Kylie Irving isn't even playing like a top 50 player so far this season. He's a liability on the court right now. Zero defense and nine turnovers.

Fugly Finish

 

BTW - Has Bennett ever played basketball?

We fell asleep, and Kyrie's trying to be LeBron, and he's not... Nice to see Bynum produce and get more mins, and CJ Miles is a much stronger player at both ends this year (last year I hated him; this year, I love him)  At least we DID win and we're back at .500... and as a WKNR caller noted: last year we would have LOST a game like tonight's... We need to stay at or above .500 for the 1st 3/4's season if we're going to go into the playoffs at more than just the 8th seed.

Kyrie is NOT a liability on the court. He was great in the first half tonight. It's worth noting that it was the bench that nearly lost it for us this game. Kyrie and some of the other starters weren't back in until nearly five minutes left. It's easy to focus on the 4th quarter, but the Cavs were playing great defense for the first 2.8 quarters of this game. They made Rubio and Love look useless. I'm willing to give our collection of 21-year-olds more than 4 games to figure it out. God bless CJ Miles.

Kyrie is NOT a liability on the court. He was great in the first half tonight. It's worth noting that it was the bench that nearly lost it for us this game. Kyrie and some of the other starters weren't back in until nearly five minutes left. It's easy to focus on the 4th quarter, but the Cavs were playing great defense for the first 2.8 quarters of this game. They made Rubio and Love look useless. I'm willing to give our collection of 21-year-olds more than 4 games to figure it out. God bless CJ Miles.

 

I'm sorry, but Kyrie does not get a pass. He didn't come back in until late in the fourth because he gave us 6 ridiculously careless turnovers. Then he STILL managed to give us three more, for a total of nine. Nine turnovers is absurd, and TT wasn't much better with 6. He is getting it much better defensively (the team is, really) but Kyrie has had issues with some shots, dribbling a lot, and turnovers. Clearly he is easing his way into a new system, but he can hurt the team in certain ways just as much, if not more, than other players as well. Everyone has a part in a team, so everyone shares some blame in with its problems.

Bumsquare, the starters came back into the game roughly 5:05 of the 4th quarter with a 16 POINT LEAD! Barrera made Irving look like he was playing with cement shoes and as TS pointed out, he turned the ball over 9 times. I do admit I didn't see much of the first half so he may have looked much better.

I'm not trying to claim Kyrie had a good game, but the Cavs are dead in the water without his shooting and the pressure he puts on defenses. He needs to improve his play if the Cavs are going to succeed, but he's still an immensely talented offensive player that draws the attention of entire defenses. He's not a liability.

I'm not trying to claim Kyrie had a good game, but the Cavs are dead in the water without his shooting and the pressure he puts on defenses. He needs to improve his play if the Cavs are going to succeed, but he's still an immensely talented offensive player that draws the attention of entire defenses. He's not a liability.

 

He was last night. Not the whole game, but his last three minutes especially nearly cost us a win. Undeniable. Nine turnovers with three in the last three minutes don't lie. He hurt us as much as anyone else in an especially concentrated and critical period of time.

 

I am not going to treat him with kid gloves. He goes into complete ISO mode in the last three minutes, trys to dribble ridiculously around the court all by himself,  turns it over three times in the process (for NINE turnovers...) calls off a final play so he can ISO again against barea...what does he need to do to be considered a liability at that point? That is the very definition of one, I don't care who you are. Good first half, atrocious second.

Jeez.  You are talking about one of the most dynamic 4th quarter players over the past two years.  It's not giving him a pass to refuse to disregard his proven long term success over a subpar start to the season through 4 games

Jeez.  You are talking about one of the most dynamic 4th quarter players over the past two years.  It's not giving him a pass to refuse to disregard his proven long term success over a subpar start to the season through 4 games

 

....and under a new system. Let's wait and see if Kyrie is still having problems in a few weeks.

That game was HORRIBLE! Cavs score 104 against a short-handed Bucks team -- AND LOSE. Betcha Mike Brown was more angry than I!

As we learned during his previous run, a hot outside shooting team (Bucks were on fire last night) is the achilles heel of the Mike Brown defensive system which relies on 'shrinking the floor'.  Think back to the Magic Conf. Champ series.

 

Albeit a loss, it was good to see the backcourt showing how potent it can be with a combined 50pts.

Exactly.  They just shot the lights out.  It happens sometimes.  What makes me worry still though is that Kyrie isn't Kyrie so far this year, dribbling the ball off his foot with 12 seconds left in the game.  (Yes, I know he played a good game overall.)

