“Whatever Happens, Happens.”
2013-04-04
The Cavaliers were decimated by the Nets Wednesday night.
The Cavaliers are not a very good basketball team. The Cavs lack in star talent and depth at nearly every position other than point guard, and the remarkable Herculoids have faded down the stretch. However, no NBA team should lose games as badly as the Cavs did last night. The final deficit was only 18, but anyone who watched the game would tell you that the game was much worse than that number would indicate. The Nets led by around 30 for much of the “contest,” and the action consisted mostly of wide-open jumpers, the monotony occasionally broken by free throw attempts for Brooklyn. I’ll keep the game action recap brief.
First Half:
The Nets outscore the Cavaliers by eight in the first quarter. Marshon Brooks makes it clear that he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for Andre Toney’s jumper. Deron Williams also plays well. As the second quarter starts, the slaughter begins. Seven minutes into the quarter the deficit is 17, soulless Marshon continues to dominate, and Jerry Stackhouse dunks all over the Cavaliers. By the way, he’s 38. Deron Williams scores 11 in the last three minutes of the second, and the Cavs trail by 30 at the half. BKN 66, CLE 36.
Second Half:
The third quarter starts out a little bit better, thank God(s?). Kyrie dishes a few assists, devilish Brooks finally misses a few shots, and with 7:50 left in the quarter the Cavaliers have battled back to within 27. Brooklyn hurriedly calls a timeout, as the panicked Nets snipe at each other about defensive rotations and missed shots. The young Cavs snarl, smelling blood. The chase is on. Unfortunately, at the end of the third the lead remains 27. The fourth quarter is the definition of bad basketball. Tornike Shengelia (That’s a real person, I promise), Mirza Teletovic (Didn’t the Cavs look into signing this guy?), Chris “Funny Ears” Quinn, and Omri “Am I Even On This Team Anymore?” Casspi all make appearances. Final Score: BKN 113, CLE 95.
The pervading storyline from this game will be Byron Scott’s future, or lack thereof, with the Cavaliers. Losses are expected, accepted and perhaps beneficial this late in the season. However, no one wants to see the Cavs get run out of their own gym, and home losses this bad usually come back to the coach. After the game, Scott said “The energy, the effort wasn’t there — for whatever reason.” I agree with him– Cleveland looked flat and uninspired all night. But whose fault is that, if not the coach’s? Byron Scott may be on the way out of Cleveland. As he said regarding his job, “Whatever happens, happens.” If that’s how Scott feels, than he should by all means allow the Cavs to keep losing like they did tonight. But if he has any interest in coaching Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson in the playoffs next year, he’d better make some adjustments.
The most significant injury this season is obviously Andy
Ctown –
Would you be on board with a 21 year old throwing his coach under the bus?
Gordon The most significant this season is obviously Andy. Before he went out, the Cavs were 5-21, and the defense was the worst in the league. To this day, it still is. Not having Andy really doesn’t account for that. The Cavs are unable to handle most offensive sets by the opponent. On offense, it’s not much better. Ball movement is rare. They rank 25th as a team in assists. Whether you’re winning games or not, things like this needed to improve during the season. I don’t think Byron is telling them to not move the ball or lose your… Read more »
When the team you care about and root for is losing, it is frustrating. It is easy to blame the coach because he’s the guy who is here, making the decisions. However somebody has to fill that role and make those decisions and on a young, injured, crappy team like the cavs, those aren’t very fun decisions to make. For those who want to replace scott: who would you like to replace him? the only thing that matters about this season was developing our young players. If the cavs are going to be a championship team one day, kyrie and… Read more »
Rich –
How many of those 42 games did they win?
Just looked this up. Dion and Kyrie have played 42 games together.
42.
And you tell me Scott hasn’t managed to fix their issues with playing together. Forty-two games, Mallory. C’mon.
Your expectations are just unrealistic, across the board.
