Seriously, Are the Cavaliers Really This Bad?
With Nick giving some extended thoughts this morning on the progress of the city of Louisville’s positioning for an NBA team, I’m going to keep my weekly ramblings on the NBA somewhat to a minimum, but I did want to briefly discuss the NBA storyline that has caught my attention perhaps more than any other this season:
The epic terribleness of the Cleveland Cavaliers
I think everybody was on board in declaring Dan Gilbert’s assertion that the Cavs would win a title before the Heat utterly ridiculous, but I don’t think anybody realized it turn out to be this ridiculous.
Remember a few months ago when people were still hypothesizing that Cleveland could sneak into the playoffs? It didn’t seem all that far-fetched when they got off to a 4-3 start, and eventually sat at 7-9 following a win over the Grizzlies on November 27. Demoralizing beatdowns at the hands of the Boston Celtics and LeBron’s Miami Heat quickly followed, sending them into a nine game losing streak.
They bounced back briefly with an OT win over the Knicks, but then fell promptly into an NBA-record 24 game losing streak that has seen them reach previously unseen levels of awful.
Since 11/27, they are 1-33. I don’t know if I can even fully grasp that. They’ve lost some close games here and there, but 14 of those defeats have come by double digits and many by much, much more.
Including their comparably stellar 7-9 start, they are 27th in the league in points per game, 26th in points allowed, and 27th in rebounding. They have nary a player even in the realm of being All-Star caliber. They have one active player that is shooting better than 47.6% for the season (Ryan Hollins, who doesn’t even take three shots a game). They have no stars and few trade pieces. Unless they draft a LeBron-level savior sometime soon, they don’t figure to contend for anything more than last place for the next five years. I almost have to think that their fans will be happy when there is a lockout, just so they aren’t compelled to watch them any longer.
Any game they win this season will be a surprise and the only thing keeping them from being called the worst team of all time is their mediocre start, and thank goodness for that.
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Hell yeah, they are. Only LeBron can fix this team.
It makes me wanna cry…
That’s what LeBron was trying to tell us when he left!!
the mistake on the lake does it again. nice job Gilbert, you’ve managed to embarrass not only yourself but also the town that you still claim will win a title before LeBron.
No! Cleveland is that bad. They have some pieces in place
(Jamison , HIckson WIlliams) just to name few. This situation is on management. LEbaron is gone so what! Management should have plans in the wings to added players with the money they saved on his departure. They did nothing but whine about, This show the team and city that their are not serious about building a winning team! To the team and BScott keep working . Make something good out of a bad situation. Do not take management lack of interest to hart.
They are terrible! I get the pleasure of watching them every night because I am living in Cleveland and I don’t even know if LeBron could fix this team. No chemistry, no talent and they don’t want to be on the floor. I thought it would at least be pleasurable to watch the dance team during the game but I think they all quit too and their going with the b-squad now. It’s pathetic!
A couple observations: (1) The Cavs didn’t just lose LBJ before the season, they also lost Shaq, Z, and Delonte. (2) After the season started the lost Verajao and Mo Williams to injury. (3) In sum, the lost their starting center, starting power forward, starting small foward, starting point guard, back-up center and back-up point guard. Show me another teams in the NBA that could lose four of its 5 starters and two members of its second string and not be bad.
jbk is right. With Z and Shaq gone and Anderson Varajo, not a true center, out for the season, the Cavs have only a marginal pro at center. Without Mo and Daniel Gibson injured, they have had Ramon Sessions as the main guy there, scrappy player but not enough. The best thing about this is that NBA teams can improve in a hurry and being mired in mediocrity only slows that down. All that said, this HURTS, but Cleveland still loves its team and this is NOT its worst team ever, present record(s) notwithstanding!
“have come by double digits and many by much, much more”
how do you lose by much much more than double digits?
Cavs isn’t a bad team..they’re obviously playing bad and that’s because they’re out of players…they’re not playing strongly enough to win coz they lack the scoring that the likes of mo and boobie gives into this team…and hell yeah, they lost half of their team from last season, and why you guys expect this young team to be a playoff team.i don’t also think that Dan Gilbert really embarassed the City of Cleveland with the way he reacted on LeBrons departure..it’s more of “gf being bitter to her bf, who left her hangin”,if you guys know what i mean…i’m a fan of cavs once coz of LeBron,and i still root for the cavs..not with your HEAT.