The Cleveland Cavaliers have disrupted the start of the new season – their third defeat in a row against the New York Knicks. What’s wrong with the East Champion of the last three years?
“What month is this? October? I’m not going to drive myself crazy now. I’ve seen it happen too often. I’m the wrong contact. I’m too positive,”LeBron James said after the embarrassing presentation of his team against the Knicks in an almost bored tone.
Been there, done that? In principle, he was not wrong: James has experienced a lot in 14 NBA seasons. In his current Cavs-time alone since 2014, Cleveland had already experienced a number of confusing, dysfunctional and unhappy situations. In 2014/15, for example, Cleveland still had a negative balance after 39 games and made it to the finals. The former GM David Griffin once said that his team needs drama to be successful.
That may even be true. In addition, there are just seven games in the season, the Cavs have proven several times in recent years that they are only interested in the playoffs. Seeding doesn’t matter to them. After all, they have LeBron, the equalizer. All fair points. And yet: A team with James hasn’t presented itself in such a devastating way for ages.
Coach Tyronn Lue described the performance of his team in the last few days as “unacceptable”. No wonder: Four of the last five games were lost, on average Cleveland lost with 16.8 points (!) difference. And not against the league’s creme de la creme: the games were lost to Orlando, Brooklyn, New Orleans and New York. None of these teams reached the playoffs last season.
“We will only get out of it if we invest the work – as players and also as coaches. The way we are losing at the moment is unacceptable. As long as we don’t play with the right attitude, there won’t be much change,”explained Lue.
With the word setting, Lue addressed the correct topic. The Cavs are approaching the start of the season as if they were still in the pre-season. The offense is not as impressive as last year, but it would be wrong to fix the problems at the absence of Kyrie Irving or his successor Isaiah Thomas. These two would also have little (positive) influence on the main problem of last year’s finalist.
“Our defense is pretty bad at the moment,”James said after the Knicks Cleveland scored 114 points. That was a rather generous understatement:’ Our defense stinks to high heaven’, would have been more appropriate. At present, only three teams defend worse than the Cavaliers (Defensive rating: 109.8).
On the basis of the personnel, problems in the defense had at least been expected. Last season’s defence wasn’t great either, in the summer Jae Crowder was just a good defender – and in Thomas and Derrick Rose two of the very few point guards who are even worse in the defence than the outgoing Irving.
With the move to make Kevin Love the starting center, Lue wanted to strengthen the offense, but the defense became so pitiful that he ended the experiment after only a few games. However, the re-installation of Tristan Thompson has not led to any improvement.
This is because the problems are not necessarily caused by individual matchups, at least not all of them. Rather, listlessness and casualness can be observed. The Cavs are an open barn door, especially in transition:”The teams look faster at every position than we do,”said Lue,”They run fast, they force the pace. It looks like we can’t keep up.”
You can’t – or you don’t want to? While it is offensively understandable that in view of many new additions and constant changes in the Starting Five, not everything has yet been played out, many of the problems in the Defense would actually be relatively easy to fix if the Cavs would show the necessary commitment. Not all of them, but many.
“Many of our problems can be solved by dedication,”said Kevin Love.”We have the talent, which is obvious. We look great on paper, but we have to get out and really get it through. The will must be there.”
Cleveland has lost the first quarter of the last five games with 54 points in all.
Let’s not say how great the cavs really look – even in the off-season, many experts warned that this team is not as strong as the big names suggested. The squad is full of oldies, specialists (= players who are only offensive or defensive) – and of course with LeBron.
Nevertheless, Love is of course right when it comes to the talent. The cavs can and must be much better than what they are at the moment. It is also to be expected that the offense will soon be at least so productive that the seasonal balance will not remain negative for too long. The liberation strike will come sooner or later in this respect.
“All we need is a win,”James said after the Knicks game,”then things will feel better and we’ll feel better about our performance. That’s why all we need right now is a win.”
In the short term, the King is likely to be right. In the long run, however, the fact remains that Cleveland has no management balance and is almost ridiculously dependent on James. LeBron is currently shooting almost 59 percent of the field, his team shares are just under 43 percent.
But that’s not all: According to NBAMath. com’s Points Added formula, James is the ONLY player with 14 players in the game who has a positive influence on the defense. Kyle Korver and Channing Frye are also the only players except James, who have a slightly positive effect on team performance in the Total Points Added, the combination of Offense and Defense.
Even if only seven games have been played and the numbers are still subject to a certain degree of variation, this is nothing more than a testimony of poverty. If James wants to wear a team, he can do so at the age of 32. But he has made it clear several times in the past that he doesn’t want to be a one-man-show anymore. That’s what he’s up to now, though.
Of course, the Cavs still have some time to solve their problems. But you’d better not wait too long. Otherwise James’ motivation to build a new (real) super team after the season elsewhere will certainly not diminish.