Big Night Looms for Cavs Tomorrow.

Tomorrow night could be a huge new beginning for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They have a new GM in David Griffin making the selections, including the first pick in the draft.

They also introduced a new coach in David Blatt. In his introductory press conference today, he proclaimed himself, not an offensive coach or a defensive coach, but a basketball coach. That is music to the ears of all critics of Mike Brown.

We still remember Brown’s ridiculous comment when the Cavs were struggling on the offensive end early in the year, and he said they didn’t spend any time on offense during training camp.

The new head coach realizes you have to play well on both ends of the court.

We believe the new team of Griffin and Blatt will make wholesale changes to the current roster, with at least 1/3 of the players (that’s at least five guys) being turned over this summer, and it could all start tomorrow night.

Will the wine and gold hold on to the pick or will they make a deal to bring in a proven young player to add to Kyrie Irving.

If they keep the number one choice, we feel they should take Duke forward Jabari Parker.

Parker, listed at 6’8″ and 241 pounds (although it has been reported he weighs 15 more than that) averaged 19.1 points and almost nine rebounds for the Blue Devils last season.

Why take him over Kansas forward Andrew Wiggins? Because although Wiggins is the better athlete, Parker is the better basketball player.

Many experts say Wiggins has a huge upside, but will he reach that vast potential? He shot just 44.1% from the floor for the Jayhawks last season. Parker shot 47% from the floor and has a better mid-range and post up game than his Kansas counterpart.

Of course, if Joel Embiid hadn’t broken his foot, it would be a moot point. Embiid might be the best big man to enter the league in many years, but the injury factor is too much to ignore. He also missed time this season due to a stress fracture in his back.

Still, Embiid may have impressed Griffin enough that he would trade down to the 4th to 6th pick range, pick up another young player and still take the big man later in the first round.

If the Cavs’ brass truly think the injuries are not career threatening, then they may do just that, thus having their cake and eating it too.

One thing the front office needs to ignore is the temptation to make moves on draft day to entice LeBron James to come back to Cleveland, because if he doesn’t sign with the Cavaliers, it could set the franchise back a few more years.

If James wants to come back to the Cavs, and we feel he will either do that or go back to Miami, then that will just be icing on that cake.

Cleveland has several good young players and could move some depth at the power forward and point guard spots to get another big man and a shooting guard. Even if James doesn’t return, they would still be set for the future.

After having the top choice in the draft in three of the last four seasons, here’s hoping we don’t have it again for a long, long time. That is, of course unless James leaves the Heat and we get it again through their first round pick.

Griffin’s First Move is the Right Move

You can’t accuse Cavaliers’ owner Dan Gilbert of acting rashly this time.

The season has been over for about a month, and today the wine and gold announced that interim GM David Griffin now has the job permanently, and his first act in that position was to fire Mike Brown as head coach.

If you’ve read this blog over the past few months, you know that we are celebrating that move because Brown was the wrong fit for the job here.

When we heard the Cavs were considering giving Griffin the job full-time, we thought a first and only question he should be asked would be should Brown continue to be the head coach. If he answered no, he would be hired.

Here’s hoping that Gilbert talked to several basketball people since the regular season ended and came to the conclusion that Griffin was the most capable person to run this franchise.

We still would love Gilbert to hire another experienced basketball person (we would still favor George Karl) as a consultant for the new GM to bounce ideas off of.

If former GM Chris Grant was the guy who wanted Brown back and sold Dan Gilbert on the idea, how can anyone blame Griffin for bringing in his own man?

The once and again former Cavs’ coach didn’t pick up any new ideas on offense since he left the first time and has never had a history of developing young players, of which there are plenty on the Cleveland roster.

Just because Brown signed a five-year deal last summer was no reason to keep him. Keeping him would have been a hindrance to what Griffin’s vision of what this basketball team will be. To be succinct, Griffin was just correcting Grant’s mistake.

However, let’s hope Griffin does his due diligence in regards to hiring the next head coach of the Cavaliers.

