Five things we know about these current Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers are 2-2 in the 2019-20 season, and there are five things that we already know about this current squad.

We’ve barely dipped our feet in the water when it comes to this 2019-20 season, and the Cleveland Cavaliers, in all likelihood, have 78 games left.

Them starting this young season 2-2 under new head coach John Beilein leads one to being pretty darn optimistic about the near future, though, let me tell ya.

So far, Cleveland has come out on top in their two home games, first against the Indiana Pacers and on Wednesday over the Chicago Bulls.

Not surprisingly, considering the Cavs are playing so many young players big minutes, Cleveland has lost both of their road games. That includes the season opener at the Orlando Magic and on Monday at the Milwaukee Bucks, who had 29 assists in that one (per ESPN) and are one of the best teams in the NBA.

At this point, though, five things we already do know about these Cavaliers, at least as presently constructed. One of these is bad, one could be considered either a positive or negative, and three of them are good, just a heads up.

On to the list.

#5: There will be very rough stretches

The Cavs have a bunch of different pieces in their rotation already as compared to last season. Paired with that, Cleveland again, has a bevy of young pieces playing a considerable minutes-share.

That includes rookie Darius Garland, who is the team’s starting point guard, along with second-year guard Collin Sexton and wing Cedi Osman, the Cavs’ starting 2 and 3.

Factoring in that even Cleveland’s veterans, such as starting bigs Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson, along with others, such as bench contributors in rookie wing Kevin Porter Jr. and veteran guard Jordan Clarkson, are all in a new offensive system under Beilein, too, and it’s understandable for there to be very rough stretches in likely every game.

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When the Cavs fallen into ruts, it’s usually been due to players such as Osman or Porter pressing too much to get into the teeth of the defense, or forcing up ill-advised shots or trying to thread the needle on passes.

Some of the time that’s not been their fault, really, as it’s clear that when the ball and man movement gets stagnant, these Cavaliers are going to struggle mightily.

On the other end, opponents are going to get easy buckets, often from Cleveland having live ball turnovers, in those scenarios, too.

Stagnant offense against the Pacers nearly allowed Indy to come back when the Cavs had the game at hand, and the Cavs had some just awful turnovers throughout the game against the Bulls and for a good part of the first half of that one, they did not have offensive flow.

Along with that, in settled defense, the Cavs are going to have breakdowns, but it’s a key positive that they are trying to limit penetration in pick-and-roll situations and Cleveland is not dead last in blocks this year. Yippee!

That being said, there’s too many stretches where Cleveland is giving up pretty open looks.

In fact, the Cavaliers have contested the least shots per game at this point (per NBA.com); that’s not great.

For a young team, that sort of thing is going to happen this early, though, and with more time together, I believe they’ll clean that up.

Moreover, though basketball is a game of runs, the Cavs, more than most, are going to have some particularly rough stretches.

So on to the next thing, which is maybe a good thing?