Game 1: Cleveland Cavaliers (0-0) @ Orlando Magic (0-0) - 7:00 PM

[jbk1234]

i like garlands upside but much in the same way as sexton had a long learning curve i think if they keep Garland as a starter having the much faster paced Sexton held on a governor all season it will prove better for Garland long term,despite being labelled a bust a strong possibility if his shot aint falling and Love aint more than a statistic... and i fear Sexton will lose his mojo some in a lesser role.
if it were me just based on the one game which is premature u would not use Sexton off ball next to Garland all of the time... off ball next to Delly or Knight on the faster 2nd unit makes more sense for everyone at least until they see what they got with Garland. The other option is for Beilein to push DG to **** pick up the pace with Sexton on the starting line up or get out of Colin's way and be a catch and shoot option playing off Sexton at least until DG is up to snuff physically.
Right now i see a little bit of locker oom grumbling already from Knight who had a solid camp esp after getting no shine while others got chops in.

There really isn't an off ball role, at least among the starters, in the new offense. Everybody touches it and the ball moves. Now on a night where Orlando has Gordon on the Love out on the perimeter, and Isaac on Cedi out on the perimeter, maybe Sexton needs to go at Fournier with the Vuc under the basket more often but it seemed like the Magic made an adjustment after the first quarter and started trapping him on the perimeter and shading towards him when he would drive. That's the next are for improvement in his game. Anticipate what the defense is doing before you dribble yourself into trouble.

Also, against better defensive teams both he and Garland need to pull the trigger on those catch and shoot 3 opportunities. The Magic were dropping four guys in the paint all night. Both Sexton and Garland were waiting for their guy to come out so they could drive into that defense. Take the shot and don't your guy cheat all night.

[Stillwater]

i like garlands upside but much in the same way as sexton had a long learning curve i think if they keep Garland as a starter having the much faster paced Sexton held on a governor all season it will prove better for Garland long term,despite being labelled a bust a strong possibility if his shot aint falling and Love aint more than a statistic... and i fear Sexton will lose his mojo some in a lesser role.
if it were me just based on the one game which is premature u would not use Sexton off ball next to Garland all of the time... off ball next to Delly or Knight on the faster 2nd unit makes more sense for everyone at least until they see what they got with Garland. The other option is for Beilein to push DG to **** pick up the pace with Sexton on the starting line up or get out of Colin's way and be a catch and shoot option playing off Sexton at least until DG is up to snuff physically.
Right now i see a little bit of locker oom grumbling already from Knight who had a solid camp esp after getting no shine while others got chops in.

There really isn't an off ball role, at least among the starters, in the new offense. Everybody touches it and the ball moves. Now on a night where Orlando has Gordon on the Love out on the perimeter, and Isaac on Cedi out on the perimeter, maybe Sexton needs to go at Fournier with the Vuc under the basket more often but it seemed like the Magic made an adjustment after the first quarter and started trapping him on the perimeter and shading towards him when he would drive. That's the next are for improvement in his game. Anticipate what the defense is doing before you dribble yourself into trouble.

Also, against better defensive teams both he and Garland need to pull the trigger on those catch and shoot 3 opportunities. The Magic were dropping four guys in the paint all night. Both Sexton and Garland were waiting for their guy to come out so they could drive into that defense. Take the shot and don't your guy cheat all night.

yeah thats beilein imo
overall i think they are rushing the experiment using Garland in the 1st unit...let him earn it . but in the same vein they are not trying to win, they in full development mode.

[jbk1234]

i like garlands upside but much in the same way as sexton had a long learning curve i think if they keep Garland as a starter having the much faster paced Sexton held on a governor all season it will prove better for Garland long term,despite being labelled a bust a strong possibility if his shot aint falling and Love aint more than a statistic... and i fear Sexton will lose his mojo some in a lesser role.
if it were me just based on the one game which is premature u would not use Sexton off ball next to Garland all of the time... off ball next to Delly or Knight on the faster 2nd unit makes more sense for everyone at least until they see what they got with Garland. The other option is for Beilein to push DG to **** pick up the pace with Sexton on the starting line up or get out of Colin's way and be a catch and shoot option playing off Sexton at least until DG is up to snuff physically.
Right now i see a little bit of locker oom grumbling already from Knight who had a solid camp esp after getting no shine while others got chops in.

