Is The Cavs’ Weakness What They Think It Is?

There is a lot of optimism about the Cleveland Cavaliers heading into the 2023-24 NBA season. After all, in the last three seasons, the Cavs have gone from 22 wins to 44 and then 51 in the last three seasons.

They are coming off a playoff season but were manhandled by the Knicks in the first round losing in five games. The organization said all year that was the goal and they reached it.

However, we don’t like that messaging. In our experience, when you set a modest goal and reach it, there is a tendency to let up. President of basketball operations Koby Altman seems to embrace the “one step at a time” mentality that permeates throughout the league.

Instead, we think the franchise should keep pushing the envelope.

The Cavs added a lot of shooting in the off-season, probably overpaying for it. Right now, they are making Max Strus a starter, despite him starting just 49 games over the last two seasons with Miami. And Strus’ three-point shooting percentage dropped from 41% in 2021-22 to 35% in 2022-23.

Shooting is why the Cavs believe they lost to the Knicks. We believe they are wrong, they lost because they were not physical enough. The wine and gold shot 45% from the floor in the series, New York shot 42%.

From long distance, Cleveland shot 32.7% while the Knicks made 28.2%.

Altman seems to be like the new NBA fans who look at only one thing in watching games these days: Shooting. The reality is there is so much more to basketball, like defense, passing, rebounding.

The one sport where size matters is basketball and the Cavs’ organization has seemed to go away from that since they jumped from 22 victories to 44 in 2021-22 using a front line of three guys over 6’11”: Lauri Markkanen, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen.

And that doesn’t mean we didn’t like the trade for Donovan Mitchell.

This is something to watch as the season goes on, is there a difference of opinion in how to win between the front office and J.B. Bickerstaff?

Bickerstaff likes size and since he took over as head coach has emphasized defense. Besides Allen and Mobley, there is little size on the Cavaliers. They signed Damian Jones to be a backup at center and power forward, so hopefully he can provide quality minutes.

Tristan Thompson was also signed, but based on what we saw in the preseason, we aren’t really optimistic he can be a rotation player. He is simply too limited on the offensive end.

And they need rim protectors because they really don’t have strong defenders on the perimeter, let alone not much size. Darius Garland and Mitchell are listed at 6’1″ and Strus is 6’5″.

Bickerstaff, like every other NBA coach, has said he wants to play faster this season. But if this causes the team to give up defense and thus lose games, we will bet the Cavs will go back to playing the way they were successful.

Again, being successful in a half-court game requires size, and that’s where the team is lacking.

It will be interesting to see how the beginning of the season plays out.

Like To See Improvements In These Areas For Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers start the regular season next Wednesday when they travel to Brooklyn to take on the Nets before coming home for the home opener a week from tomorrow against Oklahoma City.

So finally, we can start evaluating players against true competition. We know fans want to get excited about players, especially young ones, in exhibition play, but they are probably getting time against guys who will be in the G League much of the 2023-24 campaign.

Still, there are some things we are anxious to see from the wine and gold when the season starts in earnest next week.

First, we would like to see Darius Garland be stronger with the basketball. Garland is a very good player, no question, with one All Star berth in his young career. His three point shooting reached a career high last season at 41%.

However, we would like him to cut down on turnovers, especially when he drives to the basket. Too often, Garland gets into the paint and loses control of the basketball. It was particularly noticeable in the playoffs last season.

If he can be stronger and maintain possession inside, imagine how many more free throws he would get. And he knocks down 86.3% of his shots at the line.

Because today’s game is obsessed with three-point shooting, everyone wants Evan Mobley to be able to make shots from beyond the arc. We want him to be a threat in the mid-range game. It would open up his game greatly.

Last season, Mobley made just 35.2% of his shots from 10 to 16 feet, and only 40.1% from three to ten feet. By comparison, his frontcourt partner, Jarrett Allen, knocked down 47% from 10 to 16 feet and 51% from three to ten feet.

If Mobley can knock down those types of shots on a regular basis, he will increase his scoring and also open up driving lanes not only for himself, but for his teammates. He doesn’t need to make threes, but he needs to be more effective away from the basket.