It's been a frustrating season so far, but also a reminder of how much chemistry matters in the NBA. It's probably going to be a couple of months of uneven basketball before we really know what we have with this team.

One of my earliest memories watching basketball was one of those classic LAL-Celtics games and Magic did the same thing.  The announcers told the audience to mark it down in their memories and I apparently did.  That was very much unlike Kyrie.  It's too bad, because he was absolutely dynamic in bringing us back into that game and giving us a shot to win it at the end.

 

We all know that Brown is far from an offensive genius (you gotta take the bad with the good).  The one thing I was looking for, however, with this second run was better play calling at the end of the game.  I was watching the huddle closely before that play and Brown looked like he was drawing up something complex to win it.  However, when we inbound the ball, we see the exact same 1-4 set which was used exclusively during the Lebron era.  WTF?

That was very much unlike Kyrie.  It's too bad, because he was absolutely dynamic in bringing us back into that game and giving us a shot to win it at the end.

 

He did play a good game, and still had 13 pts in the 4th quarter, but dribbling off his foot wasn't the only un-Kyrie-like thing he did at the end of the game.  On the very next possession he jacked up an awful 3 pointer when I thought we should have been able to get a much better look since there was still about 7 seconds left when he shot it.

Agreed, although I think he thought he was going to get a whistle by bringing his arms up through the defender.

He's not much of a "draw a foul" type player (and I like that...there's not many things I hate more than jump-shooters jumping into defenders...I wish the league/refs/whoever would put a stop to it by not giving the shooter those calls), and it looked like he faded away on the replay from the other end of the court.  As quick as he is, I thought he should have worked his way back out away from the corner instead of crossing over back to his right and making a quick shot his only option other than getting trapped in the corner.

 

Believe it or not, for some reason I'm not as down on Bennett right now, and it has nothing to do with him making his first field goal.  He just looked more like an athlete out there than the first few games.  Maybe he's just starting to feel a little more comfortable out there.

 

Alonzo Gee on the other hand is awful.  I've never been a fan of him.  He's a ridiculously athletic person who can make some highlight-worthy dunks, but he's not much of a basketball player.  Every time he puts his head down to drive, I expect him to either lose the ball out of bounds or get a charge called against him.

^Gee is a disaster handling the ball. He always stays active on D, tho, and seems to produce a lot of loose balls that translate to transition buckets for the Cavs.

^ I wish I would have said something besides "produces loose balls", but you know what I mean.

Yeah, after I posted I realized that I was focusing too much on just on his offensive skills.  He does do some good out there, just not much of it is when we have the ball, and I'm not sure our offense is good enough to have a guy like that out there, even if he plays good defense.

It would be nice if he was a little better on the corner threes. I still like him better than Clark.

I like Gee on the team and in the rotation.  Every team needs a 'scrapper' and he fits that mold.  He is our best lock-down, on-the-ball wing defender.  And he's a good off-the-ball defender as well.  His outside shot and ball-handling are problematic, but he's a hard worker and I expect that he will improve in those areas.  Keep in mind that he was a PF in college at Alabama.  His value to the team is being able guard the best wing player on the other team.

Yeah, you're probably right.  I'm just sick of watching him try to do too much when he has the ball.  But he is better than Clark.  I know Clark has 20 points on the season, but I must have turned away for all of them.  He's a brick machine.  The only reason I can figure that he's in the league is his height, which he doesn't seem to use all that much to his advantage.

Andrew Bynum has lost the joy in basketball, admits he's considered retirement

By JASON LLOYD Published: November 7, 2013

 

PHILADELPHIA: Andrew Bynum considered retirement last summer and still battles thoughts of giving up his NBA career because he doesn’t enjoy the game anymore, he admitted Thursday on his first day back in Philadelphia.

 

“It was a thought, it was a serious thought,” Bynum said regarding retirement. “At the moment, it’s tough to enjoy the game because of how limited I am physically. I’m still sort of working through that.”

 

Asked what his goal is for this season, Bynum said, “Just to be able to play without pain and discover the joy again.”

 

READ MORE AT:

http://www.ohio.com/blogs/cleveland-cavaliers/cleveland-cavaliers-1.275356/andrew-bynum-has-lost-the-joy-in-basketball-admits-he-s-considered-retirement-1.443096

^I saw it in his face after he dunked against Milwaukee.  I feel bad for the guy and don't see any hope for him returning to any semblence of his previous form.  That said, as long as he can deal with the pain, he can still help this bball team

I hope he doesn't play tonight. Sounds like his knees could use the rest, and the Philly fans will be brutal if he sets foot on the court.

