#CavsRank Moments: 15-13 (Taking Steps)
2016-09-23
This set of #CavsMoments is all about the shoes. From bowling shoes to walking shoes to the right shoes for stepping over one’s opponent, we learned it’s important to find the proper footwear for the corresponding occasion. We saw the Cavs lace up their freshly Lysol-ed lane slippers for a pivotal mid-season break… saw one of the winningest Cavs coaches in history get the boot… and saw LeBron take one giant Nike-sized step(over) for all Cavs-kind. Yes, they were all memorable… they all impacted the Cavs in a profound way… and they all helped us see what can happen when the proverbial shoe is on the other foot. Without further ado… here are your #CavsMoments 15-13.
15. The Cavs go bowling and Kevin Love takes a charge
(By Nate Smith) On January 15th, 2015, David Blatt’s NBA coaching career hung on a precipice. The Cavs, at almost halfway through the season, were 19-20, riding a six game losing streak, and had just one win in their previous 10 games. The team had been without LeBron James for all but two of those ten (LeBron’s mysterious South Beach “vacation”). Those losses included a gruesome defeat at the hands of the 76ers (the night of the Dion trade), and a 19-point drubbing from the moribund Kings.
As Cleveland limped into L.A., they knew another long practice awaited them. But, in what is now legend, the team bus pulled into an alley, and David Blatt went Walter Sobchak on us, saying “F*** it, Dude. Let’s go bowling.” The Cavs spent the next couple hours throwing rocks and building team chemistry instead of practicing. The trip showed David Blatt’s ability to adapt when things weren’t working out as planned, and that he could cut loose every now and again.
It worked. After the Lakers had their way in the first half, Cleveland rallied behind 75 points from the Cavs’ big three, and the grittiest play of Kevin Love’s first season.
It sounds crazy, but the two most memorable plays of Kevin Love’s career with the Cavs so far have been defensive gems. We all know about Kevin’s isolation lockdown of the 2016 NBA MVP in the final moments of Game 7, but it’s easy to forget that Love spent much of the ’14-’15 season nursing a bad back. And, the back spasms that had plagued him throughout a west coast road trip were leading us all to openly question David Blatt, and the way he managed players and minutes.
When Kevin stood in front of a driving Jeremy Lin, took a charge, crumbled like a sack of potatoes, and lay on the floor for two minutes, the Cavs season turned around. Yes, they’d added J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert (injured) and Timofey Mozgov was soon to follow, but Kevin’s inspirational moment was the turning point when players started to sacrifice for team greatness.
The moment inspired Tom Pestak’s masterwork, “Kevin Love is Not Fitting In (to your Preconceived Notions of Kevin Love Fitting In)”
To say he’s not fitting in because of his individual numbers is at best half of the equation. The other half is how everyone else is playing because of Love’s presence. And right now, a combination of his defensive rebounding, help defense, court vision, bball IQ, floor spacing and offensive triple threat-ery has the Cavs HUMMING when he’s on the floor. Am I supposed to believe this is happening in spite of Kevin Love?
After the charge, and after Tom’s piece, I was convinced that Kevin Love had learned how to transcend box scores and become a winning basketball player. Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals proved that.
14. The Cavs Fire David Blatt
The bowling trip and the win over the Lakers were the turning point of the ’14-’15 season, and showed that David Blatt’s ability to change tactics and methods were as good as anyone’s. David Blatt overcame a 19-20 start to the season and then coached LeBron and Co. to Game 6 of the 2015 finals. But, the Cavs’ loss to the Warriors on Christmas Day of 2015 started a downward spiral.
After the disappointing 83-89 loss, in which many of the team’s veterans openly questioned David Blatt’s rotations and his sudden benching of Mo Williams and Richard Jefferson, the Cavs’ delivered possibly the most pathetic loss of the last two years, a 76-105 postage stamp game against Portland in the Rose Garden. Brian Windhorst would later report that the Cavs “basically boycotted” the Portland game.
The players were so upset that he didn’t communicate with them, didn’t give them a chance to understand or discuss the decision that they basically boycotted the game the next night. They played a game in Portland and they got blown off the floor. They were never competitive from the first five minutes on against a Portland team that’s frankly not very good.
