scoring.

Just another reason this Cavalier team has struggled to meet expectations.

This Year’s Rookies Hope to Follow Lead of Irving, Thompson

For most players in the NBA, the biggest improvement in their career is from their rookie season to their second year. Cavaliers’ GM Chris Grant has to hope that’s the case for rookies Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller.

It certainly has been the case for the reigning league rookie of the year Kyrie Irving and F Tristan Thompson, both of whom have shown great improvement from their first year in the NBA.

First, let’s look at Irving, who has missed his share of games this season, playing in just 56 out of a possible 79 thus far. With just three games remaining, it appears he will miss 23 contests this year.

Irving’s numbers are up for the most part, with the exception of his field goal percentage and free throw percentage. This is unusual because the former first pick in the draft is known for his shooting. He dropped from 47% from the field and 87% from the line as a rookie to 46% from the floor and 85% from the line in 2012-13.

His three-point shooting has improved by a percent this year.

However, his other numbers are up. He’s averaging four more points a game than last season (18.5 to 22.7) and he’s also dishing out a half an assist more per night. Of course, he is getting more minutes too, an average of four and a half more than last year. He’s also getting more steals a game too.

All of this while being the focus of opposing defenses when he is on the floor. Last year, Irving was highly regarded, but this year, every coach knows he is the best player wearing a Cavs’ jersey, and he made his first all-star team. Despite that, Irving has made a quantum leap in his second year.

He still needs to be more durable, and he must improve his defense if he wants to be in the conversation as one of the best point guards in the league. He is talented enough to be the complete package at the point, and with improvements in these areas, he could be an elite player in a couple of years.

Although Thompson still has critics, his improvement is even more dramatic. His playing has increased by almost eight minutes per game, and with more time, the second year man from Texas has made a great leap from his rookie season.

Obviously, the most important numbers are points and rebounds, and Thompson is scoring three and a half points a night (8.2 to 11.7) and his board work is also up by just about three a game (6.5 to 9.3).

However, his is shooting a much better percentage, up five percentage points from the field (43.9% to 49%) and he is now a 62% shooter from the line, up from 55% as a rook.

He is also showing leadership, as he was the most vocal regarding Byron Scott’s job security. And he went out the first game since the rumors started and put up 29 points and 17 rebounds against the Celtics.

If Waiters and Zellers can improve at the same rate next season, perhaps the Cavs outlook isn’t as gloomy as some think, although outside of Irving, it doesn’t appear any of the three can become all-stars.

However, as good as Irving was in winning rookie of the year honors last season, it still shows a great deal of improvement comes over the summer after your first season in the NBA.

Scott’s Record Shows He Knows Defense.

As the Cleveland Cavaliers lose more games to inferior foes like they did a week ago against Minnesota, hoop fans start to talk about the future of coach Byron Scott.

Most of the problem when the Cavs lose these games in their quality of defense. Owner Dan Gilbert even commented last week that when the wine and gold return to prominence, it will be because of their work when their opponents have the ball.

But is Scott the guy to teach defense?

His past coaching record says he is.

In his first year as a head coach, the 2000-01 season with the Nets, his squad finished 22nd in points allowed and 24th in field goal percentage against.

However, the following season (2001-02), in which the Nets made the NBA Finals, those marks improved to 5th in points allowed and 6th in defensive field goal percentage.

The next season (2002-03), another Finals appearance, had New Jersey 2nd in the NBA in points allowed and tied for 2nd in field goal percentage against.

Scott didn’t make it through the following season, but resurfaced as coach of the New Orleans Hornets in 2004-05, and his team finished 10th in the NBA in points allowed and 17th in defensive field goal percentage.

The other four years in New Orleans had Scott’s crew improving from 11th in points given up in 2005-06 to 10th, 5th, and 5th in subsequent seasons. The field goal percentage allowed went from 21st in ’05-’06 to tied for 12th, 16th, and 7th.

