Basketball isn’t played on paper. Point guards aren’t pitchers, and centers aren’t goalies. It’s always remiss to expect players on new squads or just-formed super-teams to enjoy the success basic talent levels suggest. The 2007-2008 Boston Celtics are the exception to the rule; the 2010-2011 Miami Heat and certainly 2012-2013 Los Angeles Lakers are the norm.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are doing all they can to admit the challenges of their circumstances and squash sky-high expectations. Every other quote by LeBron James or David Blatt is about ‘respecting the process’ and general ‘growth.’ The Cavs know they won’t roll the ball out and win 65 games, a mindset sure to serve them well as the league’s spotlight hovers over Northeast Ohio for the foreseeable future.
But acknowledging the hurdles facing Cleveland sometimes won’t make leaping them any easier. Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love are due big adjustments as a result of James’ presence, and its imperative that each realizes a decline in touches and overall offensive responsibility isn’t an indictment of their abilities. Instead, it’s simply the all-encompassing inevitability of LeBron’s.
James is saying the right things about playing with Irving – perhaps he really will see less of the ball with the Cavaliers than he did with the Heatles. Whether that proves the case or otherwise, though, it’s Love’s role that will change the most from last season to this one.
As the interior cog in Miami’s former Big Three, Chris Bosh is uniquely suited to assess the physical and mental struggles Love will meet as Cleveland’s third wheel. And as Bosh told Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick, Love’s new reality won’t be easy.
“It’s going to be very difficult for him,” Bosh said of Love’s new task. “Even if I was in his corner and I was able to tell him what to expect and what to do, it still doesn’t make any difference. You still have to go through things, you still have to figure out things on your own. It’s extremely difficult and extremely frustrating. He’s going to have to deal with that.”
Bosh also mentions how difficult it was for him to get comfortable with a lack of touches on the block. As opposed to fewer shots in general being the biggest problem, though, he tells Skolnick thinking about the next attempt is what proved most grating. That makes perfect sense. For a primary scorer to be his best throughout a game, he modifies his moves from one to the next based on how the defense played him previously. With fewer isolations coming his way, that’s a task that is made next to impossible.
That’s just one intricate wrinkle of the trials Love is bound to face. Bosh also touches on the noise of media and fans looming large. If Love’s defense proves as big a detriment as some are forecasting or he becomes what some will consider a glorified spot-up shooter, how will he cope with the criticism? The Cavs aren’t the Minnesota Timberwolves, after all, and he’s no longer the stranded superstar on a middling team.
Bosh never received enough credit for his importance to the Heat’s mini-dynasty. He was a two-way cog for Miami that set the tone for how Erik Spoelstra’s team played on both ends of the floor. As a floor-stretcher, outlet-passer, and rebounder supreme, Love could make as big an impact for the Cavaliers.
But as Bosh notes, doing so will be much harder than most are anticipating.
What do you think?
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