There are plenty of people making the connection that since Griffin used to work in the Phoenix Suns’ organization, he may look at bringing in recently fired Laker head coach Mike D’Antoni to replace Brown.

That would be a mistake in our opinion.

Just as Brown and his defensive philosophy proved to be a one trick pony, so would D’Antoni’s total offensive approach.

The Cavaliers owe it to themselves and to the fans of this basketball team to find a coach who understands and can teach the entire game, not just one side of the floor. There are coaches who can do just that.

Griffin also needs to find someone who the players will listen to and respect. That appeared to be a problem with Brown. It didn’t appear the players respected him and they didn’t play hard for him.

The new boss needs to find someone who the young Cavalier players can relate to and they will listen to.

The former Golden State coach, Mark Jackson, would seem to be appealing in that regard. He turned around the Warriors, who had won less than 30 games two years ago into a playoff squad.

Plus, he’s a former color analyst for ABC/ESPN, which like it or not, gives him credibility with a young roster like the Cavaliers have.

Forget what happened over the last year with the Cavs. It was the wrong move to bring Brown back and they simply corrected it.

Now, it’s time to move forward for the Cavaliers’ organization. Today’s hiring of Griffin and dismissal of Brown is the first step towards getting back to the playoffs.

No Emotion Needed From Gilbert Now

There was good news from the Cleveland Cavaliers yesterday as the players cleaned out their lockers and the front office had meetings.

No one got fired.

Yes, we’ve advocated that changes have to come for the organization, which has gone from 19 wins in the first season after LeBron James left for free agency, to 21 in year two (strike shortened), and then 24 in year three, to this year’s disappointing 33-49 record.

However, here’s hoping yesterday’s inactivity was due to everyone in the front office, including owner Dan Gilbert, taking a deep breath and not making any rash decisions.

In Cleveland, and probably Detroit, we all know that Gilbert is an emotional creature. His famous rant after James made his decision is derided throughout the NBA, but was applauded by his fan base. That could be a reason attendance hasn’t dropped off drastically despite four straight seasons of mediocre basketball.

It was reported this past week that Gilbert is irate about the lack of a playoff spot this season, and insiders think major changes are in the work this summer. But as of right now, nothing was announced.

It was just last off-season that former GM Chris Grant, with the owner’s approval, hired back former coach Mike Brown, and didn’t even interview anyone else. That’s the type of emotional decision that needs to be avoided this time.

Now, there have been rumors that the wine and gold want to bring in a president of basketball operations to oversee the front office and decided the fates of interim GM David Griffin and Brown. That’s a solid decision.

However, two frontrunners for the post that have been mentioned are former Pistons Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars. The Pistons happen to be Gilbert’s boyhood team, so hiring either of them despite questionable records as coaches/executives would be thinking more with your heart than your head.

The owner is the Board of Governors meeting this weekend and should be picking the brains of the other basketball minds there to decide what would be the best course of action for his team. George Karl is another name that has been bandied about for the lead hoops position, and in our opinion would be a tremendous hire, even if he never played for Detroit.

We think Karl is one of the country’s best basketball minds.

Even so, this is a decision that has to be well thought out and not rushed into. There is a long time between now and the NBA draft, when free agency and trades are consummated. It’s a two month window.

As for the coach, Gilbert shouldn’t let the big contract he and Grant gave Brown be any consideration.

While the team did gain nine games in the win column, there is no question it was a disjointed season, filled with many streaks.

Brown thinks the team seemed to improve in the second half of the season, but January had a six game losing streak, followed by a six game winning streak, which was following by a 15 game stretch in which Cleveland won just four games.

Whenever, it appeared the team was “getting it”, playing team basketball, it was followed by a period in which they executed like they just met each other that very afternoon.

We aren’t going to speculate what that means, but it doesn’t show the players were buying in.

If this summer’s decisions are made with a cool, calm, calculated mind, then the future of the Cavaliers may indeed be brighter. Emotional decisions have gotten them to where they are now.

