Joe Haden likely out Week 6 against Denver
October 13, 2015Browns ranked among worst franchises in professional sports
October 13, 2015Here we are, just two weeks away from the start of the 2015-16 Cleveland Cavalier season. That means it is time for the annual NBA Blogger Preview series. Today is the Cavaliers’ day for the preview and once again we are more than happy to participate.
This is shaping up to be a pretty fascinating season for the Cavaliers. After making it to the Finals with a busted up roster last year, hopes are extremely high for this season. The Cavaliers are bringing essentially the entire core of that team back, with the additions of Mo Williams and Richard Jefferson. Will this be the year the Cavaliers finally achieve their ultimate goal? What are some of the things that might trip them up on their journey toward that goal? Let’s find out!
Team Name: Cleveland Cavaliers
Last Year’s Record: 53-29
Key Losses: Shawn Marion (retired), Mike Miller (traded), Kendrick Perkins (free agent), Brendan Haywood (traded), Tristan Thompson? (holdout)
Key Additions: Mo Williams (free agent), Richard Jefferson (free agent), Sasha Kaun (draft rights)
1. What Significant Moves were made during the off-season?
The 2014-15 Cleveland Cavaliers won 53 games, despite being 19-20 at one point on the year. That’s not too shabby when you realize they finished the season with a 34-9 record. They rode that momentum all the way to the NBA Finals where they took a 2-1 series lead over the Golden State Warriors before injuries and fatigue became too much and the Cavaliers ultimately had to watch the Warriors celebrate the Championship. All of this without Kevin Love for most of the playoffs and without Kyrie Irving for the Finals.
The Cavaliers as a franchise might have been left to ponder what might have been had Kelly Olynyk not ripped Kevin Love’s shoulder out and had Kyrie Irving not succumbed to the knee injury which he tried so hard to fight through. But truthfully, that isn’t going to help anything or anyone. The Cavaliers instead had to ponder what to do moving forward. Shawn Marion was retiring. Mike Miller wanted to go somewhere where he could fill a bigger role. Same with Kendrick Perkins. That created some openings for the Cavaliers to replace players who never really had a strong role on the team with players who might be able to contribute.
Mo Williams and Richard Jefferson are not exactly young players still in the heart of their primes. Richard Jefferson is 35 years old and entering his 15th NBA season. Mo Williams is 32 years old and entering his 13th NBA season. So it’s possible that they will simply take Marion and Miller’s places on this team as the older veterans with a lot of experience but who struggle to make an impact on this team. That’s absolutely a fair way to look at this.
But in many ways, Richard Jefferson has spent the last four or five seasons grooming himself for the role he will be asked to play on the Cavaliers. A shaky three-point shooter early in his career, Jefferson has wisely worked on the shot in recent years. Prior to the 2010-11 season he had never shot over 40 percent from three in a season, but since then he has been above 40 percent every season but one. Last season with Dallas, Jefferson had his highest eFG% since that 2010-11 season with the Spurs. The Cavaliers are certainly hoping Jefferson can be more effective in the role they were planning on Mike Miller filling last season.
As for Mo Williams, his trajectory has been a little different. As a 26-year-old Cavalier, Mo had a career high 3P% and went to his only All-Star game. Since then, his three-point percentage has been slowly and steadily declining. But his scoring production has remained pretty constant, averaging double digits every season but one. Last season with Charlotte and Minnesota, Mo scored 14.2 points per game. While Matthew Dellavedova showed incredible heart in stepping in for the injured Kyrie Irving in the playoffs, Mo is better offensive insurance should Kyrie have another injury. The Cavaliers will be looking to Mo to provide some consistent scoring off the bench, something that they occasionally struggled to find last season.
Jefferson and Williams aren’t locks to be highly productive players this season, but when you look at the relative lack of production they are replacing, there’s reason to be optimistic that the Cavaliers can have better bench play this season as well as be able to have a little more diversity with different lineups and matchups mixed in with the Big Three.