We would also like to see J.B. Bickerstaff develop a legitimate third big man, and we mean rim protector for when Mobley and/or Allen are on the bench or if they have to miss any time during the regular season.

Koby Altman signed 6’11” Damian Jones who played in 41 games with the Lakers and Jazz a year ago, averaging 3.5 points and 2 rebounds per game. He had 21 blocked shots in his limited opportunities.

The last two seasons, if the starting big men couldn’t play, Bickerstaff didn’t have a real alternative. Two years, it was 32-year-old Ed Davis, who was really brought in for leadership more than anything else. And when Jarrett Allen got hurt late in the season, they signed 7’2″ Moses Brown, but didn’t hold on to him.

Last year, it was Robin Lopez, who lacked the mobility to guard anyone away from the basket.

So, let’s see what Jones can do. Hopefully, he can be a suitable backup for Mobley and Allen. Yes, we know Tristan Thompson was signed as well, but we put him in the Davis and Lopez category.

We know Dean Wade is solid defensively and he is 6’9″, but we don’t think he is a deterrent around the basket for other teams.

The Cavaliers are a good team for sure, but improvements in these areas could make them a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference. We will start finding out next week.

Cavs Start Camp. Did They Address What They Needed?

Training camp has started for the Cleveland Cavaliers and they will open their season in less than three weeks.

The Cavs finished 51-31 last season, good for 4th place in the Eastern Conference, but were eliminated and kind of bludgeoned by the New York Knicks in five games in the first round of the playoffs, their first appearance in the post-season since 2017-18.

Cleveland needed more outside shooting and more size and to our eyes they addressed one of those needs. They ranked 24th in the league in three-point attempts and were 12th in shooting percentage on those shots.

In the free agent market, they signed two players who can help in that regard, Max Strus and Georges Niang.

Strus is a career 37.1% shooter from distance but did drop from 41% in 2021-22 to 35% last season. Niang is a 40.3% three-point maker during his seven-year career in the NBA, and has knocked down that percentage in each of the last five seasons.

On the size issue, we still have questions. Strus is the likely starter at small forward, meaning the Cavs will again likely be smaller than their opponents at point guard, #2 guard and small forward.

And Strus is not regarded as a good defender, and that’s where Cleveland has hung their hat on under coach J. B. Bickerstaff.

In today’s NBA, guys who are 6’5″ like Strus are guards more often than not.

Niang is 6’7″ and can play both forward spots, so we really think he can make an impact, especially when he is playing the #3 spot.

Up front, Koby Altman added 6’11” free agent Damian Jones, who was with the Lakers and Jazz last season, but played just 41 games. In fact, he has only played more than 50 games in a season twice, ’21-’22 with Sacramento and in ’19-’20 with the Hawks.

Can he be the primary back up for Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley? That’s a major question.

Altman added his usual veteran big man before camp started, bringing in old friend Tristan Thompson, who played just 30 games in the NBA last season. He’s 6’9″ and was a solid interior defender and rebounder, but he’s not a rim protector.

Hopefully, Thompson can be more than the leader/mentor than the guys Altman brought in the past two seasons in Ed Davis and Robin Lopez, neither of whom could be on the court for meaningful minutes.

We also thought the Cavs’ bench was very short last season, not in size, but in capable players. Caris LeVert is back and will assume the sixth man role, but moving Isaac Okoro to the bench along with Niang and (fingers crossed), Jones, should make Cleveland deeper.

We hope Ty Jerome can be a useful combo guard, but he’s another player who has never appeared in more than 50 games in an NBA season. He has some size (6’5″) and can shoot and pass.

So for us, the Cavs still need to be bigger physically. They should be helped by the maturation of Evan Mobley and to a lesser extent, Darius Garland. We would like to see Mobley move up to be an 18 PPG/10 RPG/2 blocks player, and be more consistent from outside on his shot.

And he doesn’t need to make threes, having a reliable 15 foot jumper would suffice.

Let’s face it, if the Cavs don’t draw the Knicks in the first round, they probably get to the second round. It was that bad of a match up.

