Maybe Cavs Need Fit More Than Talent.

By the end of this month, it is very likely the roster of the Cleveland Cavaliers will look quite different. The Cavs have the third pick in the draft, and rumors persist of a trade coming involving leading scorer Collin Sexton.

While it may be absurd to many people for a team with one of the worst records in the league over the last three years to move their best player, you have to remember that basketball is not a sport where the best talent wins all the time, there has to be a good fit.

You can’t take players’ statistics and add them together when talking about possibilities. For example, a team made up of Stephen Curry, Bradley Beal, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jayson Tatum, the leading scorers at their respective positions, would not average 146 points per game, which is the accumulation of their scoring averages in 2020-21.

To go really old school, the 1967-68 Los Angeles Lakers won 52 games and went to the NBA Finals behind two of the great players of the era, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. They also had Archie Clark, who averaged 19.9 points that year. Clark was a prolific scorer, with a career scoring mark of 16 points per contest, with a high season of 25 PPG.

That off-season, the Lakers, feeling they needed something to push them over the top, combat Boston and Bill Russell, and win their first title in LA, traded Clark, center Darrell Imhoff and Jerry Chambers to Philadelphia for Wilt Chamberlain, who we still believe is the greatest center in NBA history.

Surely, the combination of three all time greats would lead to a championship.

The addition of Wilt the Stilt got the Lakers back to The Finals, where they again lost to Boston in 1968-69. Chamberlain missed all but 12 regular seasons the following season, but was back for the playoffs, where again LA lost in seven games to the New York Knicks.

After a loss in the conference finals to Milwaukee in ’70-’71 (Baylor was injured and retired early the following season), the Lakers inserted Jim McMillan in the starting lineup for Baylor and the team became unbeatable, going on a 33 games winning streak (still the all-time record), and won a then league record 69 games and won the title.

McMillan was a good player, not a great one (18.8 points, 6.5 rebounds in the championship season), but was a perfect fit for that team.

The Cavaliers are a losing team, winning 19, 19, and 22 games the last three seasons, and although Sexton was the leading scorer the past two years, he wasn’t the Cavs’ leader in win shares in any of the years he has been on the team. The first two years it was Larry Nance, and last season it was Jarrett Allen.

Based on this, we can see why the Cleveland front office is hesitant to give Sexton a contract extension, and may feel moving him now to bring in some pieces who might fit better with guys like Darius Garland, Allen, and whoever the wine and gold take with the third overall pick.

Although it is difficult to believe, it isn’t always about the talent in basketball, it’s about how that talent fits and the combination of players can play off of each other.

Look at the transformation Chris Paul made with Phoenix. His presence changed the dynamic of the roster.

That happens a lot in the NBA, and could be the answer in Cleveland. We understand that thinking.

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.

Where, Oh Where Is The Cavs’ Front Office?

It is kind of a tradition for the point man for professional sports teams to be the general manager, and normally that person speaks to the media when a major event happens or when the season ends.

That’s why it is peculiar at best that Cavs’ GM Koby Altman has not been neither seen or heard from since he completed the Jarrett Allen trade on January 13th.

Look, we get it. It’s not a pleasant task to discuss what went wrong after a losing season, especially one that ended as dismally as the Cavaliers did, losing 13 of their last 14 contests.

On the other hand, as we tell our children, would you like a list of things we have to do that are part of our job that we don’t particularly care for? It’s part of the gig to stand up and talk to the media about both the good things and bad things that occurred during the season, and to answer questions about the future.

The underlying question must be is Dan Gilbert contemplating a restructuring of the front office. Will Altman emerge from the restructuring with his job or just a new boss? That has to be the only option, because otherwise not having availability with the media after the season concludes is either a bad look, or just plain fear.

We have said before we believe someone else needs to be involved in the future planning of this basketball team and that person cannot and should not have the last name of Gilbert. It needs to be someone who has played or coached in the league, and should be someone not that far removed from doing those things.

And in our opinion, it needs to be someone from outside the organization, meaning someone with a fresh viewpoint on the players on the team. For example, the Cavs have put a lot of stock in Collin Sexton, but what do others not in the Cleveland organization think of him? Who does that person think should be the building blocks of the next winning team wearing wine and gold?

We understand Sexton is a lightning rod among Cavs’ followers, so we can pick out another example. Can Dean Wade be a key piece for a playoff team? He averaged 6 points and 3.4 rebounds playing 19 minutes per game, playing in 63 of them. He’s a stretch four, shooting almost 37% from beyond the arc in 2020-21.

However, to us, he’s a 10th-12th man on a good team. We watch the NBA playoffs and we can’t see him getting meaningful minutes. We don’t think he’s a good enough defender to play at that level.

We think it’s time for a second set of eyes at this point. Perhaps someone new will come in and think Altman is 100% correct with his assessment of things, and if that happens, it will still give another basketball person a chance to evaluate players.

But if that person thinks the future of the franchise is best served by going in another direction, say, building around Jarrett Allen, then that should be the course taken going forward.

We maintain the problem isn’t talent, nor is it coaching, it’s fit. And we are right, then Dan Gilbert and his family have to do the right thing.

People have always taught us that the smartest people know what they don’t know.

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

The Sexton Dilemma

When discussion regarding the Cleveland Cavaliers’ future comes up, a talk about Collin Sexton is sure to follow. He is a polarizing figure to be sure.

