The Point Four-ward: Happy Kyri-days!

Due to a crazy week of traveling – and in the spirit of “next man up” – Mike, Cory and Ben joined me for a group Point Four-ward in which we each have a point we’re thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers…

1.) The regular season is nearly two months old, but this week marks the first time that Cavs fans (along with the rest of the league) will start to get an idea of just what these 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers could look like.

The recurring theme in most of the stories coming off of Sunday’s whipping of the Sixers was how the Cavs played relaxed, were noticeably relieved to finally have both Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert available, and were just having fun playing basketball. Now, yes, the Sixers have allowed many an NBA team to have fun playing basketball over the last two seasons, but they have actually played the Cavaliers pretty tough and pretty close over their last few meetings. So, really, an easy win against Philly was hardly a sure thing (even if an eventual win was). To see the team so comfortable… and, finally, so complete should have Cavs fans looking forward not just to the Christmas Day show-down against the Golden State Warriors, but to the remainder of a regular season in which the Cavs get their motor running in preparation for heading out on the highway.

Too often this season, the Cavs have been caught looking forward. LeBron James has had to play deep into more games than many thought and the team’s focus level hasn’t been as high or as consistent as many (mainly James himself) would have liked. A few weeks ago, I questioned in this column whether or not the team was experiencing a crisis of confidence. Now, with Irving back, they look, at least initially, like a team ready to snowball the enthusiasm they’ve been kinda sitting on into a big run. In other words, this is when the Cavs could get scary.

2.) [from Mike]  With the return to health of Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert, one thing to keep an eye on is how David Blatt sets up the team’s regular rotation going forward. As Jason Lloyd has pointed out several times, it would be no surprise to see Mo Williams as the odd man out of the rotation at this point. Matthew Dellavedova has been terrific so far this season, and the minutes at the wing positions will likely be completely taken up by LeBron James, Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith, and Richard Jefferson. In fact it will be difficult for Jefferson to find consistent minutes as well.

The question is, how will Williams deal with playing only sporadic minutes? While one would like to believe that he’ll accept the situation with a positive outlook for the good of the team, there’s no real reason to believe that this will be the case. Williams has always been a sensitive player with up and down performances based on where he is at mentally. For as much as bringing Williams back made sense for basketball reasons, and the great feeling of nostalgia his return brought, fans need to remember the other side of Mo Williams. Playoff Mo Williams. The Mo Williams who came into the 2010-2011 season out of shape and didn’t exactly hurry back from injury. Brian Windhorst has mentioned noticing that Williams has seemed down in the locker room lately, and it may be that he sees his role becoming much less than what he envisioned when he agreed to sign with the Cavaliers.

None of this is to say the signing Williams was a mistake. He is by all accounts a good person and supportive teammate who has given the Cavaliers all they could have expected from him and more. Thirteen points per game on 47.4% shooting to go along with 4.1 assists per game is nothing to sneeze at, and if Mo Williams is the Cavaliers’ fifth guard, then just shows how terrific their depth really is.

3.) [from Cory] After the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Golden State Warriors, ending the Warriors undefeated start to the season, J.R. Smith didn’t hold back his own disappointment to seeing the historic streak come to an end:

“I was upset. I’m not going to lie,” Smith said. “When it was a tough game against Boston, I was home watching the game and I was like, ‘Man, y’all got to pull this out. Y’all got to pull this out.’ I wanted them to go undefeated until they played us.”

I, for one, was rooting for the streak to continue, as well.

I like that the Cavs have flown under the radar. Even with mixed effort level and the absence of their presumed starting backcourt, they’ve managed to pace the improved Eastern Conference. The hoopla surrounding LeBron’s return last season had to have been a distraction at times and I assume it feed into the slow start, along with LeBron’s do as I say, not as I do mantra for the first two months of the season.

I’m still rooting for the Warriors to do well. I want them to chase the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls record for wins in a season. As a hoops head, I like compelling basketball, so I hope the Warriors stay healthy and break the Bulls record… and burn themselves out in the process.

4.) [from Ben] The Cavs have largely done a good job of “Pace and Post” this season. Kevin Love has drained many of his efficiency-leading post hooks after running early for great seal post position. This early post run doesn’t have much of an effect if the PG doesn’t push the ball in tandem. Mo and Delly like to get the ball over half court as soon as possible. It is one of Mo’s greatest strengths. Kyrie, however loves to walk the ball up the floor. There is general curiosity around the league about how the Cavs will continue to feature Kevin Love now that Irving has returned to the lineup. A simple push from Irving would go a long way in keeping Love on track.

Kyrie also has a tendency to crossover the opponent’s big man in pick and roll action. He probably learned it from Jarrett Jack who almost exclusively uses that move to get open 15-footers. It’s not the most efficient use of a pick. At least one guy must be attacking the rim for any PnR to be successful. The attack collapses the defense to open the cross-court pass. When a PG crosses over the opponent bigman, it cuts off the normal roll lane for the offensive big. The two-on-one advantage is lost in the PGs search to “get his J”. Chris Paul does this a lot as well. But, if the offensive big understands that the crossover is coming, he can flip his roll route toward the basket. DeAndre Jordan is very good at reading Paul’s movements in order to still have devastating rolls to the rim. Delly is an effective PnR player because he keeps it simple. He uses the pick as often as he can, and tries to keep the play moving downhill toward the rim. Kyrie is obviously a much more dynamic PnR player. Some of that dynamism is confusing for the Cavalier bigs. If TT and Moz can be more adaptive and Kyrie can be a bit more “boring”, the Cavs will be nearly unstoppable.