The NBA season is still going to be on hiatus until further notice, but players being able to get in individual work again starting on Friday should allow for the Cleveland Cavaliers to regain a bit of momentum.
It’s still uncertain as to whether or not the 2019-20 NBA season will resume at some point down the road, given concerns regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic. On the plus side, players being able to get in individual work on Friday, May 1 at practice facilities around the league in places where states and municipalities “are loosening stay-at-home restrictions,” as was reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, should allow the Cleveland Cavaliers to regain a bit of momentum.
Wojnarowski then hit on how the league will work with teams to figure out ways to accommodate for cities/areas that aren’t set to loosen restrictions. He also stressed that the NBA is not going to allow teams to hold team workouts and not set up in-person workouts, essentially still given safety being the key priority, but this is nice to see for the Cavs I’d imagine.
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As Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor touched on, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said recently “that plans are in place to reopen Ohio on May 1.”
Cleveland was seemingly heading in the right direction post-All-Star break, of which was when J.B. Bickerstaff took the head coaching reigns, and the Wine and Gold, who are just 19-46 on the season to this point, were a respectable 5-6 in that 11-game span.
In that span, the Cavaliers were sixth in the league in assist rate and 10th in effective field goal shooting rate as well, as noted by NBA.com. Collin Sexton was on a tear in that stretch, with 25.5 points per game, to go with 4.2 assists, and while Darius Garland being sidelined for five games due to left groin strain likely played a bit into it, Sexton was really in a great rhythm.
Also including Garland, though defensively he still had his issues on-ball a bunch and I still see him as a key piece that has something to prove next season overall, he had been putting up 4.9 assists to just 1.8 turnovers in his last 10 games active, per NBA.com. Cleveland’s overall group was playing better and seemed more engaged, too.
Hopefully, with Garland being able to get in some productive individual work, along with Sexton, who has been near Atlanta to get shots up in his home driveway, per Fedor, that can allow the Cavs’ youngsters, feasibly factoring in Kevin Porter Jr. (who has I’d hope been able to recover from his concussion) to regain a bit of momentum.
The same goes for Kevin Love, too, and feasibly Andre Drummond, who has been in Miami visiting family and working on his latest album, as Fedor noted, and hopefully Dre can keep working on his game. Among potential options, Drummond is “most likely” to opt into his $28.8 million option for next season, according to Fedor, and I’d think the Cavs would want to see more of the potential fit involving Love and Drummond, among others.
Moreover, the Wine and Gold were seemingly heading in the right direction for what would have been set to be the last 17 games leading into the hiatus.
It’s again unclear as to whether or not the 2019-20 season will eventually play out in some capacity, but I’d imagine that some regular season games could very well be played still, as has been seemingly suggested after a time period for players to get back more into game shape.
If that were the case, it’d be good for Sexton, Garland and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and give them something to build on going into the offseason, whenever that ultimately is.
In the mean time beginning on Friday, though, players at least being able to work on their individual games and young pieces being able to keep progressing some in their growth should allow the Cavs to regain a bit of momentum they were seemingly building.