The beginning of this season has been far from ideal for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Cleveland sits at 4-6, which places them at 11th in the Eastern Conference, and the Cavaliers are yet to have consecutive wins. Cleveland was not able to follow up their win at the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night, as the Cavaliers lost to a Sacramento Kings team that could not miss on Monday night, and got whatever they wanted in De’Aaron Fox’s return from injury.
Early on here, the Wine and Gold have not able to string wins together, and too often, the Cavaliers have not started out well enough to put themselves in position to churn out wins. Whether it’s been breakdowns at times on defense, sloppy turnovers or opponents getting production from second chance looks, the Cavaliers have just not been able to have consistency game-to-game.
In fairness, early-season injuries to Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen haven’t exactly made things easier for Cleveland to have gotten off to a better start, either. Cleveland has also been without the likes of Ty Jerome, and more recently Isaac Okoro, and Ricky Rubio is still not with the team, as he’s taking time away from basketball to address his mental health and for family reasons it’s appeared.
All of that said, there have been promising signs, as despite a road trip so far where he’s been largely off, Donovan Mitchell has often been sharp for Cleveland, Caris LeVert has been outstanding and Cleveland’s man and ball movement should get better in time. The Cavs still have to iron some stuff out to be more a cohesive unit defensively, and on offense throughout stretches when bench guys are involved, but as they get their chemistry down better, the Cavaliers should be able to find their stride.
For now, though, there have been a couple of players of late who have started to make a number of things happen for the Cavaliers, and those have been positives, even with the ups and downs for the team.
First, a young big looks to be figuring some things out game-to-game.