I also added a bit about the Browns, but we know that season ultimately turned out and while the Thursday Night game with Cincinnati may have been the highlight of the season, it was ultimately the last time the team looked great on the field last year.
Much like my post about awaiting the arrival of Kylie Brooke that went up recently, I'm going to select some items that I wrote about and see how things have played out since this post. As of now, the Cavs are 44-26 and in the 2nd seed, so they've recovered pretty well.
In fact, the low point for this team came well after I wrote this when they fell to 19-20 and seemed completely in disarray.
Here now are my thoughts on what I wrote, followed by some thoughts on the team as it currently stands. As in the previous post like this, statements from the original post will be in italics, while updated thoughts will be in bold.
How many of you thought it was going to be easy for the Cleveland Cavaliers?
Go on, raise your hands. Plenty of you were out there before the season started.
LeBron James, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, and the rest were just going to seamlessly blend under the guidance of David Blatt and become the greatest team in the history of the NBA. They were going to win more than 70 games and walk to the first championship in Cleveland since 1964. Every game was going to be a party and they were going to win by more than 20 every night.
If only it were that easy.
Three games in and the Cavs are far from a finished product. Blatt has no idea yet who to play together and when, and the overall effort from select players has been questionable at times. James looks like he's either irritated with the team, or in considerable discomfort from his back being worse than we're being led to believe.
Most everyone who watched James KNEW something was amiss with him from a health standpoint. He was either slowing down (or losing his hops as some tried to say), or he was bothered by some sort of injury that we weren't being informed of fully. Well, he ended up sitting for a couple weeks at one point in the season and the LeBron we've seen since his return is pretty much what we had expected.
The effort from other players was a different story. It took a while for many on this team to buy into Blatt and it took a while for Blatt to find a group of players he could rely on to fill out his rotation.
An opening night loss to the New York Knicks was followed up by a gritty overtime win against the Chicago Bulls. Then last night, after playing even with the Portland Trailblazers through the first quarter, the Cavs were completely blasted the rest of the way, losing 101-82. James was clearly disappointed in the effort put forth by some of his teammates, and probably himself as he didn't appear completely engaged.
The Cavs had several more of these games as the weeks went by. They'd get off to fast starts, then the bench would come in and the lead would get obliterated. It simply took time, and few key moves, for Blatt to find a system that worked for him and his players.
What does it all mean?
According to Twitter, it means that this team is destined to fail, James is going back to Miami next year, Blatt will be fired by mid-season, and Dion Waiters will be traded in the next two weeks as he clearly can't exist on this team.
There's something funny to me about this paragraph. I mean, all of it was said in jest, but I had NO idea that Waiters would just continue to struggle on this team and would actually end up traded. Turns out Waiters not fitting in was what may have saved this season. The LeBron back to Miami conversation really came to a boil on Christmas Day when the Cavs faced the Heat in Miami and LeBron seemed way too happy to see his former teammate Dwayne Wade. Turns out they are just really that close as friends.
As for Blatt, his confidence as an NBA coach never wavered, and may have actually become stronger once players started buying in and accepting what he was preaching. Some ESPN people still think LeBron is going to force the Cavs to fire Blatt, but you know how accurate ESPN is when it comes to James, right?
It's easy to overreact though. It's easy to watch the game and see all the things that are wrong with this team. It's easy to forget that many of them are playing together on an NBA team for the first time.
In other words, it's not going to look great right away.
It's a bit of a cop-out, but the best example is to look at the Miami Heat from 2010-2011 when James first joined that team. It was a disjointed effort through the first 17 games as the Heat were 9-8 and many wondered if this "superteam" was a bad idea. Then they ripped off 10 straight wins and 20 out of 21 to silence the critics.
While the Cavs did rip off an 8 game winning streak at one point, the worst struggles were still to come actually.
Will the Cavs do the same? I doubt it. This team has multiple players (Love, Irving, and Waiters) that are deficient defensively, and while you can hope for some improvement, Irving and Waiters in particular showed some of their bad habits last night. Waiters in particular seemed lazy on the defensive side and while Irving has shown some effort, it seems when his man starts to score on him, he shrinks defensively. Damion Lillard had struggled from the floor his first few games, but last night couldn't miss and often Irving failed to even attempt to close out on the shot.
Love and Irving have both improved their defense just by showing better effort. Irving in particular went through a stretch where opposing point guards played pretty poorly against the Cavs. I'm trying to think of what made such a big difference though...
