Cavs’ Need To Solve Bench Problem.

Since February 1st, the Cleveland Cavaliers have gone 10-4, but it seems like they are still in state of flux.

In this span, the Cavs have bought out Kevin Love and the remaining members of the second unit, save for Caris LeVert, have been wildly inconsistent.

J.B. Bickerstaff has said he is using his bench personnel based on game situations, meaning it depends on the opponent. We disagree with this, but as we all know, we are not, nor ever have been an NBA coach.

We know the players are grown men, but we still feel when players know how they will be used, they feel more comfortable and that leads to better performances.

We get the Cavs didn’t want to get into the luxury tax this season, and we understand why. They want to save that for next year, when they figure to make a deeper run in the playoffs.

That said, we continue to see a very top-heavy roster, one that will need to be tweaked going into next season if the Cavs want to contend for an Eastern Conference championship.

The front office and coaching staff have put a lot of faith in certain players and over the last month, those players haven’t justified that confidence, and right now, it’s a problem for the Cavs.

We know once the playoffs start, the rotation will be tightened, and Bickerstaff will likely use just eight guys. LeVert will no doubt be one, and Ricky Rubio will be the other. Who’s the third non-starter to get time?

Bickerstaff has established a defensive mindset for the team and that’s great. In the seasons between LeBron James leaving with Ty Lue as coach until Bickerstaff took over, there seemed to be no identity for the wine and gold. The current coach gave them one.

However, it seems like every roster move and decision about playing time is based on how a player defends, and that can be problematic because it puts the entire scoring burden on Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen.

If one of that quartet is having an off night, more often than not, it’s a huge problem for the Cavs.

Isaac Okoro is still starting and after a brief stretch in January and early February where his shot was falling, particularly from three-point range, he has returned to his usual performance. In his last 10 games, he’s scoring 6.4 points per game on 43% shooting from the floor and is 9 of 32 (28.1%) from long distance.

In Dean Wade’s last 14 games, he is averaging 2.6 points and 3.3 rebounds a game. He’s shooting 32.5% from the floor and 27% from three.

Cedi Osman was making 45.8% of his shots before the All-Star break, averaging 21 minutes per game. Since the break, his time has dropped to 17 minutes, missing one game entirely, and his shooting has dropped to 35%.

In our opinion, we don’t think the coach has ever been a real fan of Osman’s game, and we differ there. We think Osman should start because opposing defenses would have to guard him, and we feel he could be an effective slasher and passer.

We would still like to see Lamar Stevens get more time in the last 15 games to see if he can be a rotation piece, and he showed what he can do last night. Stevens is a solid defender and has a decent mid-range game. He doesn’t shoot a lot of threes, because he knows he’s not effective from out there.

At this point, we think he’s a better option than either Wade or Okoro.

The hardest thing for a coach to realize at times is when he is being stubborn. We hope Bickerstaff uses these last five weeks of the season to kind of hold tryouts for who should earn playing time in the playoffs.

Right now, no one is really stepping up on the offensive end of the floor.

Can’t See The Wisdom In Love Buyout

We don’t like giving up on athletes who can still play.

That’s why we are having a hard time wrapping our head around the Cleveland Cavaliers’ decision to reach a buyout agreement with Kevin Love.

We do understand that Love is a defensive liability, he can no longer guard quicker guards on the perimeter. Look at the top scorers in the NBA. Nobody can guard them because mostly, you aren’t allowed to play defense in the league anymore.

Damian Lillard is averaging 31.4 points, Ja Morant 27.3, Donovan Mitchell, Kyrie Irving, and Trae Young are all averaging over 26.5 per contest. These are all talented players, but under today’s rules, they are very difficult for anybody to guard on the perimeter.

The consensus among people we know and we read is that Love can still play in the league and at a solid level. And we have an issue that J.B. Bickerstaff basically made him an outsider.

Just a little over a month ago, on New Year’s Eve and on January 2nd, in back-to-back victories over the Bulls, Love had games of 20 points and nine rebounds and followed it up with 12 points and 17 boards. We don’t think the veteran lost it in a six-week period.