Rich – The Cavs, during their win streak, had one of the most efficient/effective benches in the NBA. You absolutely cannot dismiss that as a major part of Feb. It’ll be almost impossible to replicate that effectiveness next season. I’ve happily acknowledged improvement from Dion and TT, but I disagree with your assessment of how great that improvement was and is. TT had a phenomenal month, but has essentially regressed to a mediocre offensive player with a decent D game. Dion is an absolute stud, but he has major problems playing with Kyrie (something that Scott doesn’t seem to be… Read more »
Cody – the only problem with improving as a team all along, this season, is that 1) it really wasn’t possible considering the roster overhaul mid season along with the injuries all season and 2) while in theory it would be great to improve as a team and win games, we MUST have a top 3-5 pick (and I really believe top 3 this season) in order to build a perennial contender.
Guys, guys, when the team is obliterated by injury, improvement is going to be hard to see. First of all, let’s take the 3 best players off of any team in this league for any amount of time. How well does that team do? And that’s basically what we’ve had the last 10 or so games. We’ve been w/o our 3 best players. I mean you can’t just plug in Wayne Ellington, Tyler Zeller, and Shaun Livingston and pretend that these guys can step in and do what Irving, Varejao, and Waiters do. Furthermore, let’s not pretend contract situations don’t… Read more »
Agree with rich, keep up the good work guys.
Will someone Call Jerry Sloan already?
Does anyone remember that Anderson varajeo has been injured this whole time, our second best player, we were destroyed by injuries, now everyone expects a better team.
Here’s the thing Mallory, Dion Waiters just won rookie of the month of February. It is quite obvious those 2-6,1-6 games were becoming more and more infrequent as the season went on. You want to go back and include the whole season to tell us the Waiters story of his rookie year, and that’s fine. But it totally misses the point, which is this, he was IMPROVING, and it was obvious, as evidenced by his Rookie of the Month award. Now, do you remember the start of the season? When the starting unit looked really good and would play with… Read more »
Gordon,
In total agreement save one comment:
“Improve as a TEAM over the course of the season” – This should have been happening all along. There’s no reason team improvement has to wait until next season. Given that we haven’t seen it this year, it’s a risky assumption to expect it next year.
Gordon –
By that logic, the Cavs were essentially good for the middle of January and February.
Mallory – have we not been competitive for the ENTIRE season? Yes, we’ve lost a LOT of games, but we have been in almost every single game this year. We have competed with, and beaten, elite teams (OKC anyone?). We have shown the ability to hang with the best teams in the league when Kyrie, Waiters, and TT are playing well. Considering the severe drop off in talent to the rest of the team, it is no surprising, and it should not be demoralizing, that we lost the majority of the games we played. We were highly competitive for the… Read more »
Our goal should be simple. Show individual improvement while losing games, and ensure you draft the best talent available. We have done just that this season. Kyrie has now recognized as a budding super star by everyone. Dion showed glimpses of elite ability. TT has improved GREATLY from last season. Yet, we’ve continued to lose games – which is THE best thing we could be doing this season. Come away with Noel or Porter, and now you have a young core in the mix of OKC. Next season is where you’d like to see them win games, and we should… Read more »
Rich – could not agree with you more.
Rich – Your eyes only tell you half the story. You’re looking at the 6-9 game, versus the MANY 2-6. 1-6, 3-12, etc. games. It’s fair to be excited about the future – I love what I see from Dion. But temper your excitement with reality. Not every player turns into what their ceiling is. Not every player becomes a star, and not every player will be great. Chances are these guys fall somewhere in between, but that’s not really good enough, and it’s why building through the draft is a crap shoot. I’ll say this too – a few… Read more »
Rich
Right, these are really young players who have shown flashes of being pretty good. How is it so hard to see that?
No, this was not supposed to be the year. I’m sorry, but when your big off-season moves are to sign CJ Miles and re-signing Alonzo Gee, that is NOT a team planning on doing whatever it is you thought they should be doing. You were a year ahead. And why exactly should they not pick anywhere near there? Again, I don’t understand what it is you think a group of 20 year olds is supposed to be able to accomplish this early in their careers? LeBron James stands alone as a 20 year old capable of fully carrying a team… Read more »
Dani
I don’t think so. Mallory is moving toward’s trolling his own blog. He can’t really believe what he’s saying.
I’m using my eyes. Which tell me that Thompson and Dion have shown great improvement over the course of just this year. I mean, I guess I can assume they will plateau at what they are right now. But, why would I do that? Why would I take that outlook on it, when their trajectory has been upward?
