The Cavs still have a way to go

Last night was the second game I’ve seen of the new look Cleveland Cavaliers (the Bulls game was the first), but this time I put down the adult beverages and really focused on what this new Cavs team is bringing to the table.

Now a game against the Spurs is not necessarily going to be a great snapshot of a team that has struggled with defensive rotations and is still in the process of being comfortable with their teammates, but with the Spurs struggling on offense this year (102.3 points per 100 possessions, good (?) for 24th in the association), there was a chance that the Cavs would not be burned by their defensive short comings.

With the rest of this piece, please take all small sample size caveats into consideration as their is no way that I am making any conclusions on this team by watching 2 games and reading about the other 8 so far.

Strong defensive game for the Cavs

The Cavs came out and played a reasonably strong game, especially for them, on defense, holding the Spurs to an offensive rating of 101.9, slightly below the Spurs season rating and well below the Cavs defensive rating for the season (a ghastly 111.2). There were times where the Cavs showed the signs of a team that will be able to bring defense that is required to win an NBA title, especially in the fourth quarter, but there were still quite a few breakdowns throughout the game that showed there is quite a bit of work to be done.

Again, quite a bit seemed to just be communication and familiarity mistakes, late rotations on a big underneath, or to the shooters around the perimeter off pick and roll action, or not helping enough or quickly enough because they weren’t sure how their teammate was going to work his part of the defensive scheme.

A lot of this was highlighted during the second quarter, when the Cavs rolled out a 2-3 zone while LeBron was in foul trouble. To play a zone defense, you really have to trust and know your teammates to effectively move and rotate against the offense since you are not just running around responsible for your man. I know that man to man defenses, especially in the pick and roll NBA, also requires a lot of trust and communication, but you at least have your man as your main responsibility.

Communication and trust is key

In zone, communication and trust is paramount because you could have two or no immediate threats in your zone and you have to be able to adjust and move with your teammates to matchup with the offense. There were several times last night where trust and communication failed the Cavs back line, resulting in easy baskets for the Spurs.

You could especially see it when the Spurs would overload a side, the time when communication is paramount, and the Cavs would get caught in between “should I fly out to that guy or is my teammate going to get him” causing the rotation to the ball to be slow, resulting in a open sight line for the ball handler and some easy passes to the interior.

In addition to this, there were several times where the Spurs raised the back line of the Cavs by placing someone in the high post and moving their corner wings up to about the break line. The Cavs would then lose focus of the wings and the Spurs were able to get a couple hoops by entering the ball to the high post and sneaking the wing behind the Cavs defense for an easy 2.

The zone highlighted the deficiencies that the Cavs bigs bring to defense and you could see it even when they were in man. Especially in regards to Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson, the bigs lack some of the foot speed needed to be above average defenders in the space and pace NBA.

Whether it is containing a pick and roll ball handler (they drop back out of necessity, while Anderson Varejao is able to do some more hedging because he does have some of the speed necessary to handle the responsibility) or quickly rotating into the paint to stop the roller, they just seemed to be a tick late. Now I wasn’t seeing the horrors that have contributed to their horrible defensive rating, but their was enough to show me that this defense is going to be a constant work in progress.

Lack of physical presence

Now some of this lack of defense stems from physical deficiencies that the Cavs are not ever going to fix, namely quickness and height from their bigs, save for a trade so it was encouraging to see that they weren’t completely hemorrhaging points. I believe the communication will come from the bigs, as will the trust as they become more and more comfortable in the defense and playing with each other. K Love is not the sieve that everyone thinks he is, though he probably will top out at average at best, Varejao is an above average defender, but my worries mostly lie with Tristan Thompson who seemed to live up to everything I read about him.

There are flashes of good, winning NBA play here and there, but I don’t see him developing into that needed energy, boarder, and occasional post scorer that the Cavs could use from a third big. I watch the Lakers a lot and just imagining what Ed Davis could be doing for the Cavs is a little depressing.

This is before we even get to the Cavs perimeter, which is it’s own work in progress and missing their best or second best defender in Matthew Dellavedova is no help. For all the flack that Kyrie Irving has caught during his first three years in the league for his lack of trying on defense (admittedly didn’t watch much Cavs these last three years, so I defer this to basketball Twitter), I thought he was bringing very good effort last night. It’s risky business looking at individual stat lines as evidence of a good defensive game, but the fact that Kyrie played 37 minutes and Tony Parker only shot 2-7 is definitely an encouraging sign.

Kyrie still died on a few to many screens last night, seemingly being absorbed into Boris Diaw’s boobs when it was him setting the screen, but it seems as he gets more reps of trying to be a good defender, he will cut out some of these bad habits and at least give the Cavs something there to go with his ridiculous offense.

Confusion over shooting guard position

The shooting guard position is a weird spot for the Cavs, where Shawn Marion (wasn’t he basically pseudo stretch 4 last year) is getting the majority of the minutes, but doesn’t have that same destructive feeling to his defense that he has had in the past. Dion Waiters, of internet fame saying that he and Kyrie would be the best backcourt in the NBA this year, seems to be on his way out of town, due to a mixture of poor shot selection and non existent defense.

If you had second round pick Joe Harris playing almost seven more minutes than Waiters by game 10 of the season raise your hand because I sure as hell did not. Harris brings some solid defensive principles after being tutored in Tony Bennett’s pack line defense while playing at UVa, but he’s not overly athletic and he is still a rookie. The rookie factor was no more apparent than the bucket Manu Ginobili got to put the Spurs up 3 with 18 seconds left, where Harris got pinned outside the key, leaving no defender between Ginobili and the basket for an easy lay in.

I admittedly didn’t watch LeBron on defense very much last night as I was more focused on all the other parts who I felt I needed to get to know in order to asses the Cavs defense, but I will say, LeBron didn’t quite stick out on that end of the court like I’m used to. whether that is him losing a tiny bit of his ability simply because he’s been doing this so long, he’s conserving a bit of himself because he knows the playoffs are what matters, or he’s playing mind games with his team to bring them along to his level, I don’t know, but I know I didn’t see LeBron flying around and causing destruction the same way he used to two and three years ago.

Long way to go to improve defense

In short, the Cavs still have a ways to go to get their defense up to championship caliber. This doesn’t mean a top 5 defense, or maybe even a top 10 D, since their offense is already flilthy and you can still tell they are feeling themselves out on that end as well, but something like a little above league average or sniffing the top 10 would be enough. If they were in the West, I would be worried for their Finals proposition, but in the East they have time to fix their problems.

The offense will always be fun to watch with all that talent they have, but the defense is what needs to be monitored, especially the bigs and how they work with each other to shore up the endless pick and rolls they will see for the rest of the season.