[Foreword] After James left for the second time, as everyone expected, the small-market team in Cleveland once again fell into a sluggish situation, once firmly ranking at the bottom of the league.

[Foreword]

After James left for the second time, This team in a small ball market once again fell into a sluggish situation, as everyone expected, and was once firmly ranked at the bottom of the league's record.

However, the high-ranking draft picks undoubtedly bring hope for an early revival for the Cavaliers . The rapid growth of Garland and Mobley, coupled with the management's acquisition of All-Star-level insider Allen through trade, the Cavaliers were once very close to the ranks of playoffs .

In the offseason, the Cavaliers hope to strike while the iron is hot and add another All-Star player to their outstanding team. As a result, Spider-Man Mitchell finally landed on the Cavaliers, creating a new luxury lineup for the Cavaliers.

After the start of the new season, the Cavaliers' record continued to improve and they once again reached the commanding heights of the Eastern Conference. However, as the season progressed, the Cavaliers' record and performance encountered setbacks.

There is no doubt that there are still many problems with this ambitious youth army.

[Lack of height, poor perimeter defense]

After the trade this summer, the Cavaliers formed a perimeter partnership composed of Garland and Mitchell.

After the Cavaliers began to use the unconventional three-high system composed of Markkanen , Mobley and Allen last season, the Cavaliers' ability to protect the frame has been a topic that all fans talk about. However, the height of the wings and inside has made people overlook that for this Cavaliers, they actually have no advantage in terms of outside height.

Mitchell, as a relatively short and stocky second position, and Garland, who is relatively disadvantaged in terms of height, pair up with two guards who are less than 1.9 meters tall, causing the Cavaliers' backcourt height to encounter a huge problem.

On the offensive end, due to the personal abilities of Garland and Mitchell and the team's tactical maturity, the physical talents of the two will not be particularly outstanding. However, when it comes to the defensive end, the high flaws of the Cavaliers' backcourt will be exposed to their opponents without fail.

The most obvious thing is that when facing a switch of defense, Mitchell and Garland can almost be called the defensive weak link in front of the opponent, so they are targeted and used as points to score points. In key games, it is undoubtedly very disadvantageous and dangerous for the team to have two core players with height disadvantages. Teams with certain experience and strength can easily switch forward players to Garland or Mitchell and take advantage of the defensive flaws of the Cavaliers' two defenders to score. Last season, when Garland was leading the team with a single core, he was already locked up by the height of the wings of the Hawks led by Trae Young. Now the Cavaliers have another weak link that can be targeted, and their defensive ability will inevitably decline further.

Even the heights of Mitchell and Garland are relatively bad at the same position. Facing defenders with a certain height such as Jaylen Brown , Booker , and Doncic, their physical talents determine that they cannot provide enough interference and defensive intensity in defense, resulting in a decline in the team's defensive efficiency.

Therefore, even though the Cavaliers still have one of the best interior defensive qualities in the league, the high disadvantages of their two All-Star guards in the backcourt directly led to their poor outside defensive capabilities. In addition, the Cavaliers do not have a forward with strong switching or defense capabilities. The decline in the Cavaliers' defensive efficiency is one of the biggest factors in their decline in record.

[Traditional insiders have limited offensive methods]

On the defensive end, the Cavaliers' stubborn problems are caused by the two defenders, while on the offensive end, the Cavaliers' struggles stem from the weakness of the two inside players.

In the Cavaliers' lineup, the twin towers composed of Mobley and Allen are undoubtedly the cornerstone of their defense.Not only can they use their physical talents and defensive judgment to complete excellent frame protection, but their secondary rebounds in the offense are also a strong guarantee for the team's efficiency. But when the team needs them to complete their own finishing inside, they seem to be a little stretched.

First of all, for Allen, as a traditional insider with better athletic ability, Allen does not have the ability to shoot. At the same time, as an absolute big player, he has been active in the paint area for a long time, but he does not have flexible enough feet. These make Allen's role in the offense extremely limited. Most of the time, Allen's role is basically fixed in cooperating with the two players on the outside to complete the pick-and-roll and complete the pie-eating type finish.

In fact, Allen's finishing type is not uncommon in the league, but if there is a player beside him who is also unable to attack independently, then the team's inside space will be extremely crowded. For the Cavaliers, Mobley's lack of offensive methods in the past two years has put the team into this embarrassing situation.

Mobley has always been able to show a certain range when he entered the league, and he can often make certain contributions to the team in the mid-range. However, other than that, his offensive methods are not eye-catching. Most of the time, his main offensive methods depend on secondary offensive rebounds or tactical runs, combined with assists from teammates to complete the finish. However, his own post-up ability and his finishing ability after frontal shaking are extremely different from the traditional outstanding fourth positions such as Bosh and Nowitzki .

The lack of personal offensive ability shown by Mobley and Allen in the past two years has caused the team's inside space to be extremely crowded when the two of them are on the court at the same time. Not only does the opponent not need to deploy too many people to defend inside, it will also severely compress the space for Osman, LeVert, and even Mitchell and Garland during the breakthrough process, so that the best offensive effect cannot be achieved.

During the regular season, the personal abilities of Garland and Mitchell can completely influence the trend of the game. However, as a team that has completed reconstruction to a certain extent, their goal is not just to enter the playoffs or achieve regular season results. After reaching the playoff level, this single offensive method is completely insufficient to win. This is also the problem that Bickerstaff needs to solve now.

[Conclusion]

The Cavaliers' performance this season is still up to standard, but due to the team's two major problems, the record has begun to experience some setbacks.

Although the team is still able to remain stable in the playoffs, considering the intensity of competition in the Eastern Conference this year, the Nets, Bucks and Celtics have all shown extremely outstanding competitiveness.

Especially among the strong teams in the Eastern Conference, there are many powerful attackers on the wings such as Durant , Antetokounmpo, Tatum, Brown. Once the Cavaliers meet these strong teams in the playoffs, it will be difficult to resist them in their current state.

There is no doubt that in the past two years, the Cavaliers' reconstruction work has been completed very well, but if the Cavaliers want to go further this year, the team will inevitably need to make effective adjustments in the remaining time.

So, we will wait and see whether the Cavaliers can transform and complete a breakthrough in the second half of the season.