There really isn't an off ball role, at least among the starters, in the new offense. Everybody touches it and the ball moves. Now on a night where Orlando has Gordon on the Love out on the perimeter, and Isaac on Cedi out on the perimeter, maybe Sexton needs to go at Fournier with the Vuc under the basket more often but it seemed like the Magic made an adjustment after the first quarter and started trapping him on the perimeter and shading towards him when he would drive. That's the next are for improvement in his game. Anticipate what the defense is doing before you dribble yourself into trouble.

Also, against better defensive teams both he and Garland need to pull the trigger on those catch and shoot 3 opportunities. The Magic were dropping four guys in the paint all night. Both Sexton and Garland were waiting for their guy to come out so they could drive into that defense. Take the shot and don't your guy cheat all night.

yeah thats beilein imo
overall i think they are rushing the experiment using Garland in the 1st unit...let him earn it . but in the same vein they are not trying to win, they in full development mode.

If that's the offense, that's what I mean by having some flex in it. The NBA is game of adjustments.

I don't have a problem with letting young guys earn starting roles, although Sexton had his gifted to him last year, but I'm not sure who you'd start instead of Garland. Delly or Clarkson? Both of those options are problematic for different reasons.

[Stillwater]

may be too late to save face without hurting dg ego but i would have initially used knight in the sl and let Garland slowly transition in a back up role.

[JonFromVA]

may be too late to save face without hurting dg ego but i would have initially used knight in the sl and let Garland slowly transition in a back up role.

I think Garland did earn it, albeit only barely over Delly. During the pre-season, the team just seem more composed when Garland had the keys. It's because he plays with pace, sees the other guys, and will get them the ball; and that Delly has not been very good by his own standards so far. As for Knight - we haven't seen him much, but when we did - he just looked slow.

DG's 5 assists and 3 turnovers was pretty pedestrian, but compare that to Collin who dished out 5 assists just once in his first 25 games and starting Garland is 110% the right move for this team.

There were back to back P&R's at one point with TT, the first one DG correctly identified that Vucevic was stepping up to guard him and he successfully connected with TT for a lob dunk; on the second play Collin ran the same play, but didn't identify the adjustment Vucevic made - tried the pass anyway, and it was a turnover.

It's going take some time for any new systems to click, but it was nice watching them play when they weren't pounding the ball. If JB and JBB can stop the eye-bleeding while watching the team - the season will be a success.

[Stillwater]

may be too late to save face without hurting dg ego but i would have initially used knight in the sl and let Garland slowly transition in a back up role.

I think Garland did earn it, albeit only barely over Delly. During the pre-season, the team just seem more composed when Garland had the keys. It's because he plays with pace, sees the other guys, and will get them the ball; and that Delly has not been very good by his own standards so far. As for Knight - we haven't seen him much, but when we did - he just looked slow.

DG's 5 assists and 3 turnovers was pretty pedestrian, but compare that to Collin who dished out 5 assists just once in his first 25 games and starting Garland is 110% the right move for this team.

There were back to back P&R's at one point with TT, the first one DG correctly identified that Vucevic was stepping up to guard him and he successfully connected with TT for a lob dunk; on the second play Collin ran the same play, but didn't identify the adjustment Vucevic made - tried the pass anyway, and it was a turnover.

It's going take some time for any new systems to click, but it was nice watching them play when they weren't pounding the ball. If JB and JBB can stop the eye-bleeding while watching the team - the season will be a success.