Sexton was the 8th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, taken with the choice secured from Boston, originally that of the Brooklyn Nets, in the Kyrie Irving. There is a lot to like about the former Alabama standout, who just turned 22 years old earlier this season.

He is a gym rat to be sure. He is a tireless worker. There are stories during his rookie season that he had to be thrown out of the Cavs’ practice facility because he was consumed by basketball.

He can score the ball too. He is averaging a career high 24.0 points per game this season, a step up from 20.8 a year ago.

But the question for many, including ourselves, is this: Can he be the best player on a contending team?

Our answer is no, but could he be a contributor on a good team? We think so.

Watching him play, he doesn’t seem to have good basketball instincts. And what we mean by that is he doesn’t have a good feel in getting the ball to his teammates where they can succeed. However, again, he can flat out put the ball in the basket.

When the Cavs are struggling offensively, he can keep them in a game. We think about the recent contest against the Lakers where Cleveland led at the half because Darius Garland and Larry Nance Jr. were playing great. Sexton was out with an injury.

In the second half, the Lakers’ defense determined someone other than Garland and Nance were going to have to score. No one else could. That’s exactly the kind of game where Sexton could have been a huge factor. That’s when you need to have the “scorer’s mentality”.

The other thing is can a backcourt of Garland and Sexton be successful defensively. Perhaps, but that’s where Jarrett Allen and another big (Isaiah Hartenstein?) are needed.

Toronto won a title with small guards, but they had Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, elite defenders behind them. And Utah has the best record in the league this season, and have shot blocker extraordinaire Rudy Gobert protecting the rim.

Can Sexton be a part of Cleveland’s success going forward? Yes, he can, but to do so, it might have to involved taking a step back. Getting his teammates involved more, and then scoring when needed or just let Garland run the offense and be the finisher.

And take the open shots when they are there. We have seen Sexton have a good look, and dribble his way into the defense, thus causing a more difficult shot.

Maybe more direction is needed from the bench too. Being a young team, sometimes you have to tell the players where they want the shot to come from and who they would they want shooting.

Perhaps some of that comes from having veterans Kevin Love and Matthew Dellavedova back on the floor.

Many NBA players, including Michael Jordan, have had to learn to do this. So, Sexton can definitely learn this skill. Our question is anyone in the organization telling him this? For the Cavs to start playing consistent winning basketball, we think that’s what is needed.

Evaluating The Cavs Rebuild.

Our thoughts on the Cleveland Cavaliers seem to vary on a weekly basis. That’s probably because they are so inconsistent.

They are a very young team, the third youngest team in the NBA, behind only Minnesota and Oklahoma City, so the ups and downs are understandable. And the biggest thing the team needs is probably stability, so the organization has to grow together, the front office, coaching staff, and the players.

Recently, it has come to light that owner Dan Gilbert’s son, Grant, is taking more of a role in the organization. Grant Gilbert is just 23 years old, and hopefully, he will realize what the smartest people can do, realize what he doesn’t know.

If the younger Gilbert takes over the operations of the team, what does that mean for Altman? And if the latter is let go, does the new man in charge hire someone with a long history in the NBA.

Again, the rumor mill has Brock Aller, the vice president of basketball operations and strategy with the New York Knicks, and former Cavalier front office employee (in general terms, he was the “capologist”) returning to head up basketball operations in Cleveland.

Aller is well respected within the league, but he’s an analytics guy. And that might work as long as it comes along with someone who knows the game, who understands how players work together and fit with each other.

The game isn’t all about statistics.

If we were asked who the best player currently on the Cavs is, the answer would probably surprise you. We are sure most fans would say it’s Collin Sexton, averaging 24 points and a little over four assists per game.

We would certainly say Sexton is the best scorer, but the best basketball player, in our opinion, is Larry Nance Jr., averaging just 10 points per night, but adding in seven rebounds and three assists during a usual night’s work.

Certainly, by the amount of supposed interest in Nance at the trade deadline, a lot of NBA teams also see the value in the skill set of the one time Revere High School standout.

This isn’t to denigrate Sexton. If you watched the Cavs’ loss to the Lakers Friday night, you could see they needed someone who can put the ball in the basket, which Sexton can do. Our question has always been, can the two small backcourt players (Sexton and Darius Garland) work long term in the NBA, even today’s version of it.

As for Altman, he should certainly get big kudos for the trade which netted Jarrett Allen, who at 22 years of age, has all kinds of upside. He should be a huge building block for the franchise going forward. We don’t mark him down for the Andre Drummond situation. The Cavaliers gave up nothing to get the big man, and it just didn’t work out.

But what is his second best move? Drafting Sexton? You can make an argument, an analytical argument, that Sexton is the third worst player (using VORP–value over replacement player) in the draft.

And Garland is the worst player using that category in the 2019 draft.

By the way, our eyes don’t agree with those ratings.

And in the most recent draft, Altman drafted a defensive player with a limited offensive game in Isaac Okoro with the fifth overall choice. He’s been a mainstay in the lineup all year, but at 6’5″, he’s too small to play small forward, which is where he spends most of his minutes.

To us, the biggest problem is this is year three in the second post-LeBron James era, and we still really don’t know what the direction of the franchise is. Is it too soon to think that should be the case?

However, if Grant Gilbert takes over the team, he may start asking what is going on with the franchise. And if he doesn’t like the answers, there could be another change at the top for the Cavaliers.