The Cleveland Cavaliers dropped to 5-6 on the season following an ugly 91-78 loss to the Washington Wizards on Friday night as they continue their disappointing start to the year.
Early-season struggles were anticipated with a new coach, new stars, and only five players returning from last years' roster, but those struggles have been much greater than anticipated. What's wrong with this team?
Lack of Ball Movement
LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love are all perennial All-Stars that are capable of taking over a game at any time, but Cleveland has relied too much on those guys trying to do everything themselves. More often than not, offensive possessions for the Cavs start and end with a single player dribbling the ball and trying to create a shot for himself as opposed to his teammates.
The one-on-one play not only makes the defense's job much easier, but it kills momentum for the offense. Cleveland has so many weapons that if they move the ball more consistently on offense, they'll create open shots and more opportunities for their best players.
Bad Defense
Cleveland was expected to be an offensive juggernaut this season - and they will be at some point - but the Cavs have played defense like they're expecting to simply outscore the opposition. They're lazy in their rotations, which often leads to open shots on the perimeter or easy driving lanes to the basket for their opposition.
The roster is stacked with offensive talent, but this team does not have many good individual defenders. Cleveland wasn't expected to be one of the league's best defensive teams because of that, but they can make up for their lack of individual talent on that end of the floor by playing great team defense. That hasn't been happening, and they've been losing games to lesser teams because of it.
No Intensity
Most of Cleveland's problems could be solved if they played with more intensity and simply tried harder. Their lack of defensive rotations come from not giving full effort on that end of the floor, and their standstill offense comes from not being focused and mentally engaged.
The NBA season is a grind, so there are going to be games where a team comes out flat. However, the Cavs are still playing with the mindset of the team from the past two years that were expected to be in the draft lottery as opposed to a team that's supposed to compete for the NBA title.
It's still just the start of the season and Cleveland has plenty of time to improve on these things, but they're all alarming enough that they need to be addressed sooner rather than later.
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