Forget Last Ten Games, Cavs Need to Examine Organization

With the recent surge of good play over the last week or two, many basketball fans around the area have thrown out the idea that enough progress has been shown by the Cleveland Cavaliers to keep the status quo.

That would mean keeping acting GM David Griffin is his position and bringing back Mike Brown as head coach.

Those people are also ignoring the first 65 games of this NBA season, and focusing instead on the last ten.

That is a dangerous mistake.

Remember where most experts thought the Cavs would be when the season started, and that is the playoffs. Instead, the wine and gold will be watching the post-season again, and will once again be a part of the draft lottery, although not with the probability of getting one of the higher picks.

With the maturation of third year players Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, and the experience gained last year by Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller, along with the return of Anderson Varejao and the signing of Andrew Bynum, most people had the Cavaliers ready to make a decided leap in the standings.

Bynum didn’t work out here, but then-GM Chris Grant dealt him to the Bulls for two-time all-star F Luol Deng, and Griffin added another quality big man in Spencer Hawes at the trading deadline. Still, the wine and gold will be on the outside looking in when the playoffs arrive.

And you can’t forget the embarrassing losses to Sacramento and New York on the road, and to the Lakers at home, when Los Angeles had to play with a player who had already fouled out to end the game, and the Cavs still lost.

This is not to say that owner Dan Gilbert should clean house, but he should do an overview of the entire organization to see what the front office should be and should do going forward.

The first step would be to hire a basketball lifer and let him run the operations of the franchise, and it turn let that person decide who should be the GM and the coach. This is something the owner has proven to be too emotional to handle.

Our suggestion would be George Karl, who learned the game from Dean Smith and has spent an eternity in the professional game. But, anyone else with that type of background will do, and preferably no one with Piston ties (there is that emotion again).

That person should pick the GM, maybe Griffin, maybe not and let the GM pick the head coach.

We have been critical of Brown since he was hired, and let’s face it, he’s not an elite NBA head coach. The organization needs to at least look and see if there is someone more qualified to be on the bench guiding this young team.

Let’s face it, outside of Waiters, has any of Cleveland’s young talent thrived under Brown? There is no question that Irving, Thompson, and Zeller aren’t better than a year ago, and at their ages, they should be getting better.

Out of the rookies, only Matthew Dellavedova has seen significant playing time, while first overall pick Anthony Bennett and fellow first round choice Sergey Karasev will really be spending their rookie season in year two. Their development has been delayed by one year.

No matter what happens the rest of this season, the worst thing Gilbert should do is overlook the first half of the season because of the last month. That’s what bad organizations do. They take one good thing and project it over everything else.

Yes, it is difficult to make changes after one year, and Gilbert will set him up to look foolish by making a change. However, if in the end it makes the franchise better, then it will be the right thing.

That’s why you bring in a basketball person (again, not Isiah Thomas or Joe Dumars) to run things. Then, it is their decision to make changes to move the team forward.

That’s the wisest course of action for the Cavaliers.

Time For Cavs To Play Youth

The Cleveland Cavaliers playoff chances are down to slim and none, as they are now six games behind the Atlanta Hawks for the eighth and last spot in the Eastern Conference.

However, that doesn’t mean the wine and gold should go into full tank mode for the rest of the season.

On a pretty good west coast swing in which the Cavs went 2-1 beating playoff teams/contenders Golden State and Phoenix, they also lost Kyrie Irving for at least two weeks with a biceps injury.

We believe that Irving should go back on the court when he is healthy, and really, he would show a great deal of leadership by demanding he play.

It would show everyone in the organization that the days of losing being an acceptable outcome are long gone.

However, with all of the injury issues, which also include Luol Deng (ankle) and C. J. Miles (foot/ankle), it is time to start seeing what you have in some of the players currently residing on the bench.

With the same players out on Tuesday night against Miami, Mike Brown decided to play virtually eight players, with the ninth (Miles) playing less than two minutes.