Still, we need to see further progress from the Cavs, both on the floor and on the bench, meaning Bickerstaff, this season. That would seem to insure another home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Cavs Revamping Their Bench? That’s Good

While we were not enamored by the sign and trade move made by the Cleveland Cavaliers over the weekend to get Max Strus, we didn’t have a problem with a couple of moves late Saturday.

The Cavs signed combo guard Ty Jerome and center Damian Jones to bolster the team’s bench, and after all, that was a weakness for the wine and gold a year ago.

Jerome is a 6’5″ backcourt player who can play the point and the #2 spot, and no doubt Cleveland can use some size at guard. The only issue for him is can he play 82 games. The most he has ever played is 48 with Oklahoma City in 2021-22.

The former Virginia standout can shoot, 38.9% from three and perhaps more importantly, 92.7% from the free throw line. He was also a starter on Virginia’s national championship team.

We think Ricky Rubio will be better the second year coming off knee surgery, but will Jerome get more minutes once the season starts? Or will Rubio be used in another trade.

As for Jones, this may sound a bit snarky, but we like this because he’s a legitimate NBA big man and he’s not over 30 years old. In the last couple of years, Cleveland has tried veterans like Ed Davis and Robin Lopez to back up Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, and neither has anything left.

Jones (6’11”) is 28 and played 41 games with the Lakers and Jazz last season. He scored 3.5 points and grabbed 3.0 boards in 11 minutes per game. He’s decent and serviceable, but we would still like to see Altman grab yet another backup at power forward and center.

We seriously doubt Koby Altman and Mike Gansey are done putting together this roster, but we do have to laugh at those including rookie Emoni Bates in the team’s depth chart. Bates is going to play in the G-League this season, working to get stronger and his overall game.

He may get a shot here and there if injuries hit the Cavs, but he was the 49th pick, not the 9th pick. We would say neither Altman, Gansey, nor coach J.B. Bickerstaff is counting on anything from Bates this season.

One player we are not seeing on depth charts is a draft pick from 2022, 6’7″ Luke Travers, who played in the Australian National League the past four years. Travers averaged 9.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, and three assists last season. He might be the kind of complete, all-around player (with some size) that Cleveland needs.

He will play in the NBA Summer League along with another ’22 draft pick, 7’1″ Khalifa Diop. who played in Liga Endesa last season, averaging 8 points and 5 boards per contest. We want to see how he will fare against the draft picks and second year guys in Las Vegas.

We have said the Cavs needed to add size and scoring for this season, but they also needed to redo their bench, which they received little production from, especially after they benched Kevin Love.

Getting Georges Niang, Jerome, and Jones should help, but we have a suspicion they some of the players who made up the reserve unit a year ago, won’t be back. And we have no issue with that.

Big Summer Ahead For Cavs

The NBA season ended on Monday night, meaning the draft, free agency, and trade season is upon basketball fans around the country.

That means we will see if Cavs’ president of basketball operations was serious when he said the wine and gold were not going to make big changes this summer.

There is some truth that Denver was patient throughout the past few seasons and reaped the benefit by winning the title, and the Nuggets have indeed built around Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, two players drafted by the team.

The counterpoint to that is the newly crowned champs are built traditionally. Yes, they have one of the best players in the world in the two-time MVP, but they have size in the backcourt, Murray is 6’4 and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is 6’5″.

As we have written many times since the Cavs were eliminated by the Knicks, Cleveland has a very small roster, with only Evan Mobley bigger than most players who play his position. And to be fair, Jarrett Allen is the height of most NBA starting centers.

So standing pat is kind of banking on every going the same way for the Cavs in the 2023-24 campaign. And can that way work in the playoffs?

Help isn’t going to come in the draft, so the Cavaliers have to rely on free agency and the trade market in order to improve. The question is do they have the resources to make the improvements needed to compete in the playoffs next year?

Sure, you can trade players like Cedi Osman, Isaac Okoro, or Lamar Stevens, but what is that going to get you? They don’t have enough room under the salary cap to go out and get a big-time free agent. Most teams in the league don’t.

