Mid-season evaluation

[jbk1234]

So we're at the 40 game mark and just suffered our worse loss of the season so I figured it's the perfect time to take stock of where this team is at.

The good: Cedi's actually showing signs that he can play. Jose Calderon isn't as awful as I feared. We haven't traded away any of the picks (or Zizc) since we started the season. Wade and Jeff Green have been better off the bench than I thought they would be. I'm not sure the second unit is better with TT than Frye though (which is scary). IT is no longer wearing a suit. LBJ is putting up MVP numbers. Love was averaging 20 & 10 on 30 mpg. Cavs are sitting in third place after trading Kyrie. Tonight notwithstanding, our offense is still one of the best in the league.

The bad:

Our defense. I'm not sure this is sustainable either. We're an old team that plays old. Most of guards can't keep their opponent in front of them. Defensively, we've managed to assemble the worst defensive rotation of PGs in the NBA. We switch on almost everything. LBJ is playing too many minutes again and taking too many plays off. I'd love to rent Noel on the cheap as a band aid solution.

Our overpaid role players. I'm done with Shump. I don't care to pay to dump him, he's suppose to be healthy by the post season, and this team needs all the defense we can get. But I'd let him know he won't be getting many minutes with us after this season. Hopefully, he opts out but if not, it's stretch or buy out time. Liggins, or some guy like him, gives you 90% of what Shump does at 10% of the price.

JR forgot how to shoot and on nights like tonight, it really hurts. This was not the season for JR's shot to abandon him. This was this year for him to step up with more attempts after trading Kyrie. JR is JR. He's streaky so he could just catch fire the second half of the season. I suspect, however, he's playing too many minutes for a guy who's played into June three years in a row. I'm not paying to dump him either though. He's essentially expiring next year too.

TT's contract. I'm not as down on TT as some but he needed to replicate his 15 Finals performance for the rest of his career to be worth what he's paid and he hasn't done it. I still think he's one of those guys who's better in the post season but it will probably cost us if we want to move him. He'd be fine as a vet on rebuild so I suspect his future in Cleveland is directly tied to LBJ's.

Mixed bag/incomplete:

Lue seems to be selling out every other facet of the game for pace & spacing. It's difficult to know whether Lue just feels like he has limited options because of personnel or this is his overriding philosophy. But there are times, like tonight, where we're going against two legit bigs all night and it's not working. Crowder strikes me as a SF who is playing out of position at the 4. I suspect that there are match ups where we'd be better off playing at a slower pace and exploiting a rebounding advantage with a TT, Love & LBJ front court. Let the second unit run and push the pace. In addition to playing old, we're a pretty predictable team.

IT's fit on this roster. Small sample size but my concerns since the trade still haven't changed. Does he start? Does he start in the post season? If you move him to the bench, what do you do with Wade? Who starts at PG?

Do the Cavs even make it to the Finals? I'm not as confident as others. All it would really take is a bad series by Kevin Love. There's some bad body language between Love and LBJ when things get tough.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts but, personally, I have no interest in trading the Brooklyn pick for middling players.

[CaptainCanada]

I think Noel from Mavs would be an interesting pickup and not require giving up a lot (just Cavs own 1st rounder possibly). LeBron is 33 now. Kobe started going downhill at 36. I think there is only 3 years left for Lebron to be in his prime to win a championship

[Dupp]

Noel’s value is so low it’s no where near a first. Really talented but terrible attitude. He’s not really a guy that fits on a contender.


Anyway as for OP. I’m still shocked this team somehow won 19/20. Insane.

Love at 5 I don’t hate but crowded at 4 kills it because you have two guys getting abused by front courts. Lbj dgaf. This mvp was gift wrapped for bron too but it’s slipping.

But yeah too many passengers that can’t play d. Hope we make a move I don’t care about the future. There’s only one Lebron.

[jbk1234]

Noel’s value is so low it’s no where near a first. Really talented but terrible attitude. He’s not really a guy that fits on a contender.


Anyway as for OP. I’m still shocked this team somehow won 19/20. Insane.

Love at 5 I don’t hate but crowded at 4 kills it because you have two guys getting abused by front courts. Lbj dgaf. This mvp was gift wrapped for bron too but it’s slipping.

But yeah too many passengers that can’t play d. Hope we make a move I don’t care about the future. There’s only one Lebron.

I have no interest in LBJ leaving this summer and being left with only a Samardo Samuels type player as *the* new addition. The truth is that good young players, or two-way vets, are hard to come by and that's what we need. I suspect the offers the Cavs are getting resemble the offers on the trade board - cap relief (that we likely won't need) and middling players for our picks and Cedi. So long as N.O. and OKC are playoff teams, or even bubble teams re N.O., PG and Cousins aren't going to be made available.

Windows close. Outside of the Spurs, who traded a prime George Hill for Leonard and developed their own young players, the type of success the Cavs have had isn't sustainable. What the Spurs hadn't done, until recently, was overpay to retain their own players. If Shump and JR were both expiring this year, and TT was making $4 million less per, the Cavs would be in a position to trade Crowder for cap space and just sign PG. LBJ saddled up this horse. He can get off it before we can but I wouldn't mortgage the future for a lateral trade that doesn't move the needle against the Warriors.

[Stillwater]

maybe we ride it out until right before the deadline after IT3 has had a good amount of time with the starting unit,even if a trade then requires even more time swapping assignments and getting the team acclimated after a trade...but I would think now would be the most reasonable time to add and remove any players that are going to be here for the remainder of the season other than stop gaps.
If any big trade is going to happen I say it will happen before the 20th.

[bmurph128]

Noel’s value is so low it’s no where near a first. Really talented but terrible attitude. He’s not really a guy that fits on a contender.


Anyway as for OP. I’m still shocked this team somehow won 19/20. Insane.

Love at 5 I don’t hate but crowded at 4 kills it because you have two guys getting abused by front courts. Lbj dgaf. This mvp was gift wrapped for bron too but it’s slipping.

But yeah too many passengers that can’t play d. Hope we make a move I don’t care about the future. There’s only one Lebron.

I agree.

I would trade anything and everything to go for it THIS year. Could be LeBron's last with the franchise.

Would only delay the "tank" by one year, and considering this team draft Waiters and Bennett high......

[bmurph128]

I still think this team is dicking around with the regular season. Not the players per se, but the rotations.

I think LeBron knows and because of that is not trying as hard as he should on defense.