Can Cavs’ Be Patient This Summer?

The Cleveland Cavaliers just broke an 11 game losing streak last night, and as they continue to sink in the Eastern Conference standings, they are rising in the draft lottery standings, which we believe is more important to them.

Right now, they sit in a tie for the 4th worst record in the NBA with Orlando, but only two teams, Oklahoma City and Detroit have won less games than the Cavs, with the Pistons trailing (leading?) the wine and gold by just one win.

Quite frankly, we don’t believe J.B. Bickerstaff’s team will win again this season, and again, we don’t think that’s a major concern for the organization.

So, what does this mean going forward for the organization?

The draft has been projected to have five prizes, so if the Cavs hold their spot in the selection process, they would get one of those five players. And right now, they would have a 52.6% chance to be in the top five, meaning it is almost as likely they will be in the top five as it is they aren’t.

So our question is what do the Cavs do if they don’t get a top five pick? There needs to be an alternative plan to getting lucky in the 2022 draft lottery. And that’s our problem with the current ownership/front office. They seem to be stuck in the maybe lightning can strike twice mentality and the next LeBron James winds up in Cleveland.

That’s what we would like to hear, what happens if they wind up with the 8th pick this summer?

The first order of business should be to lock up Jarrett Allen, who is a restricted free agent, to a long term deal. There aren’t many 23-year-old big men as talented as Allen, who has averaged 13.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, and is shooting 62% from the floor since coming to the Cavaliers.

Hopefully, because of the de-emphasis on the big man in today’s NBA, it won’t take a max deal to keep Allen, who despite of the takeover of the guards currently in pro basketball, should still be in demand as a rim protector and rebounder.

Big men who are athletic and can play should always be in demand.

What about Collin Sexton, who can be a restricted free agent after next season? The Cavs could offer him a contract extension this summer, but we would wait before committing huge dollars to him.

It’s not an indictment of him, but with Darius Garland’s rookie deal ending the following season (2022-23), it wouldn’t be a good idea for the franchise to have three large contracts on the books and a losing record. It would be another form of cap hell.

Think about it. With the proliferation of high scoring backcourt players, what kind of market is there for Sexton? What teams would be willing to open the vault for him?

It would also give time for the front office to evaluate the roster, seeing who can be contributors on a winning team. We have said it many times before, everyone who plays in the NBA has incredible talent, but the key thing is can they be contributors on a winning program?

They also need to resolve the Kevin Love situation, which has become untenable. First, he did what anyone would have done when you wave $30 million per year in someone’s face, but the Cavs need to deal him for another bad contract or just buy him out.

If they trade him, they may have to attach him to someone of value, but if the return is there, it might make sense.

The point is to not rush into things and leave yourself with a team with a poor record and no cap space. The organization has asked the fans to be patient. Now it’s time for the front office to exercise some of their own.

We don’t hold out hope for that.

Cavs Seem Out Of “Play In” Tourney. Did They Really Want To Be In?

The Cleveland Cavaliers keep saying they would like to qualify for one of the spots in the “Play In” tournament for the 7th through 10th seeds in each conference (a ridiculous concept, by the way), but are they really interested in getting in?

They currently sit at 21-40 with 11 games remaining in the truncated 72 game schedule this year, and are now 6 games behind suddenly red hot Washington, who sit in 10th place.

So, it doesn’t really look promising, does it?

We never really thought the Cavs, as an organization, were really gung-ho about going after the spot, because of recent coaching and personnel moves.

For example, after beating another contender, Charlotte, on the road on April 14th, the wine and gold lost at home to Golden State. That shouldn’t seem to be weird, as the Warriors are over .500 on the year.

When watching this game, what stood out was the lack of playing time for backup big man Isaiah Hartenstein, who played just three and a half minutes. Why was that strange? Well, Jarrett Allen, the Cavaliers’ starting center, was having a great game.

Allen made six of his seven shots, scoring 17 points and corralling 14 rebounds in almost 35 minutes. So, J.B. Bickerstaff wanted to play small ball when Allen was resting? Also, Allen was a minus one while on the floor, and it wasn’t as though the Warriors took huge advantage of Hartenstein being on the floor. He was a minus two.

The next game for Cleveland was at Chicago, with the Bulls not having their leading scorer, Zach LaVine, due to COVID protocols. The Cavs led at the half, but got blitzed in the third quarter and lost by ten. Oh, and by the way, the wine and gold were very much in the playoff chase at that time, a half game behind Toronto.