It's not all on any one player either given Orlando is solid near the end of their rebuild etc...
I will be happier when I see Garland go off for 40 instead of making a few solid passes and not being aggressive because he is good at reading defenses and Sexton wasn't or maybe still isn't, but more likely just hasn't been tasked with it all summer...Until Garland goes off and earns his starting gig I'd only choose Garland over Sexton at the pg spot if Sexton was traded and no longer an option.

[JonFromVA]

may be too late to save face without hurting dg ego but i would have initially used knight in the sl and let Garland slowly transition in a back up role.

I think Garland did earn it, albeit only barely over Delly. During the pre-season, the team just seem more composed when Garland had the keys. It's because he plays with pace, sees the other guys, and will get them the ball; and that Delly has not been very good by his own standards so far. As for Knight - we haven't seen him much, but when we did - he just looked slow.

DG's 5 assists and 3 turnovers was pretty pedestrian, but compare that to Collin who dished out 5 assists just once in his first 25 games and starting Garland is 110% the right move for this team.

There were back to back P&R's at one point with TT, the first one DG correctly identified that Vucevic was stepping up to guard him and he successfully connected with TT for a lob dunk; on the second play Collin ran the same play, but didn't identify the adjustment Vucevic made - tried the pass anyway, and it was a turnover.

It's going take some time for any new systems to click, but it was nice watching them play when they weren't pounding the ball. If JB and JBB can stop the eye-bleeding while watching the team - the season will be a success.

It's not all on any one player either given Orlando is solid near the end of their rebuild etc...
I will be happier when I see Garland go off for 40 instead of making a few solid passes and not being aggressive because he is good at reading defenses and Sexton wasn't or maybe still isn't, but more likely just hasn't been tasked with it all summer...Until Garland goes off and earns his starting gig I'd only choose Garland over Sexton at the pg spot if Sexton was traded and no longer an option.

I'd rather just see DG learn to read situations correctly and IMO he's already far ahead of Collin in that regard. If he does that, then he'll get his points when they're there, but he'll also help Collin (and everyone else) score more efficiently.

We could encourage him to be a one man wrecking crew like Kyrie, but if brought along well; he can be a lot more. Doesn't mean it will go smoothly, regardless.

[jbk1234]

may be too late to save face without hurting dg ego but i would have initially used knight in the sl and let Garland slowly transition in a back up role.

I think Garland did earn it, albeit only barely over Delly. During the pre-season, the team just seem more composed when Garland had the keys. It's because he plays with pace, sees the other guys, and will get them the ball; and that Delly has not been very good by his own standards so far. As for Knight - we haven't seen him much, but when we did - he just looked slow.

DG's 5 assists and 3 turnovers was pretty pedestrian, but compare that to Collin who dished out 5 assists just once in his first 25 games and starting Garland is 110% the right move for this team.

There were back to back P&R's at one point with TT, the first one DG correctly identified that Vucevic was stepping up to guard him and he successfully connected with TT for a lob dunk; on the second play Collin ran the same play, but didn't identify the adjustment Vucevic made - tried the pass anyway, and it was a turnover.

It's going take some time for any new systems to click, but it was nice watching them play when they weren't pounding the ball. If JB and JBB can stop the eye-bleeding while watching the team - the season will be a success.

It's not all on any one player either given Orlando is solid near the end of their rebuild etc...
I will be happier when I see Garland go off for 40 instead of making a few solid passes and not being aggressive because he is good at reading defenses and Sexton wasn't or maybe still isn't, but more likely just hasn't been tasked with it all summer...Until Garland goes off and earns his starting gig I'd only choose Garland over Sexton at the pg spot if Sexton was traded and no longer an option.

I just want one of Garland or Sexton to learn how to make a timely entry pass into the post area. Things will devolve quickly if we have a replay of the early days of Kyrie and Dion with Love. *Dribbling now Kev, give me a minute... still dribbling... okay how about now, oh the defender has completely recovered... guess I'll pass it over to the top of the three point line*

[Stillwater]

I think Garland did earn it, albeit only barely over Delly. During the pre-season, the team just seem more composed when Garland had the keys. It's because he plays with pace, sees the other guys, and will get them the ball; and that Delly has not been very good by his own standards so far. As for Knight - we haven't seen him much, but when we did - he just looked slow.