Now, if Altman and GM Mike Gansey really think the Cavs just played a team that was a bad matchup in the first round, and they just need to run it back, okay. There is merit to that. Let’s say, Cleveland would’ve played the Nets in the first round, they likely advance to the conference semifinals.

Many people have speculated that Allen is the most likely to go, but the Cavs are already devoid of big men. Most of these people have the belief that either your power forward or center must be able to shoot threes to win in today’s NBA.

Our counter to that is yes, it does open up the floor, but it doesn’t have to be beyond the arc. If Allen and Mobley can be respectable from 15 feet, that would be very helpful.

And if other teams think the same way as Cleveland, then what kind of return would the Cavaliers get for Allen?

We still think it will be difficult, not impossible to win with a pair of small guards getting big minutes. We said this when Collin Sexton and Darius Garland were the starters, and raised the point when Donovan Mitchell was acquired.

You can’t move a guy like Mobley who has size, is a great defender, being able to guard on the perimeter as well as the post. He’s exactly the kind of versatile player needed in today’s game.

So that means another revamp of the backcourt.

Does the front office have the stomach for that? Two years ago, the Cavs experimented with three seven footers on the front line. Last year, they were a small team. Do they see if they can get to the conference finals with a second year of this group?

We’d like to see the experimental phase end. Even in today’s NBA, size wins. That’s Altman’s challenge this summer.

Cavs Need More Than Tinkering To Advance Next Year.

In watching the NBA playoffs, we continuously think about the Cavaliers’ first round defeat in five games at the hands of the New York Knicks. We think about it because the Eastern Conference’s 8th seed, the Miami Heat, advanced to the NBA Finals

We also think watching the Heat and this is a huge off-season for the Cavs’ organization, and the heat should be turned up on the seats of both Koby Altman and J.B. Bickerstaff.

In reading wrap ups about the series, it seems the scapegoats for fans and some media are Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen.

Mitchell takes blame because he is the star player, and when many national analysts look at a team’s failure, they perceive the problem as the best player simply didn’t play well enough.

Allen takes blame because Cleveland was hammered on the boards, and since he’s the center, it’s his fault. We aren’t saying he’s blameless, but part of the problem was the Cavs’ defensive philosophy. Allen was in help mode and was caught out of position.

Our feeling is the coaching staff did little to help either player. The Knicks were trapping Mitchell and Darius Garland to force them to give up the ball, but it seems the coaches never came up with a counter.

Why not move Mitchell off the ball and have him run off screens to get open and get the ball where he can just shoot it with a good look? As of Allen and Mobley, it doesn’t seem like the wine and gold run anything for either offensively. Therefore, teams don’t really need to guard them to take away anything.

As for Altman, he gets a lot of praise for getting Mitchell and drafting Mobley. While we can debate the price for the former, it doesn’t take a special basketball mind to go after a multiple time all-star player. It takes guts to give up what is needed, but it’s not like he found a diamond in the rough.

He did take a chance on Mobley in some regards, as we didn’t think he would have made an impact so quickly because of his slight build. But there is no questioning his talent.

NFL general managers make their reputation on finding gems in the later rounds of the draft, the 4th, 5th, and 6th rounds. To us, NBA GMs make their bones finding solid players to make up the bench.

Right now, we would say Altman has not done a good job in that regard, and let’s face it, he whiffed on the Isaac Okoro pick at #5, despite what the organization continues to tell you.

Of the 58 players in that draft who played in the NBA, Okoro ranks 51st in VORP (Value Over Replacement Player). Among the players the Cavaliers could have selected are Tyrese Haliburton, who made the all-star team this season, Onyeka Okongwu, who was selected with the very next pick (9.9 PPG, 7.2 RPG this year), and the player we wanted, Obi Toppin, a 6’9″ player who can play on the wing.

Because of injuries, Dylan Windler simply hasn’t contributed, and when he has played, he’s made just 32.2% of his threes, belying his reputation as a shooter.

And the bench just isn’t there. The front office has decided to sign veteran big men the last two years who simply can’t play anymore (Ed Davis and Robin Lopez). They’ve put an immense amount of trust in Dean Wade, who we feel would be at the bottom of most team’s rosters.