The only guys to get decent minutes as substitutes were Anderson Varejao, Matthew Dellavedova, and Tyler Zeller.

Brown has to learn for the first time in his coaching career how to ease young players into action, because as we’ve been reminded many times, he’s always coached his team to the playoffs and he’s always gotten past the first round.

Brown needs to give Sergey Karasev some minutes, and not just the last five minutes of the game, he needs to get him in the rotation.

And while Brown’s instinct is to give Varejao more minutes at forward/center, he needs to get Zeller on the court for more minutes as well.

That’s what is best for the future of this franchise, whether Brown is part of that future or not.

It has been rumored that acting GM David Griffin may sign G Seth Curry to a ten-day contract because of the injury to Irving, and our joke was would Brown even notice he was on the bench because of his reluctance to play younger players.

We have discussed the coach’s lack of success developing young players before, but this is his opportunity to change and start “coaching them up”.

You have to wonder what is going on since the wine and gold have pretty much one coach per player on the roster. They have to be working with these guys and getting them ready to play in the NBA.

And if and when Anthony Bennett is ready to play again, he needs to be out there on a steady basis too. That’s what the last three and a half weeks of the season should be about.

We aren’t saying that the rookies and Zeller should be playing 40 minutes per night, nor should Deng and Miles be benched for the rest of the year.

Winning should still be in the equation as well because this team needs to learn how to win and maybe a strong finish will give them a boost going into the summer.

But, Zeller, Karasev, and some of the other guys at the end of the bench should be getting some minutes on a nightly basis too.

Let’s see if the coaching staff can make a bit of a change.

Brown Not Right Guy to Lead Cavs in Future

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ slim playoff chances seem to be dwindling everyday, meaning soon it will be time to look forward to the 2014-15 season, and another appearance in the draft lottery.

It also means the organization has to look within, examining whether or not they have the correct people in place.

Has acting GM David Griffin done enough to keep the job going forward? His deal for Spencer Hawes looks good, and here’s hoping the wine and gold can keep the big man for the future because he can do one thing desperately needed on this squad, he can shoot.

Whether or not Griffin stays, one thing is clear: The Cavaliers need to find a new head coach next season because Mike Brown isn’t the guy to change things around here.

Brown is a great guy, but he came here with a reputation as a defensive coach, but so far the results aren’t there. Cleveland ranks in the middle of the pack (16th) in field goal percentage against, and 17th in the league in scoring defense.

That hardly speaks to a great defensive mind.

While some will say that this is his first year with this group of players, why have other new coaches have success around the league?

Memphis hired Dave Joerger to replace Lionel Hollins after a successful season last year, and Joerger still has the Grizzlies third in the league in points allowed and 10th in defensive field goal percentage.

Charlotte hired Steve Clifford, an obscure NBA assistant, and he has turned the Bobcats into one of the league’s better defensive squads, ranking 5th in points allowed and 7th in shooting percentage against.

The Cavaliers have played 64 games already this season and they are still trying to figure out how to play effective defense? That doesn’t reflect well on the relationship Mike Brown has with his players, who obviously haven’t bought in to what he is teaching.

The Cavs still give up too many easy shots, allow players to get to the basket with ease, and have lapses at inopportune times on the defensive end.

And as the old saying goes, you can’t fire 15 players, so it’s the coach who has to go.

Besides the lack of progress on the defensive end, Brown’s offensive game plan is highly simplistic and is based pretty much solely on having players takes their man off the dribble. When the defense takes that away, there is no alternative.

And Brown has no history of developing young players either, and the Cleveland roster is full of them.

First overall pick Anthony Bennett hasn’t contributed much this season, but in the team’s recent six game winning streak, he was getting some minutes and averaged eight points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

Since, he played more than 15 minutes in a game just twice.

In last night’s loss to the Knicks at home, second leading scorer Dion Waiters played a grand total of 14 minutes. How does that happen?

Tristan Thompson hasn’t improved, Luol Deng, a two-time all-star in the NBA looks lost on the court, and even the Cavs’ franchise player, Kyrie Irving’s numbers are down across the board from last season.