That’s not a criticism of Bickerstaff either. Every coach does some things that we would do differently, it doesn’t mean we want that guy fired.

Bickerstaff is a defense-first coach. When he took over, we felt the Cavaliers as an organization didn’t have an identity, the coach established that defense was going to be the trademark of the wine and gold.

And certainly, Dean Wade gives the Cavs better perimeter defense than Love. We have said before that we believe Wade is underrated for his ability to guard and overrated for his shooting.

In the 14 games Wade has played since he returned from his shoulder injury, he’s averaging 4.4 points and 3.3 rebounds per game, shooting 44% from the floor and 35% from three. Love is shooting 35% from three, despite a hand injury that occurred early in the season.

When Love was benched on January 26th, we thought it was to give his thumb, which he fractured in mid-November, an extended rest to finally heal, and for him to get his shot back on track. In January, his three-point shooting had dropped to 22.9%.

We don’t like the “per 36 minutes” statistic, but Love was still rebounding, with the second-best rate on the team, behind only Evan Mobley.

Maybe Bickerstaff could have cut Love’s minutes a bit and still kept him in the rotation, maybe giving him less minutes in the second half of games when defense is at a premium.

Again, going back to the first line in the piece, we hate giving up players who can still contribute if you don’t have to.

Also, Love’s defensive issues are due to the seemingly idiotic way the NBA plays the pick and roll these days, switching on everything. In our opinion, that’s allowing the offense to dictate your defense. It simply makes no sense. Every team wants their guard against an opposing big man, or to put it more simply a quicker player vs. someone who can move as well.

It’s also troublesome that the two teams who are most interested in securing Love’s services are teams very near the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference standings: Philadelphia and Miami.

That should tell the Cavs’ front office this wasn’t handled correctly.

No Trades For Cavs, But Green Is Coming. Anyone Else?

The Cleveland Cavaliers seemed to have found an elixir to their January malaise and have reeled off six straight victories, pushing them into fourth place in the Eastern Conference, which would give them home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

It was a bit surprising that Koby Altman and Mike Gansey did not pull off a trade at the deadline, mostly because only four teams in the league did not make a deal.

As we have been saying over the last month, we felt the Cavs needed a big more than a wing heading into the post-season, but the front office didn’t do that either, although it looks as though Cleveland will be signing veteran free agent Danny Green, recently traded from Memphis to Houston, and then bought out by the Rockets.

Green has only played three games this season, recovering from a knee injury, but he brings some length at the wing position and he’s a career 40% shooter from three-point range. Cleveland could use another reliable shooter from outside.

Green’s signing will take place after he passes through waivers, which should happen later today.

It will be interesting to see if Altman grabs another big man that comes available on the buyout market.

Right now, the Cavaliers have Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley starting at center and power forward, respectively, but they really don’t have anyone else with size that they can trust with meaningful minutes.

The team’s third big is probably 6’9″ Dean Wade, who is more of a wing to our way of thinking. He plays more offensively and defensively on the perimeter, and he is a very good defender out there. Kevin Love has fallen out of the rotation and although he still can rebound, he doesn’t match up with many opposing big men who operate in the paint.

Robin Lopez is still on the roster but doesn’t have the lateral quickness needed to defend in today’s NBA. We wondered the other night why Bickerstaff didn’t use him when the Bulls put Andre Drummond in the game. There aren’t many players he could match up against.

We were interested in Dewayne Dedmon, recently let go by Miami, but he decided to sign with the Sixers, just ahead of the wine and gold in the standing. Dedmon is a seven-footer who played in 30 games with the Heat, scoring 5.6 points and grabbing 3.7 boards. And over the past couple of years, he’s developed a little range from behind the arc, hitting 11 of 37 threes this season.

If J.B. Bickerstaff could get five minutes a game out of an added big man, that’s an extra two and a half minutes of rest for Allen and Mobley per game for the rest of the season. And if one of them has to miss a game, there’s a legitimate big man to substitute in.

