I thought I would put The Cleveland Cavaliers on blast for a few minutes. I'm unclear on where to point the finger for this mess. There is a lot of suspects: Chris Grant, Byron Scott, Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson. We can sort that out as we move along in the 82 game grind. Here are just some notes.
First and foremost, what a COMPLETE WASTE of the best stretch of basketball Anderson Varejo has ever played. Andy is a basketball genius. It's like watching a virtuoso piano player out there. Not only because it's beautiful but also because it's almost literally just him playing against the other team by himself. The rhythm and flow and the art in which he plays is up there with the likes of Manu Ginobli and Steve Nash. Andy seems to be the only redeemable player on this team right now.
As unpopular and silly as this sounds, I am just not very happy with Kyrie Irving. I'm just not. He's talented as shit. He's a future Olympian. He's an all-star caliber point guard. He shoots the lights out. I just don't see any hunger and leadership. Leadership from the front. In your face, firey floor general leadership. Get on my back, follow me leadership. I just see a quiet businessman. A quiet assassin, who the game comes easy to and he's just gonna do his job and collect his dough. He seems much more interested in exploring his artistic side with his marketing. And maybe this leadership that I want to see is something he will grow into. He's 21. He can keep growing into that role. But the reality is that the best player on your team has to lead from the front. Until that happens, we'll suck. It's on him to 1. get stronger and less fragile and 2. find a way to transfer his artistic and charismatic side into fierce DRose like leadership.
Our current program as a whole is terrible. It's really flabbergasting to watch. I literally, every time I turn the Cavs on and watch for a few minutes immediately think: "are we missing 3-4 good players?" But we're not. Samardo Samuels really is our 7th-8th guy. Alonzo Gee really is our 5th guy. Booby freaking Gibson really is our 6th guy. We've had 3 picks inside the top 4 the last two drafts. We came away with Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters. Throw in Ty Zeller, considered a top 13 talent by many and that's 4 lottery players. Doesn't feel that way. Where's our speed and length and talent? There's no "who the hell is that monster out there?" question when you watch the Cavs. No one ever jumping off the screen at you. It's just 5-7 average guys walking around, mixed in with Andy's genius. The Tristan Thompson development project is starting to worry me. Yes, he makes shit happen that doesn't show up on the stat sheet. But getting back to the basket buckets, developing a crunch time offensive move and making free throws have to become easier for him. Or else he can't be a core guy.
I'll leave you with a question. Let's say we are playing the OKC Thunder and Kendrick Perkins is having a bad night. He's chippy and is constantly cheap shotting players on our team. Let's say he lays out Kyrie. Is there anyone on our roster who would step to that thug other than Andy? I mean, really chest him up and be ready to punch him in the face. To want to punch him in the face and get suspended? I don't think we have anyone on our team who would do that. And that's disappointing. We need to find a thug. A Reggie Evans. A K-Mart. A Tony Allen. Someone whose feared.
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