Saturday, November 3, 2012

New position: The NO-Forward

Last nights game against the Bulls was a tragedy on multiple levels.  There’s very little to be happy about.  There are five highlights for the Cavs in this game:

1.     At 8:21 in the first quarter, Dion Waiters hits a nice three to slow down the Bulls who are starting to pick up steam after scoring a few unanswered points.
2.     At 6:02 in the first quarter, Kyrie scores a basket to stifle the Bulls after Carlos Boozer scores a second dunk. 
3.     We came out of the locker room in the second half and looked solid.  We had some hustle points, but that was quickly stopped.  It looked like we were trying, and that’s going to be big for this team because I have a feeling we’ll be down at half a ton.
4.     At the end of the First, Tyler Zeller grabbed a steal and started to run down the court ahead of the pack.  He dribbled, he looked for a trailer, and he failed earning a charge on his coast-to-coast trip; however, he ran the court and he ran it fast.  Zeller is going to be an awesome running mate for our team.  Both him and Thompson can get up the floor, which is more than a lot of teams have.
5.     Finally, the Cavs are beasts on the offensive boards.  We had 11.  They didn’t mean that much though since we were not scoring efficiently off of them.

Now, for the bad: there’s lots of it.  Our small forwards are terrible; they shot 8-25 from the field (Miles included).  That’s insanely bad.  Furthermore, Alonzo GEET the fuck off the court is so bad.  He didn’t even have that bad of a night (4-9 from the field, 2-3 3 pointers), but every time he touches the ball I cringe.  He’s always dribbling too much and taking really contested shots.  He also gets called for ridiculous fouls; tonight he complimented his fouling on a three last game with an illegal screen.  Get him off the floor.

Then when Luke Walton finally comes in I have a moment of happiness.  It’s Walton, he’s a pro.  He knows his role.  Catch the pass, and then make another pass to one of our stars (Varejao and Irving).  Today, he decided to shoot the ball, which resulted in an air ball and two other misses.  I get it Walton, you’re a veteran.  You are not a playing veteran though.  You are a high five veteran.   Teach our bench and Gee how to give great ones because they’ll be bench players for other teams someday and need long careers too since they aren’t paid much.

CJ Miles just jacks up shot after shot and doesn’t care that they are terrible.  I want Dion Waiters to start doing this because he’s a rookie, so it’s excusable, and he might just make them (He doesn’t have a rack record of sucking yet). I need Waiters to be as aggressive as Miles. 

I came up with a new name for all of our small forwards last night.  The no-forward because they can’t move shit anywhere. 

The biggest thing the Bulls exposed in us is that we can only make one rotation on defense.  The last game I said the Cav’s were over helping on defense sometimes, which led to open shots.  The open shots double if the team you play is running double screens that require multiple rotations to cover.  Props to the Bulls though.  They are precise.  Very, Very, Very precise.  They make every rotation on defense and force lots of turnovers.  They have the type of defense I see the Cavs developing into throughout the season.  We have the effort-giving players we need to make the rotations on defense, but now we need the intelligence that goes along with that. 
 

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