It’s seems to us that this recent hot stretch has featured Mobley and Allen more on the offensive end, the Cavaliers are making a concerted effort to get them the ball early in games so they can work inside out. The pair and making 55.4% and 65.3% of their shots from the floor respectively.

The Cavs are going to need their two big men in the playoffs and getting them even a little more rest during the remaining schedule should help them in April and May. Especially because both are so active defensively.

Does the front office feel the same way?

Instead Of A Deal, Maybe Go With Cedi?

The Cleveland Cavaliers sit fifth in the Eastern Conference with a 32-22 record, but the way they have played recently have uncovered some roster weaknesses.

We have been saying for a few months the Cavs aren’t very deep and outside of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, they aren’t very big either.

They start two small guards, both listed a 6’1″ and their starting power forward is 6’5″ Isaac Okoro, who at best is inconsistent on the offensive end of the floor.

It recently occurred to us that the J.B. Bickerstaff has a very good option to start at the three on the roster. And that man is veteran Cedi Osman.

Let’s first say, it’s not a perfect solution because thoughout his NBA career, Osman has been the poster person for inconsistency. He started the season with 62 points in the first four games of the season. In his next 11 contests, he scored 58 points. However, in that stretch, he did have two games where he played three and seven minutes in a game, respectively.

He’s had eight games where he’s played less than 10 minutes in a game and two others where he didn’t play at all, so the commonsense feeling would be the player isn’t one of the coach’s favorites. His minutes have dropped since Bickerstaff took over as head coach. Yes, the team is also better, but you have to wonder.

But think about it. Maybe it’s time to put Osman in the starting lineup and see what happens.

First, Osman would give the Cavs a bigger player at the small forward spot, he’s listed at 6’7″. He’s not as good defensively as Okoro, but he’s a solid defender. Remember, Tyronn Lue used to use Osman when he needed a defensive stop at times early in the Turkish player’s career.

He’s a very good passer too. We think the six-year veteran has been miscast by the organization as a three-point shooter, when at Cedi’s core, he’s a slasher/playmaker. That’s the role he plays on the Turkish National Team.

And even though we said his shot was inconsistent, he’s a career 35% shooter from behind the arc, and outside of a 31% season in 2020-21, his percentage from long distance has been between 34.8 and 38.3 percent. Our point is he is a much bigger threat from the perimeter than Okoro or Lamar Stevens.

Hopefully, when Kevin Love returns, his thumb will be better and he can provide offense off the bench, so between him, Caris LeVert and Ricky Rubio, there should be enough fire power on the second unit. And Okoro and Stephens are still there to provide a defensive boost.

Okoro is playing well as a starter, but opposing teams still ignore him when he’s outside. They couldn’t do that with Osman.

Besides, on the offensive end, what does Okoro do better than Cedi?

And moving Osman into the #3 spot might just eliminate a wing as need heading into the trading deadline, and the front office could focus on getting another big to help them.

Perhaps a move like this would shake the wine and gold out of the malaise they’ve been in since the calendar switched to 2023. It’s doubtful it could hurt.

Cavs Treading Water. Size And Shooting Need To Be Better

Former NFL coach Bill Parcells is famous for winning Super Bowls with the New York Giants and for saying “you are what your record says you are”, meaning teams and fans alike shouldn’t sit around talking about games they could’ve won with the right breaks.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are 30-21, sitting in the fifth spot in the Eastern Conference standings. However, they started the season 8-1, so in their last 42 games, a little over half the season, they are 22-20, roughly a .500 basketball team.

Now, we cannot erase that early season hot streak, but it did set the expectations high for some in both the local and national media.

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff has established a defensive mind set for the wine and gold, and even in today’s high scoring NBA, Cleveland’s 107.1 points allowed is the best in the league.

GM Koby Altman made a big swing in the off-season, trading for all-star Donovan Mitchell, and the former Louisville standout has been tremendous. He deservingly will start in the All-Star Game next month and should finish in the top ten in the league’s MVP voting.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised with the club’s record over the last 42 games, because this roster is far from complete.

After last season’s big lineup of Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, and Lauri Markkanen, the Cavs have little size on the roster this season. Markkanen went in the Mitchell trade and flourished, and we understand, he had to be moved to complete the deal, but Altman didn’t replace him.

