The Cleveland Cavaliers are going to be really good on offense - this much we know.
LeBron James is one of the most dynamic players in NBA history, Kevin Love can score with his back to the basket or from long-range, and both Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters can get their own shot at any time. Add in a bench that's loaded with shooters, and you have the recipe for one of the best offenses in the league.
However, as the saying goes, 'defense wins championships', and the Cavaliers are not very good at that end of the floor right now.
Some of that is to be expected with a first year head coach and a new roster, but a lot of their struggles have come from on-ball defense and basic rotation issues.
LeBron is one of the best defenders in the league, but this team doesn't have anyone else who can consistently get stops on that end of the floor.
Anderson Varejao is a tough, physical presence down low, but he isn't a rim protector. Kevin Love is a below-average defender, Dion Waiters doesn't care (and when he does, he can only play well in spurts), and while Kyrie Irving has quick hands and can force steals, he doesn't have great lateral movement.
You can see that in this play from Monday's preseason game against the Bulls, where Derrick Rose turns Irving around and blows by him.
Derrick Rose made a great move on the play - and had a fantastic finish - but the play also highlights what's been the problem with Cleveland's defense.
Aside from Irving getting thrown around, look at the Cavaliers' defensive rotation, or lack thereof. LeBron and Varejao both leave their man to help at the rim, and no one rotates to cover Chicago's best shooter - Mike Dunleavy - in the corner:
While Derrick Rose is someone who a defense needs to pay special attention to, three guys should not be converging on him at the basket.
LeBron either needs to stay on him to protect against the corner three and have Waiters rotate to the basket, or Waiters should slide to the baseline to guard Dunleavy.
It is just the preseason and the players are still trying to develop chemistry, defensive rotations are something that really don't change that much from the high school level on - one player from the opposite side leaves his man to stop the drive, and everyone else slides down a man (Waiters to Dunleavy, Varejao to Heinrich, and Love to the top of the key). The goal is to force the driver to make the most difficult pass possible, which would be stopping and turning all the way around to throw the ball back out to Joakim Noah.
Sure, each coach might have tweaks here and there depending on the matchup and their particular philosophy, but no one wants to leave the other team's best shooter wide open.
Cleveland's offense is going to be able to outscore a lot of teams on most nights, and they have time to fix their issues defensively before games really start to matter down the stretch and in the playoffs. However, if this problem persists, the Cavaliers might not even make it out of the Eastern Conference.
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