For some considerable time now, the Cleveland Cavaliers have played bad basketball. Really, really, awful basketball, getting blown out night after night and the team has looked disjointed and lacking NBA quality. Despite this, on the 20th December I purchased myself a month's subscription of NBA League Pass in an attempt to watch as many Cavs games as I could and possibly write some long overdue Cavs stuff on here. It hasn't exactly worked out, in every way possible.
Since I bought League Pass my beloved Cavaliers have not won a game. Not a single game. I have lost count of the losing streak now (I think its around 13 losses in a row) and with every Cavs game I have managed to watch, there has been absolutely nothing, nada, zero to motivate me to write about them (don't get me started on that horror show in L.A). The last time the Cavs tasted victory was two days before I got League Pass, beating the Knicks 109-102 on the 18th December. Just my luck...
The reasons for the demise of this Cavs team has been well documented by my fellow Cavs bloggers so I'm not going to waste too much time reiterating the problems. But at the heart of this predicament is a very simple reason; your 2010/11 Cleveland Cavaliers are not a very good basketball team, in fact they are the worst in the NBA and quite possibly one of the worst teams in league history. Byron Scott's team is a mix up of journeymen veterans (Jamison, Parker, Moon) and previously castaway youngsters who still need a lot of time to develop (Harris, Samuels, Eyenga), and the sad thing is that none of these guys are going to garner much interest in the trade department, so I expect we'll be stuck with most of them for a while yet. The Cavs can't defend to save their lives, especially around the perimeter where opposition teams shoot the 3 at will, and make what seems 99% of their attempts. Actually, this Cavs team might be even worse trying to defend the paint, where the big men of the NBA fill up their stat-sheet on a nightly basis. Its amazing to see a team that, under Mike Brown, prided themselves on their defensive prowess. Now obviously with Lebron, Big-Z, Shaq, and Delonte West taking their talents elsewhere during the summer, the defensive chemistry of this Cavs squad was going to take a significant hit, but to go from first to worst so quickly has been astounding. Granted, the team has been plagued by injuries this year and its gotten even worse recently with the news that Andy Varejao is going to miss the remainder of the year with a torn ankle tendon. But these are professional NBA players on this Cavs team, and should be able to put up more of a fight than what they've been showing. For the majority of the season its been more like watching a team of high schoolers out there rather than NBA calibre players, the cream of the basketball crop. Nothing seems to be working and it doesn't look likely we'll see a solution any time soon.
Tomorrow night the Cavs welcome Steve Nash, Vince Carter and the rest of the Phoenix Suns to the Q, which marks the beginning of a brief two game home-stand before Byron Scott's team are back on the road again, with difficult trips to Chicago, Boston, Orlando and Miami before the month is finished. Oh yes, things aren't going to get any easier. My League Pass subscription is nearly up so I reckon the game against the Suns will probably be my last chance to watch the Cavs for some time, while I deliberate whether or not to waste another £15 to watch this awful team (well, it has been brilliant watching some of the other teams as well, so not a total waste). So all I would like to see is a Cavs win, just something else other than this miserable losing streak. I don't expect to have my wish granted, but maybe the Cavaliers will surprise me... then again, maybe not.
Thanks for reading.
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