The only big man the Cavaliers signed in the off-season was veteran Robin Lopez, who can no longer be a regular contributor at 34 years old. He doesn’t have the lateral quickness to get minutes in today’s game.

Kevin Love is really the only solid reserve big man, and despite his shooting slump, probably due to a fractured thumb suffered earlier in the year, still grabs seven a night in 20 minutes of play. Dean Wade is 6’9″, and is a solid defender, but he’s more of a three-point specialist, and gets only 3.7 caroms in more minutes per game as Love.

Cleveland still plays with a very small backcourt, both Mitchell and Darius Garland are listed at 6’1″, although Mitchell plays bigger. The players who play the small forward spot, besides Wade, are all 6’5″ (Isaac Okoro), 6’6″ (Caris LeVert and Lamar Stephens), or 6’7″ (Cedi Osman)

In Friday’s loss at Oklahoma City, yes, Cleveland had Allen and Mobley, the two best bigs on the court, but had little size available after that.

Rumors have the Cavs interested in Portland’s Josh Hart, a good player, but only 6’5″ and not a particularly great three- point shooter.

For Cleveland to head back in the right direction, we believe they need to add some size. For all the talk about “3 and D” guys, the Cavaliers need another big man to provide size when Allen or Mobley aren’t on the floor.

And they still need a wing with some size beside Osman, who has proven by now to be a streaky player. Of all the players Bickerstaff uses at the “3”, only Wade has a good three-point shooting percentage (41.8%), but he’s streaky as well. He’s 14 of 22 in his three best games this season, and 14 of 45 (31.1%) in every other contest.

We aren’t saying we wouldn’t have made the Mitchell deal, when you have a chance to get a top 10 or 15 player in the league, you do it. But it seems like Altman ignored the reason for the team’s success last season, and that is size.

If the Cavaliers can swing a deal at the deadline, that should be their focus. They continue to have a top-heavy roster, four stars and very little else.

Avoiding the play-in tournament may have to be the goal, not getting a first round home series.

Things That Worry Us About The Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost Wednesday in a close game against Memphis without Donovan Mitchell and then lost at home to Golden State, who didn’t play their starters, on Friday. Both losses really bothered us, but for different reasons.

The first loss was because of their awful final possession, down by one, with 16 seconds left. J.B. Bickerstaff had a timeout remaining, but eschewed using it, choosing to let the players make a play. Bad decision.

Darius Garland just dribbled, waiting for an opportunity to penetrate, and wound up taking a three-pointer that was blocked. To us, it was the perfect time to run some action to get someone open, perhaps an off the ball screen.

To be fair, many teams in the NBA would’ve made the same choice, but that doesn’t make it the right choice.

And Friday night, the Cavs just didn’t show up, apparently deciding before the game that they would win, and then not putting forth the effort to do so. They are outrebounded by 10 in the game. Bickerstaff was correct to be upset afterwards.

We are a bit concerned because this is when the Cavaliers kind of fell apart a year ago, although injuries were a factor. They beat Indiana on February 11th last season to raise their record to 35-21. They went 9-17 the rest of the year.

This season, Cleveland has gone 6-8 over their last 14 contests, and just this past week played two games vs. teams without multiple starters (New Orleans and Golden State) and didn’t get off to good starts. They had a strong fourth quarter to beat the Pelicans.

And although the Grizzlies game wound up close, Memphis did have a 20-0 run in the second quarter.

The Cavaliers have a good team, they probably aren’t ready to win the NBA title, but they could be good enough to get home court advantage in the first round. They might have one of the best starting lineups in the league, starting three players who have made All-Star teams (Mitchell, Garland, and Jarrett Allen) as well as Evan Mobley, a defensive force (so is Allen) in just his second year.

Their bench is somewhat inconsistent, but they still have Caris LeVert, who is a good player, veteran Kevin Love, who although he has been in a shooting slump, is still a very good rebounder, and Cedi Osman has his moments. Lamar Stevens is a solid defender, and Ricky Rubio has just come back from knee surgery.