Beyond bringing in Mo Williams and Richard Jefferson, the other big moves the Cavaliers made this offseason were all simply bringing everyone else back. LeBron James, Kevin Love, Iman Shumpert, JR Smith, and Matthew Dellavedova all signed new deals to come back to the Cavaliers. The lone remaining holdout is Tristan Thompson, who is a restricted free agent and is still not back with the team. Thompson will all but certainly be playing for the Cavaliers this season, it’s simply a matter of when he returns and what kind of deal he and the Cavaliers can agree to.
2. What are the team’s biggest strengths?
The Cavaliers struggled to find their offensive identity early last season, but after the trades for Timofey Mozgov, Iman Shumpert, and JR Smith, the offense began to click and really took off. They finished the season with an offensive rating of 111.1 points per 100 possessions, good for third in the NBA even with their slow start to the season.
This season, their offense will likely be their biggest overall strength. It’s not hard to explain the logic in this pick when you consider LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving are all still with the team. While so much of last season was spent learning to play not just as the “Big Three”, but really as an entirely new team as a whole, there were a lot of bumps in the road along the way. Now that there is more familiarity and comfort with one another, the Cavaliers have the potential to be an even better offensive team all season.
The fact is, the Cavaliers are loaded at every position with players capable of scoring. As a team, the Cavaliers are capable of scoring from so many different places, too. They can work the ball inside with Mozgov, they can attack the lane with penetration from LeBron and Kyrie, they can drive and kick out to three point shooters, they can operate pick and roll with Kevin Love. There are just so many ways this team can hurt opponents on offense and I fully expect offensive production and offensive rebounding to continue to be enormous strengths for this team.
3. What are the team’s biggest weaknesses?
Right now, as of the time of this writing, the Cavaliers biggest weakness is figuring out what to do about Tristan Thompson. Without Thompson, the Cavaliers’ frontcourt depth is a major concern. Anderson Varejao will be back, yes, but he struggled last season and hasn’t been able to stay healthy for a whole season in a very long time. Sasha Kaun was brought in to help in this department, but he’s still an NBA rookie. The fact is, the Cavaliers are a Timofey Mozgov injury away from suddenly looking very suspect in the frontcourt. Even with a healthy Mozgov, Thompson’s absence will be felt should he still be a holdout once the season starts.
Another area the Cavaliers could consider a weakness this season might be the defense. They were a pretty average defense last season. They stepped up their efforts on defense in their playoff run, but some have questioned how much of that was simply a byproduct of Delly and Thompson playing more minutes in the place of Kyrie and Love. It’s a fair question, and with Kyrie and Love returning, some of the overall team defense questions may return as well. To be fair, Kyrie played the best defense of his career last season, showing some solid improvement in an area that has always been one of his biggest weaknesses. But Kevin Love’s defense was simply not good last season, as he was routinely slow to recognize his need to slide over and provide backside help defense. Even LeBron James is not quite the same defensive player he was a few years ago. LeBron is still capable of stepping up his defense when he needs to, but his consistency on that end has slipped a bit.
The Cavaliers do have enough athletes to be a better defensive team, it’s just a matter of how much they prioritize it. Their offense will mitigate some of the defensive concerns throughout the regular season, but can this defense step back up to Championship level in the playoffs? It probably can. The question is whether it will.
4. What are the goals for this team?
The only goal for this team is to win the NBA Championship. Last year they had a built in excuse with it being their first year together. But the LeBron James window is closing quicker than I think a lot of people want to admit. I’m not saying LeBron is in decline by any means. I’m simply saying the number of seasons the Cavaliers have left with LeBron in the heart of prime is growing smaller. This team is constructed for one purpose only, and that is to win the title. They came close to pulling it off in year one…closer than most people thought they would. They are in a conference that doesn’t appear to have any obvious roadblocks. Anything short of making the Finals would be unacceptable for this roster if healthy, and anything short of winning the title will feel like a letdown.