All you need to know about Waiters before he was shipped to OKC was Joe Harris was playing the fourth quarter of games early on while Waiters sat on the bench. Ultimately, the trades that brought Timofey Mozgov, JR Smith, and Iman Shumpert saved the season and certainly improved the Cavs defensively.
Mozgov being in the middle has made it easier for Irving to decide how to defend his opponent, often forcing them right at Mozgov while simultaneously eliminating the ability of said player to outlet to Mozgov's cover. Teams have adjusted some since, but the trade for Mozgov was huge. Literally and figuratively.
The team overall is still occasionally lazy, but Smith has been a far better defender than we were led to believe and Shumpert has done what he does best: get in the passing lane, keep his man in front of him, and contest everything.
Yet they may only need to make small strides defensively if the gel on offense. Right now, players still aren't sure where they need to be on the floor. More than once, we've seen a pass made to a player that's either vacated the spot, or failed to move to where the pass was intended. These type of errors will disappear as they become comfortable with one another.
Defensive rotations have improved significantly since this point in the season. There are far fewer moments trying to figure out who blew their assignment.
The more disappointing thing from last night was that the ball movement screeched to a halt once the team faced adversity. It turned into 2013 all over again with Irving and Waiters taking turns dribbling the ball into oblivion, then hoisting a last second shot. Compounding things was the fact that they both shot the ball poorly. Waiters overall is only shooting 30% on the young season, and while there's still the likely possibility that he'll get it turned around, he clearly is out of whack.
Waiters was the one that worried me, as well as most everyone else. He has the potential to be a borderline all-star, or completely flame out depending on how he fits in, or doesn't fit in. The point that can't be overstated is he needs to show more consistent effort on the defensive end. I truly believe he could be a top 10 defender if he tries, but more often than not, he fails to do so.
On offense, he needs to find where he fits in on this team. He seems undecided whether he's going to pull up and shoot the jumper, or drive to the rim. On the few drives he's made, he seems more concerned with drawing contact than actually trying to make the shot. He's not getting the calls, he's getting frustrated (as is James on his drives), and then fails to get back defensively.
Maybe he does need to come off the bench. I don't know, and he doesn't seem to know either. This is just one of the pieces that Blatt has to figure out going forward.
Oh Dion. There was so much promise, so much potential for you, so many opportunities to show what you could do. Waiters just could never consistently provide the Cavs with any offense or defense. Even now in OKC, his effort level is wildly inconsistent and he can't hit the open jumper.
Many thought trading him and receiving JR Smith was equivalent to getting an older Waiters. But Smith has completely bought into this team and the coaching staff, something I never thought I'd say about him. He's taken mostly smart shots, passed when necessary, has rebounded exceptionally well, and has played very solid defense.
Blatt also needs to figure out a consistent bench rotation. This is another trial and error thing that the team is going to struggle with initially. Remember, most of these guys haven't played with each other. It's going to take time. Blatt not only has to find the right mix of guys on the floor, but they have to figure each other out as well.
Then, once you think you're starting to figure things out, you lose Anderson Varejao for the year and a bunch of trades are made while your best player is resting his sore knee and back for a few weeks.
Yeah, Blatt has made rookie mistakes, but he's had a lot thrown at him in his first year as an NBA coach. Overall, I think he's done a very nice job of staying the course, mixing new players in, and making adjustments in the game.
I also really enjoy how he goes back at the media, who more and more anymore, act like they know everything. I particularly enjoy when members of the media start whining about how Blatt fires back at them.
You could make the argument that's what training camp and the preseason is for, but the reality is that until you're playing the games, you'll have no idea how it's going to go. Teams are very vanilla in preseason, so how you were defended then is vastly different from how you'll be defended come the regular season.
The important thing to constantly remember is that it's going to take time. If after 30-40 games they still haven't come together at all, I'd be concerned then. Right now? I'm looking to see how the team responds to adversity, not just in the game, but from one game to the next. Tonight I'm going to want to see how they respond to last night's game when they play the Utah Jazz.
After 40 games, they were 20-20 and found their groove at that point in the season. The new players fit in perfectly, James came back healthy and full of energy, and Irving unleashed holy hell on opponents on more than one occasion. While it hasn't always been pretty, they've been more consistent on both ends of the floor.
I don't think they'll ever be a defensive juggernaut, but I do think by the end of the season, they will have figured it out and will be a lot of fun to watch.
It just takes a little bit of patience.
But we all know how much patience people have.
