CtB 2013, The Year in Review (Part II)
2014-01-02
Yesterday, we ran Part I of this series, reviewing January through June of 2013. Today, we take a look at the second half of this past year, a second half that has been filled with optimism, disappointment, and comedy.
Robert: July saw me trade in the oppressive heat and humidity of the right side of the country for the dry, punishing sun of the desert as the Cavs headed to Las Vegas for their annual toe-dip into the Summer League pool. First off, everything you’ve heard about the Vegas Summer League is true. It’s a veritable petting zoo of current and former players/coaches/etc. You may have to squeeze between Mark Price and Tyronn Lue to get to your seat (happened). You may have Tristan Thompson tell you that he won’t speak to you unless you go through the Cavs’ PR people first (also happened). … But, mostly, you just get to geek out at the yearly event that gives the Sloan Conference a run for its NBA geeky money. Oh, and you get to talk to Anthony Bennett, Carrick Felix, Tyler Zeller, and most entertainingly, Dion Waiters about getting into shape, working on his game, and jawing with the refs.
Several of the Cavs got an extended stay in Vegas, though. The Team USA Select Team scrimmage featured Waiters, Tyler Zeller and Kyrie Irving (and began the nasty run of “Kyrie wants out of Cleveland” rumors that kept us extra warm during those dog day months). Nate had an excellent recap of the action here. It’s good, at this point in the 2013-14 season to look back at a game when saying it “turned into the Kyrie Irving show” was a wholly good thing. Oh, and July saw Andrew Bynum, Earl Clark, and Jarrett Jack become Cavaliers.
Patrick: August, the Cavs had finished up with summer acquisitions and we were in the dog days of the NBA summer. Robert took a long look at the Kyrie-Irving-is-gone rumor mill that was in full motion at the time. He dealt with a lot of the paranoia Cavs fans feel for Uncle Drew and laid down a level-headed approach to moving forward without losing it and dissolving into fatalism. It’s hard as a fan to accept powerlessness and still fully invest yourself. He offers that we “don’t freak out,” advice we should all heed. This season has been trying, but Kyrie is still an elite player who the Cavs depend on.
I was also brought into the fold in August and I wrote the second of Cavs: The Blog’s ‘Sizing Up’ series, on the team’s Central Division foes, Chicago. Expectations for both of these teams were fairly high, with most Cavs: The Bloggers picking the Cavs to make the playoffs and most people pencilling Chicago into a top three seed in the East. The Cavs may yet still be on that track, but the loss of Derrick Rose after such a short return has been the biggest bummer of the season, even if it means the Cavs vault the Bulls in the standings. I wrote that the matchup to watch was Rose vs. Irving, and they did meet once this season. It was in fact t
he first meeting the two have ever had, but it didn’t live up to it’s high billing. Each star point guard only scored 16 on sub-.400 shooting as the Cavs lost handily 96-81.
Nate: September is probably the slowest month of NBA coverage. TT and Sergey were involved in international play, and we continued our “sizing up” series, examining all the NBA teams. Little did we know that the pic to the left would become a symbol of the NBA’s Eastern Conference this season, and that highlight of the month was the signing of the Cavs’ most productive rookie, a 6’4″ point guard from Australia by way of Saint Mary’s, Matthew Dellavedova. It was practically a footnote at the time. The month closed with Media Day, including this scary photo.
Mike Brown’s Penguin Impersonation
Nate: October began the first training camp of the Mike Brown era mark II. Meanwhile, the Indians made it to the first round of the ALCS before falling to the Rays. I opined on how much I enjoyed the end of their season, and that how enjoying the process of a players’ career, a season, a game, or a single moment in a game transcends winning, and means that nothing is “All for Naught.” October also saw Anthony Bennett’s only good game as a Cavalier, a pre-season win over the Magic… The preseason slogged on, and Kevin offered us a 7 part series of pre-season predictions, culminating with these 45 predictions, including gems like “Andrew Bynum plays 45 games and 1178 minutes,” and “[Dion] will shoot too many 20-footers off the bounce with 12 seconds left on the shot clock…” October closed with a rousing introduction to the Mike Brown mark II regular season: a surprise start by AB21, lock-down D by Kyrie, and Varejao’s new lethal jumper which contributed to a season opening win to the (yeah, we didn’t realize they were as bad as they are) Brooklyn Nets. Robert recapped optimistically.
