From Distance: A Preseason Hogdepodge

Points I’m thinking about the NBA…

If October 17th’s season opening game against the Celtics feels oddly early, it’s because it is. In case you missed it, the league thankfully shortened the preseason to allow for an earlier start of the regular slate. The change was effectively enacted to eliminate any four game in five night gauntlets. Having given the players a schedule break, Adam Silver and the NBA were able to mandate stricter rules about resting healthy players.

Good try, Adam. Let’s be real. If a team wants to rest a guy, it will find a way to do it. Perhaps it will eliminate a Popovichian full line resting, but I actually found those fun to watch. I know, I know, “what about the fans at the games?” Fair. We’ll see how it works.

Considering the Cavs will again the be oldest team in the NBA, rest will be paramount. The front office is doing a good job of letting me believe that I’m still young enough to play in the NBA. Ya know, if I were approximately 283 times more talented and all that. We know that youth rarely translates to winning basketball, but a team full of guys in their mid-thirties is going to have to take special precautions (I will now fight the urge to make an adult diapers joke.)

With so many capable players on the roster, it shouldn’t be too difficult for Coach Tyronn Lue to divide up minutes, and even games, between his geezers. The Cavs are deep enough that almost any DNP could simply be chalked up to a coaching decision. Regarding the Cavs, Silver only truly cares about LeBron missing high-profile games, anyway.

Slightly more amusing to me is the lottery reform. I still don’t quite understand how pundits use the Cavaliers’ multiple wins of the Lottery as a reason for reform. It is frequently overlooked, forgotten, or simply “yes but,”-ed that the Cavs landed Kyrie Irving in the 2011 draft via trade with the Clippers. Not by tanking. They had a 2.8 percent chance of scoring the number one pick. They got lucky. You can’t reform luck out of a lottery, ya’ll.

One could argue that by lowering the probability at the top end of the crappy team spectrum, it actually incentivises mediocre teams to go for one of the three 14% slots even more. It’s all silly. If a league wants to completely rid itself of tanking, eliminate the draft all together. Otherwise, get over it and remember that good teams throw games at the end of the season too.

Enough of that. Finally, we have some basketball to discuss. Clearly, I’ve been more than willing to opine free agency, trades, and societal issues at large over these last few months, but it is more than a little refreshing to have some real NBA team against NBA team action.

With four of the five preseason games under the Cavs’ belt, it is time to tackle a couple of the questions that have been begged from the top of the off-season’s hyperactive lungs.

Is this really the starting lineup?

The Cavaliers unveiled their new starting lineup against the Bulls. With Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, Jae Crowder, LeBron James, and Kevin Love, Ty Lue has yet again chosen name and reputation over basic basketball logic.

I suppose we should just be content that Jeff Green isn’t in there over Jae Crowder. Green has been a higher profile player after all. Sheesh.

The first game action with the new lineup didn’t go quite as horribly as the shooting percentage may have indicated. Wade and Love missed some shots that they often make. Knocking in a few of those wide open jumpers would have put a fresh coat of lipstick on an occasionally cuddly pig.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t have changed the fact that help defenders were camped in the paint all night. Anytime Wade would fill a corner on the weak-side, his defender played as though Wade were Tony Allen. Even on the strong-side, one pass away, the Bulls would sag off Wade or Rose whenever they didn’t have the ball. The Pick and Roll combination of Rose and Love does have some potential, but it’s short-circuited when Wade’s man is chilling a step out of the box.

Wade, though never to the level of His Airness, functions best out of the Jordan mid-post. He has a lethal turnaround jumper over each shoulder and is still quick enough to get to the rack when he is only one dribble away.

Look, he’s a bigman. Lue, besides stroking Wade’s ego, is basically playing Wade as an old school power forward on the offensive end. The problem is that he isn’t explosive enough anymore to destroy folks from the dunking zone, and his jumper doesn’t scare anyone.