DG's 5 assists and 3 turnovers was pretty pedestrian, but compare that to Collin who dished out 5 assists just once in his first 25 games and starting Garland is 110% the right move for this team.

There were back to back P&R's at one point with TT, the first one DG correctly identified that Vucevic was stepping up to guard him and he successfully connected with TT for a lob dunk; on the second play Collin ran the same play, but didn't identify the adjustment Vucevic made - tried the pass anyway, and it was a turnover.

It's going take some time for any new systems to click, but it was nice watching them play when they weren't pounding the ball. If JB and JBB can stop the eye-bleeding while watching the team - the season will be a success.

It's not all on any one player either given Orlando is solid near the end of their rebuild etc...
I will be happier when I see Garland go off for 40 instead of making a few solid passes and not being aggressive because he is good at reading defenses and Sexton wasn't or maybe still isn't, but more likely just hasn't been tasked with it all summer...Until Garland goes off and earns his starting gig I'd only choose Garland over Sexton at the pg spot if Sexton was traded and no longer an option.

I just want one of Garland or Sexton to learn how to make a timely entry pass into the post area. Things will devolve quickly if we have a replay of the early days of Kyrie and Dion with Love. *Dribbling now Kev, give me a minute... still dribbling... okay how about now, oh the defender has completely recovered... guess I'll pass it over to the top of the three point line*

I was much happier with Sexton the 2nd half of last season in his attack mode mindset than I am with him taken out of that moved off ball tbh.Even though he did well off ball then as well... I really like Garlands upside as a playmaker and it is obvious coming into the league he sees the floor better than Sexton, but overall I am not impressed with his pace at all ,I mean like you said earlier he needs to fire it up there and do what he was drafted for as a high efficient deep ball threat, his snail pace is not going to work with players like we have on this roster. creating ops is great, but not if those ops are poor.

[jbk1234]

It's not all on any one player either given Orlando is solid near the end of their rebuild etc...
I will be happier when I see Garland go off for 40 instead of making a few solid passes and not being aggressive because he is good at reading defenses and Sexton wasn't or maybe still isn't, but more likely just hasn't been tasked with it all summer...Until Garland goes off and earns his starting gig I'd only choose Garland over Sexton at the pg spot if Sexton was traded and no longer an option.

I just want one of Garland or Sexton to learn how to make a timely entry pass into the post area. Things will devolve quickly if we have a replay of the early days of Kyrie and Dion with Love. *Dribbling now Kev, give me a minute... still dribbling... okay how about now, oh the defender has completely recovered... guess I'll pass it over to the top of the three point line*

I was much happier with Sexton the 2nd half of last season in his attack mode mindset than I am with him taken out of that moved off ball tbh.Even though he did well off ball then as well... I really like Garlands upside as a playmaker and it is obvious coming into the league he sees the floor better than Sexton, but overall I am not impressed with his pace at all ,I mean like you said earlier he needs to fire it up there and do what he was drafted for as a high efficient deep ball threat, his snail pace is not going to work with players like we have on this roster. creating ops is great, but not if those ops are poor.

I didn't see that difference in Sexton between the first and second halves of the season. He was always in attack mode so to speak. The two big differences I saw were: (1) he stopped settling for so many pull-up mid-range jumpers while taking and hitting more threes; and (2) K. Love came back and opened up the opposing defenses more.

Sexton is in year two. He has to focus on the defensive end of the floor and start developing the ability to see the double team coming before it's too late. If he can do those two things, he's going to be a good starter in this league for a long time and it won't matter whether he's called a one or a two. Again, I'm not seeing a big difference between playing on-ball or off-ball in this offense as a guard. It doesn't matter whether he starts next to Garland or someone else. He's not getting the green light to dominate touches and FGAs.

