Atkinson Still Experimenting As The Season Winds Down.

Even though the NBA playoffs are about a month away from beginning, we still think the Cleveland Cavaliers’ coach Kenny Atkinson is still trying to figure out things.

And it will probably continue because it appears Max Strus will be back today for the Cavs as they complete their home and home set against the Dallas Mavericks, so playing time will have to be adjusted once again.

Why do we think Atkinson is still taking different looks at different players? In Wednesday’s loss to Orlando on the road, the Cavs’ defense was terrible all night.

The Magic shot 52% from the floor and Desmond Bane, a burly 6’6″ guard bullied Cleveland for 35 points, while forwards Paolo Banchero and Tristan DeSilva scored 25 and 23 points each. Moreover, Orlando looked like they could get any shot they wanted when they wanted it.

In his post-game press conference, Atkinson bemoaned the defensive effort by his team. The coach rarely sugarcoats a lot in these talks, a refreshing alternative to other coaches/managers in Cleveland. However, in looking at the box score, particularly the minutes played column, reveals our theory.

We believe Cleveland’s best perimeter defender is second year player Jaylon Tyson. At his size (6’6″) and physicality, he would have done a solid job holding Bane in check. He did a very good job on Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, a league MVP candidate when the two teams met twice a few weeks ago. He played only 18 minutes in Orlando.

Dean Wade, probably the Cavs’ best wing defender over 6’7″, and someone who could have made things more difficult for either Banchero or DeSilva, also played just 20 minutes. Although we have issues with Wade and his hesitancy on the offensive end, he is a solid defensive player.

Right now, we think Atkinson and the coaching staff are seeing what they have in Keon Ellis, who struggled handling Jaylen Brown in the loss to Boston last week. It seemed Ellis was told to look for his shot more following that contest and since has scored 52 points in the last three games, making 12 of 20 three-point shots.

He’s a 41% shooter from distance in his career.

Ellis is a disruptive force on the defensive end; he gets his hands on more passes that we can remember with the Cavs in recent memory, and no doubt, we will get time in the playoffs.

When Jarrett Allen is healthy, Atkinson has been using Wade at the #3 to start with Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Evan Mobley and Allen. We understand why, but we would make a change.

We would start Tyson, because we would like to see his physicality on the floor right from the beginning. The Cavs have a reputation as being a finesse team, and having Tyson out there would provide a bit more force from the beginning of the game.

We believe he’s that important to this team.

Plus, with the shortage of size beyond Allen and Mobley, bringing Wade off the bench would allow the second unit to have a little more height. Right now, there are a lot of Thomas Bryant and basically four guards playing together. Having Wade and Bryant out there together should give the Cavs better rebounding.

And now, the coaching staff will have to integrate Strus, another player who brings toughness to the mix. This is the time to see what works and what doesn’t and seeing if it works against teams like Dallas or Chicago, or New Orleans isn’t optimal.

We doubt Atkinson will jeopardize home court advantage in the first round, but he wants his team ready when the playoffs come around. No problem with that.

Getting Irritating Players Was Good Move By Altman

Since the Cleveland Cavaliers returned to prominence and returned to the playoffs, there has been a label attached to them. They were viewed as needing toughness.

Every time Jarrett Allen has a poor game against a good NBA team, his quote after a first-round playoff loss in five games to the New York Knicks is brought up again. He referred to the lights being too bright for him and his teammates.

Certainly, the James Harden deal at the deadline gets a lot of attention and rightly so. Cleveland is 8-1 in games Harden has played since the deal, averaging 19.1 points and 7.9 assists per contest. We said at the time that if the Cavs were going to have a ball dominant guard who isn’t strong defensively, it’s better to have one who is 6’5″ than one that is 6’1″.

However, the deal with Sacramento that sent De’Andre Hunter to the Kings for Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis brought something else Kenny Atkinson’s team needed more of, and that is toughness.

We say more toughness because Jaylon Tyson was already on the roster. Tyson is having a breakout second season, averaging 13.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, and is the player who draws the assignment of guarding the opponents’ best player on a nightly basis.

We watched last Friday’s loss to Detroit and had to smile even though the Cavs did not win. Why? Because Tyson bothered the Pistons’ star Cade Cunningham. He picked up Cunningham full court, was physical, and we saw the Detroit MVP candidate bumping and shoving Tyson to get away from him. He was an irritant.

