After a lot of excitement about Andre Drummond’s debut, the Cleveland Cavaliers suffered their worst home loss in franchise history on Sunday to the LA Clippers 133-92.
The Cleveland Cavaliers came into Sunday’s game well-rested, as they hadn’t played since Wednesday.
During that time, though, they surprised everyone when they reportedly acquired center Andre Drummond from the Detroit Pistons via trade, of which you can view the full reported details here.
Unfortunately, their performance on Sunday was, well, not the outcome they wanted. Cleveland had their biggest home loss in franchise history to the LA Clippers 133-92.
That was h/t according to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, for reference. and this marks 12 straight home losses at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
In Andre Drummond’s Cavs debut, team suffers worst home loss in franchise history, 133-92, to Clippers
— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) February 10, 2020
There aren’t many positive things you can say about this game, as the Clippers dominated from start to finish. They led by 15 points after the first quarter and were up 23 at halftime, and are undoubtedly one of the best teams in the league.
LA also didn’t have Patrick Beverley or Kawhi Leonard due to a reported groin injury and injury management related to left knee soreness, and this was on the second night of a back-to-back for the Clips.
In fairness, this is a championship Clippers team, but you still don’t want to see a 41-point loss at home and the Cavs just haven’t been competitive at all at home lately.
Drummond had a pretty nice game. He did what he typically was known to do in Detroit, as he had another double-double adding 19 points and 14 rebounds, to go with three assists, two steals and a block, though he did have four turnovers, as noted by ESPN.
He actually made two three-pointers on three attempts, too.
With all that said, here are three takeaways from the Cavaliers’ worst home loss in franchise history.
Takeaway #1: Drummond will help some, but won’t fix the many flaws still on the roster
I didn’t have any problem with the trade itself to get Drummond in which Cleveland reportedly dealt expiring veterans John Henson and Brandon Knight, along with a future second-round pick, which was an extremely small price to get a two-time All-Star big.
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Drummond will make the Cavs a little better, as he is by far their best shot blocking presence, and the only legitimate one, really, but he doesn’t fix the many flaws on their roster. Drummond is a better interior defender than Tristan Thompson, but the former Piston can’t defend perimeter players on switches as competently as Thompson.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are pretty terrible defensively 1-4 in terms of starters’ individually, and in a league today that is dominated by guards and bigger wings, Cleveland doesn’t really have anyone currently in the starting lineup that can consistently hold their own on a nightly basis.
That leads to far too many breakdowns.
The Cavs need multiple wings, but it became more evident in this game when the Cavs had Larry Nance Jr., Kevin Love and Drummond on the floor at the same time. I found it interesting the Cavs had three bigs on the floor at the same time in a league that has continued to go more away from that and go small.
Back in the 90’s or even 15 years ago, it was believed you could never have enough bigs, but the value on old school bigs who have their back to the basket and typically play near the paint has diminished.
Granted, Nance is a far better shooter than was previously the case, and obviously Love is a terrific shooter and all three can secondary playmake, and overall, Drummond will help and I believe centers still have value.
Nonetheless, centers such as Drummond can only have so much impact in a league that has gone small and is dominated by wings and guards that are such tough covers.
Takeaway #2: The Cavs’ regression is alarming
No, the Cavs don’t have a ton of talent on the roster and anytime you have two guards this young in Darius Garland at 20 and Collin Sexton at 21 playing big minutes and starting (unless it’s a transcendent player), you are going to lose games.
It doesn’t help that in the starting lineup that even adding an interior defender like Drummond, that they are at such a disadvantage defensively. When you have a pair of inexperienced 6-foot-1 offensively-minded guards in your backcourt you’re going to have deficiencies on defense.
Cedi Osman has his limitations on defense, too, and despite getting better somewhat off the ball, still has issues at times in that regard, and obviously, Kevin Love is a liability on defense that also is too slow with his closeouts.
Anyhow, the Cleveland Cavaliers are still in the beginning of a rebuild and it’s a tough situation for head coach John Beilein and his staff. In the NBA, rebuilding is hard and again when you have young players playing key roles, especially in the backcourt, it presents a ton of growing pains.
Still, though, the way they have competed at home recently isn’t a good trend. Yes, the Clippers are a very talented and well-constructed team, but they were also missing two starters, and one of which was their best player and were on the second night of a back-to-back.
Recently, the Cavaliers had bad losses at home against teams like the Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, Washington Wizards and Chicago Bulls, none of which are quality teams.
It seems like the Cavs are more focused on the road and bring more gritty play, as was shown against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, and I’m not sure why.
All in all it seemed like last year even though most nights the Cavs were at a major talent disparity, they fought and were competitive in some of those games. That’s not a knock on Beilein, he’s a first-time NBA head coach and is still adjusting to the NBA, after spending so much time in college, and most recently, at Michigan.
Still, though, considering how the Cavs have played lately at home and with how they still have plenty of tough games post-All-Star break, with their youth, Cleveland looks like a team that will win 19-20 games.
Keep in mind, in 2018-19, Kevin Love was only active in 22 games for the Cavaliers mostly due to reported toe surgery, and on the season, the Wine and Gold were 19-63.
Takeaway #3: Drummond may not alter the Cavs’ draft plans as much as some think
When the Cavs traded for Drummond near the trade deadline, I felt like plenty believed that automatically ruled out the Cavs drafting James Wiseman. For reference, Wiseman played a bit at Memphis, but has since reportedly withdrawn from school and is focusing on the 2020 NBA Draft.
Anyway, I certainly believe it’s more likely that the Cleveland Cavaliers draft someone such as Georgia’s Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball of the Illawarra Hawks of the NBL, Auburn’s Issac Okoro, or Deni Avdija of Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Premier League, but I wouldn’t necessarily rule Wiseman, a seven-foot center, out yet. Albeit, Dayton’s Obi Toppin could be another 2020 draft target as well, too.
The Cavs have seemingly had a tough time trading Love, reportedly because of how they value him, him being 31 and of course, his injury history. If they want to trade Love, they will likely have to lower their demands a bit, considering Love is due to make $91.5 million over the next seasons following 2019-20.
Now, where Wiseman comes in next is if Love is still on the roster. In today’s NBA, where it is dominated by wings and guards, it doesn’t seem that it would make a ton of sense to pay Drummond all that money when Love is on the roster.
It wouldn’t make a tone of sense if in today’s NBA your two highest paid players are bigs year-to-year, again, and that’s something I would be hesitant in doing, if I’m the Cavs.
I certainly don’t think Wiseman is a leading option by any means, but right now with how much the Cavaliers have struggled, they took a flier on Drummond and are experimenting with him, to see if he fits/works even into next year, assuming he opts into his $28.8 million player option, which is reportedly likely to happen, according to Sports Illustrated‘s Sam Amico.
I just wonder if the Cavs are unable to trade Love, how sensible it is in today’s NBA that is dominated by wings and guards to commit that much money to an old school center, Love, perhaps Wiseman, and also factoring in Nance, who is due to make $11.7 million. Nance’s salary isn’t all that steep, but anyhow, if the Cavs were to win the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery, I think the pick would probably be Anthony Edwards.
He’s had an up-and-down season, but he probably has the highest upside, but in a down draft that has no consensus top player, it’s unclear at this point what would happen anyway.