The Point Four-ward: Sputter, Sputter, Sputter, Vroom

Four points I’m thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers and the NBA…

1.) As recently as last year, people were describing LeBron James as being one of the fastest players in the NBA. While perhaps not tops in terms of sheer speed, James’s ability to cover large swaths of the court in precious few strides made him one of the quickest players his size ever. That’s why so much is being made of the relative snail’s pace of his play this season. What Cavs fans have seen thus far is one of the most athletic players in league history running and jumping like he’d added 20 pounds in the off-season rather than dropped it.

Tom covered this very well in his recap of the Cavs win over the Pelicans Monday night; James had some moments. He added to his total of four dunks in the first five games of the season. But, overall, he’s still not playing in that gear that Cavs fans better hope he still has. But speed — or, rather, the lack thereof — made me think about another thing: It might be time to take another look at Tristan Thompson as this team’s starting center.

For a team that was supposed to thrive in the open court, the Cavs starting lineup hasn’t looked particularly spry. Shawn Marion was able to get some transition action early in the Denver game and, overall, his length and complete non-threat to dribble the offense into isolation makes him a good (if not great) fit with the starters. Kyrie Irving’s spotty history with pushing the ball is well documented and Kevin Love’s knack for the rebound-outlet means he’ll rarely beat anyone else on the team down the floor. Meanwhile, the team’s leader is stuck like Atreyu’s horse in the Swamp of Sadness. That leaves the center position, where Anderson Varejao — because, much like with Love, he’s been the one gobbling up the rebounds that lead to the break — has never been a particularly strong transition player.

Tristan Thompson, however, often looks liked an arrow shot toward the hoop — especially when he shares the floor with James and knows he’ll get paid … ahem, sorry … I mean, get the pass where he needs it. Thompson is arguably the only Cavalier playing well above the rim, he’s blocking shots at a better rate than any time since his rookie season and he’s scoring more efficiently than he ever has. He, unlike most of the team, is playing quick.

The problem is that Varejao is still the better player. He’s more reliable on offense, smarter on defense, a better passer — oh, yeah, and there’s the whole “LeBron loves playing with him” thing. But I’d be interested in seeing Thompson in that role again, just to see if he can give the more earthbound legs of the Cavs starters a vertical lift.

2.) The Cavs still have a ways to go before head coach David Blatt can fully ease off on pressing his star players noses to the “minutes played” grindstone. It’s unfortunate — as one of Blatt’s stated goals heading into the season was to cut back on James’s minutes during the season — but it’s tough to rest your best player when he’s the one who best understands what the team is trying to do on offense. James’s rest will come — but this stretch to open the season where he’s averaging over 40 minutes a game, in some ways, might be the price he’s paying for taking it slow in the preseason. Practice time once the NBA season gets going is precious, so a lot of the teaching, a lot of the learning, and a whole lot of mistakes will take place in games for us all to freak out about.

Blatt, also, will probably take some wins now — to keep freaking out to a manageable level — and rest his guys later, once the wrinkles have seen the iron.

James played over 40 minutes again on Monday night against New Orleans, as did Irving. Love played just over 38 minutes in what was a nice early-season home win against a young, talented Pelicans team. But Blatt is finding some bench guys he can trust. Mike Miller is playing more now — over 18 minutes against the Pellies. Miller is still only shooting 22% from deep on the young season, but he’s too good a shooter for that to continue (one hopes…). If he’s healthy and the minutes keep coming, he’ll start connecting.

Before his injury, Blatt had fallen in love with Matthew Dellavedova (because, really… how could you not) and was playing him nearly 20 minutes a night, with many of those minutes coming in crunch time. Since Delly went down, Blatt has turned to Joe Harris off the bench and the rookie from Virginia has seen his minutes grow, topping 20 minutes in Monday’s game where he chipped in five points and led the team in +/- at +18.

Once Dion Waiters comes back from injury, look for Will Cherry to take the off-ball roll in lineups where Waiters runs the point. Cherry was one of the bright spots on the Cavs Summer League team this year. The 6-1 guard from Montana averaged 12.8 points on 52.1% shooting and, at least in one game, was the best player on a Cavs team that also featured number one pick Andrew Wiggins. Plus, as Tom pointed out, Cherry was a two-time Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Year.

When Cherry gets up to speed, he should be able to really lessen the blow the Cavs bench took when Dellavedova went down.

Maybe then we’ll see if Blatt has enough trust in his team to give his best player a couple more minutes on the pine.

3.) So, it turns out that all those Cavaliers rim protection issues that fans and writers talked about heading into the season were not just a figment of our imaginations. Plenty of ink/pixels have been spilled talking about just how uninspiring the team’s defense has looked in the early going and that issue will more than likely linger on far longer than any concerns on the offensive end. The team will continue to look at adding players who can help dissuade opponents from scoring at the rim and, while most of the rumors have swirled around bigger names like Roy Hibbert, Larry Sanders and Timofey Mozgov (wait, didn’t I just say “bigger names”?), a player who might be more available is one of Sander’s teammates in Milwaukee, John Henson.

Henson is averaging only 12.1 minutes a game this season, playing mostly behind Sanders at center. While Henson will always be on the thin side, he’s an excellent shot blocker, batting away 1.4 even in his limited minutes (good for over four per 36 minutes). You can’t really see the Bucks giving up a young, developing shot blocker who is still playing on a rookie deal, but if Henson gets pushed even further out of the rotation by the Bucks host of other versatile bigs, maybe the Cavs could actually offer something to make them bite.

4.) Remember this time last year? Back then, we’d only scratched the surface of what would become a disaster of a rookie season for former Cav Anthony Bennett. As his struggles progressed, many called for him to stop taking so many three pointers and, instead, park his big body closer to the hoop. Bennett seemed similarly trigger happy from deep as part of the Cavs’ Summer League team in Las Vegas this past July, rarely giving up on an outside shot if there was one even remotely available. After he was traded to Minnesota as part of the deal for Kevin Love, his new coach Flip Saunders echoed a familiar refrain: Bennett needs to take fewer three pointers. But, man, he did sure seem to love those three pointers.

So, through five games this season, how many threes do you think Bennett has shot? 10? 110? Actually, it’s zero. The second year big man from UNLV is averaging 6.2 points and 2.4 rebounds in 12 minutes a game. What’s more, he’s shooting 56% from the field with all of his shots coming from — as the song says — beyond the arc where the gumdrops grow.