Ben Werth wrote of that game, “The Cavs’ lack of energy was startling. I haven’t seen the Cavs play with that kind of boredom since pre-bowling trip last season.” An eight game win streak coming out of the holidays seemed to right the ship. But, a loss in San Antonio was followed by a moribund win in Houston that had Tom Pestak lamenting,
https://twitter.com/tompestak/status/688221879044194304
The clincher for coach Blatt was a game we dubbed, the Martin Luther King Day Massacre. The 132-98 ass-whooping at the hands of the Warriors in the Q had LeBron James visibly livid while talking to Tyronn Lue. In the heat of the moment, I wrote.
Yes, there are plenty of bones to pick with Blatt, but he can’t make jump shots, he can’t make the bigs play defense at the level of the pick. All he can do is sub guys in and out and give them information. The players have to buy in. And, if they won’t, Cleveland should find a coach they will listen to.
A week later, they did.
Cleveland has fired coach David Blatt, sources tell Yahoo.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 22, 2016
In the post firing presser, David Griffin spouted some real Tony-Robbins-esque corporate motivational speak as to his reasons why. (These are in no particular order):
This team is not galvanized after wins. When we are galvanized is when people say we can’t win and we do. We respond to chaos. This team has not handled expectations well.
I’ve been around the NBA for 24 years, and this team struggles with prosperity more than any team I’ve been around.
I am more than confident that Tyronn Lue has the pulse of the team. We have to have buy-in and team-first habits in order to be the team we want to be.
This is not an indictment of David Blatt as a coach, and it’s not to say that Ty Lue is a better basketball coach. He’s a better basketball coach for this team today.
The firing caused intense debate. Some felt it was time. Some felt like the way the Cavs handled the situation was an embarrassment, and that petulant children in the locker room were running the team. Many reacted that the team wasn’t tuning out Blatt, they were tuning out LeBron, and that until the team found a leader James respected, nothing was going to improve. I felt that way, and that if the team didn’t grow up, they weren’t going to win anything.
Here are some of my favorite comments from the day Blatt was fired.
Cavs’ front office is like that girl who breaks up with you because you didn’t take her to a better than 5 star restaurant….when last week you were dining at Taco Bell and watching Netflix. -Frampton
The Cavaliers set him up for failure. -Charles Barkley
Love tried to defend the firing of Coach Blatt, but the news came in the form of a pick and roll. -Unknown Tweeter
Well, I sure hope Lue stands up to LeBron, then. Benches him when he loafs, criticizes him in the press when his play sucks. Ugh. Its just so stupid. I don’t understand human beings sometimes. I mean, if a vet has a problem about not playing on Christmas, talk to the coach directly and find out why. Blatt’s a man, he’ll tell you. If Mo and RJ don’t get run, its because they’re not that good. -JoeyB
I’m embarrassed for our league that something like this could happen. -Rick Carlisle
Multiple people told me during the NBA Finals that Blatt was in trouble. During the NBA Finals. That the Cavs were in. -David Zavac
The David Blatt of my imagination was a great coach. The actual David Blatt was a pretty good coach, somewhat wasted on a superstar team. -Charlie E.
What a mess. What a complete and utter mess. What a complete, utter, and hella’ expensive mess. -BelieveLand
It was a mess: madness, hysteria, scores of fans and media jumping to conclusions… Was it LeBron? Was it Lue? Was David doomed because he was hired to coach a young, improving team, and then they signed LeBron James? Did LeBron ever respect him? Were the Cavs going to trade Kevin Love? Was Lue “Klutch’s Guy?” Would Mark Jackson be coaching the Cavs in 2017? Had Lue been running the team and calling timeouts behind Blatt’s back all along?
It’s hard to believe how much things have changed since then. I remember ultimately feeling embarrassed, angry, yet ultimately that if the Cavs felt they had to make the move, and that if the players weren’t going to listen to the coach, he needed to go. I didn’t think that Ty Lue could turn it around, hold the players accountable, and make them behave like adults throughout the basketball game. But I, like so many of us, was clearly wrong about coach Lue. Now that it’s done, I can’t say I’d trade a moment of the chaos. Who knows what strange things transpired those few days, but the results six months later were that the Cavs had won a championship.
The firing that might have defined the season, became merely a footnote.
