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Jr plays defense too. He's just awful as hell when he gets screened.

I will say I agree they didn't play well. kyrie has great handles, but he tries to do too much and is a turnover machine..smith is a waiters clone with the exception that he will make more bad shots than dion did. Mosgov was meh...got blocked at the rim and slow to rotate, but it was his first game..Love is a lot worse of a problem on defense than anything..it stood out last night how lost he is on defense. TT is just a bad basketball player..his minutes need to come down drastically.. But we just played the best team in the NBA and kept it close without lebron..people seem to forget how much of an impact it is losing the best player on the planet. As far as Blatt goes, I don't agree with you there..I think he's the problem...not lebron. Lebron went to the finals 4 straight time and won 2..with spoelstra...Blatt hasn't proven he knows how to handle NBA players or how to devise offensive and defensive identities..its alot easier in europe where defense is an after thought and the offensive rules are quite different. I believe if we would have had a guy like SVG or Karl or even mark jackson we'd be in a pretty good spot. But Blatt was hired to grow with a young team, then lebron came back and that all changed...not really fair to blatt but it is what it is and if he don't get it figured out soon i think we'll see a change before long.

His sets have been pretty bad this year.

Successful NBA coaches are fluid and malleable when it comes to design. Blatt is trying to bang square pegs into round holes right now.

yeah...its like its the same set over and over..and if the shot isn't there right away..it goes right to iso..its so horrible to watch because anyone that watches alot of NBA ball can see how bad this offense looks, and when its your calling card..thats a problem

j/c on the article.

I realize that everyone wants to put the blame on Blatt, but I think this author made a lot of good points. I will quote a few of them. I have seen the very same things.



We are not running Blatt's offense. I blame LBJ.




Yep. You would think that San Antonio's success would have lit the light bulb in LeBron's head. You would also think that we would not want to waste what Love does best.

I was so excited to get Love. He fit Blatt's offense perfectly, especially w/LeBron's height to see over the defense and facilitate. Add in two guys who can shoot and slash, Andy who could run 13 cuts, set picks and roll to the basket from the bumper position and TT who cleans up all the garbage.....and man, this offense should have been sweet. Instead, we play playground bb and only utilize the talents of bone-headed individuals.

We are the antithesis of the Spurs and their intelligent style of basketball.




There are two types of leaders. Leaders like Tom Brady who buys--and sells---everything the coaching staff is preaching and then guys like LeBron--who thinks he knows more than the coach and sets a bad example to a young and very impressionable team.

Until that gets fixed, this team has no shot.

It can still happen, but I doubt it will.

That's not what Lowe is saying.

Blatt's offensive sets have been a part of the problem. They haven't been very good.



Re-read what he said.

He's discussing Blatt's improper use of Love.

How did you get 'LBJ doesn't understand cerebral basketball' from that?

LBJ has one of the highest basketball IQ's out there. He's certainly appeared to have been lazy at times. I think I disagreed on that at one point, but have come around.

But this 'Blatt is trying to run smart basketball, and LeBron isn't playing along' sounds like a summation of preconceived notions.



It's sounding more and more like you're clinging to your preconceived notions of what Blatt was going to do on the offensive end of the ball.

We tried to tell you back then that you can't run a Princeton in the NBA, and that Blatt couldn't run what he ran in Europe. Re-read what Lowe said.

Blatt's sets have lacked imagination, and aren't suited to our roster.

Pop and SA are so good because they're fluid and malleable. He has constantly changed his sets to suit his talent.

To just think 'intelligent, Euro-style, extra pass' is a layman's view.

I'm not trying to rip Blatt apart, because he's less than a half a season into his first NBA season. But he's struggling. It's not an issue of player's not buying in or freelancing. That's certainly happened, but it's not like Blatt is running great sets and they just aren't being executed.

They've been simplistic, predictable and stubborn.

You don't read very well and you certainly don't know offense if you believe that nonsense because that is what he is saying.

In on 1.

The bottom line for me is how this team has played w/ LeBron out. We look like we did last year and we shouldn't. Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving along should have shown us more improvement overall. Both of them continuing to be defensive liabilities is really hurting us. Stars need to lead by example and its not *just* on LeBron.

The guy who ran around fuming because people weren't taking his Bleacher Report article on the Princeton offense seriously is telling me I don't know offense?

Also, not sure a guy who can't make basic thesis arguments should talk to me about reading comprehension.

Let's do some basic reading comprehension work. Here is a section you used to claim Lowe was speaking your language:



I am stating that Lowe is saying Blatt doesn't know how to utilize Love.

You're trying to argue Lowe is saying that the team - mainly LBJ - is not running Blatt's sets.

Can you cite from the text to back this assertion?

I'll back mine by just pointing to the above quote. Who is the subject of the sentence that 'isn't maximizing' Love's value? Who is the subject of the sentence when it comes to 'marginalizing' him? Where in that paragraph is LeBron James mentioned? Where in that paragraph is it alluded to that Blatt's sets are being sabotaged?

And just out of curiosity...how many Cavs games have you caught this year?

I think most of us have seen how horribly misused Love is under Blatt...Blatt rather a top 5 post up player in the NBA shoot 3's..thats just dumb..Love has always made his money by playing in the post and then opening up for the 3 as the defense packs in to stop it..he also can pass out of the post. To have him sit around waiting to shoot a 3 is asinine...its also what happens when you don't have a legit 2..mike miller is done...he should just retire and find a job coaching..JR/Shumpert more than make up his production. So maybe that will allow kevin to get back inside..a guy like Mosgov can help move bodies down there as well to create space for him to work. My feeling is Blatt will continue to put sets out there where love is on the perimeter.

I always assumed we'd see a fair amount of that, as Blatt loves his stretch 4's, but it borders on ridiculous at times.

Like Lowe said, you don't have to run an offense around him, but he can do a lot more than hang out to create spacing and jack catch-and shoot 3's.

My biggest complaint with Blatt is a tendency to be stubborn with simplistic sets that are clearly not working or condusive to the roster. Adaptation is king in NBA coaching.

We're doing to Love what Miami did to Bosh..

He was basically a 6'11 Shooting Guard by the 4th year..

I think there is blame to go all around honestly. Blatt isn't really adapting or coming up with decent rotations. It's not as simple as "Lebron isn't running the sets". They run the sets, it's not working, so guys go into Iso because it least it gets points.

Love has looked terrible at times. I'm not sure if he just feels marginalize by Blatt's sets or Lebron just won't let him have the ball, but even when he does have the ball, he doesn't look very dominant in the post in a straight post up play. His shots have looked really flat this year. The worst part is, he doesn't really help much on defense (but we sort of knew this before the season started). It just puts more pressure on Andy and TT to deliver in the middle, and we know they aren't defensive stoppers.

Lebron, when healthy has been on cruise control at times. I think this is part of his plan though, or maybe he's just more injured than he's letting on. He's given up some pretty lazy turnovers and at times he looks lazy on defense. I don't buy this whole, "He doesn't understand Blatt's offense". He's one of the smartest players in the game.

Kyrie has been Kyrie. He's weakish on D and he makes his points off of Iso ball-handling. He also get injured a lot. One of the points we made before the Love trade was that we were putting together a team of guys that averaged 60-some games a season. Well, now Lebron isn't as healthy either, and that's a big part of the problem as to why we are giving guys like Marion and Delly large minutes. Our main guys can't stay healthy.

I've begun to wonder if Love is a guy that needs his touches to have his head in the game.



Or maybe he has a tendency to mentally check out when facing adversity.

Two rings or not, that specter has always been over him.

If only LeBron had went to OSU, made the NCAA tournament.. and then lost in the Elite 8 against Duke when he keeps passing the ball to his teammates and stands off in the corner not moving in the final minutes as Terence Dials jacks up 3s...

The problem is that we are middle of the pack in both scoring, and in points allowed. It hasn't just been on one side of the ball. We have lost a lot of scoring with Lebron out, but it hasn't only been Lebron out. We have also had Kyrie out. Love missed a game this year. Then as also had Marion out. (so no real SF) Andy went down. We traded Dion. We added Smith and Mozgov. Miller missed time.

*Edit to add* We were not a great defensive team with Andy in, but we were far worse once he went out. We had no one to stop anyone heading to the rim.

I think that we have to get the whole team, on the court, and playing together for a while. I think that we will see a consistent starting lineup once we get everyone healthy again. I think that there is little doubt that we'll start: Irving, Shumpert, Lebron, Love, and Mozgov, once we get everyone back. We will then have specific backups ..... Thompson at PF/C ..... Marion at SF/PF ..... Smith at SG .... and maybe Delly at PG. Maybe we play Miller at SF, with Marion at PF and Thompson at C, for a smaller, quick backup unit.

I am not crazy about all of Blatt's lineups, but when your Center is Thompson, and you really have no backup Center ..... that makes life really difficult. Add in that we have had quite a few injuries, and that makes it harder to establish anything.

I hope that we can keep everyone healthy once we get everyone back on the floor. I think that is the 1st step.

Met him once. Great guy. Dials and Lebron would have been nice.

Man, I am so tired of your dime store psychoanalysis and constant attempts at belittling others to mask your own inadequacies.

Did you really miss the part about the LeBron offense? Seriously?

I could care less if we agree about this. I am offering my OPINION on what is wrong w/the Cavs.

It does not bother me in the slightest if you--or anyone else--agrees. You don't debate, you attempt to humiliate.

I don't have space for you in my life right now.

Good god this team is awful..we have no athleticism, the defensive sets are a joke..i watch guys rotate so you end up with the worst player in the nba in dellevedova on cousins...its a joke...cousins has destroyed mosgov so far...so much for the interior defense being better...the kings are a bad team and blowing us out. I think Blatt needs fired soon, before all star break or the wheels will be completely off...everyone has tuned him out..clueless

we get nothing out of thompson..he's just an athlete that can jump..bad at the line and can't shoot, we get even less out of jones, miller and dellevedova..this is going to be a long season.

Yeah, let's fire Blatt. The team will automatically begin to play great defense and run sets that get us wide open looks.

Freaking fans our ignorant.

Too good not to quote. LOL.

LOL.............I'm a fan, too.

Haha... I appreciate you taking that in stride.

Alll in good fun.

It's not dime store psychology.

You constantly blurt out opinions without the evidence to back them.

It's understandable to be condescending on a message board -

I'm pretty good at it. You aren't.

The main difference is that I can construct a rational argument behind what I say. You can't.

So you mainly just blather on layman opinions, and lose your temper when others disagree with you.

Do you really want to go into a head to head debate about Blatt and his offense?

Because you will embarrass yourself. You aren't good at debate. Especially when it's in an area you don't have a ton of knowledge in.

Let's just keep it to Zach Lowe's piece...

You claimed it backed what you said...can you provide a sentence or two to back that up?

You went to college, right? Surely you know what a thesis is?

And if you find that derogatory, I'd be more than happy to submit multiple examples of you ranting about nonsense, and acting like an immature, unequipped child when asked to make a rational argument to support your words.

I can make a pretty good argument that you don't know what the word thesis means based on your behavior and temper.

Please stop ruining NBA threads.

Either leave, or let's debate Blatt's Cleveland offense, so I can make you look a clown.

Lol huh? Talk about ignorant. I know blatt is just below Phil Jackson in your eyes...but yes..getting a coach that can actually do just that at this level will do just what you said. We don't have time for blatt to learn NBA. Players have tuned him out because his system isn't working. You shouldn't need lebron when you have kyrie and love to beat kings. We get blown out constantly agains bad teams...that's preparation and system. So yes, I want Blatt replaced. If not this year, first thing at season end. Call me ignorant if you want but I've played alot of organized ball including college..I can tell when players don't believe in the coach. Once that happens it's over.

Mike Brown would have been better for this team than Blatt. At least Mike wanted to feed his bigs.

I think Blatt could be successful in the NBA.

But I'm starting to think this is the wrong kind of roster for him to start out..

He needs a bunch of young guys, fresh faces, to teach his system.. Grow into it..

I'm not saying he can't be successful here, because IMO regardless, in the NBA it always comes down to the players, but it's not looking good for him.

We have no defenders at PG, SG, SF, and PF. This is why we suck right now. We need Lebron and Shump to get healthy.

It is weird. He came into this expecting to have a young roster, to mold into his image, and to play to his philosophies. Then things completely changed, and he wound up with a veteran group.

It does take a specific and special kind of coach to handle a superstar roster. He has to be able to handle that delicate balance between where the stars will listen and follow his orders on the court, applying just enough pressure to them, without them turning on him and telling him to go to blazes.

