Have Cavs Found A Winning Style?

Three games is hardly enough time to make any judgments on the any team and the Cleveland Cavaliers are no exception. A lot could change during the next eight games for the wine and gold, especially because seven of those games are on the road.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies are the reason for the games away from Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, by the way.

It might surprise you based on the team’s first two games, but the Cavs have moved up to 20th in the league in defensive rating after the victories over Atlanta and Denver.

Much was made about the five words on the wall in the Cavs’ practice facility being the coaching staff’s mantra, but we felt until one of those words becomes “defense”, we fear this team in going to struggle.

Perhaps J.B. Bickerstaff hit on something by switching to a zone, with rookie Evan Mobley at the top of it to start the second half in Saturday night’s victory over the Hawks. The rookie can be a monster in this defense with his length and quickness, and he covers up for most of the lack of ability defensively by his teammates.

It will be interesting to see how often Bickerstaff goes to this defense on this trip.

Also interesting is the rotation employed by the coach, who right now seems to only trust nine players, and with Darius Garland nursing a sore ankle, he played only eight guys in a game he probably figured he needed badly with the long trip coming up.

The only bench players getting time are the veterans, Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love, and Isaac Okoro and Cedi Osman.

He tried to use Kevin Pangos and Dean Wade in the home opener against Charlotte, but neither gave much in the way of performance.

We did not understand Bickerstaff’s insistence on pushing the ball up the court. The last two games, Cleveland has slowed the tempo and taken care of the basketball.

We fear the young players do not make good enough decisions trying to beat teams up the floor and that leads to turnovers. Rubio can handle this. Perhaps later in the year, after watching the veteran, Garland and Sexton can handle this as well. But for now, we love the decision to slow it down a bit.

And as with last season, three point shooting continues to be an issue. The Cavs are still one of the worst teams in terms of shooting the long range shot, and that’s with Rubio knocking down 9 of 23.

The next two players in terms of attempts, Lauri Markkanen and Sexton, have made a combined 14 of 46 shots from beyond the arc (30.4%). Although Osman has hit 5 of 14 shots from distance, 14 of his 24 shots have been threes and we don’t understand why.

In our way of thinking, he’s a slasher and a decent passer once he drives to the hoop, and we feel he would be more effective playing that type of game.

Despite starting three players seven feet tall, the Cavaliers are getting hammered on the board, outrebounded by an average of nine per night. We think this is due to the big men trying to stop the parade of guards going to the basket, and then being out of position.

Once again, that would be corrected with a better defensive concept in the half-court.

It’s going to be a tough trip to start the year, for sure. But starting with a win last night, it certainly was an encouraging start.

A New Season, And Hopefully Big Progress For Cavs

Wednesday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers will open their 2021-22 season at Memphis trying to show some improvement from the previous three seasons.

Since LeBron James departed for free agency, the wine and gold have suffered through years of 19, 19, and 22 wins, the last two seasons being shortened to 65 and 72 games respectively.

This year, the plan is to play all 82 for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign.

The Cavs will have a new look this season, and quite frankly that look is “up”. They feature basically three seven footers in Jarrett Allen, newcomer Lauri Markkanen and rookie Evan Mobley, and just added another big man off the bench in veteran Ed Davis.

This is quite a departure since for many years, the organization ignored big people.

We like this quite frankly. To us, if you play the same style as other teams but don’t have the same talent to play that style, you are going to come up short on the scoreboard. We think this current roster of Cavaliers isn’t suited to play fast and shoot three pointers. They don’t have the long distance shooters.

So why not play slower, control the tempo and use what you do have, which is size. Markkanen can shoot from outside, so he can play the small forward spot offensively, and we would love to see if Mobley can handle playing defense out on the floor with his size and quickness.

We know that isn’t how J.B. Bickerstaff is going to start, he will use Isaac Okoro at small forward to start, and even though we just discussed how long the Cavs are, that lineup will be rather small.

