David Blatt is a former NBA coach

[brownsbuck6]

Tonight I don't care too much about the result as I do seeing bits and pieces of growth. Hopefully every game it starts to improve little by little. With this tough schedule to open the season, we as fans (and the team of course) may have to weather a very slow start. I would like to believe most of the members of this board will be smart enough to know that and remain patient. Because it WILL come. And besides all of that the Knicks only won by five with LeBron playing at his absolute worst and them making seemingly EVERY closely contested shot. It happens during an NBA season, just sucks (or maybe it's good) that it happened in the first game.

Blatt will adjust and get these guys coached up. Worried I am not. In fact I will learn to enjoy watching the growth for what it is and not expect immediate success. This is a difficult league. But our talent (both players and coaches) will win out in the end.

 

[Kbiz]

They looked like a typical NBA team that played down to their opponent.

Defensively, they turned it on in the 4th but NY was hitting highly contested jumpers. They couldn't buy a bucket in Chicago the night before. We almost came back in the last three minutes but overall, the effort wasn't there defensively for the entire game, just in spurts.

The chemistry will take time. Lebron was in facilitator mode. It was obvious from the start of the game. It led to a lot of turnovers but these growing pains are important. The chemistry will come but, like i said, it'll take time.

My favorite takeaway from the game was watching Kyrie take over during certain stretches. When this team starts to click, we will be un-guardable.

 

[tristan+kyrie=$]

View: https://twitter.com/IAmDPick/status/528180899624398848

 

[Damien O'Connel]

Biggest concern:

Lebron and Kyrie both played 43 minutes.

Marion played 10. Miller played 3. That is a big problem, particularly on the first night of a back to back. Blatt will learn quickly that the schedule, more than anything, should dictate his rotations. Not the "feel" of a particular game.

 

[oracio]

Biggest concern:

Lebron and Kyrie both played 43 minutes.

Marion played 10. Miller played 3. That is a big problem, particularly on the first night of a back to back. Blatt will learn quickly that the schedule, more than anything, should dictate his rotations. Not the "feel" of a particular game.

I don't see it this way.
I feel deeply that Blatt felt the importance of this game for the city of Cleveland and on that matter for LeBron - his team leader.
And I feel that he truly and hardly wanted LeBron to get a chance to be productive and give the audience what he so badly wanted to give.
But LeBron was cold tonight and couldn't get into the rhythm. I think it's because he played "in neutral mode" the whole preseason what makes it tough to change gears so fast into real game mode. You could see it especially in his defense.
Blatt always work with what he has, and if a player is cold and is not in synch he won't get major minutes. But LeBron is not "a player" and this game is not "a game" and this is why I feel Blatt made his choice...

 

[ice cream man]

LeBron and Kyrie definitely played too much. Didn't help that they were our worst two decision makers in that first game. By far...

 

[ice cream man]

One of Blatt's strengths has been to roll with different lineups and use an assortment of players but they didn't reward him much tonight after the first quarter. I recognize why he wants to give the first unit a lot of time together, but am disappointed that he hasn't been able to find effective minutes for Marion or Miller. Not just tonight. It felt like Blatt was searching but not finding much of the night.

The Cavs are confused on offense, and they started breaking off plays, not moving, settling for threes, and getting sloppy the longer the game went. I expect that kind of stuff to get better but it will be rocky for awhile.

It's hard to tell if the defense is broken or they were just slow and lazy for long portions of the game. They gave up a lot of easy shots, then gave up a lot of boards, then gave up a lot of tough shots when it counted. Bad combo. Some of it is on Blatt but not all of it.

That big lineup of Andy/TT/Marion/LeBron/Kyrie was a terrible idea. Maybe tonight against the Bulls it would serve more of a purpose. That's gonna be a tough lineup to score against. I'd much rather go small against most teams. LeBron should be setting more on ball screens.

 

[mhi]

Did anybody else notice how a good chunk of our offensive possessions ended with too many players in the paint ? This contributed to a bunch of the turnovers early on.

We gotta be able to spread the floor out, with at least 3 out, so we can maximize Lebron and Irving ,so I wonder what our offense will look like later on. My guess is we're gonna have to scrap a bunch of the princenton.

 

[OptimusPrime]

Did anybody else notice how a good chunk of our offensive possessions ended with too many players in the paint ? This contributed to a bunch of the turnovers early on.

We gotta be able to spread the floor out, with at least 3 out, so we can maximize Lebron and Irving ,so I wonder what our offense will look like later on. My guess is we're gonna have to scrap a bunch of the princenton.

They probably should have tried some of the Princeton. The floor was spread, but if ball doesn't move the defense can still stay with their guys and guard the paint.

 

[lower lip]

Did anybody else notice how a good chunk of our offensive possessions ended with too many players in the paint ? This contributed to a bunch of the turnovers early on.

We gotta be able to spread the floor out, with at least 3 out, so we can maximize Lebron and Irving ,so I wonder what our offense will look like later on. My guess is we're gonna have to scrap a bunch of the princenton.

A lot of the game lebron was drawing in defenders and there was 1 or 2 completely wide open guys and lebron proceeded to do something stupid. It seems like lebron was purposely trying to play keep away from some of the guys out there.

 

[Zen]

A lot of the game lebron was drawing in defenders and there was 1 or 2 completely wide open guys and lebron proceeded to do something stupid. It seems like lebron was purposely trying to play keep away from some of the guys out there.

I expect Blatt to give Marion and Miller extended blow tonight in an effort to make up for last night. I like that he acknowledged that it was on him and took responsibility for it right away.

I think we will see a lot of tinkering for the first 12-15 games until we settle into a solid rotation. At that point finding that comfort level should become a lot easier.

 

[rabman_gold]

How about a to-do list for what we need (and want) to see?

• Motivating the players to put in the full effort for more than just a quarter and a few minutes (1st/4th quarters)
  • I was watching a little bit of the highlights and it seemed there was a lack of energy for some duration
• Try to improve the ability to manage timeouts and players' minutes
  • Reggie was a little critical of lack of timeouts at a certain phase in the broadcast, but I'm sure that will be managed after a while
  • As for the players' time on the court, we should try to wait for the month of November to end (large enough sample size), he may get more used on what they need to play and when
• The need to set up team chemistry as we go along
  • One must remember that the Heat in the early part of 2010-11 was a near 50% winning percentage after 20 games or so with a more experienced coach (in this league) and a somewhat talented roster (with sprinkled in vets and rotation players); why are we expecting the sun with worse circumstances and revamped lineups...?

I'll say it: despite the lack of movement and made shots, we stayed in the game till the end. The most important thing that LeBron said when he first signed here (and Blatt repeated much later on): Patience.

It's a process, need a month or so to figure it out (in my opinion)

 

[#21]

 

[aldamon]

Coach Blatt talked about weight on shoulders all day. Tonight he gets a little relief too.

 

[brownsbuck6]

Team gives Blatt the game ball tonight for his first win.. really cool moment.