The point is if you want to point the finger at Scott for the Cavs’ horrible defensive rating, look somewhere else. He has demonstrated that he can put together a good defensive scheme, ranking in the top half of the league every year but his first as a head coach in points allowed, and his teams have been better than average in shooting percentage by opponents five times.

That is until he became the head coach in Cleveland.

Granted the franchise and the roster were a mess his first year at the helm, so we will excuse both the players and the coaching staff. However, we don’t think Scott has forgotten all he learned on the defensive end since he took over in Cleveland, so something is wrong.

It’s time for the head coach to take the gloves off and start demanding better defense by his troops, even if that guy in all-star Kyrie Irving. Irving is too talented a player not to be a good defender, and as the leader and best player, he would set the tone for the rest of the guys in wine and gold by playing better when the other team has the ball.

Too often, the Cavs are lackadaisical against lesser teams because they don’t put forth a good effort on “D”, and usually it starts with Irving.

He’s not the only one, though. A lack of effort on defense should start earning players a seat on the bench, and that goes for everyone.

The Cavs need to start winning now. The rest of this season should be about setting a tone for the 2013-14 season, when the wine and gold must start contending for a playoff spot.

Byron Scott is not the reason the Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t a good defensive team. His track record proves otherwise. It’s time for the players to start buying in to stopping the opponent, and to stop trying to outscore everyone.

When that happens, we will see if this team is putting together enough talent to become a playoff squad.

Cavs Defense Improvement Linked to Kyrie

Cavaliers’ coach Byron Scott is perplexed by his team’s defense. He talks about it to the media after every game, and you have to assume he addresses it in practice to his young team.

What has been a constant for the Cavs since Scott took over, is their lack of defending the three-point shot.

As more and more teams make this shot a part of their daily arsenal, the weakness in this area gets more and more glaring.

Last year, the wine and gold ranked 7th from the bottom in the NBA in stopping the long-range shot.

To be fair, a number of playoff teams ranked in the bottom ten, including the champion Heat. However, those teams had great success in defending the two point attempts.

The only teams with worse three-point defense than Cleveland and worse overall field goal percentage against were the Nets and the Bobcats, the league’s worst team.

The year before, Scott’s first year at the helm, his team was the worst in stopping the three pointer, allowing a whopping 41.1% of those shot to go in.

Granted, the Cavs were in transition after LeBron James left for Miami, but clearly the way Cleveland approached the long-range shot defensively wasn’t very effective.

This year, after eight games, the Cavaliers have improved their defense against the three-point shot, but it appears to be at the expense of defending any other field goal attempt.

Opponents are shooting over 50% for the season against the wine and gold, a shocking figure in today’s NBA.

Clearly, something is amiss and it needs to be fixed right away, starting with Saturday night’s game against the Mavericks.

The key to the defense rests with the team’s best player, Kyrie Irving. He simply has to stay in front of opposing point guards.

On the road, Irving played well offensively, but he struggled defending Russell Westbrook and Deron Williams. Allowing penetration breaks down any defensive concept Scott wants to put in place.

The other problem has been the lack of a shot blocker. Tristan Thompson simply has to do better in protecting the rim, that’s his responsibility.

Anderson Varejao is a good defensive player, but he’s not a shot blocker. Perhaps when Tyler Zeller gets back, he can be the big body this team needs to play interior defense.

Without that shot blocker behind you, it is incumbent on the smaller guys to contain their man, making sure they keep a body between the opponent and the basket. And that means everyone!

If one player breaks down and allows his man to get by, it breaks down the entire defensive philosophy.

That’s the problem Scott and his staff have right now.

And until it changes and everyone picks up the gauntlet and plays solid defense, the Cavs are going to have problems winning basketball games.

We understand that this is a young team, and they are still trying to learn to play acceptable defense.

That’s why the team’s best player, Irving, has to set the tone. If he can stop his man, the Cavs’ defense will get better immediately.