Here, we’re going to look at a few things that fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers are missing out on seeing with the current NBA season on hiatus.
The 2019-20 NBA season is currently on hiatus for the Cleveland Cavaliers and other teams until further notice due to concerns involving the novel coronavirus pandemic, and it’s uncertain if the season will eventually resume at some point or not.
In terms of recent reported potential alternative scenarios/the financial impact of a cancelled season, you can view those here, at this link and also here, per KJG’s Amadou Sow.
To quickly add to that, the NBA announced that players full checks will be sent out on April 15, and a negotiation next set to be under way will involve May 1 checks for players, of which potential withholding of percentages of checks are being negotiated between the NBA and NBPA, as was h/t ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Also, Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported that the NBA and NBPA agreed on extending the current moratorium period in terms of transactions indefinitely. Additionally, Wojnarowski reported with ESPN’s Jonathan Givony that because of uncertainty regarding prospects, that “many NBA teams are united in hopes of encouraging the league office to push the date of the June 25 draft until no sooner than August 1.”
As a quick last side note, the first pairings for the mid-hiatus HORSE single elimination competition were announced by ESPN on Wednesday, too.
So, looking at the Cavaliers’ play leading up to the NBA’s season suspension, though, it was nice to see the Wine and Gold starting to get on the right track.
Cleveland was a fairly respectable 5-6 post-All-Star break leading up to the COVID-19-induced suspension, and while that record was far from stellar, the Cavs were clearly given a jolt with J.B. Bickerstaff taking the reigns as the squad’s head coach.
Albeit it’s been pretty well-documented throughout the years that when mid-season head coaching changes happen, teams are galvanized in the short term, and play better for a bit.
That leads to me to the first of three things that jump out as those us Cavs fans are missing out on seeing as a result of the current season’s hiatus, too.
Could the Cavs keep up their better overall play under Bickerstaff?
The first thing Cavs fans are missing out on seeing as a result of the hiatus is could the Wine and Gold keep up their better overall play with Bickerstaff at the helm?
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I know this is sort of general, but considering the Cavs have a 19-46 record thus far in the 2019-20 season, and with how John Beilein was clearly an awful fit as the prior head coach (and has since been re-assigned to an unspecified role within the organization), it was a positive to see the Cavs be much more consistently competitive game-to-game post-All-Star.
In that stretch, Cleveland was sixth in the NBA in assist rate and 10th in effective field goal shooting.
They also at least had a considerably better net rating of minus-3.2 as compared to the rest of the season at minus-7.9 (which is the second-worst on the year), as is indicated by NBA.com.
The Wine and Gold were banged up in a number of instances, too.
That was most notably, in relation to Darius Garland (groin strain), Andre Drummond (calf strain), Tristan Thompson (knee contusion and then eye abrasion) and Kevin Porter Jr. (concussion) all missing three or more games individually post-All-Star leading up to the season’s suspension.
Even with that being the case, though, the Cavs saw seemingly even more growth from Collin Sexton, who was tearing it up, with 25.5 points and 4.2 assists in that span. Along with that, Matthew Dellavedova filled it very well with Garland sidelined, as Delly led the Wine and Gold with 5.5 assists per outing then and got players such as Kevin Love, Sexton and Cedi Osman the ball in their go-to spots.
Clearly, to me, if a team-friendly deal is possible and whenever the upcoming free agency period is, the expiring Dellavedova should be re-signed by Cleveland.
Plus, Larry Nance Jr., who even showed some real ability to play the 3 in meaningful minutes for Bickerstaff, was continuing to show he’s one of Cleveland’s best overall players, and it’s evident that Love and others really have taken to Bickerstaff, in terms of their connection on and off the floor.
Perhaps that played into Collin Sexton saying he believes the Cavs are going to make the postseason next year in a recent interview (the interview with Forbes‘ Morten Jensen was before the season’s suspension, for reference), but I see that as being really lofty.
So again, though, while it was only an 11-game sample size and the Cavs were due to play 17 more games (and it’s uncertain what will play out down the road), it’s still unfortunate that Cavs fans are missing out on seeing if the Wine and Gold could remain competitive post-All-Star or if they eventually would see a ton of L’s pile up again like earlier in the season.
