Cleveland Cavaliers: Playing With Fire
The Cleveland Cavaliers are one of the two favorites to make it out of the Eastern Conference, the other team being the Chicago Bulls. At this point, the general consensus seems to be that the Cavaliers will face the Bulls in the East Finals.
The Bulls have a very potent offense and a stingy defense, and they’ve looked great so far, but the Cavaliers have one glaring issue they need to address if they want to have a balanced attack like the Bulls.
The Cavaliers have still neglected the defensive side of the ball, and with their personnel, it won’t be easy to fix. Although it’s still very early, the Cavaliers have a formidable fourth-ranked offense and a 29th-ranked defense, giving up a whopping 111 points per 100 possessions.
Only the Los Angeles Lakers have a worse defense, giving up an atrocious 114 points per 100 possessions.
More from Hoops Habit
- The 5 most dominant NBA players who never won a championship
- 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
- Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
One area where the Cavaliers aren’t lacking is on offense. After playing only six games, their fourth-ranked high-octane offense has been fantastic. With three players who have averaged 20-plus points before in their careers, the Cavaliers were expected to be a very efficient offensive team.
The Cavaliers’ offense was never going to be an issue. It is a little surprising how well they’re clicking offensively after playing only a handful of games together though.
At some point, the Cavaliers will need to acquire a rim protector. The criteria for an effective rim protector is an anchor who can protect the rim at a 40-45 percent clip, per the player tracking data available at NBA.com.
The Chicago Bulls have two legitimate rim protectors in Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson. The Cavaliers have Anderson Varejao and Kevin Love, but neither is capable of patrolling the paint well enough to serve as reliable defensive anchors.
In the past 10 seasons, no team has won a championship with an offense ranked lower than 11th and a defense ranked lower than ninth. The Cavaliers’ defense is a distant 29th at the moment and they’ll have to make major strides defensively to become a top-10 defense.
There’s no doubt the Cavaliers have championship aspirations this season and they’ll need to emphasize defense in order to contend.
It’s still early but Cavaliers general manager David Griffin may have to accept the fact that he’ll need to try to acquire a rim protector via trade. With three-fifths of their starting five set in stone, the shooting guard and center positions are positions of need for the Cavaliers.
For the past few months, it seemed like it was a foregone conclusion that the Cavaliers and Bulls would have an epic battle in the Eastern Conference Finals, but two other teams have something to say about that.
The much improved Raptors and Wizards both have a better record than the Cavaliers at this point and could even challenge the Bulls in the Eastern Conference.
After trailing by 19 in the fourth quarter to the rebuilding Celtics, the Cavaliers relied on a monster effort from LeBron James and Kyrie Irving to win the game. This may work against inferior teams but in the postseason, they can’t rely on their offense to win games.
Even though the Cavaliers are off to a respectable 4-3 record (for a team with a completely revamped roster), the Cavaliers have some potential issues that could hold them back from reaching the promise land.
They’re yet to win a game without scoring more than 100 points, meaning they’re relying heavily on their offense to win games. The good news for them is that they’re aware of their defensive shotcomings and should improve during the course of the season.