5. OK, so, what’s going to actually happen with Tristan Thompson?
At this point, this whole situation is starting to feel like one big game of chicken, with both sides daring the other not to blink. It’s hard to imagine Tristan actually holding out into the season. But Cavs fans surely remember the Anderson Varejao holdout in 2007. I never thought the Varejao holdout would last as long as it did, either (Varejao’s holdout only ended in December when he signed an offer sheet with Charlotte, which the Cavaliers then matched). You just never know with these tense contract situations.
I just find it very hard to believe that the Cavaliers are going to actually let this one get that far. Every day as the start of the season draws closer, it puts more pressure on the Cavaliers to get a deal done, thus giving Thompson a little more leverage. Right now, the Cavaliers need Tristan more than Tristan needs the Cavaliers. Tristan is young and he is looking out for his future. He can hold out for the best deal he can get. He can wait and become a restricted free agent again next season and theoretically play for any team he wants, but the team’s matching rights will still exist. This said, the Cavaliers need Tristan right now. This is their window and they can’t afford to have a distraction hanging over the team, they can’t have the loss of depth, and they can’t risk making LeBron unhappy.
My best, uninformed guess is that this goes right down to the wire and then the Cavs and Thompson will come to an agreement on the eve of the opening game of the season. My guess is the Cavaliers end up giving Thompson a deal that is very close to what he is asking for. When it comes down to it, Dan Gilbert will pressure the front office to make a deal happen and get Tristan on the roster.
6. Should the Cavaliers be worried about the injury prone nature of their roster?
When the Cavaliers are fully healthy, there is simply zero reason to think they aren’t one of the best teams in the league. But that’s sort of the catch. Kyrie Irving has struggled with nagging injuries throughout his young career, Kevin Love has had some injury issues, Iman Shumpert has had to deal with injury situations the last few seasons.
There’s no question that injuries derailed the postseason hopes of the team last season. If we were doing a SWOT analysis on the Cavaliers, the first thing listed under “Threats” would be injuries. The biggest reason injuries are so worrisome is that there’s not a whole lot that can be done to prevent them. You pretty much have to just hope they can make it through the season, and more importantly the postseason, relatively unscathed.
7. Final thoughts on the upcoming season?
This season should be a fun one. Last season seems like it was fun in hindsight, but the truth is, last season was bewildering. At times it was very much fun. And after going through the years without LeBron, any season with LeBron seems that much more satisfying. But there were so many frustrating moments last year. There was a lot of passive aggressiveness within the team, whether it be with David Blatt, LeBron James, or Kevin Love. There was the time LeBron simply took a couple weeks off. There were questionable coaching moves. There were some frustrating losing streaks early in the year. I really thought, though, that everyone seemed to come together down the stretch last year and I really felt the team was clicking at the right time going into the playoffs.
This year, most of that drama should be in the rear view mirror. The team seems closer than ever. The offseason team workouts organized by LeBron were a great sign of a team coming together. This season has all the potential to be one of the most fun seasons of Cavs basketball that we’ve had yet.
Whether the team wins the Championship or not, I’ve learned one important thing. I’ve learned to never take a season of basketball with LeBron James on the Cavaliers for granted. I can’t wait to see Kyrie Irving continue to grow as a player and as a leader under the tutelage of LeBron. I’m ecstatic that Kevin Love’s contract drama is out of the way and that Love will be with the Cavaliers for the long haul. I’m happy to watch Mo Williams play in a Cavaliers uniform again. Mozgov, JR Smith, Shump, etc., etc., etc. The word to describe the outlook for this season for me is simply ‘fun’.
I can’t wait for this season to get started. I’m less interested in projections, Xs and Os, and the like with this season. After a frustrating Indians season and potentially another long Browns season, I just want to sit back and enjoy this Cavaliers team. The regular season most likely won’t mean all that much to this team. It’s going to be about hitting their peak at the right time, staying healthy, and continuing to gel as a team. That’s the journey, and it’s about to begin in two weeks. To borrow a phrase, I can’t wait!
