New Cavs Are Exciting and Help Team, But…

There is tremendous excitement in Cleveland about the revamped Cavaliers. They went from a team that appeared would be lucky to win one series in the Eastern Conference playoffs to the favorite again for many experts.

The Cavs still have the best player in the league in LeBron James, and eventually Kevin Love will return to the lineup, giving Tyronn Lue another scorer and three point shooting threat.

The wine and gold have now surrounded James with a cadre of three point marksmen, players like Rodney Hood, JR Smith, George Hill, Kyle Korver, along with Love. All of them are shooting over 35% from behind the arc this season.

Those shooters provide driving lanes for Jordan Clarkson, Cedi Osman, and James to draw defenders so those shooters can get wide open looks.

Talk about success in the playoffs though is premature because outside of Hill, the newest Cavaliers have limited experience in the post-season.

In fact, Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. have never been in the playoffs, nor has Osman, who is a rookie.

Hood played 11 games last season, averaging 8.9 points and shooting 35.2%, (26% from three) from the floor, compared to his regular season numbers of 12.7 points per game, and shooting percentages of 40.8% and 37.1% from distance.

It’s a different game in the post-season because opponents prepare for what you do well, and trying to take it away.

This isn’t to say Hood won’t make adjustments or won’t learn from his experience a year ago and be better. Nor does it mean Clarkson and Nance’s performance will drop from the regular season because it is their first shot in the playoffs.

One thing in the Cavs’ favor is their major competition in the East isn’t exactly overflowing with post-season experience. Boston has Jaylen Brown, who wasn’t a featured performer a year ago (12 minutes per night), and Jayson Tatum, who is a rookie.

Toronto has more experience, but their bench, which has received glowing reviews for their success this year, doesn’t.

Plus, the Raptors and Celtics still have the same issue they have had over the past three seasons: They have no one to match up with LeBron James.

We understand finding players to can slow down James isn’t easy, but you need guys with size and experience. Young players who haven’t done it before have issues matching up to the speed and strength of playoff LeBron.

Don’t forget, the Cavs still have players who have been through the playoff wars with three straight trips to The Finals in Love, Smith, and Tristan Thompson, and Hill, who has played in 83 playoff games, making two appearances in the conference finals.

Hopefully, they can show the new guys the ropes, like James did in his first year back in Cleveland, when really only he and Smith had playoff experience among the guys getting the most playing time.

By the time they get to the conference finals, we will know how the newest Cavs have responded to the post-season. More importantly, Lue and James will know who they can trust during these important games.

Getting to the playoffs is a first step, and securing a good seed helps too, although home court isn’t as critical to the Cavs with James leading the way.

The newest Cavs will help with both of those things, but until we see Hood, Nance, Clarkson, and Osman play effectively in the playoffs, there will be some hesitation in believing the wine and gold can get back to The Finals.

LeBron, Schedule Should Ease Cavs’ Transition

The Cleveland Cavaliers remade their roster at the NBA trade deadline, and entered the All Star break on a four game winning streak.

Two of those wins were without the quartet of players acquired on February 8th, and the last two, over playoff teams on the road against Boston and Oklahoma City were with Rodney Hood, George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance Jr. on the roster.

The newest Cavs have provided a huge impact already. Their youth and shooting ability have both spread the floor on offense and improved the wine and gold on the defensive end as well.

No doubt there will be an adjustment, after all, the Cavaliers have turned over 40% of their roster, but they have LeBron James and the upcoming schedule is favorable too.

Because James is such a student of the game, he told reporters he was already studying his new teammates’ tendencies the night the deals were announced. The King likes to find out where the shooters like to catch the ball so they are in a shooting position upon receiving the pass.

For Hill, Hood, and Clarkson, being on the floor with James creates wide open looks from the perimeter. In the two games they’ve played with Cleveland, Hood is 7 for 14 from three point range, Clarkson is 4 for 7, and Hill is 3 for 8.

While Hood and Clarkson’s numbers aren’t sustainable, they are capable of having nights where they can change a game with their long range shooting.

And as we have seen with Kyle Korver, a long range shooter on a roll can make a huge impact.

The schedule is also a big boost. Cleveland comes out of the break with six of their first seven games at Quicken Loans Arena. The only road game comes Friday night at Memphis against the 18-38 Grizzlies.

