I say with great sadness, that I think this game exposed us for who we really are and always will be unless we can get a defensive-minded center for rim protection.
With Love on our team, I'm not sure we even have the option of playing the type of great team defense needed to stop players from getting to the hole in the first place. So we really do NEED a center to fix this huge problem. And until it's fixed, we definitely won't be winning a championship. We'll have some real pretty season games, but in the playoffs they will just exploit our defensive weakness over and over.
This was the quintessential Cavaliers get exposed game.
My #1 fear: I have seen us get BLASTED from 3pt range
too many fucking times. Our 3pt defense is atrocious, we are constantly scrambling and just watching guys fire open 3bombs.
#2 Waiters was efficient, 50%+ shooting in the game, and it didn't help this team one bit. I'm not putting this loss on Dion; what I'm saying is that I would 100% sacrifice Dion in a trade to get back a big center. What Dion gives you isn't worth what we think it is. There's plenty of players that do the same shit; Swaggy P is an example. Most GM's would say 50/50 coin flip on Dion vs Swaggy. These guys are highly replaceable, and we DESPERATELY need that big-body to guard the rim. It's insane, it's a complete turnstile right now. Dion's scoring isn't saving that; we have a hole in the ship.
I guess I never really realized that Varejao is/was such a poor defender. He was great at positional defense, but he's never contested shots at all. It's nothing for a small guard to just duck past him 90/100 times. Andy is also a PF: plain and simple, he's no longer adequate playing the 5 full time. He can cover 5's in a switch, but Andy would also ideally be complimented by a bigger guy down there. Zydrunas made Andy flourish because he was playing his ideal role, not being forced to guard the rim at last resort, AV was free to roam free for loose balls and it was money.
Love just concedes the layup, when the guard is far enough inside; Love aborts defense all together.
Andy is too old, Tristan is usually tangled up. We really need that 4th big in the worst way.