13. The Stepover
(By EvilGenius) Coming in at the unluckiest number (at least as far as Warrior fans might believe) is a #CavsMoment that unquestionably changed the dynamics of this year’s Finals between Cleveland and Golden State. It was late in the fourth quarter of Game 4, and the Warriors were up by 10 at the Q with just under three minutes remaining, on their way to putting the Cavs in a seemingly insurmountable 3-1 hole. In hindsight, rarely has such an innocuous moment turned out to be so inopportune…
Steph Curry had the ball at the top of the key, looking to work the offense. Draymond Green stood in the way of LeBron James and his attempts to stay on top of Curry, and the two got tangled as Steph drove to the right. It was hard to tell really if Draymond was selling contact, or if LeBron really shoved Green’s arm away hard enough to put him on the deck (though it certainly doesn’t seem like Draymond is that much of a weakling). In any event, Green flopped to the floor and lay prone for a moment at the feet of James… forcing the King to make a decision that would trigger the Moment in question.
Instead of going right or left around the fallen Green, James chose to take the inflammatory step of going directly over him. Taking this as the ultimate sign of disrespect (apparently), Draymond reverted to his old sack of tricks (this time with his hand instead of his foot), swinging his arm and appearing to make contact with James’ groinal area. James immediately turned around, and the two players got in each other’s faces as play continued. Moments later, as they both went for a rebound, they were each called for a foul and had to be physically separated.
“I felt he stepped over me, and you’re not just going to step over me,” Green said on NBA-TV. “There are many routes you can take. Don’t just step over me like that. So we had our words and it is what it is. I don’t care who you are. I’m not going to back down from you.”
However, despite the swipe at his actual manhood, James seemed more upset with Green’s verbal swipe at his perceived one…
“Draymond just said something that I don’t agree with,” James said. “I’m all cool with the competition. I’m all fine with that, but the words that came out of his mouth were a little bit overboard. And being a guy with pride, a guy with three kids and a family . . . some things just go overboard and that’s where he took it.”
Though Green declined to comment on what he said during the incident, saying he would not repeat it, others revealed the supposed exchange…
According to a source familiar with the spat between LeBron James and Draymond Green, the trigger word was DG calling James a "b*tch"
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) June 11, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99K60MhXuzM
So, even though the Warriors had emerged with an 11 point victory and a commanding series lead with what looked like a back-breaking defeat of the Cavs on their home court to put them on the brink of elimination… they were left with a shadow of doubt hanging over Game 5. Given Draymond’s recent history in the playoffs of delivering shots to his opponents’ nether regions, and his propensity for gathering technical fouls, would the League review this latest incident and retro-actively punish the Golden State big man? LeBron certainly thought they should…
“They’ll take a look at it,” James said. “We all saw it in the locker room. You, like I said, as a competitor, I love going against Draymond and I’m all about going out there and leaving it out on the floor. But when it gets a little bit more than it should be, that’s what caused me to have words with him.”
Though some in the Warriors’ camp intimated that LeBron and the Cavs actively campaigned for the League to suspend Draymond for his actions, they ultimately had to take a look for themselves and decide. And when they did take a closer look at it… they could clearly see some recidivist ball play…
https://twitter.com/CampSanderson/status/741474466283163649
That Sunday, Kiki Vandeweghe, the NBA’s Executive Vice President for Basketball Operations, said in a statement that while Green’s actions in Game 4 did not merit a suspension as a “stand-alone act,” he was deserving of a flagrant foul. It was an accumulation of offenses that resulted in the one-game suspension. The league retro-actively assessed Green with a flagrant-1 foul for striking the King’s jewels.
It was a profoundly substantial decision by the NBA, with the Warriors heading into Game 5 at Oracle Arena with a three-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven series, and an opportunity to clinch their second straight championship. They would have to do so without the 14.8 points, 9.3 rebounds and 5.8 assists Green provided during the first four games of The Finals.
At the time, the Warriors complained and took further shots at LeBron, but still exuded confidence that they would prevail regardless. Little did they know how much a stepover and a subsequent flick of the balls would turn their NBA Finals…
Carson Wentz? wow. like dang man. Thank goodness for this Cavs ring….. otherwise, phew.
Tearing through the league unprecedentedly every Sunday.
Yep. Browns are still dumb. They traded away Wentz.
This is hillarious…
I feel somewhat honored. I made that You’re Fired image. Does that mean I’m published now? haha
I think there are royalties coming your way !!!
I was wondering what he was doing in Love’s picture
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2016/09/dahntay_jones_to_attend_cavali.html
I wonder if they asked Killer Shrimp to kneel down, but then were like “Oh, right… nevermind, you’re good.”
If you were playing pickup ball in a gym, and the next guys up looked like this, you know you would not be on the court for long.
