The Cleveland Cavaliers have plenty of time to jell before the Eastern Conference Playoffs begin but, after two runaway victories in a row with a new cast of characters, many assumed that any issues with the team had evaporated. That comes with the territory when dealing with a LeBron James-led team that looked fantastic in those wins but, on the heels of two losses in three games, a bit of worry has creeped back into the proceedings with Cleveland’s overall performance.
To that end, Dave McMenamin of ESPN brings word from head coach Tyronn Lue, who described the team’s offense as “predictable” at the moment with new players still being integrated into the system.
“I thought today was a good day, a good teaching day,” Lue said. “I was able to add some more stuff offensively because right now with only two or three practices, we’re predictable offensively and teams are kind of sitting on that and taking advantage of that.”
Lue referenced the team “not being able to run a lot of stuff” during a lopsided defeat at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs and, while some of that is due to the advanced schemes of that particular opponent, his view is that the issues could be indicative of future concerns. This particular hiccup took place with the way that San Antonio dealt with James and, if the pieces around the best player in the world are not in ideal position, it can become easier to game plan against what Cleveland is attempting to do on a per-possession basis.
With the hopes of taking a step forward, Lue said that he installed “six or seven more sets out of the elbow,” and stressed the importance of the team learning on the fly as its recently-acquired players are getting used to live in Cleveland.
In some ways, Cleveland’s offense has never been particularly sophisticated from a system perspective and, in the end, it is easy to “get away” with that given the brilliance of James and what he can do to put his teammates in the best possible position. Still, there is a challenge to bringing a wealth of new pieces into the fold at this relatively late hour and, even with a 109.9 offensive rating over the five-game sample with the current roster, Lue clearly sees ways in which his team can improve.
