2019-2020 NBA Season Reviews: Cavs
It’s beginning to look a lot like the NBA regular season is effectively over. Rather than sit around and wait for basketball to come back into our lives, let’s reflect on what the season has dished up to this point.
We’ll take a look at each and every NBA team over the coming weeks, assessing what went right, what didn’t go to plan, and where their journey took them as well as where the team hoped it would take them.
Today, we’ll start with the league’s cellar dwellers: After hitting the Golden State Warriors, and Minnesota Timberwolves, we move on to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Cleveland Cavaliers
Record: 19-46 (15th in the Eastern Conference)
82 game pace: 24-58
Expectations
Cleveland didn’t really carry any huge expectations for the greater NBA audience. They had a flawed star in Kevin Love, a pair of young guards still learning how to be effective NBA players in Collin Sexton and Darius Garland, and a bunch of supporting players that really aren’t starter quality for a playoff team in Jordan Clarkson, Cedi Osman and Tristan Thompson.
Internally, though? That’s a whole other question. Reports abound that the Cavs hierarchy expected a playoff push at worst from their squad. Sure, it’s laughable to you and I, but the Cavs clearly had their rose tinted spectacles perched safely atop their noses.
What went right
In short, very little. The Cavs only three game winning streak of the season took them to a woeful 9-21 record immediately before Christmas. Ummm, yeah. A three game win streak is about as good as it got, I’m afraid. Oh, Clarkson became a legitimate bench spark plug, tidying up his previously terrible shot selection and appearing to actually try on defense. All that did was get him traded to a playoff team, however.
What went wrong
Far too much to fit into this article. But lets bullet point it, for clarity:
The Sexton/Garland combo proved to be the worst starting back court in the NBA.
- Love’s defensive game atrophied and he’s proven unable to make up for it on offense, as good as he still clearly is.
- Love’s $120 million contract was supposed to make him a viable trade target as he has years under team control. Unfortunately, the financial commitment caused each and every suitor to step away.
- Clarkson was traded for a pair of 2nd rounders and the unfulfilled potential that is Dante Exum. Aside from a 28 point explosion early doors, Exum did next to nothing.
- The team traded for Andre Drummond, who is perhaps the most flawed star in the league. He overlaps with too many of Love’s strengths, and doesn’t cover any of his weaknesses.
- They failed to trade pending free agent Thompson.
- Veteran college mentor John Beilein was an unmitigated disaster in his first (and presumed only) NBA gig.
The outcome
There are not really a lot of positives to come out of this campaign for Cleveland. They’re a horrible NBA team with perhaps the least discernible upside of any club in the entire league. It’s amazing how many cracks can be papered over by a single player, sometimes. Miss you LeBron!