The same is true for the players who came over from the Kings. We always thought Schroder was a pain in the butt when he played against the Cavs in the playoffs during Cleveland’s run to The Finals from 2015-18, and he hasn’t lost that edge with age. He’s not fun to play against.

As for Ellis, his hands are just amazing. We have no idea if he is fouling when he gets his hands on the ball defensively, but if the referees aren’t calling it, advantage Cavaliers. He’s averaging 1.7 steals and 1.4 blocks since his arrival and is doing it getting just 23 minutes per game.

And even Harden helps because he is a better defender if posted up than Garland simply because of size. He’s also been around a long time, so he knows all of the veteran “tricks” defensively.

We don’t remember the last time the Cavs had a player who played with an “edge” since guys like Matthew Dellavedova and Tristan Thompson on those Eastern Conference title teams. But they are needed, especially against the better teams in the league and in the playoffs as well.

The best thing about Tyson and Schroder are they contribute offensively too. Tyson is among the best three-point shooters in the league and Schroder is scoring 10.9 points per game and is very creative in getting to the basket.

They won’t get played off the floor in the post-season. That’s the difference between these players and guys like Isaac Okoro and to a lesser extent, Dean Wade, who has another chance to prove otherwise. If you can’t be a threat on offense, opponents ignore you and that makes it tough on guys like Donovan Mitchell, Harden, and the other scorers.

We love having irritating players on the Cavaliers. And although we would like more size on the Cavs, they could use some 6’7″ or 6’8″ wings to guard players like Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum with the Celtics. But getting players like these should pay dividends come this spring.

Cavs Loss To OKC Wasn’t A Big Deal Here.

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost Sunday to the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder and as people do in northeast Ohio, there was some freaking out.

We know the Thunder were missing two starters in MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams and two key reserves in Alex Caruso and Ajay Mitchell, so that played into the narrative from some that the Cavs failed a big test.

We said after the game we weren’t concerned about the loss on the road, the third game in four nights, but rather the bigger tests for Kenny Atkinson’s group would be Tuesday’s game against the Knicks would be more important as would the upcoming contest against the Pistons and the Celtics.

One reason is the way of the NBA. In the regular season, teams do what they do best and sometimes it doesn’t match up well with the opponent. The Thunder play very physically and in our opinion have adopted the style of the Pat Riley Knicks from the 90’s and the Warriors of the previous decade. That is, foul pretty much on every possession and figure the referees aren’t going to call them all.

Watch Lu Dort and Caruso defensively if you don’t believe us.

So, on Sunday, the Cavs didn’t adjust to this physicality until about the last three minutes of the first quarter and after that, played pretty well.

In a playoff situation, teams decide to react to what the opponent does well. Remember, last year the Thunder had to win two game sevens, one against Denver and the other in The Finals against Indiana, who lost their best player during the second quarter of the deciding game.

The point is the Cavs see the teams in the Western Conference so infrequently, it is hard to get a gauge on how they would handle being in a best-of-seven series. Against the East, these teams meet three or four times per season and play in the playoffs much more frequently, so you can see what those teams want to do on a more regular basis.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the Cavaliers without some injury issues.

Now James Harden suffered a non-displaced fracture in his thumb, and it likely to miss some time, possibly a couple of weeks, meaning he will not be in there when Cleveland plays Detroit and Boston.

Harden has shown remarkable durability in his career so who knows how much time he will really miss.

And Atkinson did say Max Strus is getting closer to returning which will throw another player into the rotation, and another 6’5″ player at that. Now, the coach has these players in that height range: Jaylon Tyson, Sam Merrill, Harden, Keon Ellis, and Strus.

With Strus missing the first 60 games or so, it’s tough to imagine he will be a significant factor in the post-season.

What may happen is the Cavs will use different rotations depending on the opponent, meaning players will get differing amounts of playing time on a per game basis.

That means plenty of questions about why a certain player didn’t get minutes on a certain night.

Atkinson is starting Dean Wade at small forward. It worked very well against the Knicks, but it didn’t work against the Thunder. So, he might play 25 minutes one night and five the next.