8. Other Cavaliers previews you should read today
Please go check out David Zavac’s preview over at Fear The Sword. I generally tend to agree with pretty much all of David’s basketball opinions, so it’s not surprising to see him list some of the same strengths and weaknesses. It’s a great read and I highly recommend checking it out.
16 Comments
Perfect.
Break on Through, Cavs.
EDIT: (Just realized the younger generation won’t even get that reference because nobody makes cover art anymore)
Hey, no edit necessary. People are strange.
Oooh, nice one. I like that. Of course, it doesn’t take much to light my fire.
Key Losses: Shawn Marion, Mike Miller, Kendrick Perkins, Brendan Haywood
This made me laugh. Addition by subtraction?
Took me until here to get it. Apparently I am old and slow.
Lets all remember it’s a long season and it’s not how you start it’s how you finish. I am of course excited for the upcoming season even with all of the guys out either due to injury or their head in the clouds. Either way the season is getting closer and I’m ready. In fact I drafted LBJ with my first round draft pick last night in one of my fantasy leagues.
The new bench will/should has looked much better and just think it’s performing without the diva even. I think Cunningham has that last roster spot and that excites me. I realize he’ll probably be the 15th guy at this point but I like the ultra aggressiveness I see out of him especially on the offensive side.
Cunningham might be the 15th guy now, but don’t let your allegiance to and appreciation of Delly get in the way of analyzing his limited skills. It shouldn’t be long before Cunningham supplants him as the 3rd option. He has more of a scoring punch. In fact, I think Cunningham has a chance to become the backup.
Remember the Browns??
Oh I’m not stuck on Delly I know who he is I’m just trying to stay realistic. I love the way Cunningham goes to the basket and he looks to dunk which for me is a plus.
After so many years spent as riders on the storm of Cleveland sports, we fans have so much to look forward to with these Cavs.
It will be interesting to see Cunningham against some higher level competition in the earlier parts of some preseason games, and in general to figure out what he can do for this team beyond lighting up scrubs in the preseason. It’s entirely possible that he has improved parts of his game enough to take advantage of his immense athleticism, but his stats so far in his career suggest that the explosive athleticism is all he’s got to work with. He can’t shoot the three, (30%) his passing isn’t great (TO to AST almost 1:1 last year) he commits nearly as many fouls as he draws, and he only converts 70% of his free throws when he does get to the line. His career PER in 40 games is 8.8. He only has one trick so far, but it’s a pretty electrifying one when he gets to use it.
Delly on the other hand has two tricks – taking care of the ball, and shooting the three. (41%) That made him pretty useful at times last year. I think Cunningham would be most useful as a slashing wing, and not as a PG. He’d need to be grouped with other shooters to space the floor, though. If he can improve his handle and cut back on the TO’s, though, I could see him being pretty effective at the point when paired with Jefferson and Smith. Delly is going to have to get better too if he wants to get a contract next year.
well, then, i guess this is The End.
Finals trip or bust. I don’t want to say a title because the West is that good. Although a very limited team took the Warriors to 6 games.
Hurry up Cavsmas!
Just want to point out in the portion where you complement Kyrie’s defensive improvement while saying Kevin Love wasn’t any good, that Kevin Love posted around an average defensive boxscore numbers while Irving was a full point below average. Also want to point out that Love is essentially identical to TT in all defensive areas in advanced statistics other than pick and roll switch oFG%.
Where Kevin really dropped off from the previous season was offensively, part of that being a bad start to the season in areas he usually performed much better in during his last few years in Minnesota(open 3pt %, p&r shot %, etc.). However he was also hurt by his usage in the offensive quite a bit, though I expect that to change this season as it should in order for the Cavs to operate at their highest potential.