He signed Sam Merrill after the trading deadline, apparently to add shooting, but Merrill has been hanging around the NBA for three years and has played in 11 games since his rookie year.

Despite Altman’s comments about staying the course this off-season, if the Cavaliers want to contend for a spot in at least the Eastern Conference finals, they have to bolster the roster from spots #8 through #10, and get much better at small forward.

Doesn’t sound like tinkering, does it?

Clock Is Ticking Right Now For Altman

Sometimes when you set a goal, once you reached it you are satisfied, and the will to push further just isn’t there. That’s the way we feel about the Cleveland Cavaliers this past season.

After last season’s failure to advance in the “play in” tournament, the organization said they wanted to get to a best of seven series, which they did by finishing fourth in the Eastern Conference. And that’s why a lot of the message coming out of the team was that it was a successful season.

They attained their goal.

Of course, that’s what happens when you set too low of a standard. No, the Cavs weren’t going to win the NBA title this season, but the front office and coaching staff should set a standard of going as far as they can in a given year.

And if that was the goal, is that why Koby Altman and Mike Gansey did nothing at the deadline? After all, there was no one out there who would have put Cleveland in the NBA Finals.

We know what Altman said in his press conference after the wine and gold was eliminated by the Knicks in five games, no sweeping changes. Again, we hope this is just front office speak.

When Altman took a big swing and got Donovan Mitchell, the expectations for the Cavaliers changed. And they changed again when the team won 51 games and got home court advantage in the first round.

The front office didn’t adapt.

We have already addressed the lack of size on this basketball team. They are pretty much smaller at every position except for Evan Mobley at power forward and Jarrett Allen is pretty much a league average center.

The Cavs also need shooting, consistent shooting. When New York double teamed Mitchell and Darius Garland, beyond Caris LeVert, the Cavaliers had no one who could make the Knicks pay for the double team.

No matter how much the Cavs’ influencers tell you, opposing teams love when Isaac Okoro shoots three pointers. He is open for a reason. Mobley shot just 22% from distance this season, but perhaps more troubling was he shot just 36.2% from 10-16 feet.

If he became a decent three-point shooter, that would be great, but if you doubled the guards and they could get it to Mobley at the foul line and he could knock it down, that would be a great help as well.

Allen hits 51% from that distance, but rarely shoots from there.

LeVert is needed because beyond Mitchell and Garland, he is the only player on the team among the players getting big minutes who can create their own shot. That trio along with Ricky Rubio are the only players who were assisted on less than half of their made shots.

As a contrast, the Miami Heat, now in the conference finals have five such players.

If you are going to have Mitchell and Garland being your principal scorers, you have to build a team with shooters surrounding them. That opens up the floor come playoff team, when opponents start game-planning against you.

Mitchell has two more years on his current deal and then has a player option for 2025-26. That gives management two seasons to figure out a way to get this team deep into the playoffs, meaning getting to the Eastern Conference finals.

No more setting modest goals, they are on the clock right now.

So, running it back with the current group cannot be the plan, nor can the goal be to win a playoff series in 2023-24. They have to be in contending mode this summer.

Without a lot of assets, Altman and Gansey have to be creative in building a roster than can compete with the Milwaukees, Bostons, Philadelphias, and yes, New York and Miami.

That clock starts ticking the minute the NBA Finals end.

Cavs Need Size, Can They Add It?

We understand basketball has morphed into a kind of positionless sports over the last ten years. No longer do a lot of team use a traditional center, power forward, small forward, shooting guard and point guard.

For example, the traditional point guard, think of a guy like Andre Miller or Mark Jackson, who is a distributor, scoring only when he has to. The point guard position today is for guys like Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, and even Darius Garland, guys who can stretch the floor with long range shooting and pass as well.

Despite the change in the sport, it is still a game where size matters. The three finalists for league MVP were Joel Embiid (7’0″), Giannis Antetokounmpo (7’0″) and Nikola Jokic (6’11”).

Unfortunately, the Cleveland Cavaliers have not following that trend.