Tom: In November, It didn’t take long for expectations to be tempered severely, nor for pleas of patience. Kevin began what appears to be a series displaying time left in a basketball game as a tool of perspective on the length of the NBA season. Patrick titled a post “Expectations” while Nate combined the concepts of tempered expectations and patience with a post titled “Age and Expectations” and included a screenshot of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy cover with the famous tagline: “Don’t Panic”.
The gang got together for a roundtable and Robert wa sable to describe the Cavs as a “pu pu platter of lack”. One of the defining moments of the early season was the Cavaliers losing at home tothe Wizards in which the culprit appeared most vividly to be a total lack of effort. Fortunately, the Cavaliers undrafted rookie, MatthewDellavedova, (or Delly, or SuperDOVA for short) earned folk hero status and seemed to inspire the rest of the roster to at least play hard.
Kevin: Oh, December. Things were so much more carefree before the season started. Did all these things really happen in one month? Early on, the Cavs were roaring, with wins over Denver, the Clippers, New York and Orlando, and relatively encouraging losses against Miami and Portland. Andrew Bynum looked strong, Dion Waiters was a great bench spark plug, and Kyrie began looking like a star again. Then, everything came unglued. An embarrassing home win and road loss against ridiculously depleted Milwaukee and Chicago squads, then a massacre at home at the hands of the Pistons. Now mired in a five (six?) game losing streak, the promise present at the ides of December became of lump of coal by Christmas.
The story of the month was obviously Andrew Bynum. Most prescient article goes to Robert, discussing the distracting impact of Bynum’s depression (?) on the entire team. By the end of the month, he was gone, hopefully taking any negative energy with him. A flurry of articles followed, offering hope where perhaps there was none, Brews and Bruises, and a look at the Cavs’ perplexing penchant for small lineups. Meanwhile, the losses have piled up.
As it relates to Cleveland sportsdom, thank goodness 2013 is over. This New Year has to be better.
Right?
Despite the way the season has gone, I take solace in the thought that the Cavs probably have an 85% chance of either 1) making the playoffs, or 2) obtaining a top 7 pick. I prefer playoffs, but one more top pick will suffice. That’s an 85% chance of a good outcome. The only thing I don’t want to see is no growth and the team falling apart with all the losing – which is a real possibility. I want to see the players be aggressive every night. I still think Bennett can be good. If he had Dellavadova’s aggressiveness… Read more »
I love all the “20-20 hindsight geniuses” here. We HAD TO get a center. We were not able to sign anyone . . . not even an Oden. With the Varejao injury issue, the loss of Speights, and the subpar play of Zeller we had to do something. We could have done nothing, but the fan base would have continuously skewered management and lost interest in the team if we didn’t sign him. A below average 25 yr old Bynum was our only option and seemed like a good risk to take at the time. Brown had coached him in… Read more »
I think the way the Bynum experiment worked out was the second best option for us. We got to see him play, because he was healthy enough to play. Both he and the Cavs management realized it wasn’t working out. We have the option now to trade him to help get someone below the luxury tax line, or just cut him. Had we realized this in the middle of January, that wouldn’t be an option. Had he still been out hurt and come back just as bad in a month, then we wouldn’t have that option, and he’d ruin any… Read more »
Versus, we have really seen the whole package (finally) from Bennett lately that obviously made the Cavs eager to draft hm in the first place. The main thing I have been taking from this good stretch by him in those freakish long arms! Look at his steal for a dunk against the Pacers. He also had a steal on Scola but there was a foul away from the ball. Anyway, you have seen explosiveness, good shooting form and the MUCH improved conditioning. He is pretty quick. Now, he still has serious ball-handling issues and he tends to move too fast… Read more »
Blip – not many other teams could offer him the contract that we did. It was a no-risk move for us and pretty genius. If it worked out, great. If not (as in now), we cut our losses and lose a few million. Weren’t we under the cap floor, anyways? I’m pretty sure we HAD to spend money. If we can trade him for anything at all (probably 95% doubtful at this point), great. Also – I know this season has been disappointing, but in the long run, if we end up with a top 5 pick, then suddenly we… Read more »
In his thus-far underwhelming pro career, Bennett has played well against Orlando. Will be watching him closely tonight hoping for a nice game.