Dani –
I agree with you completely. This was supposed to be the year the Cavs were ACTUALLY competitive, had a taste of success, and showed they can take the pressure. I’m not sure we’ve seen any of that. You can blame youth/talent/drive or you can blame coaching, but it’s got to be one of those two things.
Rich –
The Cavaliers are NOT Washington or Toronto. They have THREE, SOON TO BE FOUR, TOP FOUR PICKS. There is NO other team in the NBA with that many 20-22 year olds picked that high. At this point the Cavaliers should not pick anywhere NEAR there.
$, you just moved into troll territory. Try to avoid personal attacks.
Yea, Mallory, it does. Because I’ve seen the playoff stuff. That’s nice and all, but we are Cleveland fans. We want a damn title. And I know that one path will absolutely lead to not titles. The other path, which was build from the ground up and take our time while preserving cap space to try and make the big move is the BEST path to eventually winning a title. Which is what I want. Had this team went out and picked up Marcin Gortat/Nene/Rudy Gay and the list of free agent disasters, I’d have been EXTREMELY upset, because I… Read more »
$ –
It’s absolutely impossible to plan for 2017-2020 – There’s no way Grant or Gilbert is looking that far ahead. One FA signing can change everything, salaries can change everything, player development changes everything.
You seem to be assuming that Dion, TT, and whoever is drafted this year become good. Why?
And Cleveland isn’t a competitive team. In what world is 22-52 competitive?
Don’t really jump off a bridge Mallory. We appreciate you writing even if your ideas are silly and your patience is non-existent.
Am I the only one who doesn’t see it as likely that we go from a bottom-feeder to a championship contender in one season? Let’s start with playoffs. A 6 or 7 seed would be fine with me. Perpetually? Of course not. But outside of Lebron, we aren’t getting that good that fast. And since when is it awful to be an 8-seed? The Knicks were the 8-seed last year, a 2-seed this year.
Dammit, last post eaten by the comment monster. Always remember to copy what you type before hitting submit on this site. Sigh.
Don’t worry, Rich. I’m rescuing everyone’s comments.
Rich –
As a fan, does hearing that your favorite franchise wants to be one of the five worst team for three straight years make you happy?
I think the whole “not adding FAs” argument is moot at this point – the goal should be to not lose anymore. Adding any and all FAs, as long as they’re not being overpaid for LONG contracts, makes a ton of sense. Losing like this does not help young teams.
See, here’s the thing. We had two paths. One of them was this path. Let the young play a lot, give them little to no veteran help, and what happens happens. Keep our cap space and shoot for more picks. Or, we could have gone the Washington/Toronto route. Add a TON of salary via trades and free agent signings with the goal of sneaking into the playoffs. Of course, those two teams have failed miserably so now here they are, also picking the in the lottery (only with a worse pick), with a ton of salary on the books for… Read more »
Gordon- Good point. The big picture is unfortunately 2 years away at least. Kyrie, TT and Dion will be 22-23 then and still a few years from being in their primes. We should have a competitive team in the meantime but really unless Lebron comes back or we sign a dominant player, Kyrie will be in his prime and (hopefully) ready to win a championship sometime between 2017-2020. That’s tough but it’s the truth. Mallory will probably have jumped off a bridge by then screaming “YOU SHOULD’VE SIGNED LUIS SCOLA AND LUOL DENG!”
