Cleveland Cavaliers: Preseason A Time To Experiment
By Joshua Howe
Preseason is just preseason. A team can win every single one of its games and still end up losing all of its regular-season matchups. There is nothing decisive about preseason. Preseason, in terms of cementing oneself as a top-tier club, is useless.
However, preseason is not pointless. There is a reason that it exists. And while lots of people around complain that it’s boring, that it’s not real basketball, that it just simply doesn’t matter, they are missing the main goals set out by each team when the first game appears on the calendar.
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Each squad around the league uses preseason as an opportunity to get their players in game shape (which, admittedly, is becoming less and less of an issue in the modern era) and a chance to run new plays, test out players’ improvement from the year before and showcase rookies and their promise.
Maximizing their time is vital for every single NBA team, and that’s why each one tries to get all of these goals accomplished before the regular-season tipoff.
We’ve seen Enes Kanter shooting 3s, Byron Scott telling the media that he doesn’t want the Los Angeles Lakers shooting tons of 3s, Derrick Rose looking more comfortable and Dion Waiters doing … well, what Dion Waiters does.
For the Cleveland Cavaliers, they require this preseason perhaps more than any other team. They are, basically, a team that was put together overnight. Or rather, a team that was put together over a summer. The current roster looks dramatically different from the one that ended the 2013-14 season.
The core group of Kyrie Irving, Waiters, Tristan Thompson and Anderson Varejao remain, but almost the entire rest of the squad have new faces. The best player in the world was added in LeBron James, the best current power forward in Kevin Love and role players like Mike Miller and Shawn Marion, as well.
With so much newness abounding in Cleveland, it makes sense that a preseason for them would be choppy and full of growing pains. Some things have come easily and naturally, like Love’s outlet passes to wings or James’ direction to teammates on and off the court.
Others have not, such as defense and figuring out which guy is supposed to be where and when.
The Cavaliers have been testing out David Blatt’s offense as well, running some interesting things such as scissor cuts, which leads to a player getting an open look in the center of the paint, just about where the free-throw line resides. They ran this play often against the Chicago Bulls last game, which was neat to see, since it resulted in a lot of easy points.
Something else to note (displayed to perfection in the same game) is how well the new offense accommodates players who play well off-ball. Varejao had one heck of a game, scoring 22 points, grabbing eight boards, swatting two shots and recording two steals in a mere 24 minutes of action. The Wild Thing was everywhere, that bushy hair of his never ceasing to wobble as he kept moving constantly.
Many people projected that Thompson would flourish in this offense, since he moves well off-ball. But it seems that in some strange way Varejao was left out of that conversation, and he’s done well to remind us this preseason that he most definitely deserves to be in it.
In the same game, there was also a pass that Kyrie made to LeBron off of the backboard, but the play was disrupted (dangerously) by Tony Snell. These are the sorts of things that Cleveland is dipping its toes into as the season looms. They are trying everything and anything, and finding out what works best for them, in hopes of making the meshing finish more quickly.
This is the time to do it. This preseason has been good for the Cavaliers, make no mistake. While the games may be boring to some, just remember; this is the sort of trial and error that will eventually make the Cavs into what they will become.