But they have become very guard reliant, which is odd because of the presence of Allen and Mobley. The teams’ leaders in shot attempts are Mitchell (20.2), Garland (16.7) and LeVert (11.0), all of whom are primarily guards.

Mobley is next at 10.6 followed by Allen at 8.9. The two starting big men, along with reserves Kevin Love, Cedi Osman, and Lamar Stevens take about as many shots combined as the trio of guards.

So, we very much liked last night when Mobley took 27 shots, making 19 in scoring a career-high 38 points. We’d like to see more of this.

This isn’t to minimize how great Mitchell has been this year, but it might open things up more for the guards, if the Cavs worked the ball inside more often for the bigs. After all, Mobley does shoot 55.7% from the floor, and Allen knocks down 63% of his attempts.

Hopefully, the Cavs get things straightened out sooner than later. Bickerstaff likes to talk about the grit of his squad, but they haven’t shown much of it in the past few weeks. It needs to come back before the same swoon that took place last year occurs again.

Bickerstaff Has Set The Culture, Is That Enough?

J.B. Bickerstaff took over the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2020 and coached the last 11 games of that shortened season. He took over for John Beilein, the longtime college coach who came to the NBA and didn’t enjoy the experience.

The Cavs went 5-6 for Bickerstaff after going 14-40 under the former Michigan coach, so there was a definite improvement under J.B., who had previous head coach stints in Houston and Memphis, both of which he had taken over after the season started.

Cleveland went 22-50 in Bickerstaff’s first full season which was also shortened due to the pandemic. During that season, James Harden was traded from Houston to Brooklyn. What did that have to do with the Cavs? GM Koby Altman helped facilitate the moves with draft picks and got Jarrett Allen for his trouble.

Allen back the wine and gold a rim protector, and a quality big man to go with guards Collin Sexton and Darius Garland, both high first round picks after LeBron James departed via free agency.

The following season marked a quantum leap in the Cavs’ performance. They drafted Evan Mobley and Bickerstaff went with a big lineup featuring Allen, Mobley, and Lauri Markkanen, something unusual for the NBA, playing three seven footers across the frontline.

Even though Sexton was hurt eight games into the season, Cleveland went 44-38, but lost both games in the “play-in” tournament, thus not qualifying for a best-of-seven series. The Cavaliers were the surprise of the league heading into the All-Star Game in Cleveland, but injuries to Allen and Ricky Rubio, in particular, took its toll on the record.

Bickerstaff brings a defensive mindset, he loves talking about the “bringing the grit”, making sure his team set a style of play that can impose on opponents. Making them play the way the Cavs want to play, which is at a slower pace. Because two of their four best players are big men (Allen and Mobley), they want to make sure those guys are involved in the action.

The Cavaliers are off to a 23-14 record thus far in the 2022-23 campaign, ranking 4th in Eastern Conference, behind Boston, Milwaukee, and Brooklyn. That spot would get them a homecourt playoff series if the season ended today, which it does not.

The coach has shown the ability to adapt. Cleveland traded Markkanen and Sexton to get Donovan Mitchell, one of the best scorers in the NBA, so the offense has shifted from the three big men up front to one where the guards (Garland and Mitchell) take about 40% of the shots.

Bickerstaff has been great at setting a defensive culture, but he could use some improvement as well. His offensive sets seem to be the same as a lot of NBA teams, reliant solely on isolation plays and/or pick-and-rolls, which isn’t totally bad because the new thing in the NBA is to simply switch, so you can get favorable matchups doing it.

Down the stretch of close games though, that can be problematic. The intensity picks up and opposing defenses, particularly on good teams gets better, so being dependent on good players beating their men off the dribble doesn’t work as well.

Mitchell’s good start means teams are going to put a lot of focus on him, so the coaching staff has to design ways for him to shake defenders. This is also the type of action that is needed late in close games. The Cavs almost lost last night’s game in Chicago because the offense late in the game was simply to clear out for Mitchell.

It didn’t work.

