When LeBron James announced to the world that he was feeling a little bit homesick and wanted to return back to his home state of Ohio, the fans were over the moon to say the least.
After a bitter divorce in 2010 and the struggle of trying to rebuild, it was a pipe dream that they would have LeBron back in wine and gold just four years after the infamous Decision and the ensuing fallout.
There was much celebration that swept the entire Cleveland population with giant billboards erected. There were so many YouTube montages that Skylar Grey cannot be listened to without forever being associated with LeBron James. Experts predicted the combination of LeBron, Kyrie and Love would be unbeatable and instantly they heralded them as contenders for the Eastern Conference and NBA Title.
It’s now late November and with 12 games under their belt, the Cavs are sitting below .500 at 5-7 with a few worrying losses to teams like Utah, New York and Denver. Things weren’t always going to be easy for the Cavs with only five players on the roster from last season, a brand new rookie head coach and the eyes of the nation following their every move.
Add in all the drama surrounding the hype and expectations of one of the greatest players in NBA history returning home and there is a lot of pressure on the inexperienced team and coaching staff.
Many NBA pundits are pointing out that in his first season with Miami, LeBron started off 9-8 before going on a tear and finishing December with a 25-9 record. What makes that situation different is LeBron had championship-level help in Dwyane Wade (2006 NBA Champ) and Pat Riley (5 rings as a coach, 2 as a GM and 1 as a player).
The only championship-level experience that Cleveland has is LeBron himself and the collection of vintage bench players he brought with him. He may be playing with young stars in Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, but those two have exactly zero playoff minutes logged and have historically been known as defensive minuses throughout their careers.
These are not exactly the tools LeBron had in Miami and when push comes to shove in a critical game, it will be unknown territory for a lot of the Cavs.
There are many glaring problems with the Cavs right now and #1 seems to be the defence, which shouldn’t come as a surprise with the personnel they have.
Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love have been known as average defenders at best. So far the Cavs have the 20th best defence adjusted for opponent strength as a result. Their much publicised lack of rim protection is a very large cause of concern, especially with Kyrie out on the perimeter.
Opponents are shooting 65.2 per cent from 0-5ft (30th) and 56.8 per cent at the rim (25th) and this figure won’t get any better with Love, Varejao and Thompson patrolling the paint.
The Cavs are also allowing an average of 25.7 assists per game (29th), usually an indication of easy ball movement or open shooters. Interestingly Dion Waiters holds their best individual defensive rating of 107.5 (good for 182nd as per realgm.com) with Love (199th), LeBron (230th) and Irving (262nd) falling behind.
The defensive rating for LeBron really tells a story in itself with his effort on both ends leaving a bit to be desired at times.
His overall numbers are good but not what we have come to expect from LeBron. While it is silly to talk about a stat line of 25/6/6 as being ordinary, those numbers are all below LeBron’s career averages.
When you add in the 46 per cent of field goals, a case can be made that he isn’t having a good season. Part of this is to do with his master plan to ‘break in’ his teammates by letting them take bad shots, play hero ball and lose games until they see the error of their choices and play the right way.
In interviews he talks about the process and getting to the point where the team is playing the way he wants it. This fast break against the Wizards pretty much sums up his frustrations with his teammates’ poor choices. Together with the appalling body language shown by everyone, you can certainly see that this team has a long way to go before LeBron is happy.
On the plus side, the Cavs they have an offence that can produce big numbers and one that isn’t exactly a well oiled machine right now, which is scary for the rest of the league.
To start the season it was difficult to keep track of how many passes were thrown out of bounds or to the opposition, they were that out of sync with each other. Right now they are surviving predominantly off a lot of isolation ball, three-point shooting and pure talent until they can develop some sort of chemistry and fluidity.
That will naturally happen over time as they all get used to playing with each other and David Blatt figures out the best way to utilise each player’s talents.
Making better use of Kevin Love must be #1 priority for the Cavs and not only because of his impending free agency.
Coming from being the focal point of a team’s offence to being a third banana is going to take some time to adjust to, but utilising Love has been a problem for David Blatt. His numbers have dropped as expected with a drop in usage rate but his PER is hovering just above average at 16.50, worrying for a player that is considered one of the top ten players in the league.
As a threat from long range and a great rebounder, Love should be a handful to defend but with all the dribbling the Cavs are doing he ends up standing around most of the possession waiting for something to happen.
Conclusion
It’s still very early to start writing the Cavs off as a team in serious trouble but those pointing to the Miami struggles of 2010 trying to calm all the “Cavs in Trouble” articles (I realise I am adding to this list) must realise this is an entirely different beast. As an organisation, the Cavs are nowhere near as setup to handle the early season struggles as Miami were.
The core players not named LeBron have a lot less meaningful experience to their name than Bosh or Wade had and David Blatt, while an accomplished coach overseas, is nowhere near the Spolstra/Riley setup that LeBron had in Miami. They can between now and April adjust their roster (a decent rim protector and defensive wing wouldn’t go astray) and I’m sure it’s something that will be on their mind (Corey Brewer’s name has been mentioned).
The Cavs will have very little trouble making the playoffs given the hopeless state of the Eastern Conference where they are currently ranked seventh despite being 5-7. If the Cavs can figure out how to play with each other, they have a very good chance to make the Eastern Conference Finals although they will face stiff competition from the Bulls, Wizards and Raptors.
In the next month they play only half their games against teams with a better than .500 record, so if they hit 2015 still hovering around .500 then it might be time to re-evaluate their chances of making the Eastern Conference Finals.
It all rides on how each player responds to adversity and who is ready to stand up and take on the challenge.
Build your own ultimate team! Pick your key players and take a shot at big cash prizes every day with Draftstars. For great odds on NBA games every day head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
Not a great look for the controversial Aussie.
The only realistic threat to Boston’s chances of strolling through the Eastern Conference is a team that could still end up in the play-in…
He was keen to let the Grizzlies bench know about it after sealing victory for his side on the road.
Australian guards Dante Exum and Josh Giddey have both come up big for their NBA clubs in crucial wins in the lead-in to the…
Minnesota Timberwolves fans have endured plenty of pain in their 35 years of being a laughing stock in the NBA. In all that time,…
It’s a pretty good time to be a Tasmanian sports fan right now. After years in the sporting wilderness with not much to celebrate,…