This is still a very young basketball team, with no one outside of Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio having more than four years experience in the league. Why not play a little slower and let hopefully that will lead to fewer turnovers/mistakes.

That isn’t to say the Cavs shouldn’t fastbreak when they get the opportunity. Hopefully, the bigger front line will lead to blocked shots and a larger percentage of defensive rebounds, and they absolutely should run off of those situations.

But there isn’t a need for quick possessions in the halfcourt offense. Move the ball, in and out and side to side and hopefully that will lead to open looks. This team isn’t in the mode of moving the ball up the court quickly off of makes and taking the first shot available.

Play to the strengths you have.

We believe there is talent on this roster. However, the problem remains does the talent fit, is it complementary? Can the Cavs win with two smaller guards? Can they have success with three bigs playing at the same time? And how do Rubio and Love fit in, and will the latter be happy in his role?

Bickerstaff has already indicated Rubio might play more than a normal reserve. Why? Because he has a good understanding of moving the ball and playing for others.

And we continue to say, accountability is of utmost importance. If a player isn’t doing the job, or playing defense, he should be shown the bench. It’s time to take the gloves off and tell everyone winning is the goal.

If this team doesn’t make a big jump in the win column, someone is going to lose their job. So, there’s a lot at stake for both GM Koby Altman and his coach.

Cavs Add Talent, But Is The Fit Better?

Cavaliers’ GM Koby Altman made another move on Friday executing a sign and trade deal with free agent forward Lauri Markkanen, with fan favorite Larry Nance Jr. and a second round pick going to Portland in the deal.

The Cavs get younger in the transaction as Markkanen, who agreed to a four year deal with Cleveland, is just 24 years old and Nance will turn 29 on New Years Day.

First, let’s talk about the hometown player in Nance. We love his game. He has an old school game in that he does everything well. He averaged 9.5 points per game in his time with the Cavaliers, with 7.5 rebounds and almost three assists.

He was third on the team in assists last year, and might have been the second best passer on the team.

However, he also misses a lot of action. His high in games played since entering the league is 67, and last season, played in just 35 games due to illness and a broken hand.

He also has a game that fits better with a winning team, because he’s a complementary player. He passes, defends, block shots, and can finish at the rim. He will be a very good fit with the Trailblazers, a team trying to win.

Markkanen’s numbers have fallen off since his first two years with the Bulls, when he averaged 15.2 and then 18.7 points per game, and grabbed a career high 9.0 rebounds in his second season in Chicago.

In that second season, he averaged 15 shots per night, second to Zach LaVine. The next season, Chicago drafted Coby White in the first round and they became more of a guard oriented offense with LaVine getting two more shots per game and White taking more shots than the former 7th overall pick who played one season at Arizona.

Last year, he did raise his overall shooting percentage to 48% (his career mark is 44%) and his three point shooting to 40.2% (36.6% lifetime). If that’s a trend, that’s something the wine and gold could really use, as they had the league’s worst shooting from beyond the arc.

Where does he play? Our thought is maybe he starts at power forward giving J.B. Bickerstaff the option of bring rookie Evan Mobley off the bench in his rookie season, backing up at both center and power forward.

We understand there is pressure to start the third overall pick, but as we have discussed, Mobley needs to put on some weight and get stronger, so maybe this is good for his development.

Again, we love what Nance gives you, but really Markkanen is the better player.

We do have a problem with Altman giving up a draft pick, albeit a second rounder. When you are building, you need draft capital, and second round picks can be valuable.

Getting Markkanen really emphasizes the point that there is no role or spot for Kevin Love on the roster and the team would be better off at this point to buyout the veteran. Thank him for his contributions and his part on the championship team, but let him part on decent terms.

This can’t be the last move by Altman either. The Cavs still have an odd fit of players, with small guards and three seven footers who need playing time. The also still need a legitimate small forward, one who can score. Our feeling continues to be that Isaac Okoro’s size makes him a #2 guard.

In terms of talent, the Cavs are better than they were yesterday. In terms of fit? It’s still an weird mix.

