Rebounding woes continue for Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost an offensive battle Thursday against the Houston Rockets, 117-113. The rebounding and defensive woes continue for the Cavaliers. What is a viable solution?

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost again, falling to 5-7 on the year. They didn’t get their seventh loss until the 30th game of the season last year.

Since the beginning of the 2017-18 NBA season, the defensive woes of the  Cavaliers have been an ongoing issue, and it doesn’t seem to be improving anytime soon.

Opposing teams are running the high pick-and-roll/pop or any variation of it, and are destroying them. The Houston Rockets ran the 1-5 pick-and-roll against the Cavs for most of the game.

They couldn’t stop the combination of James Harden or Clint Capela. They drew the “defense” in all game long, and Cleveland had no answer for it.

Guarding the pick-and-roll has been an issue for the Cavs for years. However, they were so talented offensively, the continuous mishaps were ignored and seen as a fixable problem.

It’s yet to be fixed, and they’re being exposed in every single game.

According to NBA.com, the Cavaliers are ranked 29th out of 30 in guarding the pick-and-roll. They aren’t stopping anybody.

More from Cleveland Cavaliers

• Latest intel calls Donovan Mitchell’s future with the Cavs into question
• 5 players who will challenge Victor Wembanyama for Rookie of the Year
• Cleveland Cavaliers: Analyzing the Max Strus acquisition
• Ranking the 5 best available shooting guards in 2023 NBA free agency
• NBA Rumors: Cavs have secret weapon to lure LeBron back to Cleveland

While that seems to be an endless issue, the current problem with the team now is rebounding. Most fans have said the return of Tristan Thompson will solve things, but what they forget is that he wasn’t playing at a high level before he suffered the left calf strain against the Indiana Pacers.

He wasn’t going to make anybody forget about Moses Malone.

Thompson has a game against the New York Knicks this season where he had one point and no rebounds. How is that for $84 million?

Kevin Love is still crashing the boards, but mainly on the defensive side. He is averaging 10.8 rebounds per game, but according to ESPN.com, he’s averaging 7.9 defensive boards per game and only 2.9 on the offensive end.

That contributes to the struggles he has getting second-chance points. It was also the issue of the night against the Rockets.

During the last minutes of the game, the Cavaliers had numerous chances to get rebounds to either take the lead or win, but they came up short. A Harden airball turned into a Capela alley-oop was the result of the Cavs failing to get easy rebounds.

They also lack size in the post. For years in my articles, I’ve pushed for them to acquire a center. Whether it was Tyson Chandler, DeMarcus Cousins, Gorgui Dieng, etc., Cleveland needs an athletic, long big in the middle to rebound and protect the paint.

I know they have Thompson, but he’s just too small most of the times against bigger centers. The Cavs also have Ante Zizic, but he is still learning the NBA.

There is some speculation among people that the Brooklyn pick could be used to acquire Cousins or potentially DeAndre Jordan, but that is only a pipe dream for now.

The Cavaliers must also work on the basic fundamentals. It’s ridiculous to even have to say that about a championship team.

Simple things such as boxing out and effort on 50-50 balls, just aren’t there. The little things that Jae Crowder did for the Boston Celtics haven’t shown up for the Cavs yet. I think he’s out of position, and should be coming off the bench to give LeBron James a break.

I think he would be more comfortable and able to do the things that make him one of the best hard-working defenders in the NBA.  As a power forward, he’s going up against bigger players and that’s physically draining for somebody even his size at 6’6″ and 235 pounds.

It’s not an individual issue, it’s a team issue. They must show more effort, desire and motivation during these games. At first the narrative was they’re only motivated against good teams.

Thursday’s contest against the Rockets was a big game and they didn’t show the effort needed to get a win.

It’s still very early in the season, but as the adage goes, old habits die hard. They must find some consistency as a team and turn it around. The talent is definitely there, they just need to get the best out of each other.

Next: 2017-18 Week 4 NBA Power Rankings

It’s that simple.