If you dont’ feel being 22-52 is ok, then you must have totally disagreed with the rebuilding plan, then, correct? Because the Front Office made it clear they wanted to lose this year. This was obvious from their own statements and from the off-season acquisitions. Losing was a priority. And that’s fine. You can feel that way. I happen to disagree with you. I thought maintaining cap space (which translates into not adding any good free agent players) was the right move. I felt that if, somehow by a stroke of magic, the young guys on the team managed to… Read more »
$ – Competing for the 7th or 8th seed would’ve been a big jump. Sitting as one of the 5 worst teams in the NBA is a step back. Injuries are an easy excuse, But Kyrie and Dion were each only missing for a few games during the last 16, and there’s no way that Dion makes a 30 point difference, which is what the Cavs were losing by last night before the Nets eased up. I’m not arguing that being bad doesn’t give you the opportunity to draft a young stud. But the idea that the Cavaliers can only… Read more »
@ Rich Was just about to say the same thing about the first year. That was not really part of a rebuild as much as it was a dismantling. Not fair at all to hold that against Byron. Also, your comments about how no one is to blame are spot on. If the Cavs were vying for a playoff spot, they would have picked up some FA as Washington did. However, we know that would have cast them as a 7seed with no cap space. Unfortunately though, the losing has a consequence. IMO, he’s lost the locker room. It’s not… Read more »
Mallory and the other guys here arguing that the Cavs are on the wrong track… What can we do to get a championship team faster? Who do you want to realistically hire to coach the team? What players are you going to convince to come here? The only ideas I’ve heard are trade our draft picks for Jared Dudley and Marcin Gortat, or get Andre Igoudala. Those guys aren’t winning any championships. If memory serves me right, those guys haven’t even gotten out of the first round of the playoffs as starters. The authors here are quick to insult the… Read more »
Rich – Teams deal with injuries, teams deal with youth, more often than not, when, in the face of all those things, teams continue to lose by disgusting amounts (and the Cavs haven’t been remotely competitive during many of these games) then something is clearly wrong. Why you refuse to acknowledge that confuses me – why is it OK to be 22-52? The Cavaliers are 2-14 in the last 16 games (since the beginning of March). Injuries are bad and all, but 2-14??? Yes, 21 year old players are young, but you make this assumption that players never plateau, never… Read more »
For anyone here to believe the “big picture” looks bleak because our beat up team is getting beat, needs to be realistic and understand the big picture is still 2 years away. Hit on our top 5 pick this year, and then use the plethora of cap space in 2014 to add the supporting cast and we WILL be a great team. I know our bench played well there for a month or so, but you are kidding yourselves if you actually thought we had the talent and depth to be a real, competitive ball club. We’ve seen this team… Read more »
Mallory, no one expected us to be 22-52 but no one expected us to be so devastated with injuries. If the Heat were missing their top three players for a long stretch, they’d look awful too. It doesn’t matter how good a team is, if your best guys aren’t on the court, you’re going to lose a lot of games. We are a middle of the road team (with lots of potential) that has simply been devastated by injuries. I don’t know who thought this year was going to be a big jump. I thought that the best case scenario… Read more »
Ah, yes, I mean it isn’t like Dion has been hurt during this 10 game losing streak, is it? And it isn’t like Kyrie missed 8 of the 10. No, no, that didn’t happen. I mean, you honestly just argued that if these players (specifically Dion and Thompson) were improving then we wouldn’t be on a 10 game losing streak while somehow missing the fact that one of those very players has been hurt during most of the streak. Just….I dunno about you sometimes. And exactly how do you think rookie development works? They go from finding there way in… Read more »
Rich I think you should write for this blog. You are correct, the first year doesn’t count. We are in year two and have drafted very very well over the past two years. I don’t know why anyone thinks things are going wrong when we have 1. A superstar in Kyrie 2. A star in the making in Dion 3. A very solid starter who may make an all-star game someday in Thompson 4. Tons of draft picks and salary cap flexibility. 5. An asset in Andy that we can trade or hold onto These things all mean we are… Read more »
Rich. All this “pretty damn clear” stuff isn’t as apparent as you seem to think it is. Were these players improving at the great rate that I keep hearing about, the Cavs would’t’ be on a 10 game losing streak.
Sit tight and wait only takes you so far.
And Rich, if injuries happen next year, and the Cavs end up with a similar record, will you still be as patient? What makes you think they wont happen?
And you’re right about Tristan and Dion’s PER. Luckily, they happen to be 21 year olds in year 1 and year 2 of their careers. And, luckily, it’s pretty damn clear they are improving over time. So, you know, those PER numbers aren’t representative of where they will be in the future.
Injuries happen, Mallory. Goals change.
I also love, that when things start to go badly, people slowly but surely try to add that first year back into the equation. As if the total tear down of the roster should somehow count as a building year. It’s BS and everyone knows its BS, its just used to help win an argument.