Great post, always nice to see the Cavs connected to the Big Lebowski. Before I make my point, let me introduce myself: I’m new to the comments section but I’ve been lurking on this blog since Kyrie’s rookie year, so long that I’ve got a little Cols who’s often talking inside my head. I’ve been following the Cavs since I moved from France to Cleveland in January 96, the Terell Brandon/ Tyrone Hill /Dan Majerle /Bobby Phills period. I now live in Cambodia where I work in an NGO to support children’s education. There’s an 11-12 hour time difference which… Read more »
Excellent overview. Good to hear from you, and keep up the good work.
Welcome to the blog with your post, even though you’ve been lurking. Living in Cambodia, you might have the record, Michael, for the CtB person living the farthest from the Land. You are one dedicated fan with that time difference !!
It’s pretty difficult to get further from Cleveland than Cambodia, for sure. But the time difference actually makes it pretty convenient to follow the Cavs. I have young kids so it’s a lot more difficult to follow French football for example.
Nice post. I lived in France for four months around 1999. Bordeaux mainly.
Wow, my parents actually live in the Bordeaux area now, they have a vineyard in St Emilion. Congratulations for your predictions coming true Cols, in the beginning I thought you were trolling but you seem to have a gut feeling for the Cavs success and a knack for seeing the reality behind the narrative, plus I’ve seen you’ve also got good musical taste and our political views seem to be similar. It’s great to be in touch with you finally, I almost posted when the Cavs won the championship but I would have been lost among the bandwagoners…
Cols is the world master of combining trolling, prediction, making good points, and ticking off Nate, often at the same time!
Glad you joined the commentariat MP! Thanks for all the amazing work you do to support children’s education in Cambodia! Great insight on Griff
Glad you like it: my line of work is not always easy, sometimes it’s energizing to know you’re making a difference, but other times it’s frustrating to not be able to do enough to solve all of the deep problems the kids are facing in their families. BTW really like your analysis EG, you’ve been a great addition to the CtB team.
Thanks MP! It’s been kind of an amazing time to write about the Cavs in the glow of a championship, but it’s even more amazing to be a part of the tremendous team of writers on this blog.
Fascinating stuff and good to hear from ya. David Griffin certainly seems to have this aura about him. One of my favorite stories about DG is the email he sent around to employees following Game 4, where his message was basically that if they were going to end Cleveland’s 52-year drought they would need to pull off something magical — that there was no other way it could happen than to overcome impossible odds down 3-1 against the 73-9 team. Like so inspiring. That’s gonna be the Kurt Russell Speech equivalent when they make the movie out of all this.
CAN’T BELIEVE THAT CHRIS BOSCH’S CARREER MIGHT BE OVER ( AT LEAST IN MIAMI ) IF HE CLEARED NBA/ CAV’S DOCTORS TO PLAY WOULD YOU CONSIDER HIM AN OPTION TO PURSUE ?——-NOT EVEN SURE WHAT RULES / PROTOCOL IS WRITTEN FOR THIS
Would definitely take him if it was safe. No one’s life is worth basketball.
It’s kind of amazing what’s happened to the Heat in general… There’s a book in there somewhere…
Great moments and writing, fellas. I remember being so pissed when Blatt was fired and, actually, it still bugs me. Not because it wasn’t the right move, and clearly, in hindsight, it was. But because it came to that – Blatt wasn’t fired based on an objective view of his basketball acumen and ability, he was fired because the players, and LBJ specifically, acted like babies. To his absolute and deserving credit, Lue stepped up in a huge way. But throwing that Portland game, among other things, was a weakness of character from the players that at the time I… Read more »
Absolutely not true. Being a head coach is more than being able to draw up nice plays (although Lue is also better than Blatt at this), it means earning the respect of your players and being able to communicate with them. For whatever reason, Blatt was unable to do this (I think because of arrogance, he thought for some unknown reason that his wins in Russia would matter to the best players on earth). Lue was. Blatt may someday grow up and become a decent NBA coach, but it’s obvious that he needs to figure out how to relate to… Read more »
Why can’t it be both? Being a professional is more than showing up to work, it means respecting your bosses, coworkers, and in general your place of employment. You’re right — Blatt was unable to meaningfully connect with his players. Maybe he said a few things that rubbed them the wrong way. And sure, the Cavs won the chip, so it’s hard to dismiss the final results in a vacuum. Life isn’t a vacuum. The Cavs players acted unprofessional in blatantly disrespecting a guy who was doing his best, and it was a bad look then and a bad look… Read more »
The Cavs did what’s best for the Cavs. They got rid of Blatt and won the title. They do not win it all if they don’t persuade Griffin to fire Blatt. It was a great move by the GM and the players.