We'll have to see what happens when we get Lebron back. I cannot see us finishing the season with Blatt if things do not turn around ... whether that is fair to him or not.

I do think that Lebron has a lot invested in succeeding here. For all of the talk about him maybe jumping ship, he approved most, if not all of the moves the Cavaliers made, and specified many of them. He wanted guys like Miller, Love, and Jones brought in. He wanted Andy re-signed. He probably wants Tristan re-signed as well. He has to make this work. This is not like his 1st time here. This time the front office is doing everything it can to put a quality team around him, with a pair of superstars alongside him, and still working to add quality around him.

I do think that this team is going to need Lebron back in order to win. I have no idea if Irving and/or Love know what it takes to be a consistent winner yet. I don't know if they have the leadership to be the rudder for a winning team. Lebron does have that ability, to will a team to wins consistently. I have read so frequently about Love barely scoring in the 4th quarters of games. That is a concern for a superstar player. Irving still plays "me and those other guys" far too often late in games.

I dunno. I'm definitely concerned.

We have lost Andy for the season. As much as people malign him (and rightfully so) for injuries, he is still the 2nd or 3rd best defender on this team. The other top defenders are Lebron and Marion. All 3 have been hurt. Marion has missed a couple of games, and was ineffective in a couple of others after getting hurt, before he sat out. Thompson gets caught badly out of position far too often. Irving can be pesky if he wants, but he wants far too infrequently. Love has done nothing to even pretend to work on being an improved defensive player. (which really disappoints me greatly)

Man, these superstar level guys just don't seem to know what it takes to win.(yet) Lebron is supposed to be their teacher, yet that is hard to do from the bench.

It is also hard to build any cohesion when the lineups have to change from day to day because of injuries. That has also been a major problem.

*Sigh* This team has so much ability and promise. They have to put it all together though.

you know whats funny, I always thought Kyrie was good, but not a PG, but too small to be a 2. I was kinda hoping this summer we'd let him go and go after Lowry. He'd be a better fit..kyrie is a good player, but he's not a leader and he's not good at running an offense. But I digress..outside of rec league level coaching, you got guys like Dellevedova, thompson, miller and jones getting significant minutes when on any other playoff team they'd be end of the bench fringe guys. With lebron out there is only 2 teams worse than us during that stretch, 76ers and the knicks....and the 76ers beat us.. that should tell you about the talent level. If shumpert doesn't come back this week this trade will be silly, only the cavs would trade for a guy that dislocated his shoulder and was currently hurt.. I really hope lebron and company come back and all this bad basketball goes away. If it don't, i give it two weeks and we'll have a new coach...I care less what griffin says..griffin is gm in title only, if lebron/kyrie/love want blatt gone, you can bet he'll be gone..hell if just lebron wants him gone, a simple text to gilbert and you'll see a tweet of Blatt resigning or some type of settlement. I don't think he'll be fired, because this is a bad situation he is put in..he's not familiar with NBA, especially one with superstars, and we don't have time to wait. Right now this team is utter garbage..even austin carr, who is the biggest homer on the planet, basically said they suck and are weak and have no idea what they are doing. Thats coaching. he's not getting through to them.

I guess blatt came out and said Love isn't a max player..lol...I don't even know what to say anymore

Uh no ... a reporter came out asking something to the effect that you've got two players who've signed max deals on the floor and they're struggling to win, etc ...

To which Blatt said that "Kevin isn't a max player yet", meaning he hasn't signed his max deal. Probably not the best thing to say, but hardly the out-of-context, "Kevin Love isn't worth a max deal" comment that media types are trying to blow into a non-story.

Blatt won't be around when Love is a max player, so it doesn't matter either way.

I know the context in which it was stated. More accurately they made a comment about 2 max players on the floor with kyrie and love...reporter didn't mention it as a contract, just they were max level players...which they are...point is that is rule 1 in NBA coaching...dont comment about a player contract publicly..the crapstorm that ensued is the result.

This team is so hard to watch right now.

They are really hard to watch, I've turned more games off this year than last...alot of games we aren't even competitive..right now we seem so far away from being competitive

A lot of it has to do with guys just giving a crap.

I think they thought theyd just cruise and tear through everyone...once that happened they were done