The strange thing about this game (and the Golden State game too) was a cut in minutes for Matthew Dellavedova. After missing most of the season with a concussion, when he returned, he was playing about 16 minutes per game, and the Cavaliers were 3-4 in the seven games he played.

Against the Warriors, Delly played just 13 minutes and versus the Bulls, just 10 minutes. Given he is usually a stabilizing factor for the young Cavs, don’t you think he could have helped when Cleveland was getting run off the court in the third quarter?

Now, he was a -16 and a -14 in the two contests, but he was a +9 in the win over Charlotte. Again, in viewing the game, we thought his absence was a little odd.

You also have the case of Taurean Prince opting for season ending ankle surgery following the April 21st win over the Bulls at home. Prince averaged over 20 minutes per game over the previous five games, averaging 12 points a game in those contests.

He had two 20 point games and a 19 point outing since returning from injury on March 29th. It doesn’t seem like Prince’s ankle was hampering him that much, as he was playing well, and there were only 14 games remaining.

If the Cavs were going for the play-in tournament, they could have used Prince’s outside shooting. He’s made 41.5% of his threes since coming to the Cavs, who shoot 34% as a club from distance.

To us, it sends another bad message throughout the organization. While we think the play-in tournament is a dumb idea, if you get a chance to get into the “real” playoffs, why not go for it? To continue to play for a chance to get a high draft pick, when you’ve had three picks in the top eight the last three seasons seems a little like the definition of insanity.

Winning starts when everyone is pulling in the same direction. Hopefully, that direction starts next season. There has been some progress this season, but a playoff berth, something this franchise hasn’t accomplished without LeBron James in almost 20 years, should be the goal and should be attainable.

But it starts at the top.

Cavs Need To Do A Deep Evaluation.

In the business world, well run companies periodically go through an internal audit. They look at their systems and processes to see if they make sense or could they be improved.

Even though the Cleveland Cavaliers have won 20 games this season, an improvement over the past two seasons with 16 games remaining on the slate, perhaps they should undertake the same endeavor.

Virtually the entire roster, save for Kevin Love, has been put together by GM Koby Altman, which means he saw something in each of them to make him want to secure them for the organization. However, should Altman’s evaluation of each player or his vision for the team be beyond approach.

There are many general managers who have earned the right to not be second guessed. People like Pat Riley, Jerry West, R.C. Buford and Gregg Popovich in San Antonio have a proven record of putting teams together that can compete in the upper tier of the NBA.

Right now, Altman isn’t in that class, and it seems fair to bring in someone with a long background in the game to consult with Altman and make sure that his vision for the team can be attained soon, and how many players on the roster can be part of that success.

It has been brought up by several media members over the past couple of weeks what exactly will happen if the Cavaliers get one of the top five picks in the upcoming NBA Draft.

According to draft “experts”, of the top six players in the draft, five of them are either point guards or wing players, with only USC big man Evan Mobley being the exception.

Over the past three years, Altman has spent three top ten picks on players who play those positions, Collin Sexton (8th overall), Darius Garland (5th), and Isaac Okoro (also 5th). So, unless Mobley is there when Cleveland makes its selection, doesn’t the rookie take the place of one of these high draft picks?

The first question an outsider should have is what kind of team does Altman want to put together, and does his vision coincide with that of coach J.B. Bickerstaff?

Does he want to have a defensive oriented team, or a team based around the three point shot and one-on-one play? Because if you don’t have a vision on how to win in the NBA, how can you construct a roster?

Without a direction, you are simply just collecting talent, and as we have seen throughout the years, just putting together talented players doesn’t always lead to winning. The players have to play as a unit, complement each other.

Should there be any untouchables on the current roster? We’ve identified at least one, although our guess it is not the same person the front office has in mind. It would take an awful lot for us to consider trading Jarrett Allen, a soon to be (tomorrow) 23-year-old 6’11” rim protector, who also has a good feel for the game.

In our eyes, height still matters in professional basketball. There are always exceptions to the rule, but if you can find players who have the skill set needed for a position, but are also bigger than average, that’s optimal.

We saw LeBron James at 6’9″ and 250 (conservatively) pounds playing small forward, because he had the skills to do it (heck, he has the skills to play anywhere), and he was dominating. His size isn’t the sole reason, but he was unguardable because he was larger than the guy trying to guard him.

The Cavs aren’t real playoff contenders this season, and it appears they don’t want to get in this year anyway. But when will this be unacceptable? It should be next season.