One of last year’s first round draft picks, Tyler Zeller, has his minutes fluctuate on a nightly basis.

Mike Brown has had success in the NBA as a head coach, but in every year but this one, he has coached one of the sport’s best players, be it either LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. Without one of them on the team, he looks like just another guy.

The 2014-15 version of the Cavaliers needs a head coach who will demand and command the respect of the young players on this roster. If Dan Gilbert wants this team to move forward, he needs to find that man.

It won’t happen with Mike Brown.

Cavs Ignore Shooting as Part of Game

While we are always critical of Cavaliers’ coach Mike Brown’s offense strategy, he does work under the handicap of not having an excellent shooter on his roster.

The Cavaliers rank last in the NBA in field goal percentage, making just 42.3% of their shots from the floor. And from beyond the three-point line, they are slightly better, ranking 21st among the 30 teams at 35.0%.

To illustrate the importance of shooting, here are the top five teams in the league in making shots: Miami, San Antonio, Houston, Oklahoma City, and Dallas. All five of those teams would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

Now, this percentage can be raised by fast break opportunities which lead to high percentage layups and dunks.

So, a more accurate gauge of pure shooting would be the three-point field goal percentage, and again, out of the top five in this category (Spurs, Pelicans, Wizards, Trailblazers, and Warriors), four of them would also reach the post-season.

Why is having shooters important? Well, the obvious answer is the score is kept by putting the ball through the basket.

Still, the real reason you need them is to spread the floor, especially when you have put together a number of guards who excel at driving to the basket like Cleveland has with Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters.

And when the shot clock is running down, you can get the ball to a shooter who has a decent chance of making a long shot.

The closest thing Mike Brown has to a threat from outside is swingman C.J. Miles, who hits 39% from outside the arc. Acting GM David Griffin did take a good stride in this direction in obtaining Spencer Hawes, who is making 40.5% from distance this year.

There is no one else on the roster that opponents need to respect when they are standing beyond the arc.

To be fair, former GM Chris Grant did covet Bradley Beal in last year’s draft, but Washington snapped him up before the Cavs turn with the fourth pick which turned out to be Waiters.

Beal is currently 13th in the NBA in 3 point field goal percentage, making 41.9% of his shots.

Brown’s mentor, Gregg Popovich has embraced the three pointer, with two players among the top 20 in accuracy, and to be fair, when Brown was here before, he had snipers like Damon Jones, Donyell Marshall, and Boobie Gibson on the roster, all guys who could knock down the open three.

Irving is the Cavs’ most frequent shooter from outside and makes 36% of his attempts, but he is one of the guys who make their living driving to the hoop, and opponents want him to take that shot because he is so lethal going to the basket.

Waiters is the same type of player, but when you watch a game, don’t you wish we would go to the hoop more instead of shooting long jumpers? Opponents do too.

The Cavs need a player like Kyle Korver or Jamal Crawford or Marco Bellinelli, a pure shooter that defenses respect and are forced to account for when they are on the floor. Players like that also provide useful targets for Irving and Waiters when they penetrate.

Grant may have started to address the situation by drafting Sergey Karasev last year, but right now Brown considers him too green and too much of a defensive liability to get off the bench.

That’s not helping the current team, and it put too much of a burden on guards to get to the basket to create any kind of scoring.

Just another reason this Cavalier team has struggled to meet expectations.

Cavs Continue to Push for Playoffs By Getting Hawes

If you are one of those fans in Cleveland that is always looking toward next year, it was a bad day for you yesterday.

Acting Cavaliers’ GM David Griffin decided to continue the team’s pursuit of a playoff spot by acquiring 7’1” center Spencer Hawes from Philadelphia. The price wasn’t extravagant either, as the wine and gold parted with two second round draft picks and two players who aren’t currently in Mike Brown’s rotation: C Henry Sims and F Earl Clark.

Why would anyone complain about that price?

