On the night of Jan. 13, things weren’t looking so good for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
LeBron James had just returned from a two-week layoff, but the Cavs had lost their fifth-straight, and nine of the past ten. Kevin Love, the team’s other big offseason acquisition, wasn’t producing like most expected. The newly acquired J.R. Smith hadn’t helped the win total at all. The shedding of Dion Waiters didn’t provide the team the immediate Josh Smith Effect that the Pistons were currently experiencing. Players were cranky. Fans were mad. Pundits were baffled. And of course, somebody had to be blamed.
So it must be first-year coach Dave Blatt’s fault, right? You know, that guy that came here from Russia.
But of course.
Suddenly, amidst the poor record and rumors of frustrated players, Blatt’s job security was being doubted. On the surface, it seemed rather obvious why. Here was a first-year coach in the NBA who had no coaching experience outside of various international competition. Sure, he had coached come NBA players on some Euroleague and FIBA teams, but he had no experience with a locker room full of American players, playing on the world’s biggest stage.
“Maybe this just isn’t for him,” many thought. Maybe he couldn’t handle the egos of players making 10 times the money of his former Euroleague players, players that often had the tendency to focus on themselves and their own stats and contracts as opposed to the fundamentals and team-oriented approach of international basketball. Yes, Blatt himself is a former professional player himself, but only two of his 12 years as a player were spent in the U.S., and that was with a Pro-Am league in Atlanta…in the mid-1980’s.
But here we are now, with the All-Star Break coming to an end, and the Cavs sit at 33-22, good for fifth in the Eastern Conference. Two days after that loss to Phoenix that had everyone questioning everything about this team, they embarked on a 12-game winning streak, and have won 14 of 16 before the break. The calls for Blatt’s job have all but disappeared.
Time For Chemistry To Develop
Funny thing, the difference a month makes.
But how about three months? Despite beginning the season with three superstars on the team, and arguably the best superstar in the league, the Cavs stumbled out of the gate.
But some perspective is needed. Blatt was brought to Cleveland with the task of helping a talented and underachieving roster reach the playoffs. Nothing more at first.
But then, LeBron returned to town. Shortly after that, the team traded away their top draft pick in Andrew Wiggins for All-Star Kevin Love. And just like that, Blatt’s job description went from “maybe get an eighth seed,” to “win-the-NBA-championship-because-well-you-have-LeBron-and-Love-now.”
That’s a tall order for any coach, let alone someone new to this whole NBA thing.
As if the start of the year wasn’t tough enough, the Cavs underwent a roster shake-up in early January, and when all was said and done, they team had 11 players on the roster that weren’t on the team last year. A little chemistry building was in order, in a season that was already off on the wrong foot. But something like that takes a little time, even in a world where roster moves are expected to (and sometimes do) produce immediate results.
New Additions
The Cavs acquired Timofey Mozgov in their second trade in three days after bringing in J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert. The move provided the Cavs with some much-needed physical low-post play on both ends of the floor, especially after losing Anderson Varejao for the season with an ankle injury. But perhaps more importantly for the team, it provided the Blatt with a player he’s coached before. Mozgov was a key player for the Russian national team when Blatt was at the helm. He had initially expressed interest in joining the Cavs when he learned of Blatt’s hire, and Blatt likewise made it known that he would love to have his former center back. With the arrival of the 7-foot-1 big man several months later, Blatt suddenly had a great ambassador for his cause, and that has surely had an effect on his players.
Iman Shumpert’s arrival to the team didn’t pay off immediately, as he was still in the middle of nursing a shoulder injury that he sustained when he was still a member of the Knicks. When he finally made his first appearance for Cleveland on Jan. 25, he provided immediate defensive help on the perimeter, something the Cavs were in dire need of. In addition to his stifling defense, Shumpert is shooting a career-high 50 percent from the floor on a team that needs its role players to be counted on when Love, Irving, and LeBron aren’t shooting the ball.
And wouldn’t you know, Cleveland is 10-2 since all of their in-season acquisitions began suiting up. And while it may be true that Kevin Love is still struggling somewhat to find his role on a crowded team, you can’t argue with the Cavs’ recent results.
Moving Forward
So was it a little unfair to expect so much from Cleveland so early in the year? Yes.
Is it safe to say that the team has figured things out and appears poised for a deep playoff run?
“Oh, absolutely,” SheridanHoops.com writer and longtime NBA follower Chris Sheridan said recently on CBS Sports Radio’s Gio and Jones show. “I think one of the big problems with the Cavaliers – and I’m as guilty of this as anybody else – is that we set expectations so high for this team in terms of what they’re going to accomplish in the regular season when we should have set the expectations as to what they’re going to accomplish in the postseason.”
“You bring in Kevin Love and you bring in LeBron James and pair them with a guy who’s been dominating the ball ever since he got to Cleveland – that guy’s Kyrie Irving – it’s going to take some time for you guys to mesh and figure each other out. You’ve all been the primary scorer and facilitator on all your teams in the past. Now you got to subjugate a little bit in different areas.”
And subjugate they have.
Three months and twenty-two days later, David Blatt’s Cleveland Cavaliers finally look like the team the rest of the league feared they would when their monumental offseason occurred.
All the man needed was a little time.