We also understand the sadness seeing Nance go, someone who grew up here, was great in the community, and was a link to when the Cavaliers were very good.

Where Is Cavs’ Improvement Coming From?

After the NBA season, Cavaliers’ GM Koby Altman said the plan was for the team to “take the next step” and at the very least get in to the play in tournament for the league’s playoffs, meaning we was hoping to finish in the top ten in the Eastern Conference.

In 2020-21, that spot belonged to Charlotte and they won 33 games last season. The wine and gold finished with just 22. How would the organization make up the ground and also pass up Chicago and Toronto, who finished 11th and 12th in the East?

We are confused because right now, we see no path which leads to the Cavs making that leap and training camp will be starting in about a month.

We said before the draft that picking Evan Mobley with the third overall pick is not the move of a team that wants to start winning next year and we stand by that. While very talented, especially for someone his size, because of his current build, we would be surprised if the rookie made a huge impact in 2021-22. Perhaps the talent was too much to pass up, but Altman’s words and actions seem to be at odd with each other.

The Cavaliers also ranked last in the NBA in three point field goal percentage and 25th in overall shooting percentage. Mobley is certainly not going to help with the former, and we doubt newcomer Ricky Rubio, a career 32.5% shooter from beyond the arc, will help much either.

In fact, of guys who played ten or more games for the Cavs last year, the best three point shooter was Taurean Prince (41.5%) and of course, he was the player Altman moved for Rubio. So, on paper, Cleveland’s long distance shooting got worse.

We understand some of the young veterans like Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, and Isaac Okoro will improve naturally and that should translate into more wins, but will it mean winning 36-40 games that will likely be needed to at least get the 10th seed, if not higher?

Garland averaged 18.8 points and 6.3 assists per game after the All Star Game, how much better can he do this year? Remember, that despite those numbers, Cleveland went 8-28 in the second half of the season.

Perhaps the team will be healthier this year, which would help. Maybe Kevin Love will play more 25 games and Larry Nance Jr. will be available for more than 35 contests. Both of those guys would help in the win/loss department, although you can debate whether or not the former will be on the roster at all this season.

Counting on the growth of the young players in order to make a quantum leap forward would seem to be dangerous if your job was depending on it, and recent reports say ownership is going to reevaluate Altman and coach J.B. Bickerstaff after the first half of the season.

So if Altman thinks his job is on the line (and quite frankly it should be), he is taking an odd approach or he is putting his trust in his evaluation of talent and hoping everything gels for this group of Cavaliers.

If we were making a wager on what will happen, we wouldn’t make any long term financial plans if we were Altman. His plan has a lot of blind faith in it.

Impressions Of Mobley And Other Cavs Stuff

The Cleveland Cavaliers are wrapping up the Summer League schedule, but the reason to watch the games ended last Friday when the organization made the decision to sit first round pick Evan Mobley after he played three games.

The third overall pick averaged 11.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 3 assists per contest in his brief appearance, but frankly, why he didn’t play more is a mystery. We have heard the arguments from folks saying it wasn’t needed, but we don’t think players get better from watching, so we would have had him on the court.

Of course, the organization didn’t do him any favors by not having a legitimate point guard on the roster. The playmaking duties fell to last year’s first round pick, Isaac Okoro, who played small forward last year, but in reality is probably a #2 guard.

Our impression of Mobley hasn’t changed after watching him in these games, and we understand these aren’t anything like regular season NBA games, especially in terms of the talent on the floor. What does stand out though is who plays hard, that’s where players can make a name for themselves.

The rookie is frighteningly thin, several times opponents bumped him from behind going for rebounds, and Mobley didn’t grab the ball because the contact. It wasn’t called a foul, nor will it be in the regular season. He also shot just 35% from the floor, again, when he got the ball near the basket, and some contact took place, he couldn’t power through it.

That’s not to say he will never be able to, he will get stronger, and be able to handle this, but for the upcoming season, let’s say we have our doubts.