Tyronn Lue’s squad does play some good teams during the stretch, opening Thursday night with the Wizards, and they also play the Spurs, 76ers, and Nuggets during this stretch, but they will be in northeast Ohio for the better part of two weeks.

The Cavaliers enter this stretch with a 20-7 home record, and only three teams have lost fewer than that number (Toronto-4, Houston-6, and San Antonio-6) in the NBA this season.

Cleveland has their second west coast swing after those seven games, and then have two more long homestands before the end of the regular season.

They are at home the week of March 19th for three games at The Q, and after a trio of games on the road, they are home from March 30th through April 5th, playing four games.

That’s more time in the gym, where they will have to be implementing Kevin Love back into the lineup by that time.

GM Koby Altman will also be adding another player to the roster this week, as NBA rules mandate the Cavaliers must get to 14 players by this Thursday, a week after the roster spots opened up.

Our guess is a big man will be one of the additions, perhaps Kendrick Perkins. Even though Nance was impressive on the offensive boards vs. Oklahoma City, early in the game, Stephen Adams did whatever he wanted.

It would’ve been nice to have someone with some bulk go against Adams.

Before the Cavs head west, we will have a much better idea as to the potential of this new group wearing the wine and gold.

If it goes like the last two games heading into the break, it will be a whole bunch of fun in downtown Cleveland.

Cavs’ Roster Make Over…Wow!

Wow! That is our first reaction to the wheeling and dealing done by Cleveland Cavaliers’ GM Koby Altman on the day of the NBA trade deadline, in which he turned over 40% of his team’s roster.

The Cavs were the NBA’s oldest roster and they were showing it over the last six weeks, losing 12 of their last 19 games and getting boat raced by every good team they played, and some average teams as well.

In three big moves, the wine and gold got younger, more athletic, and in our opinion, more likely to retain LeBron James when he becomes a free agent after the season.

Of the six players moved, the biggest impact looking to be the departure of Channing Frye, a veteran glue guy who provided leadership in the locker room.

Dwyane Wade, who went back home to Miami for a second round pick, will also be missed. Wade, no longer with the athleticism he had in his prime, still made the correct play, and tried to impart that to his teammates.

The other four were disappointments. Isaiah Thomas didn’t seem to fit in with the Cavs, and neither did the guy who came over from Boston with him, Jae Crowder.

Thomas is a good player, but was not 100% after the hip injury, and since he was a free agent to be at the end of the season, the Cavs couldn’t afford to see how that story ended.

Crowder scored more than five points per game less than he did a year ago, and was shooting five percentage points less in 2017-18.

Derrick Rose and Iman Shumpert have been injured much of the season.

In return, Cleveland got three players in their mid-twenties in Rodney Hood (25), Larry Nance Jr. (25), and Jordan Clarkson (25) and George Hill, who will turn 32 in May.

Hood, coming from Utah, is enjoying his best season as a pro, averaging 16.8 points per game, shooting 38.9% from three point range. He’s long too at 6’8″, and a good free throw shooter at 87.6%.

Nance Jr. is coming home, where his father’s number hangs in the rafters. He’s a solid defender, can jump through the ceiling, and is scoring 8.6 points and grabbing 6.8 board per contest.

Clarkson is a combo guard, with a career scoring average of 14.5 points per night. He can knock down threes, although he’s kind of a streaky shooter. He is getting 3.3 assists per game in an average of just under 24 minutes.

Hill is the veteran and will likely take over starting duties. He’s 6’3″, and currently leads the league in three point shooting at 45.3%. He is scoring at 10.3 points per game with Sacramento this season, after getting 16.9 a night last season.

This quartet makes the wine and gold longer and that should help the defense. Hill keeps his man in front of him, something not seen much in Cleveland this season.

We have begged coach Tyronn Lue to slow down the pace because of the age of the team, but with the younger legs, he should be able to get the ball up the floor quickly going forward.

But now the Cavs have some young players who can get better going forward to go with James, and that may be enough, along with a draft pick that could be in the top five by the time the season is over, to entice him to re-sign in northeast Ohio.

That pick could be used on draft night to bring in another star player in a trade.

The biggest thing for the fans is hope that the Cavaliers, who looked very little like a team that can make deep playoff run over the last few weeks, now can do just that.

It may take some time for the new pieces to gel, but if and when they do, there is no question the Cavs are in a better place than they were two days ago.

And that’s a good thing.