If Cleveland is going to become a true title contender sooner rather than later, they need to make serious improvements defensively.
It’s 2015. Nearly 40 percent of the season is in the books, and the Cavaliers are allowing opponents to convert on 46.9 percent of their field goal attempts (fifth worst in the league), per NBA.com. Though it’s troubling to see Kevin Love spend so much time strictly spacing the floor offensively (lowest usage since his rookie year), I suspect coach David Blatt will realize Love should be getting touches in the mid and high-post to get him more involved. I also expect the Cavs to run more pick-and-rolls with their big three of Love, Kyrie Irving and LeBron James. Regardless of how the offense adjusts going forward, on a team featuring three tremendously talented offensive weapons, the first, second and third concern for Cleveland should be defense.
Coming into the season, the Cavs were not expected to thrive defensively, but I never thought it would look as bad as it has thus far. Having lost Anderson Varejao for the season, there’s a lot of pressure on Tristan Thompson to man the middle going forward, but if James recommits himself to being one of the league’s top defenders, the potential for Cleveland to have at least a decent defense is undeniable.
In 2010-11, James’ first season with Miami, the Heat jumped out to a 23-9 record despite a 9-8 start. Thanks to the defensive pressure they provided on the perimeter, LeBron’s ability to check most non-centers in the half court, and Chris Bosh’s versatility versus opposing big men, the Heat had one of the top defensive teams in the league and finished with a 58-24 record. It looked like Cleveland had turned a corner after they responded to their 5-7 start by rattling off eight straight wins, but they have since repeated another 5-7 stretch since the win streak.
The Cavs don’t have an interior defender near Bosh’s level, but even if they did, this inattention to detail below would still be inexcusable.
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LeBron’s effort won’t be lacking like this come playoff time, but he needs to set the tone defensively for this relatively young and inexperienced team, and it needs to be now. Developing a solid team defense does not happen overnight, and if the Cavs don’t make a commitment to defense over the final 50 games, they could be in for a disappointing early round exit.
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Tyreke Evans bricks the wide-open fade-away, Irving sneaks in and snags the rebound here, and the Cavs are actually out-rebounding opponents by 0.7 boards per game, but with Varejao gone, the Cavs will need LeBron to commit to rebounding. James is averaging the fewest rebounds per game in his career since his rookie season, during which he averaged 4.2 per game. He also sports the worst Defensive Rating of his career, per Basketball-reference.com. The offense will come as the players and Blatt become more familiar with themselves. They’re already in the top third of the league in points per shot, via ESPN.com.
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The top four teams in the East (Toronto, Atlanta, Washington, Chicago) have shown themselves to be solid, and the Cavs’ fifth-place 18-14 standing is not what’s worrisome. It’s how it has happened. Michael Jordan took it personally when opponents scored on him. If the Cavs are going to build one of the next great dynasties in sports (or even win a title for that matter), they must adopt the same mentality on defense, and it must start with LeBron.
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