After this tough stretch, the schedule eases up quite a bit for the rest of the season, which likely will mean some games off for Donovan Mitchell, and perhaps some others. And remember, the Cavaliers are already pretty deep.

Again, how the Cavaliers do against the Pistons and Celtics are far more important than what happened last Sunday. No one wants to lose, but Cleveland wasn’t going to end the year on a 35 game winning streak.

Tough Stretch Out Of The Break Should Show Cavs’ Progress After Deals

Certainly, there is a lot of optimism about the Cleveland Cavaliers after the trading deadline when Koby Altman swapped Darius Garland, De’Andre Hunter, and Lonzo Ball for James Harden, Dennis Schroder, and Keon Ellis.

The Cavs have won 10 of their last 11 games and although they sit in the #4 position in the Eastern Conference, they are just a game and a half out of the #2 spot.

We don’t want to pour cold water on everyone, but of the three wins since Harden arrived, Cleveland has defeated the Kings, who have the worst record in the West, and the Wizards, who have the worst mark in the East.

Yes, winning in Denver was a quality win, we are not minimizing that. But the real test is coming for this group.

It has been documented the schedule for the wine and gold is considerably easier down the stretch, one of the lightest slates in the Association, but the new roster will be test coming out of the All Star break.

After a home game tonight against Brooklyn, the Cavs hit the road for games against the red-hot Charlotte Hornets and the defending champs in Oklahoma City. Charlotte is currently a “play-in” team, and the Thunder came into town on MLK Day and waxed Kenny Atkinson’s crew 136-104.

The Knicks, currently the third seed in the East, comes to town on Tuesday, and the Cavaliers end February with a game in Detroit, and after another home game with the Nets, have a homestand against the Pistons, Celtics, and 76ers.

We will get a much better evaluation on all the roster moves after this stretch.

And you would think that in this stretch of games, Evan Mobley should be back on the floor, so we can finally see how Harden affects him on the offensive end. We have already seen how Jarrett Allen has been much more of a scorer, not only with Harden, but on the western swing.

Remember the 40 point, 17 rebound game against Portland came before the trades took place.

With Mobley back, another thing to watch is how Atkinson will handle playing time. Right now, he is basically starting with Allen and four guards, which makes a lot of minutes available for the glut of wings on the roster.

We would think when Mobley is back in the starting lineup, Jaylon Tyson will start at the #3, with Sam Merrill and Dean Wade (when he returns) coming off the bench. But the coach might want Tyson coming off the bench and have Merrill’s shooting space the floor for Donovan Mitchell, Harden and the big men.

And doing this would make Wade the backup for Allen and Mobley up front. If Atkinson wanted to go big, he can always use Wade at the #3 as well, he has shown he can defend on the perimeter.

Also, Nae’Qwan Tomlin should stay in the rotation. His energy and length have earned being on the floor.

The minutes for the wings will likely work itself out before the end of the season and Atkinson will have a better idea of his rotation for the playoffs, but in the meantime, players like Merrill and Craig Porter Jr. will be on trial for earning time on the floor.

Being deep is a good thing overall though, and hopefully the injuries are behind the Cavs so Atkinson will have a tough decision when the playoffs start.

Early Return On Deals Very Good For Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers are playing much better over the last month, winning 10 of their last 11 and just coming home from a tough trip out west where they dropped the first game in Phoenix and then ripped off four straight wins.

Certainly, all of the attention is on James Harden because let’s face it, no matter how you feel about his style of play, he is a former MVP and was named as one of the 75 greatest players in the league’s history.

But this span of better play started before Koby Altman swapped out Darius Garland, De’Andre Hunter, and Lonzo Ball. We could also be a little snarky and remind people it kind of started when Garland got hurt. They won the game he was injured to raise their record to 23-19, so the Cavs are 10-2 since.

We still worry about the lack of height on the current roster, but we also understand it is unfair to judge them now because Evan Mobley, the Cavs’ starting power forward, is out, and so is Dean Wade, who at 6’9″ can play both inside and outside.

But there is no question Koby Altman improved the Cavaliers’ defense on the perimeter with the acquisition of Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis. Although the former is 6’1″, Schroder is a pest defensively, picking up opponents in the backcourt and making his man work to bring the ball up.

Ellis is long and seems to have good anticipation skills in the passing lanes.