Hopefully, Bickerstaff understands where he needs to get better as well. That willingness to adapt, and he has demonstrated the last two seasons he can change to fit his talent, might be the most important thing the Cavs need to finish high in the Eastern Conference standings.

Cavs Need Help For Mitchell & Garland. Maybe It’s On The Roster

The Cleveland Cavaliers finished a six-game homestand at 4-2, and now face a stretch where they play eight of their next 11 away from Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. They enter this stretch 6-9 on the road.

They won the first four games at home in this stretch before losing the last two to Toronto and Brooklyn, both of whom shot over 50% from three-point range. That’s hard for a team to do in an empty gym. The Nets lead the NBA in long distance shooting, but the Raptors are second from the bottom.

Once again, the Cavs problem is not enough guys contributing offensively consistently. J.B. Bickerstaff has a core four of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen, but he needs more players picking up the slack offensively, especially against better defensive teams.

Cleveland is averaging a little over 84 shots per game, and of those, the combination of Mitchell and Garland are taking 37, slightly less than half. We have seen in the two losses at home, opposing teams are focusing their defense on Mitchell, making it as hard as possible for him to get going.

The coaching staff has to do some things beside the pick-and-roll to get the wine and gold’s leading scorer at 28.5 points per game going. There doesn’t seem to be much action running Mitchell or Garland off screens to get them open looks. We’d like to see some of that.

We would also like to see Mobley and Allen get the ball in the paint more often. Toronto plays a very physical style of defense (they’ve adopted the Pat Riley Knicks and Golden State style of fouling most times down the floor, and the referees can’t call them all), but they don’t really have a true rim protecting big man.

Why not give the two seven-footers on the roster the ball. The Cavs’ starting big men average just under 20 shots per game, and that’s way too low for us. Especially with Mobley shooting almost 56% and Allen converting 62% of his shots.

Plus, if you establish an inside game, it makes it easier for Mitchell and Garland on the perimeter.

What does make it tougher for these four on the offensive end is the total lack of respect defenses have for whomever is playing the #3 spot. Bickerstaff reiterated his “they have to make shots” mantra after Monday’s loss to the Nets, but it goes against the coaching credo of putting people in positions where they can succeed.

Isaac Okoro is hitting 25% of his three-point shots. Lamar Stephens is 13 for 39. Dean Wade is making 41% from behind the line, but is hurt, and when he plays, he has periods where it doesn’t appear he wants to shoot.

As a result, defenders are ignoring them and helping on Mitchell and Garland. Maybe Kevin Love should start there, but still keeping him around 20 minutes per game. We’ve heard people say Cedi Osman should start at small forward, but he’s inconsistent shooting as well.

Maybe the answer is not putting these guys in the corner behind the three-point line where they are rendered ineffective? We understand this is an analytical advancement, but we always ask, what’s better: A made two or a missed three?

Either way, hoping Stevens, Osman, or Okoro become better three-point shooters doesn’t seem like much of a plan. The coaching staff has to come up with an alternative.

Or make a trade…

Cavs’ Start Resulted In High Expectations.

The Cleveland Cavaliers got everyone’s expectations raised when after losing their opener against Toronto, they reeled off eight straight wins, including the first two games on a west coast trip.

Perhaps they’d have been better off going say 6-3 or 5-4 instead of 8-1.

We jest, of course, teams should get wins whenever they can, but we feel a lot of fans and media people alike put J.B. Bickerstaff’s squad into the championship contender category when really, they are a young team that still needs more parts to reach title contention.

Since that start, the Cavs have gone 9-9, including 1-7 on the road, the lone win an ugly game against the lowly Detroit Pistons. They have stayed in the upper tier of the Eastern Conference by dominating at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, where they have an 12-2 mark.

Injuries and the resulting lack of depth have shown us that while this is still a team that should finish in the top six of the East and thus avoid the play-in tournament, the Cavaliers still aren’t a finished product.

Although Darius Garland missed much of the 8-1 skein after being hit in the eye, since that start, a number of other injuries have cropped up. Jarrett Allen missed some games, so did Caris LeVert, and now, Donovan Mitchell has missed two straight.

