these game threads should be renamed to "Game 69 I Cavs vs Pacers I Criticisms of everyone on the cavs except Sexton"
“The kid’s exhausted, we’ve been playing him a ton of minutes,” Bickerstaff explained. “He’s fighting through it, he won’t bow down, (shots) just wouldn’t go for him. He fought like hell at both ends of the floor and gave us all he had.”
I have a hard time criticizing Sexton. At this point in the season it would be easy for him to make a business decision and just go through the motions, take lots of 3's, and protect himself. But I see him passing up open 3's to attack the rim, knowing he's going to take a hit from a big and probably end up on the floor. He keeps doing it anyway. He only knows one way to play - full out, regardless of the situation.
In one of the Dallas games he drove to the rim and took a big hit with a minute to go and the Cavs down by 20. I appreciate the warrior mentality, especially from a guy whose place on the team is secure.
I'm really happy with Okoro's progress from a guy who played defense and then hid in the corner when the Cavs had the ball to where he is today. Next season he'll be starting out so far ahead of where he started this year. He scored in double figures in 9 of his last 10 games and last night got his first career double-double. I expect him to get about 20 more next year.
In his last five games Okoro is hitting 41% of his 3's and is more involved in the offense than ever.
Dean Wade did two exciting things last night. One, he drove to the rim and finished strong with a layup in traffic. Haven't seen him do that all year but now he's done it in back-to-back games. Two, he got the ball in the low post, backed his man down, then knocked down a Dirk Nowitzki step-back fallaway using good footwork. Haven't seen him do that, either. It was like playing two games against Luka Doncic this weekend turned on a light and he said, "Hey, I can do some of those things, too".
I'm hoping Doncic showed him you don't need to be fast to get to the rim. You just need to get the defender on your side and then lean into him all the way to the rim. Sexton blows by his defender with crazy acceleration, but there's another way that also works. If Wade can develop that step-back fallaway and the ability to muscle his way to the rim against the smaller, leaner defenders he won't be totally dependent on whether his three-point shot is falling like he is now.
I was also a little intrigued by Kabengele as a power forward. This guy is 6'9", 250, strong, explosive, and can hit the 3. After starting out 1-for-5 on 3's he's hit 7 of his last 17 for 41%.
Kabengele has an NBA power forward's body and reminds me of Tristan Thompson on the offensive glass. He's relentless in going for offensive rebounds. He also runs the floor better than Love or TT. He had one play were he was well behind the fast break but got there in time for an explosive rebound and slam dunk. They showed the replay and Carr was impressed with his speed and hustle to catch up to the play and clean up with a monster jam.
He could play the 5, but we have Allen and Hartenstein. At the 4 next year we'll have Love, Nance, and Wade, so I don't know if Kabengele has a spot even if he can develop some more skills. But he's 23 with minimal NBA experience and in his last two games he's played 39 minutes with 23 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 foul, and 1 turnover. Not bad.
This team could use some muscle in the paint. Allen and Nance are too skinny and are all about finesse. Love can't bang in the paint anymore. Okoro is 6'5". Cedi is not physical. Hartenstein is the only physical presence we have inside. I'd like to see what Kabengele and Garland can do on the middle pick and roll .