As for the big trade, we have no questions about James Harden’s ability to score. The guy can put the ball in the basket. He’s a 24.1 point scorer for his career and is coming up on the 29000th point in the NBA soon and is 730 points away from moving in the top ten all-time.

We know about his playoff failures too, but for this current team, when Mobley comes back, he’s probably the third best player, so the burden isn’t on him like in the past.

We also know that at some point he is going to probably force his way out of town, but we choose to look at the situation as how it affects the Cavaliers this season.

An aspect that is overlooked about Harden is his passing ability. He is also 12th all-time in assists, and he is particularly adept at making passes into the post. Jarrett Allen has scored 29 and 22 points in the two games Harden has played, and no doubt he will aid Mobley when he is healthy.

Harden isn’t a force on the defensive end, but at his size we can hold his own if someone tries to post him up, but he never was a decent defender and at 36, he’s not getting better. But really, the player he was dealt for wasn’t proficient on that end either.

Now, Kenny Atkinson has to figure out who is going to lose time with the three newcomers in uniform. There is no question there is a glut at guard and at small forward. In the last two games, he’s gotten around this by playing four guards, but that doesn’t help the rebounding.

When Mobley and Wade get back, that’s when he will have to make an adjustment. Our guess is Sam Merrill becomes more of a specialist, a sniper if you will, and Craig Porter Jr. will have a lesser role because Schroder and Ellis do what he provided.

Yes, things look good right now, but one thing hasn’t changed for the Cavaliers. Nothing really matters until the playoffs. They need to get to at least the conference finals. At least.

Altman Takes A Big Swing

The so called “Core 4” is no more.

The Cleveland Cavaliers continued their remaking of their roster by trading Darius Garland and a second-round draft pick to the Los Angeles Clippers for James Harden.

And even with De’Andre Hunter trade and this deal, you still wonder if there is more roster shuffling to come.

It reminded us of the roster purge at the 2018 deadline when Altman moved Jae Crowder, Derrick Rose, Iman Shumpert, Channing Frye, and Isaiah Thomas is a series of deals that netted the wine and gold Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr., George Hill, and Rodney Hood.

Moving on from Garland has always made sense to us because of the small backcourt Cleveland had pairing him with Donovan Mitchell, and Garland’s lack of defensive and his propensity for turnovers, particularly late in games and in the playoffs.

Which brings us to Harden. We have had issues with the 11-time All Star, mostly because of his style of play, which is difficult to watch, and that he has orchestrated his exit from a number of teams. His conditioning has also been a question at times.

On the other hand, as a talent, he is better than Garland. Garland’s career high scoring average is 21.7 points and his best in assists is 8.6. He’s a 38.6% shooter from three, last year knocking them down at 40.1%.

This year, at age 36, Harden is scoring 25.4 points, dishing out 8.1 assists, and his career mark from long range is 36.2%.

And he’s 6’5″.

We guess if the Cavs were going to have a ball dominant guard who doesn’t play defense, they might as well lean into it and get one who is bigger and better.

Another factor for Cleveland is the diminishing value of Garland. He played in a career high 75 games a year ago, but prior to that, the most games he’s ever played was 69. And the toe injury he incurred at the end of last year appears to be chronic, so we bet Koby Altman figured now is the time to cash out on the guard who had the longest tenure on the roster.

We do have concerns about Harden’s fit with this group. He does he affect the chemistry? Will he accept playing less minutes in order to be fresher in the playoffs? On the other hand, he is also playing to get another contract so you would think he’d be on his best behavior.

Why do we expect another move? Look at the logjam Kenny Atkinson will have to deal with. In addition to Harden and Mitchell, he has Jaylon Tyson, Sam Merrill, the two other newcomers in Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis, and Craig Porter Jr. to fit into the rotation.

That’s a lot of players at the #1-#3 spots. And that’s if you consider Dean Wade a #4.

And we will repeat, we still feel the Cavaliers need to get bigger up front.

It’s a big swing from Koby Altman for sure. We felt for a couple of years that the top of the Cavs’ roster was flawed. Did he fix it? We will know for sure in the next two months, but he did something because we think he knew that running it back wasn’t going to get the team to the next step, that is getting at least to the conference finals.

But make no mistake, Harden is a huge risk. But in another year, what would Garland have brought back in the teade?