It's a good thing we have CJ Miles or our FG% for the year might be under 20%.  This team can't shoot.

 

The Sixers gave up 110 and 114 points in the last two games, both at home. Cavs scored 79 (34% from the field). That's troubling. Kyrie scoredd just 10 points and some of his defensive lapses justified him getting benched. But that would've put him the same category as Chris Perez and Brandon Weeden!

It's a good thing we have CJ Miles or our FG% for the year might be under 20%.  This team can't shoot.

 

It sure doesn't help shooters when you're running a Chinese Fire Drill offense from the bench, and your All Star point guard has been drifting.  Our lack of offensive plan or flow is creating turnovers and stand around jumpers (practically the same thing) which is keying fast breaks and big runs by our opponents.  Each of the last 3 games have exemplified this.  And after this happens, our spirit is broken and we're standing around shell shocked, which is why Philly suddenly was beating us on both boards late in the game... It's a very bad pattern that needs to be fixed immediately, or we could be facing a very long lottery-oriented season.

What a joke that the foul on Waiters wasn't overturned.  So much for the "point of emphasis."  Dunleavy is the epitome of "white boy basketball."

The local sports media is turning against the Cavs in record time.

I fail to understand how we abandon Dion when he was the one who got us back in the game.  He got 0 touches down the stretch when the game was still in the balance.

Kyrie looked pretty bad when Rose was guarding him, and wasn't able to keep us in the game down the stretch when he tried to take over.  I'm a huge fan of him, and not a huge fan of Waiters, but you can't place the blame on Dion for that loss, where you could definitely place some on Irving.

Good interview with Jason Loyd (Akron Beacon) right now on WKNR.  Key point - he says Mike Brown has a proven defensive system and we need to give him time for the team to adjust.

Agreed on the time to adjust, but defense has not been the problem so far this season.  Our D has been fairly good.  It is our shooting which has killed us (no pun intended)

Yeah, our biggest problem is really just that the shots aren't falling.  But I'm not convinced that they will start falling.  I think we're just a team with a lot of bad shooters.

Agreed on the time to adjust, but defense has not been the problem so far this season.  Our D has been fairly good.  It is our shooting which has killed us (no pun intended)

 

Right. I think part of the theory was that the team isn't used to putting so much effort on D, and thus it's hurt the offensive effort.

Too much one-on-one on offense.  That and the pick'n'roll seem to be our only two 'plays'

Too much one-on-one on offense.  That and the pick'n'roll seem to be our only two 'plays'

 

Is Mike Brown capable of putting together an offense?

Too much one-on-one on offense.  That and the pick'n'roll seem to be our only two 'plays'

 

Those really are the two staples in the NBA ever since illegal defense became a rule.

I'm not suggesting abandoning either or switching to some comprehensive Princeton offense.  But it just seems, especially in the last 5 minutes of the game, that if the play call is not a top of the key pick and roll, then all they do is take turns trying to take their man off the dribble.  I would like to see more ball movement.  Keep the ball moving.  If you don't have a open lane or jump-shot, then swing it to someone who does.  I also want to see more of the DIon with the ball in his hands late in the game for the specific purpose of the drive-and-kick.  I think that is one thing he does much better than Kyrie.  If there is a last second shot to take, Kyrie is my guy for sure.  But they sink into that all-Kyrie all-the-time mode way too early

I know you weren't suggesting abandoning it.  I just think offenses in the NBA are kind of limited because defenses are limited by the rules.  It makes the game a little more boring in some ways than college or high school.  I still watch, though, because they are the most skilled players in the world.

 

They do seem to really shrink the playbook down to "let's have our best player go one on one" at the end of the game, which may be a remnant of strategy from the Lebron days.

We've gone from losing last year  120-110 to losing 90-85 this year with basically the same personnel. Does Mike Brown have an offensive play book?

Part of why we're giving up less points is why we're scoring less points (slowing the game down with longer possessions and less fast breaks).

Hmm, that sorta kinda almost maybe looked intentional by Brewer.

Ok, just tuned in, how did we give up 70 in the first half???

... as they say in law: the defense rests.

This has devolved into the Globetrotters vs. Generals... Cavs have mailed it in… I'm out....

its bad man...really bad