As far as Garland, it was one regular season game and that sample size is way, way to small. The Cavs were taking what the defense gave them but what the defense gave them was TT post ups and open three point attempts by guys you don't want taking them. Once you're into the second and third quarters, it's up to the coaching staff to identify that and tell both Garland and Sexton to shoot threes when they're open.

[Stillwater]

I just want one of Garland or Sexton to learn how to make a timely entry pass into the post area. Things will devolve quickly if we have a replay of the early days of Kyrie and Dion with Love. *Dribbling now Kev, give me a minute... still dribbling... okay how about now, oh the defender has completely recovered... guess I'll pass it over to the top of the three point line*

I was much happier with Sexton the 2nd half of last season in his attack mode mindset than I am with him taken out of that moved off ball tbh.Even though he did well off ball then as well... I really like Garlands upside as a playmaker and it is obvious coming into the league he sees the floor better than Sexton, but overall I am not impressed with his pace at all ,I mean like you said earlier he needs to fire it up there and do what he was drafted for as a high efficient deep ball threat, his snail pace is not going to work with players like we have on this roster. creating ops is great, but not if those ops are poor.

I didn't see that difference in Sexton between the first and second halves of the season. He was always in attack mode so to speak. The two big differences I saw were: (1) he stopped settling for so many pull-up mid-range jumpers while taking and hitting more threes; and (2) K. Love came back and opened up the opposing defenses more.

Sexton is in year two. He has to focus on the defensive end of the floor and start developing the ability to see the double team coming before it's too late. If he can do those two things, he's going to be a good starter in this league for a long time and it won't matter whether he's called a one or a two. Again, I'm not seeing a big difference between playing on-ball or off-ball in this offense as a guard. It doesn't matter whether he starts next to Garland or someone else. He's not getting the green light to dominate touches and FGAs.

As far as Garland, it was one regular season game and that sample size is way, way to small. The Cavs were taking what the defense gave them but what the defense gave them was TT post ups and open three point attempts by guys you don't want taking them. Once you're into the second and third quarters, it's up to the coaching staff to identify that and tell both Garland and Sexton to shoot threes when they're open.

I don't agree with that necessarily... it might not be for Beilein or this org if Garland becomes that stud 1st option but Sextons upside is higher than most people seem to believe. As they stand together if I had to chose between them I will take Sexton over Garland just going on what little I have seen from Garland which yes I know is not fair to him , but at the same time one has to wonder what exactly Garland has upstairs because the work and drive seem lacking by comparison and the snail pace is depressing.

[jbk1234]

I was much happier with Sexton the 2nd half of last season in his attack mode mindset than I am with him taken out of that moved off ball tbh.Even though he did well off ball then as well... I really like Garlands upside as a playmaker and it is obvious coming into the league he sees the floor better than Sexton, but overall I am not impressed with his pace at all ,I mean like you said earlier he needs to fire it up there and do what he was drafted for as a high efficient deep ball threat, his snail pace is not going to work with players like we have on this roster. creating ops is great, but not if those ops are poor.

I didn't see that difference in Sexton between the first and second halves of the season. He was always in attack mode so to speak. The two big differences I saw were: (1) he stopped settling for so many pull-up mid-range jumpers while taking and hitting more threes; and (2) K. Love came back and opened up the opposing defenses more.

Sexton is in year two. He has to focus on the defensive end of the floor and start developing the ability to see the double team coming before it's too late. If he can do those two things, he's going to be a good starter in this league for a long time and it won't matter whether he's called a one or a two. Again, I'm not seeing a big difference between playing on-ball or off-ball in this offense as a guard. It doesn't matter whether he starts next to Garland or someone else. He's not getting the green light to dominate touches and FGAs.

As far as Garland, it was one regular season game and that sample size is way, way to small. The Cavs were taking what the defense gave them but what the defense gave them was TT post ups and open three point attempts by guys you don't want taking them. Once you're into the second and third quarters, it's up to the coaching staff to identify that and tell both Garland and Sexton to shoot threes when they're open.

I don't agree with that necessarily... it might not be for Beilein or this org if Garland becomes that stud 1st option but Sextons upside is higher than most people seem to believe. As they stand together if I had to chose between them I will take Sexton over Garland just going on what little I have seen from Garland which yes I know is not fair to him , but at the same time one has to wonder what exactly Garland has upstairs because the work and drive seem lacking by comparison and the snail pace is depressing.

Dude, it's been one game for a 19-year old rookie. Sexton looked really rough for half a season last year.

Again, and I'm not sure why you're blowing past this, but we're not running an offense where the primary scorer runs a high PNR for two-thirds of the offensive sets. Those days, at least for this season, are over. I'm not seeing the extra opportunities for Sexton if he's on-the-ball or plays alongside another guard in the half court. They're not going to just throw out Beilein's offense entirely. Everyone is going to have learn to make adjustments.

[JonFromVA]

It's not all on any one player either given Orlando is solid near the end of their rebuild etc...
I will be happier when I see Garland go off for 40 instead of making a few solid passes and not being aggressive because he is good at reading defenses and Sexton wasn't or maybe still isn't, but more likely just hasn't been tasked with it all summer...Until Garland goes off and earns his starting gig I'd only choose Garland over Sexton at the pg spot if Sexton was traded and no longer an option.

I just want one of Garland or Sexton to learn how to make a timely entry pass into the post area. Things will devolve quickly if we have a replay of the early days of Kyrie and Dion with Love. *Dribbling now Kev, give me a minute... still dribbling... okay how about now, oh the defender has completely recovered... guess I'll pass it over to the top of the three point line*

I was much happier with Sexton the 2nd half of last season in his attack mode mindset than I am with him taken out of that moved off ball tbh.Even though he did well off ball then as well... I really like Garlands upside as a playmaker and it is obvious coming into the league he sees the floor better than Sexton, but overall I am not impressed with his pace at all ,I mean like you said earlier he needs to fire it up there and do what he was drafted for as a high efficient deep ball threat, his snail pace is not going to work with players like we have on this roster. creating ops is great, but not if those ops are poor.

Garland's still working his way in to game shape - gonna be a while before we even know if he'll get pre-op quicks back. I don't know if he's any good at pushing transition when he is full speed, but it's hard to do without playing some friggen defense.

The stuff I want him to do, he can all do within the flow and if JB allows him to dissect a defense. For instance, if Garland does start bombing 3's off of P&R's because he keeps popping open - he will force the defense to adjust. Maybe they send someone in who can get over the screen or they swap out their big? So, then maybe he has more room to find a cutter, or maybe the pick & pop will work, etc, etc. It would just be nice to see our offense thinking a step ahead of the opponents defense, making them react, and finding the next thing to exploit.

Of course it would help if the floor spacing was there. TT looked like our best player after game 1, but he's neither a floor spacer, nor a rim protector; and opponents are going to be pretty happy if our primary offense is hooks and short J's by Thompson. Our shooters need to start shooting, otherwise ... let's hope Dylan is good to go soon.

[Stillwater]

i guess i need to check my self some regarding things this early in the season , there are a **** load of issues with college coaches transitioning as well ,i just have a brewing frustration overuse of garland makes Cavs at risk of creating a disgruntled Sexton and then Garland has to produce and if not they lose Sexton too.
hopefully im wrong

[gflem]

Not a terrible first game considering the following:
Garland's first game as a pro
Beilein's first game as an NBA coach
Clarkson shot poorly
Delly shot worse than poorly (likely due to hand injury)
Love was a non factor offensively
KPJ had no idea what to do or where to go
Cedi was a ghost after first quarter
Orlando is a good defensive team.
At least the team came back after being down 20. To get back within 5 or 6 at least kept my interest. It looks like it will take a good bit of time for the team to learn and adjust to the new system being installed.