Sure in 2021-22, J.B. Bickerstaff famously starting a front line of 6’11” Jarrett Allen and a pair of seven footers in Evan Mobley and Lauri Markkanen, but the only other players who received significant minutes that were over 6’8″ were Kevin Love and Dean Wade.

But Markkanen was moved to get Donovan Mitchell and was replaced in the starting lineup by 6’5″ Isaac Okoro. So, while the Cavs still have Mobley and Allen, they are undersized at the other three spots on the floor with both Mitchell and Garland being listed at 6’1″.

By contrast, let’s look at the highest remaining seed in the East, the Boston Celtics. They start a pair of guards both taller than the Cavs’ starters in Derrick White (6’4″) and Marcus Smart (6’3″). They aren’t as tall up front overall, but Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum kind of alternate on the wing and they are 6’6″ and 6’8″.

Al Horford is only 6’9″ at center, but there two most prominent reserves are Malcolm Brogdon (6’5″) and Robert Williams (6’10”).

And it is not just about height either. The Knicks’ Jalen Brunson is listed at 6’1″, but he’s thick, burly if you will. And he just overpowered both of the Cavs’ starters who are listed at the same height.

Same among the big men. Mobley and New York’s Mitchell Robinson are both listed at seven feet, but Robinson is a bigger player. And to be fair, Mobley is only 21 years old and we have no doubt he will get stronger as he gets older.

Against New York, Bickerstaff’s tallest reserves were 6’6″ Caris LeVert and 6’7″ Cedi Osman. The Knicks used former Cavalier Isaiah Hartenstein (7′) and also Obi Toppin (6’9″).

When you think about it, the only position where the Cavaliers are bigger than the norm is at power forward with Mobley.

The biggest challenge for Koby Altman this summer is to get bigger. First of all, the coach has gone on record saying he prefers bigger players. He needs to get a useful big man off the bench, one who can play and be effective when Allen and Mobley are resting.

We find it funny when folks want to trade Allen this off-season. If you do that, then you are short two big men.

And if you are going to continue to use a smaller backcourt, the wine and gold need to get bigger reserves. Having LeVert is good because they can play him with either Mitchell or Garland and have some size, particularly because the former plays bigger than 6’1″.

But you also need a small forward taller than Okoro or LeVert. It’s tougher to shoot over players taller than you than it is to do against smaller players.

Size still matters in the game of basketball even in today’s era. One step for the Cavs to be better next year is to get bigger.

That’s step one.

Comments About Altman’s Comments

Friday morning, Cavs’ basketball head honcho Koby Altman had his post-season press conference and essentially said there wouldn’t be a lot of changes in the off-season. Let’s hope this is just front office speak.

Yes, the Cavaliers won 51 games this past season, the most won in the post-LeBron James era for the franchise. However, a closer look at the team shows there are a lot of areas where the wine and gold need to improve if they want to make a deeper run in next season’s playoffs.

Altman went out and got a star last off-season, trading most of the Cavaliers’ assets for Donovan Mitchell, thus giving the team four all-star caliber players along with Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen, and Evan Mobley.

It was a great move. Mitchell will likely be first or second team all-NBA. But now Altman and GM Mike Gansey need to focus on spots #4 through #10 on the roster.

We would guess there will be a priority to bring Caris LeVert back. LeVert is the only player besides Mitchell and Garland to be able to create his own shot, and he showed he can be a solid defender and good passer.

The Cavaliers need more “basketball players” on the second unit. What we mean by that is players who can do a little bit of everything, like LeVert.

Right now, after the five players already mentioned, it feels like the balance of the squad is made up of one-dimensional players.

Isaac Okoro and Lamar Stevens are defenders, providing little on the offense end. Ricky Rubio is a playmaker. Dean Wade? He’s supposed to be able to provide outside shooting, but frankly, we’ve said all year he’s probably better defensively than people think, and not as good of a shooter as purported.

Cedi Osman is the closest to having an all-around game, but it seems like the coaching staff has very little confidence in him.

And without a doubt, Cleveland needs some shooters. The playoff series vs. the Knicks begged for someone, anyone to be able to make an outside shot consistently. Danny Green was signed on the buyout market and contributed one made three-point shot.