We saw it most of the first half of the season. Many fans took to social media with #fireblatt and declared that James was leaving, Love was going to go to the Lakers or Knicks, and Irving was probably only trying to play for his own numbers.
ESPN was particularly brutal towards the Cavs. Chris Broussard and company insinuated that James was playing poorly so that the Cavs would fire Blatt. Much was made of Irving having 30+ points against but no assists in a game in Utah early in the season. Of course, they failed to note the number of misses shots off of passes by Irving, but ESPN more and more has its own agenda to look after, one that doesn't always revolve around facts.
Some fans even speculated that the Cavs should consider trading Love away since there was no way he was going to return next year to play on this team.
It was insane, it was absurd, and it was all based out of panic.
Since a loss in Phoenix in James' return to the lineup, the Cavs are 25-6, which is the best record in that span. Their average margin of victory is over 10 points a game. While defensively they've slipped of late, the effort and results have been much, much better. Offensively, they still have hero ball moments, but the ball movement has improved and more players are involved than early on.
Last night the Cavs had 32 assists against the Nets after having just 17 against the Miami Heat in a loss that concluded an otherwise successful 4 game road trip.
There were a few of us rational fans who said have patience with this team, but it's hard for Cleveland sports fans to have any. It's been so long since we've had a championship that we don't want to wait for a process, we want instant results.
It was even worse with James coming back to the Cavs. Teamed up with Irving and Love, it was going to be our own super team.
All the negativity early on aside, this team has been scary good for the last couple of months. Irving has continued to improve within the offense, Love has slowly found his way into being more involved (and not just jacking up 3 point shots), and the new additions have been more than any of us thought they'd be.
Now the key for the Cavs is to hold on to that second spot, stay healthy, and see how far they can go in the playoffs. While I'd like to believe that Irving will be fine, you just simply don't know until each individual player is facing those bright lights.
What I do know is this team seems to be extremely close, which bodes well for the future.
Cavalier Caveats
- I won't pretend that I watched last night's game, because I didn't. I was busy playing with the girls and just checked Twitter every now and then to see how the game was progressing (btw, you can always tell how the team is doing by how frequently people are tweeting; the complaints come much faster than the compliments). It became pretty clear that after a slow start, the Cavs woke up and pretty much dismantled the Nets.
- One thing that people seem to really enjoy doing is try to figure out Kevin Love's body language. It seems every day someone has some new theory as to what his body language is saying. Most every media member outside of Cleveland firmly believes that Love is not returning, and the Knicks and Lakers typically are mentioned as top destinations. It's borderline insanity that so many people spend so much time trying to figure out what a player is going to do next, but it's become too much when it comes to K-Love. While he has said repeatedly that he's here for the long-term, until he signs a new deal with the Cavs, the rumors will persist.
- The Knicks and Lakers just don't make sense though. Why would Love, after getting his first taste of playoff basketball, go to either of those franchises? The Lakers are hoping to hit it big in the lottery and get one more year out of Kobe, while the Knicks are just a mess overall. If Love wants to win, going to either of those teams makes little sense. Yet all we hear is that's where he's going to go.
- Kyrie Irving is finally starting to get some national respect after torching the Spurs single-handedly, then followed that up with a efficient performance against the Magic. Irving has quietly become more efficient with his shots, better with his passes, and much improved on defense. In fact, he's looked better defensively than Matthew Dellavedova, something we didn't say last year ever. Irving just seems to know when to pick his spots and Blatt has given him ample opportunities to go out and attack the opposing defense as he sees fit.
- Speaking of Delly, I love the guy, but the more I watch him this year, the more I think he's a guy who looks better as the team around him gets worse. Last year you'd see him come in and be the solid defender that Irving wasn't and occasionally make a shot or two. This year, his defense seems to revolve around fouling players as they run by him. He has been particularly exposed when Irving has missed games with injury. Again, I love what Delly brings, but his value has definitely decreased.
- Tristan Thompson may not wow you with numbers, but he never stops. He still resembles a baby giraffe attempting to walk for the first time at times, but he is one of the best offensive rebounders and can handle defensive switches onto smaller players, which is primarily why he's in the game late instead of Mozgov.
- LeBron James is still good people. Enjoy and appreciate what you get to watch from him night in and night. But also enjoy that he has perhaps his best running mate in Irving. Dwayne Wade was still good when James joined the Heat, but was definitely on the downswing. Irving is only 22. The next few years could be crazy fun with the two of them running around out there.
- I'm going to try and do these things more frequently, but I make no promises. Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment