LivingLegend wrote:jbk1234 wrote:LivingLegend wrote:
Sam Amico just said on the radio that the Cavs have a weird thing where they just bench players whenever there is a issue.
JR Smith, Kevin Porter and now Andre Drummond. Basically saying how its not a good look for the team and that they should figure out what keeps happening inside of the building first before shutting out players.
It does seem to happen to them a lot more than other teams. I understand KPJ had some issues, I just wish the Cavs would have held onto him a little bit longer to figure it out. Why they didnt just send him to the Canton Charge for a month instead of benching him I will never understand--especially considering they paid 4 2nd round picks to get him just a year before.
JR Smith's NBA career was trending towards China before the Cavs took a chance on him. After LBJ left, maybe the season before, he was cooked, wanted to start, and was angry when the Cavs decided to start the guy who they selected No. 8 overall. It wasn't that the Cavs didn't communicate what the plan was, it's that JR didn't like the plan. No one would trade for him and he refused to take a buyout so the Cavs paid him $16M to stay away. After his contract mercifully expert, the Lakers signed him as a favor to Klutch and he got close to zero minutes on that team. He is now out of the league.
The Cavs told Drummond they were going to go with Allen and that's what led to Drummond asking for a trade because he's heading into a FA summer and his value would be considerably less if he's viewed as a guy who's not a full time starter (even if a situational starter role where he probably adds the most value to a team).
KPJ situation is what it is but the reality is he has not played a single minute for the Houston Rockets despite being a pretty talented player and doing well in the G league. If the issue was the Cavs, people should ask themselves why that is.
Amico is a clown.
Oh I get it, the last month just has a weird feeling you know? Something is going on that is being hidden very well I just dont know what it is.
Just some note:
-Drummond mentally checked out after the Allen trade
-He had multiple meetings with Cavs FO members about his attitude
-Jarrett Allen is yelling at Collin Sexton on the court
-The Cavs ball movement offense they started the season with is no longer existent
-They give little effort on defense anymore
-Cavs are dead last in the NBA in 3pt attempts in a pace/space league
-Sexton, Garland and Okoro have all fell off a cliff after than Nets mini-series. Especially Garland/Okoro
It just seems like they are not only regressing, but no longer bought into the system. I really hope its not a case of JB losing the ear of the players on the team.
We were a mediocre team with Love and Nance available. We were a bad but respectable team defensively with Love out and Nance in. Without Love or Nance, we're a bottom-ten team. Add to that the fact that we've lost Delly, Exum, and KPJ, our bench is basically Cedi/McGee with fringe NBA/G League players, and we're a bottom-five team. Sexton is having a difficult time now that other teams have actually scouted his tendencies, both he and Garland are playing too many minutes because of what's happened to our backup guards, and we just finished a seven game road trip against vastly superior competition that ran us out of the gym six out of the seven games. So yeah, morale is low but replacing Bickerstaff isn't going to fix that.
Love is back this week. If the Drummond trade can return a backup guard who can run an offense, and Sexton/Garland can get their legs back, then we can probably get back to respectably bad.
As far as the long-term, Cedi, Sexton, Garland, and Okoro need to spend all off season just shooting three pointers. It's pretty clear that the Cavs can't rely on Love to be available for even 75% of an NBA season at this point and a team that's dead last in three point attempts, and makes, isn't going to be good in the modern NBA. I think the Cavs have a decision to make on Sexton in terms of him being a full time starter, whether they want to hand him the type of contract he's likely to want, and given his limitations, what committing to him as a starter and paying him that type of money will mean for the organization long-term. You want to make that decision well before the deadline next year lest you send a clear message to the rest of the NBA that you don't want to pay him big dollars because you don't want to make that commitment.
