The Point Four-ward: Heavy Rotation

If you haven’t yet, check out Cory’s recap of last night’s game. Then, it’s on to…

Four points I’m thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers…

1.) Following their Christmas Day loss to the Warriors, James raised some eyebrows when he made comments that were interpreted as a call for greater clarity from the rotations used by head coach David Blatt.

The Cavaliers roster, now at full strength for the first time all season, is going through some understandable growing pains as Blatt figures out which combinations work best together, who he can trust going forward and, ultimately, which Cavaliers might see their regular minutes disappear. Luckily, unlike this time last season, James has been understanding of the challenges his coach faces in shuffling what most believe to be a very stacked deck.

“It’s an adjustment period,” James said. “It’s not just going to happen – you plug a guy in there, plug two guys in there and it automatically happens. It’s going to be an adjustment period, but we’ll be fine.”

However, that sentiment — that the Cavs will “be fine” — is growing less and less universal. Even before the re-additions of Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert, some had begun questioning the depth and versatility that were near-universally lauded headed into the season.

I have a really hard time figuring out how good of a TEAM the Cavs put around LeBron. Kyrie, Love obviously great. Just overall.

— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) December 5, 2015

2.) Questions about this team as a whole will linger until they rip off a stretch of sustained dominant play and, to this point, they have not. Their wins have all come a little more difficultly than most thought and the losses, while there have not been many, have too often been characterized by big lapses in effort and focus (see: Trailblazers, Portland).

Still, James is right to preach a degree of patience. He’s correct when he says that the NBA is not a plug-and-play league which, fair or not, is what Blatt has had to face recently. As of this writing, in the nine games since Shumpert’s return (which marked the start of the Cavs having most of their expected bodies available on game days), these have been the rotation’s biggest challenges and question marks.

December 11 at the Orlando Magic: Shumpert returns and everyone (yes, even Sasha Kaun) gets playing time as the Cavs roll 111-76 win.

December 15 at the Boston Celtics: Shumpert gets re-injured, Jared Cunningham’s strong stretch of play is rewarded with a DNP-CD and the Cavs pull away late for a 89-77 win.

December 17 hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder: No Shumpert or Mo Williams. Cunningham plays and ties Tristan Thompson for a team best +13 as the Cavs win 104-100.

December 20 hosting the Philadelphia 76ers: Kyrie Irving returns and scores 12 points! Shumpert returns. Mo sits again. Everyone else (including Sasha Kaun) gets run as the Cavs blow out the Sixers 108-86.

December 23 hosting the New York Knicks: Williams returns, but gets only 14 minutes behind Irving and Matthew Dellavedova. Irving struggles. Richard Jefferson logs just four minutes. Cunningham DNP. Cavs eek out a 91-84 victory.

December 25 at the Golden State Warriors: Irving struggles. Shumpert struggles with his shot. Mozgov struggles with just about everything. Williams gets just four minutes. Jefferson DNP. Cunningham DNP. Cavs lose 89-83.

December 26 at the Portland Trailblazers: Irving sits. No one else comes to play, so the bench gets plenty of use. Jefferson is tops off the bench with 10 points in 25 minutes.

December 28 at the Phoenix Suns: Irving scores 22 points in his best game since returning. Mozgov is moved to the bench. Jefferson plays 19 minutes. Williams and Cunningham DNP as Irving and the Cavs hold off the floundering Suns 101-97.

December 29 at the Denver Nuggets: Irving sits — reportedly, the final time he will sit out the second game of back-to-backs. Shumpert is the big minutes man off the bench logging 31 (and contributing 16 points to go with a couple of assists and steals). Williams, Timofey Mozgov and Jefferson were next in line with 18, 15 and 12 minutes respectively. In all, the Cavs went nine deep, James rediscovered his shot and the Cavs won 93-87.

3.) Is the rotation reliable, at this point? Absolutely not. Might it be difficult for players like Williams, Jefferson and Cunningham to find their rhythm? Of course. But Blatt’s been dealing with what seems like (and often is) a different group of available guys in the back court each and every game.

The team’s inconsistency hasn’t just been about player availability. It’s been a bit of a crap shoot for Blatt figuring out what he can expect to get from a player on a particular night. Until Irving round fully back into form, questions will linger about what the Cavs will be able to get out of their point guard, shooting guard and small forward positions on a given night. Add to that the fact that Shumpert has made his mark in this league (and on this team) on the defensive end and has never been a reliable offensive threat. He can impact a game, sure, but someone off the bench still needs to score some points. Making matters worse is that Williams is a combined -25 with one DNP in the team’s last five games.

Minutes — especially of the bench players — will fluctuate depending on the match-ups and based on who, on a particular night, might be feeling it. Of all of their players, Cunningham and Anderson Varejao are the most likely to not see the floor for a couple of games and then be dusted off and asked to bring a spark off the bench in others.

Mo Williams and Richard Jefferson, on the other hand, were brought in to be part of this team’s regular rotation and both will be expected to contribute regularly (and positively) if the Cavs are to be considered truly deep and versatile. If not… then, yes, GM David Griffin’s off-season team building will rightly get called into question.

4.) Finally, the game of basketball lost one of its true legends with the passing of legendary Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemon on Monday.

Many people forget just how instrumental the Globetrotters were to building interest in basketball both around this country and around the world. In his recent book about the ABL’s Cleveland Pipers, Plain Dealer columnist Bill Livingston writes about how the ABL and ultimately the NBA owe much their survival to the Globetrotters. Globetrotters owner (and ABL commissioner) Abe Saperstein would schedule double-headers featuring a contest between two “legit” teams and another featuring the Globetrotters. Crowds would come out to see the Globetrotters and, while many would leave before the second half of the card, some casual fans would linger, eventually gaining an appreciation for the nascent game of professional basketball.

Lemon was the face of the Globetrotters — its reigning showman and “clown prince” — for 24 years. At 6-3 he even played center for one year, while another young phenom — 7-1 Wilt Chamberlain — played guard. Lemon and the ‘Trotters also played a complicated roll in Civil Rights Era America, drawing just as much criticism as praise for on-court antics that many viewed as reviving the racist tradition of minstrel shows. Still, the Globetrotters of Meadowlark Lemon were a draw long before the NBA figured out how to be one on its own. By the time Lemon retired from the Globetrotters in 1978, professional basketball had weathered its rocky early years and the NBA was about to welcome a pair who would be for the NBA what Lemon had been for the Globetrotters: Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird.

If you’re interested in some independent study on the Globetrotters, here’s a short documentary I found on their history, complete with footage of some of Lemon’s jaw-dropping, knee-slapping moves: