The Cavs were one of two favorites to come out of the East this year along with the Bulls. One of those teams has started 1-3 and the other is 4-1 after the first full week. The Bulls, even with Derrick Rose suffering minor ankle injuries (thank God not his knees) have started strong and seem to be compatible with each other already. Noah actually missed one game (maybe Thibs had pity) and the front court still played extremely well. The wings are getting along, Butler has stepped up on both ends of the floor, and the guard play is controlling everything.
On the other hand, the Cavs are doing quite the opposite of the Bulls. Starting 1-3, the Cavs are showing that teams that come together don’t necessarily mesh immediately. With three All-Stars on this team (who are all potential starters), the Cavs just do not look comfortable with each other on the floor. After being beat by the Knicks on TNT’s nationally televised Thursday nights, the Cavs came back the next night and beat the Bulls in an ultra-competitive overtime game. The team was then trampled at the Rose Garden (or the Moda Centre) by the Trailblazers and then lost by a buzzer beater from Gordon Hayward to the Utah Jazz on the tail end of a back to back. So how can we explain this team with 3 All-Stars losing?
This team simply lacks chemistry and will need time to adjust to playing with each other. David Blatt admitted to not playing his bench enough the first game against the Knicks, and then proceeded to play Matthew Dellavedova down the stretch of the other games. The primary issue with this team is the complacency of its players. LeBron is repeating what he did when he first got to Miami, letting Kyrie take over, Kyrie is still dribble happy and refuses to complete a catch and shoot play, and Kevin Love is basically doing what Kevin Love has always done…bombing threes, playing the post, and grabbing boards. LeBron and Kyrie haven’t figured out how to play with each other, and Waiters has brought his slump into the regular season.
This Cleveland team has all the pieces to make it out of the East (maybe find a big man off the bench who played in the league last year…not Brendan Haywood) but it will take time to mesh. LeBron will have to repeat a Miami and just take over the team, Kyrie will need to learn how to penetrate and dish rather than penetrate and putting up a shot, the role players will need to hit threes, and Blatt might want to integrate some simple pick and rolls/pops rather than a Princeton styled-offense. The Princeton offense requires precise timing, aim, and 100% chemistry with the team, something the Cavs are lacking for now.
