Timing is everything: While We’re Waiting

Happy Tuesday, WFNY!

I hope all of you were able to avoid any paper cuts while tearing up your brackets over the weekend. After the first weekend, I was feeling pretty good about my Final Four of Cincinnati, Gonzaga, Villanova, and Duke. After this last weekend? Well, it’s back to the NBA for me, my bracket is toast.

It was a good week for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Heck, it was a great week, if we’re being honest. Kevin Love, Rodney Hood, and Tristan Thompson all came back from injury, LeBron played out of his mind all week, and the team has won five straight and six of their last seven.

LeBron James just had the most prolific offensive week of his entire career.

He scored or assisted on 63.3 PPG, his most ever in a single week. This was the 357th week of his career.

Oh and he did it while shooting 63 percent from the field en route to a perfect 4-0 record.

— Micah Adams (@MicahAdams13) March 26, 2018

So, yeah, it sure seems like the Cavaliers are getting their affairs in order at the right time. With just nine games remaining on the regular season schedule, the Cavaliers are currently sitting at 44-29 and in the third spot in the East. They are still waiting for Cedi Osman to return from injury, Kyle Korver is still away from the team dealing with the tragic loss of his brother, and Ty Lue is still on his personal leave to deal with his recurring health issues. There is still work to be done, but in general, it feels like the timing of everything is working out pretty favorably for the Cavaliers.

Timing in sports is funny like that. It’s one thing to be good, it’s one thing to prepare, it’s one thing to build your team the right way, but for all that preparation, you still need timing to be on your side.

The Golden State Warriors currently look as vulnerable as they’ve ever looked since they started this crazy run under Steve Kerr. All of their “Big Four” have dealt with some injury in recent weeks. And while Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson should all be fine for the start of the playoffs, Steph Curry is expected to miss at least the first round after suffering an MCL sprain.

The Boston Celtics know all about dealing with injuries. They started the season by losing Gordon Hayward for the year, Marcus Smart has been out, Jaylen Brown has missed significant time. But worst of all for the Celtics, Kyrie Irving now had to have knee surgery to remove a tension wire in his knee and is expected to miss at least three-to-six weeks. A potential first-round matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks without Kyrie could be a scary prospect for the Celtics.

The Houston Rockets have been rotating injured players all seasons. It seems like some combination of Chris Paul, Clint Capela, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, and Eric Gordon have been out all season. It seems like despite all their success this year, they just haven’t been able to get everyone back at the same time. One guy comes back, another goes out.

Every team deals with injuries. That’s not the part that’s interesting here. There’s no escaping the reality that injuries are just something you’re going to have to adapt to at some point in your season. The bigger issue is the timing of it. We’ve all heard the saying “it’s better to be lucky than good,” and with injuries that is certainly true.

You know you’re going to have guys in and out of your lineup all season, but the ultimate goal is to have most guys back in your lineup and healthy for the playoffs. For the Cavaliers, this is where it seems like things are trending in the right direction for them.¹ As of right now, the Cavaliers currently expect to have everyone back for the start of the playoffs.

This has been a long and trying season for the Cavaliers. From the moment the Cavaliers let David Griffin walk out the door, it has been a revolving door of trials and tribulations. We don’t need to rehash everything that has happened here, but between trading Kyrie Irving, having the return on that trade not really fit in with what was going on in Cleveland, to unease over LeBron’s future, to various injuries throughout the year, the Cavaliers have certainly paid their dues this season.

So going back to the issue of timing, there’s a sense of relief around the Cavaliers right now. They are slowly but surely getting everyone back together and they are starting to play better basketball in general.

The return of Kevin Love has been huge for the Cavaliers. That seems like it should be a common sense sentiment, but there was an awful lot of fretting about the Cavaliers when it was LeBron playing with a bunch of role players. With Love back in the lineup, we are reminded just how important he is to the team. Not only just for his own talent and contributions, but just his mere presence alone opens up the floor so much more for LeBron to operate. That creates more open shots for other shooters.

In the four games Love has been back, he is averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 48 percent from three-point range. While Love was out, LeBron did his part to carry the team, averaging 28 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 9.6 assists while shooting 53.6 percent from the floor. Since Love’s return, though, LeBron’s numbers have gone to 34.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 11 assists while shooting an insane 62.7 percent from the field. Granted, small sample size and two of the four games were against lottery teams. But the point is just to illustrate how important Kevin Love is to this team and how much easier he makes life for LeBron.

The Cavaliers seem to have figured something out with Jose Calderon and George Hill, too. Like many, I scoffed when the Cavaliers signed Calderon. I didn’t really see his value for this team. But there is no denying that the Cavaliers feel like a different team when Calderon starts and plays. After coming over in the deadline trade, George Hill never looked comfortable running the offense. Since letting Calderon run the point and moving Hill over to the off-guard spot, things have begun to click for Hill. Having a player like Calderon who doesn’t force anything at the point and who is comfortable getting others involved and only taking his shot when it makes sense in the flow of the offense has been something of a revelation for the Cavs offense.

Right after the Cavaliers shook up their roster at the trade deadline, I wrote that I was happy to be excited to watch this team again. Unfortunately, with the way the injuries broke for the team, we haven’t really had a chance to see this team as a whole yet. We’ve seen so many glimpses of different rotations and player pairings, and we’ve seen some lineups worth being excited about, but we haven’t seen the full realization of what the Cavaliers will look like. They may not have time to develop regular season chemistry with everyone back, but the fact that everyone is scheduled to be back for the start of the playoffs is worth being excited about. As they say, timing is everything.

1. This is the part where I just jinxed the team, so let me double down on that now…. [↩]