Rich
You are right. Patience people. The team is looking like it has bright future.
To quote Sam Amico’s article:
“That’s three straight years of no progress. You can spin it however you want — but it’s troubling. It needs to end, and it needs to end right here, right now.”
Let me say this, too.
Last year, and the year before, MANY commenters on her put out their supposed “time-lines” of how this team was supposed to perform. NO ONE said a 22-52 record was acceptable this year. I know a rebuild is a movable scale, but keep in mind that many of the same people saying “NEXT YEAR IS THE YEAR” said that exact same phrase last year…
BS won’t be fired. They are sticking by him. If they had a hair trigger on him he would have been gone when they started the season terribly. I think he is safe until the expectation is that the Cavs will make the playoffs yearly.
BTW the JV/TT argument is back. The rpg and ppg will be back and forth for both depending on who gets hot. But JV has shown an ability to get to and convert at the line to the tune of 6-6, 8-10 and a freakish 16-18 yesterday. That might be the difference.
Guys guys guys… How are you not concerned with the lack of…anything…from this team? Why indication has anyone gotten that the Cavs will be playoff bound next year? The amount of passivity that I’m reading really shocks me – you’re all really okay with three straight horrible seasons? You all really believe it takes 6(!) first round picks, including four in the top 5, to make a playoff bound team? I’m not trying to start an argument here, but it’s shocking that, after a pretty unwatchable game, I log on to see “Oh, it’s no big deal.” Guys, it’s a… Read more »
People have rose-colored glasses because they see what we have and we can have. This is not the team that will be here next year. It will be a big leap next year (assuming, of course, we stay relatively healthy…which might not happen). I mean, maybe I’m just being a homer, but I absolutely expect this team to be right there, competing for a playoff spot. These last handful of games of this season mean nothing in regards to that.
Sam Amico’s article was spot on. The season has been a disaster. There have been tangible individual achievements: 1) kyrie is a beast. He is super exciting, and he has a chance to be special. But he needs to stay healthy. He needs to step forward as a leader. And it all needs to start on defense. When your best player can’t be bothered to play defense, it permeates the roster. It becomes part of the culture, and that culture is not a winning one. 2) Andy was in full on beast mode. He then missed a majority of the… Read more »
I think that we allowed Mike Brown to remain as our coach for at least one season too long. When we realized he couldn’t figure out an offensive system (beyond iso-lebron), and that the team wasn’t improving, we should have gotten rid of him then. I’m not an advocate for firing coaches too early (like the Lakers did with Brown), but at the same time it does not appear that the team has gotten better in terms of offensive or defensive sets. IF this is believeid to be because of youth and injuries, then I’ll accept that as a plausible… Read more »
It still felt more positive than Sam Amico’s article last night. That just felt depressing.
http://www.foxsportsohio.com/nba/cleveland-cavaliers/story/Cavs-lack-of-effort-paints-ugly-big-pict?blockID=888127&feedID=3725
Anyway, $, Dani’s sentiment reflects what I’ve been hearing all over Cleveland sports radio this morning and around the water cooler. Byron Scott hasn’t gotten the team to play defense, and aside from a few bright spots, this team is a mess in you know, actual game situations. The Cavs front office probably miscalculated how much getting embarrassed effects Clevelanders. Suffice it to say, I think the three year window of lousiness is up. Cleveland is going to give up on the Cavs if they don’t see some winning right away in the fall.
Free Casspi!
And $ is right. Some of the complaints from the authors on this blog have been hilarious. The best has to be the complaints about Omri Casspi’s lack of playing time. You guys are almost exclusively alone in thinking that guy deserves minutes.
Nate’s post is EXACTLY right. You can’t have the organization actively trying to lose and expect that NOT to rub off on the coach and players. They know they were designed to go out and lose. So guess what? Eventually, they are going to stop caring and go out and lose. It’s totally stupid and unfair to run a team with the purpose of losing, and then whine and complain that the team did so. And again, I’m OK with that, I just understand that it leads to stuff like this. There is no one to blame here. Losing is… Read more »
Sorry, $! I will try again.
“The Cavs played the Nets tonight. They battled Bravely throughout, and overcame a 30 point deficit to only lose by 18. No one played particularly well, but keep your head up! WOOHOO! Come back, Lebron! Did I mention we only lost by 18?”