Second round picks in the NBA are like lottery tickets. Sometimes one will pay off, but most times, you throw them away because they are useless.

On the other hand, Hawes is just 25 years old, and averages 13 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, and he definitely can be used as a stretch big man, hitting almost 40% of his shots from outside the arc.

As the owner’s son has been known to say, “What’s not to like?”

Yes, Hawes can be a free agent at the end of this season, so he could be a rental player for the rest of the season. But, neither Sims nor Clark was probably going to be on the roster next season, so really, what did Griffin give up?

Besides, maybe the Cavaliers continue to play well and Hawes wants to stay with the Cavs. We realize the doomsayers can’t fathom that, but it is possible.

Our first thought when the deal was rumored is that Anderson Varejao must be hurt worse than the team is letting on. The newcomer gives Brown another solid big man to go with Tyler Zeller, Tristan Thompson, and Anthony Bennett.

If Varejao can return soon, it means that the coaching staff can cut down on his minutes to around 25 per night, which may just keep him healthier, and should have been the plan for him all along.

And Hawes outside shot should open things up for those guys and Varejao, when he comes back to operate near the basket. Too often, both bigs are in the paint clogging things up so it is difficult for Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters to go to the basket.

Hawes should help immediately, and also provides another veteran who has been around the league for years, like Luol Deng.

Speaking of Deng, there were plenty of rumors about the Cavs shopping him, but no deal was made, which is also a good thing. Mainly because Cleveland still doesn’t have an alternative at the small forward spot.

Yes, we understand Deng is also an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and has made comments, which appear to show he is unhappy here, but if Griffin has a chance to sign him this summer, they have a better shot with Deng spending the balance of the season in Cleveland.

Besides, if the wine and gold can stay hot and make the playoffs in let’s say, the 6^th seed, maybe the former Bull looks at a pretty good future here with a lot of young talent, and stable leadership.

Deng would have looked crazy if he would have said he liked it here among all the chaos when he first arrived.

Things change in team sports.

Just a few weeks ago, Irving and Waiters couldn’t stand to play together. Chris Grant gets fired and Dan Gilbert and Griffin have a “come to Jesus” moment with the players, and they look like they actually like each other.

A lot can change by the end of the playoffs, and here’s hoping the young Cavaliers can get their first experience in the post-season.

Grant’s Flaw Was Not Building A Team

Over the past few weeks, we have been critical of the roster mix for the Cleveland Cavaliers, calling them and their roster of point guards and power forwards the “island of misfit toys”.

Today, GM Chris Grant paid for that roster construction with his job, being fired by owner Dan Gilbert after another disgusting loss to an undermanned Los Angeles Laker squad last night.

The question now is who is running the show going into the trade deadline, which figured to be the first step into reshaping this roster. It looks like assistant GM David Griffin gets the gig for now.

You also have to wonder what Grant’s firing means for Mike Brown, because you would have to imagine the new GM would want to hire his own coach, unless someone is promoted internally.

Grant made some solid trades in his tenure, getting a first round choice from the Lakers for Ramon Sessions, trading Jon Leuer to Memphis for three players and another first rounder, and getting Luol Deng from Chicago for Andrew Bynum, a player the team had suspended.

However, it will be questionable draft picks that sealed Grant’s fate.

He operated out of the box on his picks, taking Tristan Thompson at #4 three years ago, which was surprising, and he selected Dion Waiters in the same spot the following year when it appeared he would be picked later.

This year’s use of the first overall pick on Anthony Bennett didn’t help his cause.

The issue isn’t the talent level of Thompson and Waiters, both have shown they can play in the NBA, the problem is the Cavs have become a puzzle whose pieces do not fit together.

Thompson is the same type of player as Anderson Varejao, and Bennett is a power forward, the same position Thompson primarily plays.

Waiters is a player who likes to have the ball in his hands. Unfortunately, so does one of the team’s best players: Kyrie Irving.

So, those two have a problem playing together.

We get that Grant took who he felt were the most talented players at that spot, and really that is the purpose of the draft.