The organization can try all kinds of marketing schemes, different uniforms, etc. The best marketing tool is winning basketball. Are there any pieces that can lead to that already here? And are those pieces the same ones the front office thinks they are?

Biggest Consistency For Cavs? Inconsistency

In the 2018-19 NBA season, the Cleveland Cavaliers won 19 games. For the entire 82 game season. Last year, due to the coronavirus, the league’s schedule was shortened to 65 games, at least for the wine and gold, and they repeated their win total from the year before.

This season, the Cavs accomplished the 19 wins in 51 contests, showing that progress has been made by the organization whether or not anyone wants to admit it.

Part of it is the maturation of talent. Collin Sexton is now in his third season, and Darius Garland is now in his sophomore year in the league, and they have taken natural progression to their games.

And since the deal for Andre Drummond last year at the trade deadline, the organization has once again made size a priority. They traded for JaVale McGee in the off-season, and also picked up soon to be 23-year-old big man Jarrett Allen earlier this year.

When they moved McGee at this year’s deadline, they replaced him with another young big man in Isaiah Hartenstein, who since his arrival, and benefitting from Allen being out, has scored 10 points, grabbed 9.6 rebounds, and dished out 3.4 assists per contest.

The team needs to add one more thing however, before it can be considered a playoff contender, and it might be the toughest thing for a young team to get…consistency.

Since Kevin Love started being able to play more after a calf injury which has plagued his year, and Matthew Dellavedova came back from issues due to a concussion and appendicitis, the Cavaliers have started to pick up the pace even more with resounding wins on the road against San Antonio and Oklahoma City.

They followed up those two impressive wins with an embarrassing home loss to Toronto, who were playing without their three best players: Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, and Fred VanVleet.

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff came into the season talking about playing with grit and intensity, but the young Cavs forget that too often, and the result is allowing 87 first half points to a team that came into the game a half game better than Cleveland in the standings.

If you want to be a playoff team, you can’t lose games like that, particularly at home. And this is where we feel organizational culture comes in. If you brand yourself as a gritty defensive minded team, it is difficult to forget to play that way on a given night.

Every team has a clunker, but the wine and gold have lost 13 games by 20 points or more this season, by our count. Some of those have come against the elite teams in the NBA, but they’ve been blown out by these teams as well: Orlando, the Knicks, Boston, and tonight’s opponent, New Orleans.

Those are games where you have to take the mindset of “we should win tonight”. And perhaps they do, leading to thinking maximum effort isn’t needed.

The good teams in the league can do that, young teams trying to develop an identity cannot.

And to be fair, Cleveland has had their share of injuries too, which affects consistency. Allen and Larry Nance both have missed the last several games.

We are sure the “draft lottery maniacs” out there, love to see the Cavs lose games like last night, but that is a loser’s lament. Bickerstaff and the organization should be stressing wins, because winning can be a habit, and it’s the kind of habit you want to have.

Kevin Love, Matthew Dellavedova and Nance have developed that habit, the younger guys like Sexton and Garland have not.

Last night’s pathetic performance will serve as a wake up call that the young Cavs cannot afford to take anyone lightly. This is the NBA after all.

It will be interesting to see what kind of attitude the Cavs come out with tonight

Cavs: Exciting At Times, Frustrating At Others

The Cleveland Cavaliers have hit the stage in their development where they are a very frustrating team to watch at times.

After a stretch against a brutal schedule that saw them lose 10 games in a row, the last being an embarrassing defeat at the hands of equally mediocre Oklahoma City, coach J.B. Bickerstaff made a lineup change to bring Dean Wade, a shooter (stretch four) in the starting lineup and the team reeled off four straight wins.

In the last game before the All Star break, Cleveland was going for its fifth consecutive win and had a 19 point lead in the third quarter, blowing it after Darius Garland went down with a groin strain. Garland missed Friday night’s contest too, a 34 point blow out at the hands of the New Orleans Pelicans (16-22), another team on par record wise with the Cavs.

Yes, Garland was out, and Larry Nance and Kevin Love, both of whom has been out for awhile played, so some adjustments were needed. However, the wine and gold were trailing by just six in the second quarter before the roof caved in.

Bickerstaff and his staff have some guy who can play in this league, this isn’t a roster devoid of talent, so losing by 34 on the road to a team that really isn’t much better than the Cavs is very frustrating.