There ya go.
I agree that next year is probably the year Scott will be evaluated. It will be Kyrie and Tristan’s third season and they will have plenty of assets to fill out the roster. The four pups should all be better players at this time next year. Noel, Porter or whomever they draft will have a higher ceiling than most of the players on the roster. The flexibility for a major trade is there. At least 4 guys on this roster will be replaced and the ones who leave won’t be significant losses. After the emotional Heat loss, I figured they… Read more »
It’s awful how the authors of this blog continue with the theme “all is lost, the team is on the wrong track, the coach sucks, the players we drafted suck (until those players play so well the authors are forced to change their tune), we need is Andre Igoudala and Jared Dudley- trade away our future draft picks.” It seems that the commenters are the only ones with faith in the team. This is Cleveland, a city of perennial losers and decades of heartache. This Cleveland Cavs have a great owner willing to spend, a smart GM, an experienced coach… Read more »
When the players stop believing in the coach, they tune him out and it becomes evident in their play. Once that happens, there’s really no recovery. In Byron’s favor, there haven’t been many of these types of blowouts, and the Cavs have been competitive for much of the season. However, the facts remain that the defense has been non-existent all season. Even when Andy was playing at an all-star level, the defense was bad and the team was losing. He can’t seem to get this team to play as a unit on offense or defense. That is more about discipline… Read more »
This is what happens when an injury-ridden lottery team with nothing to play for faces a playoff team fighting for seeding. Byron Scott cannot do anything to lose the job this season. He could lose every remaining game by 50 and keep his job. Next year is the test.
This is a mess of a situation, and it illustrates the entire problem with tanking. Eventually, it becomes obvious to the players that the organization and the coaching staff are subtly or not so subtly trying to influence the team to lose. At that point, why not quit? Then the fans quit on the team (and the attendance at the Cavs games, at least in the lower bowl on television has been a lot better than it has been for a lot of moribund teams — the fans deserve better). Furthermore, the team can’t admit to tanking, or they’d get… Read more »
I also want to point out, that the highest paid player on this team is Baron Davis right now. Which for those of you who are just now learning about the Cavs, has not played for us in two years. Also, look at how many players we are paying that aren’t even playing for us next year. We have 6 players guaranteed to come back next year. That leaves us with 6 more slots, plus 2 more draft picks this year. Which are going to take up about 5 million. If we spend another 7 million to get 4 players… Read more »
The issue is not that the Cavs lost. The issue is that the Cavs were embarrassed. And the issue is that the Cavs have not cobbled together a cohesive offensive set all season that didnt involve Luke Walton and Shaun Livingston. The issue is that for all this talk of his “great relationship” with Kyrie, the young point guard still doesn’t care to play anything resembling defense most of the time. The issue is that the Cavs have not improved.
I completely agree with the first two posts here. Just stop with this “fire Coach Scott” nonsense. He has a great rapport with these young players, the roster has been decimated with injuries to our best players, and there was no expectation that we were going to contend for anything this year even if healthy. He’s a good coach for this young team. Give me a real NBA roster and allow the young players to continue to develop and only then if the team is performing badly should his job future be unclear in Cleveland. Stick with him and just… Read more »
I know this “is Byron Scott going to be fired” crap needs to be snubbed out right now. Unless we can realistically get someone like Phil Jackson to take the job then we just need to stop it. Everyone was saying when we started the rebuild that getting a hard nosed coach that doesn’t let his team take a day off is what these youngsters needed. I read that article about practice times, and if you want me to be honest? The guy who complained about that should be off the team next year. I have no doubt in my… Read more »
I think this “Byron Scott is on his way out” talk is ridiculous. He’s kept a terrible team competitive for the majority of the season. God forbid a team that is outmatched, outclassed, and out manned every game stops overachieving and gets blown out a couple of games late in the season. Our bench that everyone wants to applaud is comprised of journeymen and scrubs, yet Byron Scott, without Kyrie (until the past few games), Dion, and AV should be winning games against playoff teams. Give me a break. There is zero chance the Cavs are looking to fire Byron… Read more »