I think an eFG% of 40.5 is pretty bad but my eyes told me in preseason that Danny Ferry was also pretty bad. At least Wiggins is better than the old Kobe or the awful released Jsmooth.
"The Comeback."Why don't we get to be happy?
I mean, with what happened to us this off-season, and with all the lottery luck we've had in the recent past, had this series of events happened to any other of the 29 teams in the league I'd say 28 games in that you're looking at a dominating force, a lock for the championship even; a team so exciting that their fan base drools after every performance.
But no, not in Cleveland. 28 games in and my fear from game 1 still exists: uncertainly, frustration, underachievement.
Have we run out of luck? Are our expectations still too high? I'd like to say 'no.' But at this stage, I'm really puzzled as to where this team goes next. Of course it could be a lot worse, but it should be a lot better.
So how do we get there? Because the very last thing we want is to add 'The Return' to the ever-expanding narrative of failures documented in 'The Cleveland Sports Curse.'
this team got overhyped in the offseason. Yes, Kevin Love is a good addition, but his lack of defense and athleticism really does weaken our front court defense quite a bit.
Andy was never going to cut it as a starting center even if he did say healthy. We should've moved on Andy and looked for someone better. It was apparent we had a huge hole at center, and you at least need a DECENT center to expect to compete with elite teams. Andy is a decent pick and roll defender, but he's really quite bad at defending the rim because he can't jump AT ALL. he has zero shot blocking ability. Andy often get's incorrectly dubbed a "great defender" because he can defend that pick n roll with his quick feet, but his lack of interior defense has always been a problem. so you have two bigs who are pretty terrible at defending the rim in Love and Varejao.
then there's the bench. I'm sorry, but a decrepit Marion and Miller never got me that excited. they are much better than what we had in the past coming off the bench, but compared to the elite teams in this league our bench still leaves much to be desired.
unfortunately the NBA is SUPER stacked with talent right now. The elite teams these days often have 3 legit allstars PLUS a few other players who are borderline allstars, PLUS a really good bench. The cavs have the 3 allstars part covered, but the rest of this roster is not good enough to compete with those super stacked teams in the NBA these days. this is the best roster the cavs have had, but unfortunately it's still not good enough in today's ridiculously talent-stuffed league. In most other seasons, this cavs roster would absolutely be good enough. but there are just too many good teams in the NBA right now.
I don't know what's going on, but I don't feel like this team is anywhere near stable. Never mind the injuries, I'm talking about LeBron. His play in the Heat game is a classic "if you just look at the scoreboard..." type of game. Missed FTs, OK. That happens sometimes. But some of his shot selection just was weird. Like he was taking "Kobe" shots (he made one of them).
Sometimes I feel like he really wants to usurp the team and build it into his own image, instead of going along with an actual game plan and flourishing. The Cavs aren't running a "Blatt" offense; it's being corrupted by the ball-handlers. Kevin Love seems "frozen out". I still am not enthused about his defensive effort. He just doesn't have it there. Even Dion, someone of whom I'm very critical does. Kyrie has made immense strides in this department. (LeBron sometimes seems like he's slacking there).
Or maybe I'm just overthinking it and the Cavs need to find someway to upgrade perimeter and interior defense and everything will be OK. All I know is that right today, the Cavs don't win a title (I said this before the Love trade, even before LeBron inexplicably came back). Can they?