It has to be maddening for the coaching staff too, because it seems like he has to constantly challenge them to compete. Too often they revert to bad habits, ones which go away from team play. And when the Cavaliers are playing well, they very much play together, moving the ball, etc.

Cleveland had 13 assists in Friday’s game. Some of that has to do with the team shooting 34% from the floor, and 22% from three point range. Newcomer Quinn Cook hit three of four from behind the line, meaning the rest of the team went a dreadful 4 for 28 (14%).

Moving the ball has been stressed since day one of training camp by Bickerstaff and the coaches, but without Garland out there, they come up with just 13 helpers. And that has to fall on to the player who has his hands on the ball most, Collin Sexton.

We go back and forth on the third year player out of Alabama. There is plenty of good in his game. He can score, there is no question about that. He shoots 48% from the floor and 39% from behind the arc. He dishes out 4.3 assists per game, second most on the team.

But when things aren’t going well, instead of trusting the other players on the floor, he tries to do everything himself. And that’s a difficult thing for a player to learn. Michael Jordan had to learn it as well, and we are not comparing Sexton to Jordan.

When Garland is not playing, the Cavs need Sexton to be a playmaker. If he can’t do that, then the organization has to ask a difficult question, can an NBA team win with a 6’2″ #2 guard? We know Toronto won with a small backcourt, but they had one of the five best players in the league in Kawhi Leonard.

Right now, the Cavaliers don’t have a player like that on the roster.

At this point, the basketball IQ on this team isn’t very high. And that’s not just on Sexton. For example, Cedi Osman (or someone else is telling him) think he’s a three point shooter. He’s not. He takes the most threes on the roster, and he’s hitting just 32%.

At this point, Sexton is much like the team he plays for. It is alternately enjoying and frustrated watching he and the Cavaliers play.

Yes, they are a young team, but they do have some veterans to guide the way like Nance, JaVale McGee, and Love, and Taurean Prince has been around as well.

This squad can make a playoff push in the mediocre Eastern Conference. But they can’t have many more games like their first one after the break. It’s time for the young players to play much smarter and tougher.

What Does Second Half Hold For Cavs?

All Star Weekend is over, but the Cleveland Cavaliers still have a little while before they play their next game. They don’t take the court again until Friday night when the New Orleans Hornets come to Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

That gives J.B. Bickerstaff a few days of practice time for his young squad, and it will give Larry Nance Jr. some time to get re-acclimated, since he should be back when the second half of the schedule resumes.

However, it also gives GM Koby Altman time to make some roster changes, although he does have until March 25, which is the trade deadline. But the rumors have already started.

It has been reported than there was an offer for Nance involved two late first round picks, and the Kevin Love rumors have started again. Both players should be of interest to contending teams because they both provide things that good teams covet.

Nance is an all around player. He can defend, shoot, block shots, and is a very good passer. Teams with championship expectations love to have players with his kind of basketball IQ. It’s the reason the Cavs wanted him when they still had LeBron James and were trying to win the title in 2018.

Love is a good three point shooter, a solid rebounder and outlet passer, and a better defender than he is given credit for. He was a large piece of a team that did win the Larry O’Brien Trophy. The 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers.

We understand the biggest factor in moving Love is his extremely high contract, and at age 32, he’s not interested in a long range rebuilding plan, and would welcome a chance to win right away.

However, Nance is exactly the kind of player you want around to not only teach and mentor young players, but he’s at 28, he still could be a part of a playoff team. Heck, at just three games out of the eighth seed currently, the Cavs could make the post-season this spring if things break their way.

Keeping it simple, the Cavs need players, and Larry Nance Jr. can play.

That shouldn’t preclude Altman from making moves though. The Andre Drummond situation is still in play, and teams needing centers that aren’t located in Los Angeles or the New York metropolitan area would be wise to make a trade with Cleveland, because rumors having the big man signing with teams in those areas if a buyout become inevitable. Remember, he also carries with him an expiring contract.

Our guess is the wine and gold get something for Drummond, rather than buying him out.

There are also rumors about Cedi Osman and Taurean Prince as well, it would not be a shock if one was moved before the deadline, although it is interesting that the Clippers, coached by Tyronn Lue, who coached Osman here is interested in him.

Although unlikely, does Altman do something about the guard position? We go back and forth on whether or not the Cavaliers can win with a pair of starting guards under 6’2″. Remember, Collin Sexton can be a restricted free agent after this season, so he is in line to get paid rather handsomely.

