The Point Four-ward: Calm Before Storm
2014-09-24
Last year and forever ago…
Four points I’m thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers…
1.) The Cleveland Cavaliers will hold their annual pre-Training Camp Media Day this Friday, September 26 at Cleveland Clinic Courts. No actual basketball will be played, with the only chance of sweat to be broken coming in the unlikely event that someone feels it appropriate to ask LeBron James about his “hairline rumors.” Still, Media Day is the grand public preening, the public’s first look at the 2014-15 Cavaliers assembled together, the Memorial Day to the wonderful summer that is the NBA season (which, somewhat contradictorily, takes place almost entirely during the winter… but you get the idea).
2.) With the addition of A.J. Price and Lou Amundson, Cavs General Manager David Griffin has said the team’s training camp roster, now featuring a full 20 players, is set. Or, rather, it’s set until it’s not. Griffin has made it clear that the team is still interested in adding Ray Allen, should the 39-year old guard decide he wants to play this year. There will also continue to be rumors linked to whatever big man du jour people think could help shore up the team’s biggest on-paper weakness.
So, here’s who the Cavs have busy at home writing their names on the tags of their underwear as they prepare to go to camp:
Guards — Kyrie Irving, Dion Waiters, Mike Miller, Matthew Dellavedova, Joe Harris, Chris Crawford, Price and John Lucas III.
Forwards — LeBron James, Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Shawn Marion, Amundson, Malcolm Thomas, Erik Murphy and Dwight Powell.
Centers — Anderson Varejao, Brendan Haywood, Alex Kirk.
3.) While most of the roster spots seem pretty set, there are a handful of mini-battles to keep track of.
Among the guards, most of the competition will be for the third point guard spot. That spot likely goes to either Price or Lucas. Price is younger (27 versus 31) and bigger (6-1 vs 5-11) and showed some capability in stops at Indiana and Washington before averaging just 3.5 minutes in 27 games with Minnesota last year. Crawford has been mentioned at both guard positions and would provide nice size (6-4) at the backup backup point guard spot, but he’ll really have to shoot the ball extremely well (he hit 37% of his three-point shots in college at Memphis) in order to stick on this team — even at the end of the bench — as a rookie.
Some of the logjam at the forward spot will be resolved by rotation locks like Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson sliding down to man the five spot with regularity. The team really likes Powell’s size (6-11) and passing, so he may hang around the big league club. There is also some chance that the team decides to take a good long look at one of the players it got from Utah (Lucas, Thomas and Murphy) and not just trade them for an exception or cut them for the savings. Of that bunch, Thomas, a 6-9 225 pound forward known for his defense and ability to block shots, is the more intriguing prospect for this team.
If the Cavs balk on keeping a project, though, the veteran Amundson could have himself a home (well… at least for the start of the season) in the wine and gold.
How about the players listed at center? I wouldn’t be surprised if they all make the Cavs roster, with Kirk keeping an active spot warm until Haywood is able to come off the inactive.
4.) Rookie whose performance I’m most interested in seeing? Joe Harris. In the Las Vegas Summer League, the 6-6 swingman from Virginia alternated between looking overmatched and looking like a gritty player who may find some success because he is used to having to overcome the stigma of always being overmatched. There are questions about whether he is enough of an athlete to succeed as an NBA wing, but I had the exact same concerns about Dellavedova after seeing him play in Vegas in 2013.
Vet whose performance I’m most interested in seeing? Ummmmm…. duh!
Vet not named LeBron James whose performance I’m most interested in seeing? I’m going to go with Marion. It’ll be interesting to see what ye olde Matrix still has in the tank and what he looks like mixed in with James, Love and Irving.
Whoa, whoa, whoa…. People, are we not thinking about inevitable injuries to this team? Delly will see the floor. A lot! Granted he maybe the 9th most important person on our team, he will still improve and show a toughness that David Blatt covets (and international style of play). Let’s not forget that Delly might be the most pure point guard that Lebron has ever played with (I said pure, not best). I am excited for that (even if they are only on the floor together for 5-10 minutes a game). Simply put, Delly brings a few intangibles that no… Read more »
What a great roster Griffin has assembled. 65 wins seems pretty likely.
IMHO, anything with a 6 in front of it is gravy. My hope is they use the regular season as the ultimate mix and match trial period to figure out the best lineups and substitutions for the optimal playoff run. If they do this, there will be some knowledge-gathering losses mixed in. Also, they’re going to need to rest guys like Andy, Matrix, Miller and Allen (if they get him) and do what they can to prevent them from injury due to overuse. Given all of this, my prediction would be more in the 55-58 win range.
Which should still be enough to win the East comfortably.
With a lot of things going wrong, 55 – 58 might happen.
It is also possible that a lot of things go right. For example, either or both of KI and DW could take a huge step up, or TT, or someone unexpected. In this case, high 60’s or even 70 could happen.
If the Cavs want 70 is reachable. I don’t think they’ll go for it though
I’ll be honest. I’m most excited to see LeBron and Delly together. Outside of FIBA and All-Star games, LeBron has never played with a pass first point guard who pushes the ball. I’m interested to see Harris and Powell too. Wasn’t impressed in summer league, but like you said, I wasn’t impressed with Delly there last year, either. I so excite.
I don’t think Delly is going to play very much, if at all. He’s not really a point guard because he can’t bring the ball up the court well against NBA players. He’s mroe of a shooting guard who can’t dribble. I’m thinking he will be lucky to see 5 minutes a game.
Hopefully they sign Ray Allen at some point so we don’t have to watch an overmatched Delly in the playoffs.
I don’t think his turnover ratio was horrific especially for a rookie. And really not that worse than Kyrie or Dion either. Granted they played a lot more MPG.
And also, Ray Allen’s TO ratio (10.2) wasn’t much better than Dellys (10.7). Allen also had 33 ball handling turnovers vs Dellys who had 18. Allen did play more MPG, but at this point there is more upside in Delly IMO.
Pretty much going to assume you’re trolling here because your scouting report on Delly seems divorced from reality.
While he had some rough spots as a rookie, his defense and grittiness should earn him at least 10-12 mins/game. Also, did you see any of the Vegas league or FIBA games Australia played this summer? While not against NBA level talent, Delly still looked like he took a big leap up in his game. He was most often the best player on the floor in Vegas.
I’d rather watch Delly
Cols again shows his lack of awareness of anything in pro basketball that doesn’t make the Sportcenter highlight reel. Did you WATCH any games last year? Cleveland’s offense- particularly Dion’s- was far more functional with Delly at PG than it was with Kyrie- and it’s PRECISELY because of the difference in how they brought the ball up the court. Delly, more often than not, did it by pushing it up the back court with a few dribbles, finding a wing who was racing up the court, and letting it fly- so the ball could do the work for him. With… Read more »
I like Delly overall, but I understand Cols skepticism. I just don’t see him as anything more than a 3rd string PG on this team. I am rooting for him, and hope he is more than that, but just don’t see it.
Delly, for me, fits into the long list of unproven, middle of the road prospects that Cavs fans get overly attached to for some reason. Caspi, Leur, Zeller, Karasev, Miles, Pargp, etc…
Seems like the last thing I’d want is a non-superstar PG running the offense with LeBron on the floor. For a LeBron teammate, pass-first is much less important than shoot-really-well. Outside of being able to make post-entry passes, you want a PG that will make the other team pay for crowding LeBron, either by nailing open shots or getting to the rim when a rotation comes at you too hard. If it weren’t for Kyrie, I’d expect crunch time lineups against teams led by star PGs to have LeBron guarding the PG and all shooters. Between LeBron and Love, there’s… Read more »