Who deserves the blame for the still weak offense?

[pinoycavsfan]

awful start.

the offense works if the players commit to the details of it. i see players not setting good picks off the ball, not cutting hard, not ready to make a catch and shoot. ive seen ton of brush screens but no hard picks to give shooters opening. ive seen a ton of kevin love open threes where he just pump fakes and drives to the basket. shoot the damn ball when open.

kyrie and dion can get into the lane but are more concerned scoring and not setting up the offense. i know it takes time for young guards to understand when to draw the defense or when to score. i just hope they learn fast.

lbj is also not aggressive enough. just stands around on offense and defense. set good screens, fight post position, challenge shots, make crisp passes, just do something. if lbj thinks he can take a back seat to the finals with this team he is in for a rude awakening. a team with no playoffs experience needs lbj more than a team with dwade and bosh.

lastly,

the defense looks awful. pick n roll defense is non existent. our bigs over commit to every pick which causes the defense to scramble and leaving the guards to defend the paint. the lack of a long shot blocking center is still an issue. the cavs desperately need the length and strength to guard opposing bigman. varejao is soft, k love just want to rebound, and tt is an overrated defender.

 

[Kyrieville]

Blame Canada.

 

[kookoo]

The defense is to blame for the weak offense. When the defense is rolling, the offense is flowing.

 

[Erbium]

Agree on the PnR defense. We don't have the defenders or experience together to make showing high on the PnR work. It's compounded by not having a shot blocker of any sorts to clean up mistakes.

Drop back on the pick and roll, and muddy it up. Then all you to worry about is Kylie and dion actually caring enough to fight through a pick.

Even with our offense looking bad, we score enough to win...make a team beat you with jump shots, not lay ups from missed rotations.

 

[Noonan]

Kyrie simply can't be taking 23 shots with zero assists. That's absurd.

He is a wonderful talent. But there is so much wasted motion in his game. He needs to facilitate. Last night he was a black hole at the point.

 

[LeShaq]

Dion and Kyrie. And right now it's Kyrie because Dion is coming off the bench. So Kyrie's 0 assists and 23 shot attempts stands out like a sore thumb.

You can't have zero assists as a point guard when you are playing with LeBron and Love. That just makes no sense.

 

[col63onel]

One thing to remember: The Cavs shot 40 free throws in regulation vs Utah. That is an absurd amount. And you don't get assists from free throw makes. So the assist total was a at least a little bit artificially low.

Doesn't absolve all the issues, of course.

 

[Green Lantern]

I don't think anybody is saying dion is the only problem, he certainly isn't helping matters.

The way I see it, we have two big problems. Yes, the team needs a better fit at two guard, and second is quite obviously an interior defender. Love really needs to be placed next to a defensive stalwart at center to get the most out of our front court.

It is a variety of crap, since Dion's name is mentioned he is part of the problem, he's not consistant and he chucks up too much.
KI just wants to dribble...
Not sure what to do about that 2 hole.
But one of the main problems is their inability to stop teams early..
Utah got too many easy shots early.

 

[Littaguy714]

It is too simplistic to try and blame the coach, system or any specific player.

That being said, if I had to give an answer, I would say Kyrie Irving is the single biggest individual problem right now.

It is difficult to run an effective, fluid offense when your primary ball handler and PG has no interest in setting up his teammates and is looking to score as his first, second and third option.

Kyrie has played 160 minutes in the 4 games and has 15 assists. He is averaging an assist every 10.6 minutes he is on the floor, yet the ball is in his hands the majority of the time.

It is reminds me of when the Cavs drafted LBJ and Ricky Davis was of the opinion the Cavs drafted LBJ to be his sidekick, not the other way around.

Seems like Kyrie does not realize or does not care he is playing the greatest player of his generation as well as one of the top 2 PF's in the game.

 

[Tlyons]

Maybe Kyrie would be a little more motivated to pass if the greatest player of his generation could finish around the rim.

Kyrie actually had some nice assists that players either wiffed on or got fouled.

This isn't enough. Yes Kyrie needs to set up teamates more and better.

But damn can he get to know his teamates and their tendencies before we declare him the main problem of this short season?

The biggest shock is Lebron's lack of athleticism. That is why I say he's the next issue far behind chemistry of course. He looks like a shell of himself. There is no telling what kind of impact that has on Kyrie or the rest of the team.



Lebron was pounding the shit out of the ball too.

 

[ice cream man]

Come on, you don't need to look at assist numbers to know that Kyrie does not set his teammates up well. Shoot sometimes he'll try to finish a tough layup when a guy's wide open, and other times he'll pass up a wide open layup to make a pass. His feel for the game actually isn't that bad, but he doesn't use it. He makes up his mind before reading the defense. He could still average 5-6 assists playing like this (since he's so talented, and regardless of how he plays, gets minutes), but our offense as a whole will still suffer.

 

[Bandwagoner305]

There's a difference between bailout passes and on-point effective passes. You can't dribble the ball for 18+ seconds and then throw a desperate out of rhythm bailout pass to a teammate and expect him to have the in-shooting rhythm to knock it down. You have to signal and direct him to get ready before you pass it to him. LeBron pounds the ball as well, but his ability to make on-point passes when he directs his teammates to move to their sweet spots and court vision/awareness are just a few intangibles that Kyrie doesn't have and never will.

 

[Brandname]

Maybe Kyrie would be a little more motivated to pass if the greatest player of his generation could finish around the rim.

erm, I'm going to go ahead and guess that Kyrie's lack of passing is NOT because he believes Lebron won't be able to finish his pass around the rim.

 

[OptimusPrime]

The biggest issue isn't Kyrie not setting up his teammates, though that would be nice. The issue is that he won't give up the ball and run the offense and let someone else make a play. If he brings it up, he is making the play, good or bad.

 

[Tlyons]

I was venting about Lebron more than anything else.

Kyrie is most certaintly fucking up.