Hey, Cavalier fans and CavFanatics! It’s Austin, checking in for one of the final times this season. What’s happening?
After winning a couple straight, the Cavs dropped a pair of tough games. Tuesday’s loss in Indiana really hurt. I guess that’s why they call them “growing pains.”
I know it’s frustrating for everyone that they’ve been unable to finish off some of these games. You can look at it two ways. Either they aren’t learning how to finish. Or you can say there’s a learning curve that’s still there. I don’t know which one it is because it’s been befuddling to me. I just don’t know what it is because I’ve rarely seen this type of situation, coughing up leads like this.
So it’s still a learning experience, but maybe our guys are a little more hard-headed than normal.
Back when I first started with the Cavaliers, until we learned how to win, we weren’t too much different. We were a “three-and-a-half-quarters” team. Teams would beat us just on experience.
We played hard, because Fitch wasn’t going to let us play anything but hard. If you didn’t play hard, you’d sit down, he didn’t care who you were. He even sat me a couple times and when he did, I was like: ‘Well, I won’t do that ever again.’
And it just got so frustrating, we’d get in the locker room and we’d say: ‘Man, we’ve got to cut this out! We have to stop this! We have to do something!’ And our big men back then were vocal. I don’t think our big men now are as vocal as they should be.
Right now, our big men are getting into foul trouble because they have to play their man and the man who’s coming inside. Why Miami is so tough is because they don’t let you come north and south to their basket. You have to go east and west against Miami. And what they do is when they force you to the sideline, they double-team you and don’t allow you an entry pass. And that, to me, is a simple form of defense – trap, foul-line extended on both sides and cut that first pass off.
Part of the problem for young teams is that they have that competitive spirit, but they’re still friends with opponents because they’ve played with each other over time.
I didn’t know who Phil Chenier was. I didn’t know who Maravich was. I read about them in Street & Smith’s magazine, but that’s about it. So I had a competitive attitude against them. They weren’t my friends. They became my friend after I got to know them, but by that time, the competitive juices were flowing for both of us. And on the court, we went after each other—because we didn’t grow up with a “fuzzy feeling” for one another.
And, not that this is an excuse, but you saw it in Indiana: young, struggling teams just don’t get the ref’s calls that better, experienced teams do. Everybody goes through it. You lose, you don’t get the calls. It’s as simple as that.
When I first came to Cleveland, for the first two years, we did not get the calls. I mean, they beat me up so bad and you’d never hear that whistle. But when we started winning, all of a sudden – tweet!– the whistle started blowing for us. Because the referees are human like everybody else. If you’re not one of the better teams, you’re not one of the better teams. They always favor the aggressors.
I really like that Dion returned to the lineup and didn’t shut down for the rest of the season. That’s very important for the whole team. You want to have everybody healthy coming out of the season and get guys into an offseason workout program – especially lifting.
We have to get stronger and more physical inside. And that’s from Kyrie on down. You don’t lift weights so you can be football player out there. You lift weights so you can take the punishment of 82 games. So when you twist your ankle, your ankle is able to bounce back quickly. You get your shoulder hurt, you’re strong enough where it doesn’t dislocate. That’s why you lift. You lift to create a stronger body.
It’s hard to lift during the season, but guys like Kobe and LeBron lift after games. (Although that’s mostly to maintain.) You have to do that also. We didn’t do that in our day because lifting wasn’t considered as important as, say, cardio. If I played now, I would do the same thing LeBron does – I would lift after every game. Some little regimen I’d do before I took my shower – legs or upper body, switch back and forth.
It becomes maintenance, but you want to get to that point – where you only need maintenance. Right now, our team needs strength. They don’t need maintenance. They need to add the strength first.
From where Dion started, he’s come a long way. Not just playing-wise, but attitude-wise and personality-wise. He’s starting to become a man. And he’s understanding what effect he has on the team. So he’s starting to feel a part of something. I’d give him a high rookie grade.
Actually, I do the same for Tyler. When Tyler first started, he was afraid of his own shadow. But now you can see he’s starting to fight back.
Tyler has more talent than a lot of big men in this league. He can put the ball on the floor, he can shoot left hand or right hand, he can run the floor, he can hit the 15-footer, he can block shots and he can be physical. Now, he has to WANT to be physical.
He needs to realize that if he wants to be an All-Star in this league, he needs to be more physical – get that smile off his face and play the game. And, like a lot of young guys on the team, he’s got to get stronger.
But as far as improvement is concerned, Tyler’s done a great job. He just needs to understand the next level that he needs to get to.
And I don’t want to forget about our third rookie, Kevin Jones, who’s been seeing a little bit of action recently and who’s been pretty impressive in small bursts.
Kevin was really on it against Detroit. I was impressed. But that was his reputation in college. In the paint, that’s where he gets his action. Once he gets that 15-footer under control, I think he’ll be a player. But around that basket, he’s getting comfortable.
Once he gets another good training camp under his belt, we’ll be able to tell more.
One pleasant development we saw towards the end of the season was the emergence of Tristan as one of the team’s leaders.
He and Livingston have the personalities to run the clubhouse. Livingston has it; he is solid in the locker room. And Tristan, I think, is becoming the leader of the team. Kyrie is not quite ready yet; he’s still feeling himself out. But I think Tristan has that type of personality where leadership is something that comes naturally. That first year, you couldn’t see it. But now, it’s apparent.
The team will not get to the level they want to get to until they’re able to criticize one another and not take it personally. Use that criticism to go to the next level. Right now, you can tell, you say something funny to guys, they have a tendency to hang their head. But you have to take the criticism and use it to improve. But until they take that, where they can communicate with each other like that, they’re not going to be where they want to be.
You have to be all in. You have to put all your chips on the table. They’re not to that level yet. And that’s where they need to get to.
It’s not going to happen overnight or even in these next four games, but they will learn to finish.
See, the positive aspect of it is this: We’ve had 20-something games where we’ve had double-digit leads in the second half and we’ve lost the game. But that tells me that we have what it takes to get there. We just don’t know how to finish the journey.
So I look at it in a positive way. What we have to learn to do now is hold on to what we’ve established. We establish it. We go out and play solid defense, make baskets, do our thing. And then we stop.
The fact that you CAN get a 27-point lead on Miami or a 20-point lead on the Pacers says something! It needs to be like what they say when you’re running track. What do they tell you when you run track? Run THROUGH the finish line.
And moving forward, that’s what this team needs to learn to do … run through the finish line.