It will be rough going at first, but Dwyane will simply have to stand in the corner and knock down enough threes for teams to start respecting his shot. His athleticism isn’t going to return. The Dunk Zone is mostly dead. But, if he nails enough of his wide open looks throughout the season, teams might start guarding him, thus opening the floor. Jeff Van Gundy predicted Wade would hit 40% from beyond the arc this season. If he’s right, the starting lineup begins to make more sense.

Of course, one could just leave J.R. Smith in there. Whether J.R. is happy about it or not doesn’t really worry me. I assume he would prefer to start and will deal with coming off the bench, like a professional. What could be interesting is how his relationship with LeBron evolves. Does it weaken with LeBron’s bestie Wade around? No, no. Not going down that street. Abort! Back to basketball.

Will the Cavs have a defensive identity?

If the Cavs mostly used a “switch everything” defensive plan last season, they seem to have gone All-in on the scheme this year. Any time an opposing player has even sniffed a corner, the Cavs have been aggressive in trapping. A trap almost invariably leads to a switch. Even if Lue isn’t actively saying “switch everything”, that is essentially what we’ve seen.

Love’s reputation as a sub-par defender just isn’t accurate anymore. He has even gotten pretty serviceable holding his one on the perimeter against smaller players. A switchy defense allows for help defenders to hedge a little bit toward whatever mismatch the switch materializes.

With this roster, there aren’t many true mismatches. No one on the Cavs’ roster is a lockdown point guard defender anyway. They are likely to be beaten off the dribble by speedy little guys all season. That was always going to be the case. The actual switching won’t put the Cavs in more serious trouble. Up and down the roster, the Cavs have wings that are sturdy defending the post. Heck, even Calderon’s best work often comes when he can use his strength in small spaces.

As long as the guys don’t get lazy with their intensity, the Cavs should be able to Man-Zone their way to a pretty solid defense. Sidenote: If all good defense ends with a rebound, expect Love to be a monster this year. I could see him leading the NBA in defensive rebounding.

Who’s leading the bench? 

A lot of people assumed that Wade would lead the bench unit when LeBron is off the floor. By all indications, Lue has given that job to Derrick Rose. As someone who has consistently doubted the usefulness of Rose for the Cavs, I am more than a little pleased by what I  have seen so far.

Rose is flying up and down the floor, almost as the anti-Kyrie. He looks to advance the ball at every opportunity, or bring it up with fantastic pace. His transition game has been a breath of fresh air.

In the half-court, Rose is doing a good job of making the simple pass to the rolling big man instead of forcing too much action. With J.R. Smith and Kyle Korver on the floor at the same time, there is a ton of room for the rolling Tristan Thompson.

TT has done an absolutely mind-altering job of passing out of the roll to three point shooters. On more than one occasion, Tristan looked off the defense to find his intended receiver for a wide open three or ball swing.

If Tristan can continue to maintain that high of a level on the roll, that second unit will be deadly. Seriously, of all the things I have seen out of the preseason, Tristan’s passing out of the roll has me most exited.

Is Road Trippin’  going to last final cuts?

It’s been reported that Channing Frye is unlikely to be a regular contributor. He will, however, likely remain on the roster. Richard Jefferson has been often mentioned as candidate to be let go.

I sincerely hope that isn’t the case. Beyond his leadership qualities and general humor, RJ plays smart, hard-nosed basketball. Teams still respect his jumper. If he does get moved, the Cavs should do him a solid and find a way to trade him to the Lakers. It would be the cheaper option for the team, and also would allow his buddy Luke Walton to yell at him in practice.

Quick Bonus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udAiJqO-vx8

I’m not a betting man, but I’d wager quite a sum that the Cavs win the Eastern Conference regular season. That second unit is going to destroy people. The public doesn’t yet realize how many regular season games Kyrie Irving is going to cost the Celtics. I’d take the under on the Celts and the over on the Cavs. Book it.