The Cavs might have won a championship with Blatt. Oh wait. Some people who hang out here not only know the future in this universe but in alternate ones too. Forgive my lack of omnipotence.
Let it go, Nate. Blatt was not getting the job done.
Yeah. It was a bad fit for sure. We’ll never know the full extent. Felt bad for the dude because he was nothing but gracious in his time here. Glad everyone grew up a little
Blatt still has a lot of growing up to do.
He handled everything with grace and dignity. But if you want him to be your blame tampon, there’s no dissuading you.
I quite enjoy the phrase “blame tampon”.
That might be an original. Nate, you should copyright it!
Disagree with JoeyB.
The points may be true, but so what? Blatt could not have won a championship. So you would give away the Cavs championship because “Blatt deserved better”? Give him a few more tries before getting in someone who can win? Why not give Mike Brown a couple more chances?
The coach is like a player; if you can get someone who can do a better job, you get him.
Thanks JoeyB! And Dray is who you say…
On a personal level, Blatt did deserve better. The problem is that he wasn’t hired to coach LBJ, and their personalities weren’t compatible. From a traditional perspective, LBJ did act like a baby. But from a perspective in which people carry with them a flow of energy which can rise or fall based on small things like micro-agressions, e.g. the fit-in fit-out story or the “what other coach do we have” comment, enabling LBJ to arrive in the playoffs fully energized and motivated was more important for DG&DG than doing the “objectively right” thing.
Braymond is a nut. If you rewatch the LeBron almost dunk to end game 7, he kicks two Cavs while laying on the ground
Testing.
Yes! Still here.
Were you afraid you’d been banned or are you just so Rocky Mountain High that you thought you left our dimension for minute?
This sounds, uh, not so good.
Yeah. Selling high (no pun intended) after finals would’ve been a good plan. Why do I hear two stories about him being a backup point and the Cavs wanting him to focus on 3 and D.
It seems like there is definitely something going on here. I am leaning more and more towards the opinion that maybe we should have/should still deal him. If last season turns out to be the norm rather than the exception, pretty much everyone but Cols will be wishing we had pulled the trigger on some kind of deal.
Nah. Shump will be fine. Dude is just having a fun offseason after winning the title.
See? Everyone BUT Cols.
There may or may not be a serious problem. If he has a good year and stays out of trouble, we will forget this. If things get worse, we will regret not dealing him. If he has had a wild summer, we can hope that he will get it together on his own, or perhaps in response to a stern discussion with Lue and/or LeBron. Or even JR. It is a wacky world where JR has become the boy scout leader.
It is the FO’s job to get a handle on the big picture and act accordingly.
Agree with Raoul
But this sounds fairly responsible and respectful…
Yep. Thanks for posting this. Don’t expect it to change the narrative though. CtBloggers have already decided they don’t like Shump.
That’s not true… I’ve always liked Shump… I still believe he’s going to elevate his game, and probably this season…
I agree, EG. I think his time with Kyrie recently was significant. Was he sharpening his defense against the most dangerous finishing pg in the league? Or was Kyrie learning how to be an on ball defender? Or were they just out drinking and driving? I’d like to think it was option 1 or 2.
I love Shump when he is engaged and defending. I dislike him when he is dribbling. I hate his DUI, I love his social justice awareness. I love his hair, I am queasy about his oiled up naked body. He is complex, as are all human creatures.
Agree with JoeyB.
I forgot that your world is black and white and you can’t simultaneously like a play but wish you could upgrade him for someone not getting DUI’s and declining in performance.
I don’t like Shump’s plus minus numbers, his dribbling, or his penchant for hijacking the offense.
You know as well as anyone that CtB almost always stays of out of the gossip mill/personal lives stuff. We haven’t been overly harsh about his DUI
Shump is all over the Mendoza Diagonal
One of my favorite and less talked about parts of the Step Over, was how Steph Curry so easily played the role of miniature poodle barking at the Rottweiler from behind the safety of his fence. I just got so much pleasure from the final four games of that finals.
Haha. I hadn’t noticed that. What a fraud. Unreal how fake that guy is.
Cols, how is this Filipino kid not your new hero?
I know. I already sent that dude a six pack.
Firing Blatt was genius level move by Griffin.