However, a good general manager needs to see that he has duplicated talent and use the excess assets to get people who can play positions where they have needs.

Grant tried by getting Deng, but he didn’t seem to value shooting the basketball as a skill set needed to win basketball games.

Looking at the roster, the closest the wine and gold have to a pure shooter is swingman C.J. Miles, who Grant signed as a free agent.

His coaching hire doesn’t seem to have worked out either, although there didn’t seem to be an exhausting search. Whether that was Dan Gilbert’s decision or Grant’s, we just don’t know.

Mike Brown was a curious choice, not only because he used to coach here, but because he seems to favor veteran players, and the current Cavaliers are a very young basketball team.

Now, where does this franchise go?

The obvious answer is the dreaded “tank” word, but unless the new GM is predisposed to deal a high draft choice, all that will do is bring another “project” onto a team replete with them.

Does the reformation of this basketball team start with another deal before the NBA trading deadline? It’s pretty clear a change needs to be made because they can’t go through another 30 games playing like they have the last two weeks.

However, the new GM will have to act quickly to start getting the Cavaliers on the correct path. He also has to make a decision on who will be the coach.

Firing Grant was a tough move to make, but the direction of this team had to be changed. The guess here is this was just the first shot fired.

Cavs’ Woes Rooted in Several Areas

Proof that the Cleveland Cavaliers have become out-and-out dysfunctional is that you can make a case that the problems lie with GM Chris Grant, coach Mike Brown, and the players.

If it were just a matter of not having talent, then you can blame the GM. However, there is talent, but it is duplicated at certain positions. For the Cavs, it seems to be centered at the point guard and power forward spots.

While Grant may have picked the most talented players that were available at the slots they were taken, and you can make that argument at the time of the draft, he didn’t follow through on dealing the excess of talent at one spot to fix a hole at another position.

There is no question that Kyrie Irving, Luol Deng, Anderson Varejao, Dion Waiters, and Tristan Thompson can play in this league. Unfortunately, they clearly do not fit together on the court, and dealing one of them for a shooter would be in the best interests of the wine and gold.

When Byron Scott was fired as Cleveland’s head coach after last season, Grant brought back his friend, Mike Brown to handle the reins.

Brown got the job despite having no real track record of developing young talent. The teams he coached in Cleveland and Los Angeles were veteran laden squads.

He returned to the north coast based on his reputation as a defensive minded coach. His offensive schemes were poor in his first go-round here and there is no evidence that anything has changed.

So, predictably, none of the Cavalier young players, most of the roster is made up of second and third year players, have shown any progress from last season. Even Irving, rookie of the year and an all-star in his second season, has seemed to have plateaued this year.

And remember, the Cavs had the first overall pick in last summer’s draft. Brown has never showed any inclination to play rookies, so Anthony Bennett has been anchored to the bench for much of the season.

Brown’s offensive set is for players to take their man off the dribble and force the opposing defense to help. That worked when the best player on the team is LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, both of whom are significantly bigger than Irving.

There is little screening away from the ball and virtually no movement away from the ball on many possessions.

This morning, The Plain Dealer’s Bud Shaw opined that the front office needs to show Brown is in charge. While that’s true, it would also help if Brown showed he was in charge.

We wrote earlier in the season, that with the coach being fired twice, he should have come in with a “doing it my way” approach. He seems too nice of a man to be the hammer the young Cavs need.

Which brings us to the players. Yes, they are young and inexperienced for the most part, but it doesn’t appear they are all that upset with all of the losing. It has come to light that this upsets newcomer Deng, who must be shaking his head at the lack of interest his teammates show from night-to-night.

The players are feuding in the locker room, and there seems to be an individualistic approach to the game for many of the young players.

Shouldn’t that have been thought of when they were drafted?

That brings us back to Grant, the beginning point of this vicious circle.

There is plenty of blame to go around for this edition of the Cleveland Cavaliers. How it gets fixed will be very important for the future of this franchise.

There will probably be changes in all three phases of the organization.