In fact, we thought for the upcoming season, Mobley might be best equipped to play the small forward spot. He’s a very good passer, as he showed in summer league, finding some easy baskets on backdoor cuts, and he did show a good ability to be able to defend on the perimeter.

No doubt, it would be tough for the man he was guarding to be able to get a clean look at the basket.

At playing him at the three would give him a chance to contribute while getting stronger for an inevitable move closer to the defensive rim. We aren’t saying use him at the spot exclusively, but it would be something to try.

As we said earlier, the Cavs’ front office didn’t do Mobley (or really anyone) any favors by not having a legitimate point guard on the roster. More and more, we have no clue what Koby Altman and his staff are trying to accomplish this season.

It was reported that the team was talking to Collin Sexton about a contract extension because attempts to trade him came up empty. So, you couldn’t get back in trade something commensurate to the value you think he has, and the solution is to give him a big contract?

It would seem that someone has the wrong value on the player. Either way, there doesn’t seem to be a huge market for Sexton, so why would the Cavs get involved in a big contract with him? We have said it before, we would wait until have this season to have any talks with him.

Since the season ended, the Cavaliers have drafted Mobley, and traded Taurean Prince for Ricky Rubio. If that’s all Altman does, we would anticipate another season where fans are hoping to be lucky in the draft lottery.

It looks right now like even a spot in the play in tournament is a long shot.

Cavs Sitting Back And Hoping

Since last Thursday night, the NBA has been full of action with the annual draft and then the beginning of free agency. Teams all over the Association have been making moves, trying to get into next year’s playoffs.

We guess the exception would be the Cleveland Cavaliers.

When you’ve won 60 games like the Cavs have done, you probably don’t need to do much. Oh yeah, those 60 victories have come in the last three regular seasons combined.

We realize there is still time, but more and more it looks like GM Koby Altman continues to be delusional in thinking the island of misfit toys roster he has assembled right now is going to result in at least a spot in the (very stupid) NBA play in tournament.

Right now, J.B. Bickerstaff has two players with the correct size and skill set for the NBA, point guard Darius Garland and center Jarrett Allen. Quite frankly, those are two pretty good building blocks to start.

But the rest of the starting lineup is made up of Collin Sexton, a relentless scorer, but still undersized compared to most of the teams in the NBA at 6’2″, Isaac Okoro, a 6’5″ small forward (by the way, on the Summer League roster, he is listed at 6’6″ and as a guard), and if they are starting rookie Evan Mobley at the four, he certainly has the height, but not the bulk.

Besides the drafting of Mobley, the major acquisition so far this summer is Ricky Rubio, a point guard, further crowding the backcourt. Bickerstaff now has to find enough minutes for Garland, Sexton, Rubio, and Okoro, who again, should be playing guard, although is his offense good enough to play that spot.

And although they might not be reliable sources, rumors are out there that Altman is pursuing a shooter, who likely will also add another body to the backcourt.

The roster screams for someone in the 6’7″ or 6’8″ range that can put the ball in the basket. We haven’t forgotten Larry Nance Jr., who probably should start at SF, but while he does a lot of things very well, he isn’t known for his scoring prowess.

We also know technically Kevin Love is on the roster. Actually, Love would be a good fit (still) at the #4, and would allow Bickerstaff to break in Mobley slowly, but if he’s not buying in to yet another rebuilding season, it’s best to move on.

This rebuild is moving at an iceberg’s pace, because Altman didn’t accumulate any draft picks. He did use some draft capital to get Kevin Porter Jr. two years ago, but we know how that ended. Nor, did he have any cap space, and apparently Cleveland couldn’t really participate in free agency because they didn’t have cap room.

We also think he made a mistake in not offering a qualifying offer to center Isaiah Hartenstein, who came over in the JaVale McGee deal last season. The big man showed he can play, and the Cavs shouldn’t be losing those types of players for nothing.

We know the drafting of Mobley precipitated the move, but you can’t get rid of players who have talent when you have one of the worst records in the NBA.

It would be prudent to level off the talent instead of having the roster super-stacked at two or three spots and devoid of players at other spots.

We have read that the team is targeting 2023-24 because they will have some cap room. That would mean five years of wretched records for the Cavaliers. That’s a tough sell to the ticket buying public.

Again, there is still time to make moves, but it doesn’t look like anything is imminent. Maybe all of the Cavs will get a lot better and their games will magically fit. That doesn’t seem like a good plan for success.

Cavs Take Mobley, Hopefully More To Come?

It has been rumored for the last couple of weeks that the Cleveland Cavaliers were taking Evan Mobley with the third overall pick in the NBA Draft, and they did just that last night.

Mobley, 7’0″, 215 pounds has tremendous skills, and is a shot blocker. Our concern with him is his weight. Can he withstand the pounding playing interior defense or if an opponent can get into him, could he be pinned to the floor.

We assume the Cavs want to retain Jarrett Allen, making a qualifying offer to the restricted free agent, so can Mobley and Allen play together?

Mobley has talent, but can he be an impact player next season? Because that’s what the wine and gold need, not another developmental piece. If he and Ricky Rubio (more on him later) are the only significant moves for Cleveland, our fear is another season of 25 wins or less might be the result.

Again, not categorizing Mobley as a bad pick, it’s just hard to see him being a guy who can play 30 minutes a game effectively next season. In three years? He could be a stud. If you want to tag on another two seasons among the bottom of the league, then we would guess you are okay with this.

GM Koby Altman has still assembled an odd roster. He has Darius Garland, who looks like he can be a good point guard in the league, but he has also drafted an undersized #2 guard in Collin Sexton and is using player who has #2 guard size at small forward in Isaac Okoro.

Now he has the twin towers in Allen and Mobley. Can this group win together? Maybe, we never rule anything out, but the general history of professional basketball says they would face an uphill battle.

One would assume the addition of Mobley also means the end of Kevin Love in Cleveland, probably as the result of buyout, meaning Altman gets no return for a key piece of the 2016 title team.

And it wouldn’t be a draft day without Altman getting another guard, this time trading Taurean Prince to Minnesota for Rubio and a second round pick. Rubio, who will turn 31 in October, will take over the Matthew Dellavedova guard mentoring role, except the Spaniard is a better player.

Rubio has been a starter for the majority of his seven year NBA career, and knows how to the play the game. He averages 7.6 assists per night for his career. He’s an excellent free throw shooter at 86.7%, but not a three threat from beyond the arc, just 32.5% lifetime.

There is still a long time between now and training camps opening in September, but it still feels like the Cavaliers need to retool their roster. They appear to have some rim protectors, which they will probably really need because the defense out front isn’t very good. Remember, J.B. Bickerstaff used Okoro on virtually every opponent’s best scorer, which created mismatches in other places.

Hopefully, more moves to change the roster will be coming with the free agent period starts, which is another time the league sees a lot of deals. They still need a legitimate scorer at small forward. They need more size in the backcourt or the ability to use Okoro there.

Said it all along, collecting talent is fine, putting talent together that fits and leads to wins? That’s a tough job.

Asking Questions About Cavs And The Draft

The NBA Draft is three weeks away, and the rumors abound not only about what the Cleveland Cavaliers will do, but what the teams who have the first and second selections will do as well.

It is the silly season, that’s for sure.

There have been rumors about the Cavs trading up to #1, presumably to draft Cade Cunningham, the consensus (at least he has been) best player in the draft.

However, we have heard a lot of crazy stuff for sure since the draft lottery put Cleveland in the #3 position.

We heard one pundit say Jalen Green is going to average 30 points per game someday. Does that guy understand how hard that is?

Since 2010-11, there have been 10 occurrences of a player averaging 30 points per game, and six players have accomplished the feat: James Harden (3X), Bradley Beal and Stephen Curry (both twice), and Damian Lillard, Russell Westbrook, and Kevin Durant.