The second thing we’re missing out on seeing is how a certain duo was going to progress in terms of their on-floor chemistry.
The potential viability of the Love-Drummond duo
We haven’t seen much of the Love-Drummond fit yet with the Cavs, as Drummond has only played eight games for the Wine and Gold thus far, seemingly in regards to a left calf strain.
There have been some encouraging instances when the two have played off each other well and looked viable, and that’s been in relation to Love spacing the floor for Drummond inside/on rolls, and in Love’s case, Drummond’s presence at 6-foot-10, 279 pounds bodes well for off-screen shooting situations, which we saw some instances of resulting in clean three-point shooting looks.
Nonetheless, Drummond, though I’ll give him more time as he was seemingly not comfortable just yet after being traded to Cleveland by the Detroit Pistons near the 2020 deadline, has had a net rating of minus-15.2 with the Wine and Gold thus far in 28.1 minutes per appearance.
His defensive rating of 120.0, per NBA.com, has been obviously underwhelming. Even while the Cavs are far from outstanding around him, and that includes Love, who is not capable of switching out on the perimeter either, and young pieces such as Garland and Osman don’t help there, it’s again, uncertain if Love and Drummond can eventually work out for the Cavs from a long term perspective.
I’d imagine that Drummond will opt into his $28.8 million player option for next season, however, so we’ll probably have a good chance of seeing more of their fit over seemingly a longer stretch of time.
Granted, both have shown, also factoring in Nance’s ability to play the 3 in some meaningful stretches, that they can physical be too much for smaller opponents inside, but again, in this switch-heavy NBA, it’s uncertain if Love and Drummond could work in a bunch of instances for meaningful stretches and of course, in crunch time.
Drummond, though he’s a good post-up player and roller, is a non-shooter, but perhaps if Cleveland grabs a piece such as quality passers in LaMelo Ball of the NBL’s Illawarra Hawks, Deni Avdija of the I-BSL’s Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv or Auburn’s Isaac Okoro Auburn’s Isaac Okoro in the 2020 NBA Draft, they could give Cleveland more playmaking to get Drummond the ball in his spots more in crunch time.
At any rate, this is something that us Cavs fans are definitely missing out on seeing as a result of the hiatus. That being said, I’d still imagine there’s a good chance considering how Love and Drummond could seemingly be trade assets for down the road, that Cleveland could potentially select a big such as USC’s Onyeka Okongwu or Dayton’s Obi Toppin to be groomed as eventual developmental replacements for Love/Dre.
That’s also factoring in how the expiring Tristan Thompson is reportedly likely to be playing elsewhere next season.
Last but not least, the third thing we’re missing out on seeing as a result of the current NBA season suspension is some experimenting in relation to one of the most promising young pieces on the Cleveland roster.
Point KPJ?
Early on after he moved to the head coaching spot, Bickerstaff mentioned in media availability how he wanted to experiment in terms of lineups the rest of the season.
The key takeaway from that to me was him stating how, though not right away, he wanted to see if KPJ could be a viable option running the point in some instances for the Cavs.
We didn’t really get to see Porter doing so just yet, and him missing nearly four games leading into the season’s suspension likely wouldn’t have let to that possibility for a bit more anyhow.
With Porter showcasing a knack for finding extra passes via occasional spray-outs to shooters after drives, or with even more so the feel to hit bigs on dump-offs inside, and with his ability to create separation with his terrific handle in the pull-up game, I’d think he could fill in at times at the lead guard/playmaker role.
Porter has only had an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.17 this season, but him having an assist rate of 14.7 percent this season, and 18.1 percent post-All-Star (coupled with a lower 11.4 turnover rate), has been very encouraging to me with KPJ being naturally wired as a score-first player.
In addition to him displaying good passing feel already, I’d think some instances with KPJ at the 1, with his driving and finishing ability inside, could add another dimension to the Cavs’ offense in some instances down the stretch of the current season.
Perhaps if we see the Cavs in action at some point again in the current season or at least next season, we’ll see Point KPJ in meaningful times for Bickerstaff and company, and that’d be really fun to watch for fans of the Wine and Gold. It could take some of the primary playmaking burden off Garland as well.