Month: November 2013

As anyone who has read this blog the past few days knows, I have not exactly been complementary of the Cavs performances on the court. It would seem kind of silly for me to change positive after that spanking the Cavs endured against the TWolves. Understandably then, I will not be making that positive attitude adjustment in this commentary. I have watched closely each of the past 4 straight losses to the Bobcats. Two of those were in the preseason but the games were all similar in my eyes.

The Bobcats were more athletic, had a vastly superior will to win, Walker broke down Irving at will and created havoc for our defense, and almost every single player played harder and faster than their Cavalier counterpart. This resulted in 4 Bobcat wins despite the fact that the Cavs are a more skilled team by far and have superior basketball talent. In Friday’s game, the Cavs will face the best Charlotte roster by far than any they have faced before. The reason is one player, Al Jefferson. In his limited time (he did not play vs the Cavs), he is leading the team in points per game and rebounds per game. He also has 2.3 assists per game vs only .33 turnovers per game. He is a force to be reckoned with in any game and will be a very steadying influence on this young team. I was one of the few that wanted Jefferson for the Cavs and admittedly the argument that he is somewhat overpaid seems reasonable. That being said, the Cavs would be a far better team in my opinion having Jefferson on the court for 14 million vs Bynum for 12 million. But that ship has sailed and I am in the minute minority on this point anyway.

The interesting thing about this improved Bobcat team is that it might work in the Cavs favor in Friday’s game. Jefferson, although in my opinion a very good player, somewhat slows the offense and defense down. Given that the Cavs have been out quicked by the Cats in each loss, slowing them down even a touch helps our defense. The flip side of that is the skill advantage we enjoyed in each of those losses has been narrowed. So time will tell which factor affects the game more.

None of this matters, however, if the Cavs continue to play lethargic uninspired basketball and Irving does not come to play on both ends of the floor. If Irving is broken down at will, then the results will seem similar. If you haven’t noticed by now, each and every point guard that plays the Cavs is out to put an Irving notch on their belt. They come at him full force and expose his weaknesses (which is generally subpar defensive foot speed and poor intensity). This causes a variety of defensive challenges for the Cavs and makes it harder for Kyrie to play offense. It is a well known fact that one of the best ways to slow down an elite offensive player is to make him play defense. Since Irving struggles so much with that at times, it makes him an easy target for that strategy. And I have news for Kyrie, the only one that can stop that from happening is Kyrie. No defensive scheme can adequately protect the point guard.

So, if you want to know what will happen in the Charlotte game, it all will depend on the Cavaliers in my mind. I am 100% certain that Charlotte will come to play. They smell blood in the Cavs ocean and will dive for every loose ball, go full speed and all out on every possession, and try to embarrass the Cavs in front of their home fans. Walker will again use that monster chip on his shoulder to try and outplay and outhustle Irving. The only counter for this, and I mean the ONLY counter, is to play hard and never back down. To come at them as fast as they come at us. To beat them down the floor in transition and attack with maximum intensity. To lay back and run the offense in slow motion as they have been will result in run out after run out just like against the TWolves.

If the Cavs do not play with high intensity for 48 minutes, the lowly Bobcats will win on our home floor by 15 plus points. Instead of being evidence that the TWolves game was a wake up call, it will be evidence that the TWolves game is a sign of things to come.

It is impossible for me to fathom that the Cavs will not come out and fight with 100% effort. Last year I kept saying that and the poor results kept coming while the effort stayed flat. So this year I am taking a different path, I unhappily believe the Cavs will get spanked by 15 plus points at the Q. I keep waiting for evidence they are going to stand up and fight for every possession. Until I see it, I will continue to look on the dark side of the possibilities. As always, I will be looking for any signs of life.

Well, this was predictable. As I said in my last blog that no one read, the Cavaliers would be blown out by 20 plus if they played as poorly as they did against the Bulls. I would like nothing better than write feel good blogs about how much I love the Cavs game. I do love the Cavs but do not love the Cavs game. Their offense is stagnant and void of flow and principles. Whenever they did anything right (such as the rare back door cuts), it worked. But those things are just too rare. They don’t play offense fast and move half speed but then make hurried ill advised passes to overplayed teammates. I don’t agree with Austin Carr at all that this is simply getting used to a system. This is an inability to play in a system. I only say that because the team looked exactly the same under Byron Scott as they do under Mike Brown. I want them to prove me wrong but I see no signs of it yet.

When we let up well over 100 points by the end of the third quarter, you might wonder why I have been complaining about the offense. I fully admit that the most important thing for the Cavs is to play solid defense. The Cavs score enough points to win most nights. The problem is that the poor offensive flow, resulting in terrible shots or awful passes, leads to run outs and easy fast break points. This results in a very high opponent shooting percentage and many more easy baskets. This creates more total offensive chances for the opponent that inevitably ends up in far too many points allowed. If every team laid back and allowed us to “run” an offense in slow motion and then didn’t run, the Cavs defense would match up much better in any game. Our half court defense is not as terrible as the overall defensive numbers suggest IMO. It certainly isn’t very good yet but that is a place I am confident will come around with Mike Brown’s system over time. As long as Kyrie gives maximum effort as I have said, I think our defense will be acceptable.