Yes, we are aware that Toronto won a championship with two small guards, and both Portland and Utah are winning without height in the backcourt. But did those teams win because they played small at guard? And when you add in that Bickerstaff is using a 6’5″ small forward, it leaves the team very small at point guard, #2 guard, and small forward.

However, we feel that’s something to be discussed in the off-season, after a full year of play. Then the question becomes can Isaac Okoro improve enough offensively to play the shooting guard spot.

Again, this is something that will probably be handled in the summer unless Altman is bowled over with an offer.

It seems the one constant with the Cavs is the roster keeps changing. At least it keeps the people who stitch the names on the uniforms busy.

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.

Cavs Off To Tough Start To Home Stand

Last week, we said the Cavaliers losing streak was understandable because of the competition they faced over the past three weeks or so. We then said we would look at how the team was performing after playing Oklahoma City, Atlanta, and Houston at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

Well, the first game happened on Sunday night, and it wasn’t any prettier, as the Thunder whipped the wine and gold, 117-101. What makes the score seem worse was the Cavs had a 10 point lead in the first half.

The Cavaliers need to win the next two games at home. They are playing two teams with comparable records and they are in their own arena. We understand home court advantage doesn’t mean as much without fans in the seats (or in Cleveland’s case, not at full capacity), but the next two are winnable, although so was Sunday night’s contest.

We also understand the squad is short-handed, especially at power forward with both Kevin Love and Larry Nance Jr. out, but J.B. Bickerstaff might have to do some things differently with that duo both being out.

This is not a criticism of Bickerstaff. In fact, right now, the front office should start holding some players accountable for the recent play of the team. Yes, this is a young roster, but outside of Isaac Okoro and Dylan Windler, all of them have gone through an NBA season, and know what the league is all about.

The shot selection by some players is very questionable. You wouldn’t think you have to do this with professionals, but maybe the coaching staff needs to explain to every player what is or is not a good shot for them.

On Sunday night, the bench play was deplorable. Windler hustles and plays presentable defense, but he was drafted with a reputation as a shooter. He’s making 30% of this three point opportunities. He needs to make shots to have a future in the league.

That isn’t to say we’ve given up on him, just that he needs to play better. We believe he’s at the stage where he’s giving opposing players too much credit, such as double pumping when driving to the basket. Take it in strong and go to the free throw line.

Outside of JaVale McGee, the coach is getting nothing from his bench, although he needs to realize this and not have four substitutes on the floor at one time. Play one or two in combination with the starters. Damyean Dotson has some talent, but he’s spent his entire career with the Knicks up until this season. He didn’t learn any winning habits there.

Love and Nance are out, and Dean Wade still can’t get into games. Maybe it would be best if GM Koby Altman cut bait with Wade and found someone in the G League who can play some serviceable NBA minutes.

Perhaps slowing the tempo a bit would help as well, especially to get Jarrett Allen, who really is the Cavs’ best player over this stretch more touches.

Even though we just said Windler needed to make some shots, maybe put him in the starting lineup instead of say, Cedi Osman and let Osman run the attack with the second unit.

We know Bickerstaff has used a ton of starting lineups this year, so what’s one more? Or maybe start Osman and Windler and bring Okoro off the bench. The starters can’t play 48 minutes every night.

The biggest remedy might just be getting a win. All the losing leads to bad habits and selfish play. The Cavs need to experience a win. Unfortunately, it won’t come through wishing and osmosis. It will take playing smart, not taking bad shots, and playing better defense.

Might Sound Crazy, But No Need To Panic About The Cavs…Yet

There is no question the Cleveland Cavaliers are going through a rough time. They just went on a five game west coast trip in which they didn’t win a game. And since they beat the star-studded Brooklyn Nets in consecutive games in late January, they’ve dropped 14 of their last 16 games.

They have said they will not play Andre Drummond for now, as they are trying to work out a trade for the big man, and they are also without one of their best defensive players and one of their best passers in Larry Nance Jr.

And, of course, they haven’t had Kevin Love for all but 1-1/2 games out of the 29 played thus far in the 2020-21 season. No matter what you think of Love, and no doubt he has been much maligned pretty much since the day he arrived in Cleveland, he’s a very good player, and he can provide what the biggest weakness the Cavs have on offense, the lack of three point shooting.

The Cavaliers have fallen to 14th place in the Eastern Conference, ahead of just the Detroit Pistons. It seems all of the defensive concepts coach J.B. Bickerstaff put in place prior to the season have gone out the window. Some of that could be because the availability of players changes on a nightly basis.

