The Cleveland Cavaliers Have Lost Their Identity
The Cleveland Cavaliers are one of the most dominant teams in the NBA, but recently they have not been themselves and it is concerning.
When Coach Lue took over for David Blatt last year, Lue’s philosophy was going to be push the ball, play fast and use lock down defense to create offense.
The team at first did not like it, especially LeBron but they eventually got used to it and figured it out. It led to a championship.
Now after suffering a man handling courtesy of the Spurs, the team is looking for answers.
The answer is simple, they have lost their way.
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Lue’s philosophy is not being executed on the court. There are too many mental lapses on defense and shots just aren’t falling.
The team hasn’t been together and there is no continuity. This can be attributed to the fact that they have had injuries and it will take a while for the players to gel together.
Picking up new players while others were down and then the injured players coming back while the new players are playing makes it tough for the team to build regularity and timing.
In a sport where developing good habits and timing is important it is hard to rack up wins when there is always a piece missing or hurt. Korver is out but should be fine and everybody else is fine so if they all have a couple of weeks before the playoffs to play together then that should help the team.
The team’s defense has been the most concerning thing about the bad play.
Cleveland Cavaliers
Opposing players go into the lane with ease and aren’t contested. If you watched the Spurs game you could see that Kawhi Leonard had a field day against the team.
Defense is a mindset that everybody has to individually lock down their defender and say that my man is not going to score on me and they have to lock down each possession for 24 seconds and for each game for 48 minutes.
The problem is the lack of front court bruisers that the Cavs have. The Cavs signed Larry Sanders but he been allocated to the D-League and when he does get the opportunity to play he doesn’t due to coach’s decision.
The Cavs have said his timing is off and that may be true due to the fact that he hasn’t played in the NBA for a while but the Cavs need a back up force in the middle. Putting it all on Tristan Thompson is not going to help the team.
Keeping Tristan Thompson fresh will help the team in the long run.
Getting all the pieces to help on offense might hurt the Cavs in the long run. They don’t have the scrappy hustlers that the past teams have had.
Those players are the ones that help you be successful on defense.
The phrase defense wins championships is probably tiring to hear but those jump shots are not always going to fall.
The Cavs need players that are going to agitate the team’s best players for the whole game.
The team needs to concentrate on the fundamentals like sliding their feet and keeping their man in front of them before trying to beat teams by outscoring them.
It all starts with the best players and that is Kyrie and LeBron to start a culture that promotes toughness and grind it out defense.
The other players will follow suit.
LeBron has said this season has been the most tough season that he has had and he may be right when you consider the fact that they are coming off a championship and most of the players on the team have not had a season after a championship.
Lue as a coach needs to start the players back at day one of implementing his scheme and take all the players through it so they can play as well as everybody knows this team can.
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This team on paper is good enough to win a championship but in order to do that the best players are going to have to hold themselves and the role players accountable to get the second ring for Cleveland.