They also need size, and need size that can play in April. The last two years, the front office offered Ed Davis and Robin Lopez as reserve big men. Neither contributed much on the court. Altman and Gansey must get at least one big who can spell Allen and Mobley, and we would get two.

Basketball is still a sport where size matters, and J.B. Bickerstaff, who loves size, shouldn’t have to play Osman or Green at power forward in a playoff game.

From a coaching standpoint, Bickerstaff needs to do something differently offensively. Mitchell came into criticism for the post-season performance and to his credit, he owned up to it, but what did the coaching staff do to get him open looks? Opposing teams don’t guard Okoro, but the Cavs keep putting him in the corner to shoot threes.

That’s exactly why they don’t guard him.

They also don’t really have a plan for Mobley and Allen on the offensive end.

The defensive mindset is great, no question about it, but the Cavs only scored 100 points once in the series, the game they won. And the trio of Mitchell, Garland, and LeVert took 63% of the shots Cleveland attempted.

FYI, the Knicks top three in shots taken (Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle, and R.J. Barrett) took 58% of their shots.

There is very little movement off the ball for Cleveland. It’s pick and roll or bust. And we know that’s what the league has become, but there has to be some alternatives.

If Altman went before the media and promised big changes, the speculation would be running rampant already. He has to know the Cavaliers have to get better in 2023-24, and that will be difficult with no changes on the roster.

Can The Cavs Respond Tonight?

A week and a half ago, basketball fans in northeast Ohio were excited about the Cavaliers. They won 51 games and had homecourt advantage in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

Things can change drastically in ten days, right?

Tonight, the Cavs are playing for their playoff lives, down 3-1 to the New York Knicks with a possible elimination game at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

Can the Cavs come back and win the series? Our first thought is no, because New York has exposed the weaknesses the Cleveland roster has, namely a top-heavy roster that provides little depth.

One issue we don’t think J.B. Bickerstaff can address is the lack of a third big man who can get on the court. We aren’t going to re-hash the whole Kevin Love situation again, but the real issue is Koby Altman and Mike Gansey did not replace Love with another serviceable big. So, when Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley are on the bench, the Cavaliers really have no big bodies to replace them.

We say it all the time, yes, basketball has changed. The smaller players do have a bigger impact on the game right now, but never forget that size still matters. You have to have size to win, and beyond Allen and Mobley, the wine and gold don’t have enough.

Bickerstaff needs to pull out all stops tonight, he really has nothing to lose. The Knicks primary offensive threat is Jalen Brunson, and the Cavs best success against him is to guard him with bigger people, which we agree with.

Brunson is simply too strong for Donovan Mitchell or Darius Garland.

We believe you have to use Isaac Okoro on him with Caris LeVert and Lamar Stevens also taking turns guarding him. Stevens hasn’t played real minutes in the series, but we think he has to be on the floor tonight.

We have heard many folks complaining about Mitchell’s performance on Sunday and about Allen’s play in general. We agree Mitchell played poorly, but think about it, what did the coaching staff do to help him?

The Knicks are trying to take Mitchell away from the Cavs, and that’s good strategy, he’s their best player, but the Cavs’ staff have to figure out a way to get the All-Star guard some good looks, perhaps with some off-ball screens to get some shots in the paint so he can get in a rhythm early.

As for Allen, he is having problems defensively, but mostly because he is helping with players who are penetrating, and he’s done that all year. He either needs his teammates to keep their men in front of them or somebody to pick up his man when he helps.

That isn’t happening.

Offensively, the Cavs really don’t do much for Mobley or Allen. When the Knicks’ trap out front, the middle is open and that’s where Mobley can help. Get him the ball there and he can either attack the basket or set up a lob for Allen. But really, the Cavaliers don’t ever make a reasonable effort to establish either on the offensive end.

We would go back to starting Okoro, and use LeVert, Osman, and Stevens off the bench. That’s it.

Again, it is a tough road for the Cavs to win this series, but they need to extend the series back to New York to gain some respect among the basketball cognoscenti.

The flaws were always there, they are just being exposed now.