That being said, this entire draft class has been pretty bad so far. Way too early to call anyone a “disastrous” pick. Especially since Bennett has looked much-improved since getting in shape.
Ross, I appreciate your perspective. However, why didn’t anyone else take a flier on Bynum? I also agree its easy to criticize the move now; however, I think this move was never a “no-risk” as many like to think. I think the risk was the negative impact on the culture of the team and perception of management as building an effective team for the future. This probably wasn’t easily seen beforehand, though. Anyways, let’s hope for good things for the new year.
Blip, agree to disagree. It was a savvy contract they offered Bynum which provided an easy out for the team if the Bynum experiment went poorly or a nice trade chip (which may still come to fruition). It’s easy to say it’s a bad move now because it didn’t work out. I still believe that’s short-sighted. He was recently one of the best young big men in the league. You always take a flier on such a talent on that kind of contract. Always.
Bynum was not a “no risk” move. He was a negative influence and an unnecessary distraction on a team that cannot afford these problems. Grant’s move wasn’t smart; Bynum had NO other takers.
@Underdog-
I half way agree with you about the competitive play. If that were consistent throughout the year- even with this record- I wouldn’t be as upset as I am now.
The problem is, those “toe-to-toe” losses are mixed in with 20-point shellackings, and general disinterested basketball, at levels of malaise not seen even under Byron Scott.
TV63, completely agree on Bynum. Great no risk high reward move by CG. But are you joking in regards to Bennett (aka GDB)? You’re right that he has been disastrous; however, please tell me the “many far better choices” because I’m just not seeing it. They don’t exist from my vantage point. Bennett still has just as good of a chance as any of this year’s draft class to have a significant NBA career. 2013 draft is the definition of underwhelming.
I’m not all that much disappointed about Bynum. Totally expected it not to be that great for him. His knees are shot! The doctors were right on their predictions of what he was capable of and NOT MUCH MORE. It is what it is. This little tantrum had very little to do with his release. Zeller was giving same stats in less mins (10 min less ) What is hard to stomach is this disasterous first pick!! We could have had so many far far better choices!! Just pissed away an awesome opportunity !
@Scott “For all of the Dion fans – what type of player is he likely to develop into?”
Word on the street is that one reason Grant is having difficulty making trades is other teams are all insisting on Dion being a part of it. That’s what the league thinks about Dion’s ability and potential.
On another note, I’ve noticed that coaches and key players on opposing teams have been complimenting the talent on the Cavs. It comes off as “sincere” respect and not the “obligatory” respect people give to their opponents. We’ve been losing, but we’ve stood toe to toe with some good teams.
It seems that each game has a bad stretch of cold shooting, no ball movement, or turnovers that’s been the difference. (That, and we’re having trouble closing games out.) Outside of those stretches we’re being pretty competitive.
A disappointing, but not disastrous season thusfar. If the young guys gain grow and they develop some chemistry . . . if Kyrie and Dion learn to play together . . . it can change from disappointing to promising. If continuous losing tears at the fabric of the team and leads to regression (and an ultimate Kyrie departure) . . . then it changes from disappointing to disastrous. It’s how the Cavs finish that matters. To some – the biggest threat is entrenching culture of losing. To others – a top 5 pick should be the goal. I want to… Read more »
I predicted 31 wins for this team and feel like that’s about where we’ll end up. In the East it will probably take 34-35 wins for the 8 the seed. the Bynum situation is disappointing, but at least Grand structured things for an easy out. I remain tepid about trade prospects – I don’t want a vet on the downside of hsi career or a half season rental. This would this deny minutes for our young players. We need to see what Bennett et al can do with extended minutes. I’d take a veteran player that has an eye on… Read more »
Right now they are the 3rd worst team in the NBA behind Milwaukee and Utah.
So the worst thing that can happen is the Cavs miss the playoffs and miss out on a top 5 draft pick, right?
I don’t know. I thought your Dion prediction was dead on.
My predictions are shot this year. Such is the folly of predicting sports, especially trying to take the perspective of “fan”, not “analyst”.