At just past the quarter pole of the NBA season, the Cavaliers are treating the rest of the East like everyone thought the defending champs would. It’s no more than a glorified Water Bottle Challenge. They’ve got two holes still to fill and if they do it’ll really be over for Toronto, clearly the No. 2 team, and then the rest of the pretenders who come out of places like Boston, Atlanta, Indiana and New York.
Everybody in the East should be thankful that the Cavs still need a competent backup point guard and a 7-footer who can bang with other strong, physical centers. You are correct if you’re thinking that Matthew Dellavedova and Timofey Mozgov are sorely missed, probably a lot more than the casual fan thinks. But inside the Cavs coaching offices, their absences are being bemoaned on the nights when it’s not enough to have LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.
When the Cavs had their Water Bottle Challenge at the expense of the Knicks in the Garden, Cavs coach Ty Lue, a former point guard, took the unusual move of going public with his plea to add backcourt help, specifcally at the point.
"When we get a backup point guard, we can understand what our rotation's gonna be,’’ Lue said before the easy 32-point dismantling of the Knicks on Wednesday. “We don't have to switch it on a night-to-night basis, so our team can get in a better flow."
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In other words, Iman Shumpert is not the answer, even if he thinks he is. “Delly’’ would have been perfect to retain the role, backing up Irving and manning the second unit with James, except that he’s now in Milwaukee and Jason Kidd is not letting him out of his sight.
Last July the Bucks acquired Dellavedova in a sign-and-trade after luring him away from the Cavs with a four-year, $38.4 million contract. They recruited him knowing that he’s not just competitive in games. He wants to beat your brains out every day in practice, where he made a habit of coming in first in any and all drills.
“We’re very lucky to have him,’’ Kidd told SiriusXM NBA Radio last week. “What gets overshadowed with “Delly’’ is that he’s a winner. He won at St. Mary’s and he won in this league. Being able to win a championship isn’t easy. He fits in perfectly with us. He’s helped Giannis (Antetokounmpo) and Jabari (Parker), because he competes and gives everything he has. When you see that, you hope it rubs off on those guys and his other teammates and that they’ll give the same effort.’’
The Cavs wanted very much to match the offer, but owner Dan Gilbert drew the line. It’s one thing to pay $40 million in luxury taxes for an All-Star, but not for a fourth-year backup, gritty and scrappy as he might be.
“The amount he got was tough,’’ Lue admitted. “You want to see guys get paid. I mean he competed, he put his work in, got better and better each year, so you can't be mad about that.’’
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They’re a little mad about something else. Mo Williams led them to believe that he’d be back for another season. He was not their preferred choice, but Williams was on the team last season, played in 13 post-season games during their run to the title, and would have been what they’re now looking for.
"We felt Mo Williams was coming back, he said he was coming back to play,’’ Lue said. “And then all of a sudden he didn't, so it kind of put us in a bind.’’
Now the options are not tremendously appealing. The Cavs might go after Briante Weber, one of the top D-Leaguers. For Sioux Falls, he’s averaging 14 points and seven assists in 35 minutes per game. They tried to bring Weber in last season, but he rejected their offer and instead went to Miami.
The other priority is finding a big, if that’s possible. The Cavs still have a $9.7 million trade exception that they can use to try to fill the position. They received the trade exception when they dealt Anderson Varejao to the Portland Trail Blazers last February in the Channing Frye deal.
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During their recent three-game losing streak, to the Bucks, Clippers and Bulls, the Cavs showed the need for a physical big man. They wanted to retain Mozgov, but when the Lakers acted like a desperate, small-market team, offering him a four-year $64-million deal the minute that free agency opened last July 1, that door closed.
Mozgov’s absence especially hit home against the Clippers and Bulls when they were outplayed by stronger players in Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Taj Gibson and Robin Lopez. In a 113-94 drubbing by the Clippers, Griffin and Jordan combined for 10 offensive rebounds that helped the Clippers get off 20 more shots. The Clippers also outscored Cleveland 19-6 on second chance points and 30-18 on points in the paint.
The next night in Chicago, the hole was just as glaring. Gibson dominated Tristan Thompson, and with Lopez created matchup problems for Kevin Love. In their 111-105 defeat the Cavs allowed 78 points in the paint – “ridiculous’’ was James’ description of the onslaught – while getting outscored on second-chance points, 22-2. Few teams in the East, other than the Bulls, have the big men who can exploit Cleveland’s No.1 weakness. Alone on their own tier as the East’s second-best team, the Raptors don’t have the frontcourt power and has shown that in going 0-3 against the Cavs. More and more, they’ve got the look of those Indiana teams that lost three straight years in the playoffs to James and Miami’s Big Three. Ironically, the Pacers were precisely the power team that would give this Cavs team a better run for its money.
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The deeper meaning of the Cavs’ recent pounding in Chicago was all but lost on everyone, because James walked into United Center wearing a Cubs uniform to pay off his World Series bet with Dwyane Wade. Afterward, he had his harshest comments of the season and did bring the frontcourt problem up, without naming names.
“Your headline is, the honeymoon stage is over,’’ James said. “We've got to battle every night like we ain't won nothing. Last year is last year. After ring night is over with, now it's a new season and everybody is gunning for us every night and we have to understand that. The honeymoon is over. It's time to play some real ball and be physical, especially in the trenches. We've got to man up. Everybody.’’
In the meantime, winning the East is what we all thought it would be for the Cavs: A Water Bottle Challenge.