The season is a little over a third over, and only Evan Mobley, Isaac Okoro, and Cedi Osman have played in every game to date.

We felt the bench was a question mark coming into the year, but with Kevin Love’s fractured thumb and back issues, the second unit lost its primary scoring option. LeVert moved to the bench to help provide some points, but Mitchell’s injury put him back in the starting role.

There were some who thought Okoro and Dean Wade would be huge factors for the Cavs, and although Okoro is still a solid defender, offensively he is ignored by opponents, shooting just 40.2% from the floor in total, and making 10 of 43 three point shots.

Wade played in just 51 games a year ago and has already missed nine this season. And he’s not consistent when he does play either.

Cleveland still could use a legitimate shooter off the bench, which again points to what a huge disappointment Dylan Windler has been. The 26th overall pick three years ago with a pedigree as a shooter, the Belmont product has appeared in just 81 games total, and hit only 41.2 % of his shots, and has made just 32% of his three-pointers.

To be fair, his problem is he simply cannot stay healthy. He hasn’t played at all this season, either.

The point is the Cavs simply need more to be a legitimate contender. They have an excellent starting five, and they currently have an MVP candidate in Mitchell. But they lack depth.

Besides a shooter, they could also use another reserve big man, one who is a better quicker than Robin Lopez.

Ricky Rubio will be back in several weeks, and if he is close to the form he played at last season, the guard position will be in good hands.

The Cavaliers has probably somewhere between the team that started 8-1 and the team that has treaded around the .500 mark since. Watch the box scores, when they get production from two reserves, they usually win. When only one contributes, like Friday night’s loss, they lose.

They are still a work in progress. The red-hot start got people too excited.

Easing Concerns About Cavs, Mobley.

The Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t taking anyone by surprise this season. Last year, coming off a 22 win campaign in the 2020-21 season, they got off to a fast start because perhaps opponents did not take them seriously.

They got into the “play in” tournament with 44 victories but lost both games to Brooklyn and Atlanta, thus not making it to a best of seven series.

This year, other teams are very aware of J.B. Bickerstaff’s squad making a 12-7 record to start the year more impressive. They’ve beaten Boston twice in hard fought overtime games, and that is half of the Celtics’ loss total.

We also have to remember the Cavs have also already been on one of their west coast trips this season, going 2-3 on the five-game trek. And they’ve also played Milwaukee twice, losing both times, and therefore have played four games, a little over 20% of their schedule against the two teams who reached the NBA Finals out of the Eastern Conference the last two seasons, and are the favorites to get there again this season.

Of course, when the wine and gold do lose a game, the “football mentality” of the city comes alive and there is panic and dismay in the air.

Friday night, the Cavs had a terrible third quarter against the Bucks and there were questions from social media about the team and the coach. Keep in mind, Cleveland was without three key players in their nine-man rotation–Kevin Love, Caris LeVert, and Lamar Stevens, and then Jarrett Allen hurt his hip in the second quarter and played just three minutes after.

Right now, the Cavaliers’ roster isn’t deep enough to sustain that many players being out, particularly one of their big men, as after Allen and Evan Mobley, there isn’t much depth.

Speaking of Mobley, we have seen some criticism of his progress in his second season. We feel that is ludicrous.

His minutes are up slightly, his shooting percentage has increased to 54.1% from 50.8%, his free throw accuracy is better (up to just under 71%) and his rebounding is also up slightly from 8.3 to 8.5. His scoring has decreased by a half a point per contest, down to 14.5, and that is a product of getting one less shot per game.

Let’s face it, the Cavs have more offensive weapons than they had last season, so there are less opportunities for Mobley offensively right now. We think as the season goes on, Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell will get better finding the second-year pro where he prefers to get the ball, and his offensive numbers will go up.

That said, Mobley is still third on the team in shot attempts per game behind the two starters at guard.

He will also get stronger as he gets older, and that will help him on both ends of the floor. No reason for concern.

When Love and LeVert get back, the Cavaliers will have a better bench and adding two players who can contribute will greatly help production on both ends of the floor.

If anyone is worried about the Cavaliers, take a deep breath. They are handling things just fine.