By JASON LLOYD
By JASON LLOYD
Tribune News Service
CLEVELAND — As we round the quarter pole of the season, now seems as good a time as any to make a big-picture evaluation of where the Cavaliers are headed. Coaches and executives like to give their teams at least 20 games, believing that is a fair sample size off, which to make judgments about their team going forward.
With Monday becoming the unofficial start to the trading season — that’s the date players who signed contracts last summer can be dealt — teams are forming a pretty good idea of what they have and what they need. There have been plenty of surprises and a few disappointing developments this season. Here they are.
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Surprises
Kyrie Irving
Any discussion has to begin with Kyrie Irving. Regardless of a mini shooting funk, Irving is having the best season of his career.
Pelicans coach Monty Williams went so far as to suggest he’s the second-best point guard in the NBA (presumably behind Chris Paul, who Williams used to coach).
Williams knows Irving’s game well, since the two have spent time together the last few years with Team USA.
Irving is shooting the highest percentage since his rookie season and was on pace for a career high before this recent five-game slide, he has transitioned off the ball beautifully and he’s making an effort defensively.
“He’s not asked to be a stopper, but he’s certainly giving the effort more than I saw in previous years. I like his effort,” TNT analyst Grant Hill said of Irving’s defense. “And then, offensively, for someone who has dominated the ball his entire career to now playing off somebody else and getting a number of catch-and-shoots, that’s something I wasn’t sure he could do. He’s doing it and thriving in his role.”
Irving is shooting 45 percent on catch-and-shoot opportunities, up from 35 percent last season.
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Team defense
This begins with Irving’s commitment to defense. As a result, the entire Cavs defense is much better than expected at this point. They were woeful early in the season, ranked in the mid-to-low 20s in most defensive categories.
It has slipped back to 25th in defensive field-goal percentage, but hovered around the low teens before a couple of recent slips. It’s 22nd in defensive efficiency and 13th in points allowed.
What is surprising to me is how the defense is doing it. The players are switching on more pick-and-roll coverages more than any Cavs teams in recent history. Switching often leads to mismatches defensively, since guards are typically guarding bigs, and bigs are left defending guards. But the Cavs seem to get away with it more times than not.
They have also been excellent defending the 3-point line, which has been a problem at times in the past.
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LeBron James
As expected, James left Cleveland four years ago in many aspects as a boy. He has returned as a man. James is completely different this time around, from the way he carries himself to what he expects out of himself and his teammates.
Remember all those in-game dance routines? Gone, replaced with a leader who understands now how to win championships and how to get a team there.
When James departed, multiple people throughout the organization always said LeBron simply wasn’t strong enough to stay and put in the work necessary to win. Now he is.
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Disappointments
Dion Waiters
Everything Irving has been, Dion Waiters has been the opposite. He hasn’t defended as well as the Cavs would like, he wasn’t doing what they were asking offensively early in the season and (unlike Irving) he hasn’t adjusted well to playing without the ball.
As a result, his role has changed a couple of times. It took only three games for coach David Blatt to make Waiters a bench player again, but it still hasn’t brought the intended results.
He’s shooting 28 percent in catch-and-shoot situations compared to 43 percent last year.
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Rotations
It’s 20 games into the season, and Blatt still hasn’t settled on a rotation. Injuries have contributed a role in that, particularly losing Matthew Dellavedova for a month, but Blatt is still randomly inserting and yanking guys from the rotation at whim.
Will Cherry went from getting consistent minutes to being released. Lou Amundson went from playing in the first quarter to not playing at all. Mike Miller didn’t get off the bench for days, then Blatt insisted he was never out of the rotation despite evidence to the contrary.
The extra eight minutes in the NBA game, compared to overseas, make a big difference in rotations. Blatt is still adjusting to that. The good news is that this seems to be a rather easy fix, and as he gets to know his personnel better, hopefully the rotations will settle down. The last couple of games seem to be trending in the right direction.
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Bench
This seems to be improving, but the bench has been disappointing through the first six weeks. This was supposed to be one of the team’s strengths, but then Shawn Marion was moved into the starting lineup, Dellavedova was injured, Waiters struggled terribly and Miller never received consistent minutes to find his stroke.
James Jones has provided some long-range scoring punch in recent games. It will be interesting to see if Blatt still finds minutes for Jones once Miller returns from his concussion, which should be this week.
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Overall
This team is probably a little ahead of schedule and the few problems surfacing are easily correctable, except for perhaps Waiters. Things like the bench and rotation, however, should straighten themselves out.
Kevin Love was intentionally left out because he has neither been a surprise nor a disappointment. He has been steady, but he can be much, much better.
The Cavs just have to figure out how to get him comfortable in the system.