To play solid defense, you need to know where your teammates are, and just on this past trip, Bickerstaff used three different power forwards: Jarrett Allen, Taurean Prince, and Cedi Osman. That’s difficult in creating continuity.

The bad news from the trip was punctuated with a disagreement between Allen and Collin Sexton at halftime of the most recent defeat at Golden State.

To be fair, as the trip went on, we did see more of the Sexton they played in his first year and a half in the NBA, a lot of possessions for the wine and gold where one person and only one person touched the ball, and that guy was Sexton.

We have enough faith in Bickerstaff that he will address this with the third year pro, and hopefully, the player listens.

However, after taking a couple of days after the latest defeat, we took a deep breath and realized most of the losses in these last 16 games have come against some of the best teams in the NBA.

Really, the only bad losses in this stretch were road losses to Minnesota and New York. Otherwise, they lost to Boston, the Lakers, the Clippers twice, Milwaukee twice, this latest trip was composed entirely of pretty good teams. If the season ended today, each of the last five games were against playoff teams from the Western Conference (Phoenix, Denver, Portland, Clippers, and Golden State).

Now, the margin of defeat is concerning.

The Cavs play Denver again on Friday, but the next three games are at home against Oklahoma City (11-17), Atlanta (12-16), and Houston (11-17). If they play poorly and get blown out against that trio at home, then it would be time for concern.

Perhaps we all got overly excited by the wins over the Nets, and overestimated how good the wine and good were. Quite frankly, they ran into a bunch of games against teams better than them.

On the other hand, losing can cause bad habits. It’s up to Bickerstaff to get his squad focused on playing the right way going forward and converting that into some wins to reinforce good play.

Let’s see how the next couple of weeks play out before panicking.

Suddenly, The Cavs Have Depth At Center

For a long time, the Cleveland Cavaliers played without a true center. Sure, Tristan Thompson was a solid player and did a fine job manning the position in his time in Cleveland, but he’s really a defensive minded power forward.

At 6’9″, he battled against guys taller than him, and basically outworked them, but he wasn’t a “true” center, even in today’s NBA.

Last season, the organizational philosophy changed at the trade deadline when Detroit decided they wanted to unload the contract of Andre Drummond, and GM Koby Altman decided to deal some spare parts.

Since getting Drummond, the Cavs have added veteran Javale McGee via a trade with the Lakers in the off-season, and recently picked up Jarrett Allen from the Nets in the James Harden blockbuster.

When Kevin Love is ready to play, which may be soon, along with Larry Nance Jr., J.B. Bickerstaff will now have cadre of very good big men to put on the court.

Even with Love out, McGee hasn’t been able to get on the court much as Drummond and Allen take all the minutes at the pivot.

Allen will turn 23 in April and is the future for Cleveland. He’s a restricted free agent after the season, and quite frankly we can’t see any scenario in which they do not match any offer given to him, if indeed, they haven’t come together on an extension before that.

He has averaged 13.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2 blocked shots per game in the eight games he has played with the Cavaliers, and that is in just 25 minutes per night.

Everyone figured it was going to be a long shot for Drummond, who has been outstanding this season, leading the league in rebounds at 15.1 per night, while scoring 18.5 points and adding three steals or blocks per contest, to sign with the Cavs long term, but now Altman can deal from strength because Allen would be an outstanding replacement.

Going forward, the combination of Allen and McGee makes a lot of sense because they seem to be similar players, giving Bickerstaff a seamless transition when he substitutes, especially on offense.

Drummond plays a different game when Cleveland has the ball. He likes to back his way down into the low post with the dribble, which doesn’t put him a good position to pass the ball outside when double teams come. He also plays more with his back to the basket, traditional center play.

It would not be surprising if the 27-year-old free agent to be will be traded soon to either a contender or to an organization looking to use his expiring contract to create cap space for the off-season.

And contrary to rumors nationally, we don’t think there is any way Altman will buy out Drummond and allow him to become an immediate free agent. He’s too valuable as a trade chip.

Despite how well the Cavs have played this season, a credit to their head coach, they still are a ways away from having a roster that can rank in the top half of the Eastern Conference standings, and they are playing well enough that a high lottery pick isn’t likely.

Even though the NBA game has changed and guards are featured more, there still is a place for big men who can protect the rim. It seems like the Cavs’ organization has remembered that, and are now the place to come to for other teams looking for the same thing.