The other key factor is a lack of focus and effort when things are not going well. That also creates the possibility of terrible blowouts like tonight. In this game, once their offense was stagnant and lacked flow and Minnesota had fast break point after fast break point, they had no fight left. This allowed the porous half court defense to reveal itself. Kyrie actually tried to pick up the effort on both ends of the court but it was not enough to overcome this onslaught.

I saw little to like in this game and, except for a look at Karasev, not much worth watching. It was an embarrassment for sure and a terrible example of basketball. I wish I could be more optimistic and I am sure I will be later in the year. But for now, Cavs are on a rocket path back to the lottery and that is not what I expected or wanted.

In a game billed as Kyrie vs Rose, there was nothing more than a skirmish between the big 2 and a sloppy game around them. Kyrie again appeared uninspired and did not work hard enough on the defensive end to bother Rose. Luckily, Rose is not exactly Rose yet so the final stats did not clearly define Kyrie’s lackluster effort. As often happens, when a few shots fall in the fourth quarter he made a more clear effort to defend and the entire team put some temporary pressure on the Bulls. It was during that time that, if the offense had any flow at all, the Cavs might have broken through and taken control of the game. But the resistance was short lived and the results predictable. The Bulls pulled away in the closing minutes and another road “L” was the result.

I don’t feel the entire game was worthless because the Cavs got some valuable “practice time” with Andrew Bynum in the starting lineup for the first time this year. It is obvious that the Cavs do not yet know how to play with a post player and Bynum has only a little feel for the players around him. If that was the biggest negative about this game, it wouldn’t be a negative. It is expected and will take time. But I saw flashes of what Bynum can mean to an offense once he gets comfortable.

There were some decent individual efforts by TT and Waiters, who both played defense more aggressively than most of the rest of the team. Andy gave good effort as did Bynum to be honest. Both were chasing some guards on the top when they had to from switching. There was not much else to cheer about in the Bulls game. I was happy the Cavs kept it close until about 5 minutes left, but I am not sure if that was a function of the Bulls or the Cavs. The Bulls obviously have some catching up to do with Rose back on the court. They will be better going forward for sure.

Here is the surprising thing about what I saw tonight. If the Cavs play with this same intensity against the TWolves, they will lose by 20+ points in a blowout. I am not looking forward to that so I will remain confident that the Cavs will find a way to dig in and play hard.

The Cavs are still in trouble!!! I’ll be watching for signs of life going forward. I love this team and believe they can find a way to overcome this if Kyrie leads the defense forward.

Notwithstanding the exciting overtime win against a team thought to be “tanking”, the Cavaliers have shown many of the same disturbing tendencies that we have seen during three mega loss seasons. The inexcusable trend continues to be a monumental lack of effort for 48 minutes. This now spans over a coaching change and multiple drafts with high draft picks. That does not mean I am overreacting to a few losses or believing the Cavs season is going into the toilet because of a 3-4 start. What I see is an ongoing trend that must end or the Cavs will not have Kyrie Irving or a winning team at all in several years. The time to send out the “all hands on deck” call is now instead of waiting until very little can be done to salvage the season and the Cavs future.

Am I being melodramatic about placing the entire Cavs future at stake here? I don’t believe I am and have a large sample size and an ability to read the body language of the players to support that contention. The reason why this is so critical and pivotal all revolves around the same thing that drives the entire NBA, star power. Kyrie Irving, despite his current faults as a player, is a developing star in the NBA. His visibility is rising and his importance to the Cavalier’s future is increasing as well.

One of the big things that happened to the last star that left is a development of a beaten attitude when his team blew opportunities in the playoffs that he viewed as his “birthright” to reach his championship destiny. As often happens when your view of the world is distorted by your own success, his belief was that this was the fault of everyone else around him from coaches to teammates and even his “posse”. That leads to a lack of effort and a beaten attitude, as was clearly evident near the end.

Kyrie, in a very different and possibly worse scenario, has shown signs of the same failings as his star predecessor. That is the irony of this entire situation. Since the major failure of the Cavs is a lack of consistent effort, especially on the defensive end, it will take the star to lead the team out of that. The team will follow in my opinion, but Kyrie must lead. The coach obviously can’t do it. Byron Scott marveled at the way effort varied despite the fact that he knew it was the only thing that wasn’t dependent on one’s talent. He felt that everyone could give effort and he couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t. Well Mike Brown, welcome to Byron Scott’s world.

The previous star never realized that if he dominated defensively and drove to the basket consistently to make his points and assists, he would have gotten what he wanted even in Cleveland. The current star has, in my opinion, a developing superior supporting cast but still doesn’t put forth the consistent effort needed to lead the defensive charge and offensive movement and consistency. He is prone to the same ball dominating approach on offense and his own unique varying intensity on defense.

That is not to say that the Cavs lack of success is all on Kyrie. Without Kyrie, we would have lost many games that we eventually won. But I believe the Cavs ultimate success IS on Kyrie. If he takes the lead and demonstrates consistent defensive effort and demands offensive flow and movement, the Cavs will be successful. They will make the playoffs and be a dangerous team when they get there. If he still looks to his teammates to lead the way, the Cavs are destined for a thunderous thud back in the lottery. I believe the time is now to get this done. If we wait to address the obvious later, it will be too late.

I have confidence that Kyrie and Mike Brown can make it happen but I will be looking for signs soon. I am hoping that playing hard for two overtimes and winning will help Kyrie and the team understand that they CAN put forth that effort for a regulation game. I’ll let you know if I see the transformation.