That’s it.

We aren’t saying Green will never be able to do it, but predicting that is just insane to us.

We have also seen a lot of discussion about the Cavs taking Evan Mobley if he is sitting there when the Cleveland picks. We would be very, very careful about that pick, mostly because we don’t know if Mobley can defend inside.

Yes, he will be able to block shots, but can he handle the pounding he will receive with his slight frame? We heard someone saying he might be a good NBA player in 2024, and that’s exactly the point here. We aren’t sure Koby Altman and J.B. Bickerstaff can wait.

It is our opinion that pretty much everyone who plays in the NBA can put the ball in the basket. Obviously, the best players in the game are the ones who can do it on an every night basis, but unsung guys will have games where they score 25 points one night. It happens all the time.

However, playing time is earned on what you can do on the defensive end. Yes, yes, we’ve heard folks who don’t understand the game say no one in the NBA plays defense. We would instruct those people to watch a few of the more recent All Star Games, where no one is really interested in stopping anyone.

So our question is can Mobley be good enough defensively to get significant playing time or is he a project? And if the latter is true, it’s difficult to use the third overall pick on him.

We also believe in size. Of course, everyone can come up with cases where an undersized player or team has succeeded in the NBA, but by and large, if you have skilled bigger athletes who can play the position, you have a better chance.

Why is LeBron James so great? One reason is he has the skills of a small forward, and is bigger than pretty much anyone he plays against. Someone once said about him that if you are as big as him, you aren’t as quick, and if you are as quick as him, you aren’t as big.

That sums it up.

And that’s another reason we feel the Cavs’ roster needs an overhaul, no matter who they draft at the end of this month.

If they draft Green, he could play small forward, but then where does Isaac Okoro fit in? Height-wise, Okoro is probably a #2 guard, but the Cavaliers already have Darius Garland and Collin Sexton. And Green probably fits better as a scoring guard anyway.

The same is true if they draft Jalen Suggs, the point guard out of Gonzaga. The players who fit the team’s biggest need, a small forward, would be the players considered to be the 5th and 6th best players available, Jonathan Kuminga and Scottie Barnes.

Then you have the age old problem of drafting for need instead of talent. That would be a tough thing to do considering the Cavs are a team that needs impact talent too.

We are interested in seeing how it all plays out…

What Should Cavs Do With Third Overall Pick?

The Cleveland Cavaliers got some lottery luck Tuesday night. moving up in the process to get the third overall pick in this summer’s draft.

Now, the speculation can begin. What should the Cavs do this summer so they can win more often during the 2021-22 season.

You have to assume the Pistons will select Cade Cunningham with the first overall pick, so Cleveland will be reliant on what the Rockets will do with the second overall pick. But likely they will have to choose between USC big man Evan Mobley, Gonzaga point guard Jalen Suggs, or Jalen Green, who spent the season in the G League.

Any of those choices would likely cause of reshuffling of the roster, at least to us.

Why take the 7’0″ Mobley if the wine and gold will be offering Jarrett Allen a long term contract this off-season? Our other issue on him is his weight, he likely needs to put on 30-40 pounds to withstand the pounding NBA big men take inside. He will surely have to play there on the defensive end.

As for drafting Mobley and dealing Allen? We know the type of player Allen is and he is just 23 years old. He’s demonstrated he can play and will likely continue to get better. If Allen were approaching 30, trading him might make sense. Right now, he seems to be a guy you should be building around.

Green is a 6’6″ shooting guard, which would seem to put four players (Green, Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, and Isaac Okoro) at guard, but only two can play at a time, and you can only get enough minutes to keep three of them happy. We understand Okoro played small forward much of his rookie year, but his size would seem to indicate his future is at guard.

The second best player in the draft after Cunningham just might be Suggs, the 6’4″ lead guard who helped take his college team to the NCAA title game. If Houston passes on him, the Cavs almost have to take him, right?

GM Koby Altman’s history has been to pick the best player available, so if Houston passes on Suggs (they have John Wall, although they are probably trying to move him), do the Cavs take him? Again, if they do, it would seem they would have to reshuffle the roster, particularly in the backcourt.

He’s strong, a good passer, and can defend either guard spot.

For us, we would take either Suggs or Green and then see what you can get for one of the starting guards currently on the roster, and try to fill the biggest position of need (as we see it) on the roster, that being at small forward. Cleveland desperately needs someone at that spot that demands attention from other teams defensively.

Which leads us to the other debate surrounding the Cavs this week, would/should they try to get Ben Simmons if Philadelphia wants to move him?

That answer is unequivocally yes. Simmons is probably one of the top 25-30 players in the league, his playoff performance vs. Atlanta not withstanding.

No, he’s not a good shooter, but on the other hand, he knows it and does force shots. He’s a very good passer, good rebounder, and was runner up for defensive player of the year, something the Cavaliers need badly.

Now, the question is do the Cavs have what the Sixers want? My guess is they would want Garland and Larry Nance Jr. for starters. That’s the bigger question.

Our guess is winding up with the third pick will mean a roster shakeup for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and a reshuffling of what has been ridiculously called the “Core Four”.

Get ready for an interesting basketball summer.

Cavs Working Hard To Sell Fans That Plan Is Working

You wouldn’t think there would much debate about the merits of an NBA team that has won 60 games total over the past three seasons. The normal school of thought would be the team isn’t very good, right?

Welcome to Cleveland, Ohio where there is a lot of discussion about the rebuilding process involving the Cavaliers. There are plenty of people who will tell you the franchise is making progress toward a return to the playoffs, and an equal number who contend the team is stuck in the mud.

We fall in the latter category, mostly because we take a traditional view in terms of how successful teams are built in any sport. Yes, someone may come up with different approach that gets some success in the short term, but usually what happens is the smart people within the sport figure out how to combat the new view and render it meaningless.

Examples in other sports are the “wildcat” formation in the NFL and launch angle in baseball. In the latter example, teams started teaching pitchers to throw higher in the strike zone.

The supporters of the direction of the wine and gold talk about the “exciting, young core” of talent GM Koby Altman has accumulated since LeBron James departed via free agency three years ago, but you would be hard pressed to find anyone outside of Cleveland who shares this viewpoint of Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro, and Jarrett Allen.

And we have said this before in this space, but don’t talk to us about statistics when trying to evaluate players. To us, the last thing we use to figure out who played well in any basketball game is the stat sheet. The old saying of a player does things that don’t show in the box score is very true in hoops.

Players have to fit together, play off each other, and do things to make their teammates better. If they do that, the team is better and the ultimate statistic to determine that is in the wins and losses columns. Right now, those columns show the rebuilding effort is not working.

The 2020-21 Cavs weren’t a team that played tough most nights and just came up short either. This is a team that lost 17 games (by our count) by 20 points or more. They ranked 28th of 30 teams in offensive rating and 25th in defensive rating, meaning they weren’t any good on either side of the floor.

This isn’t an indictment on the players, and certainly not a criticism of their work ethic either. We have given credit to Altman in the past for not have any “knuckleheads” on the team, guys who get in trouble off the court. Kevin Porter Jr. had some issues and the team moved on from him quickly, perhaps too quickly.

We also aren’t picking on players who just came into the league either. We love watching Luka Doncic and Ja Morant play. We have had an issue in the past with Trae Young, but it appears Nate McMillan spoke to him about being more like an NBA point guard, and less trying to be the next Stephen Curry. Doing that helped transform the Atlanta Hawks.

This is a big summer for the Cavs’ organization. Next season will determine whether or not they can be like Atlanta and be a playoff presence or Sacramento or Minnesota, franchises continually floundering.

However, they need to stop presenting all kinds of reasons why they are going in the right direction. It’s a bit like peeing in the wind and telling the fans it’s raining.