Rolling Five Deep

The NBA season is now more than two weeks old and some pretty clear trends have developed that pretty much sum up what we've seen so far. With the added importance placed on advanced stats almost anything that happens on the court can now be digested by fans and what they're seeing can be supported by data.

Watching the Cavs this season, a pretty accurate understanding of their strengths and weaknesses jumps out at you without much of a need for a check of their +/- numbers. But seeing those numbers sure are staggering and is a great way to truly put in perspective just how big of a divide this team has between the play of the starters and the bench.

The five-man starting lineup of Irving-Waiters-Gee-Thompson-Varejao has a league-best +/- of +55 this season.

LEAGUE BEST!!

And it's not even close between the Cavs starters and the second place Heat and Lakers starting lineups. Both of those teams are considered to be favorites to hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy at the end of the year.

The Cavs are not.

The Heat and Lakers starting five's have a +/- of +33. Miami is off to a 7-3 start and L.A. currently sits at 4-5 after the Mike Brown debacle. The play of their starting five's will carry them deep into the playoffs.

For Cleveland(2-6), the play of its starters will eventually come back towards league average and with no bench help in sight it shows just how hard it is for the Cavs to compete for a playoff spot this year.

Still, those numbers sure are encouraging going forward and as the Irving-Waiters backcourt continues to develop more excitement is to come. Average play from the bench would have added a few more wins already this season but optimism for the future should be sky high.

By the time this team is really ready to compete the Walton's, Sloan's and Casspi's will hopefully be long gone and quality NBA-caliber players will be there to spell the starters when they need a break.

Tonight the Cavs take on the Mavericks at The Q and with Dallas missing its star Dirk Nowitzki Kyrie and Co. will look to build up an early lead that the big, bad bench wont be able to knock down.

Waiters Watches as the Thunder Rolls

The Cavs hung around for the better part of three quarters in tonight's 106-91 loss to the Thunder.

Kyrie did Kyrie things. Boobie Gibson continued to drain shots from all over the floor en route to finishing with 16 points and once again the starters showed that they can match up somewhat well with any team in the league on a given night.

Unfortunately, as I just touched on last night, when Omri Casspi and Jon Leuer are having a say in the outcome of an NBA game more often than not things are going to end poorly. The only thing that kept the game from getting out of hand early was the aforementioned shooting from Gibson that kept the walls from imploding in the early minutes of the second quarter.

It looked as the game would be tight heading into the fourth quarter until Russell Westbrook banked in a running 3-pointer from just inside half-court on his way to nailing four consecutive long range jumpers.

By the time Kyrie reentered the game with about six minutes remaining the deficit was double figures and the Cavs were unable to ever make a push. Dion Waiters watched the final quarter from the bench and I was hoping for Byron Scott's sake that it had more to do with nursing his thigh injury than trying to prove a point to the rookie.

Scott was apparently angry over something Waiters had done and even Waiters himself was unsure what it was following the game. Being stubborn with young players is something Scott has been known for in the past and a trait I had hoped he left behind in New Orleans.

Despite this being a third straight loss, I'm not as disappointed in the outcome as much as I had been after the previous two. Even without James Harden the Thunder are still one of the top teams in the league and a squad that brings it every night behind the play of Durant and Westbrook.

I've sort of come to terms with how terrible the play of the bench is going to be throughout the season and even though I would love to see playoff basketball back in Cleveland I realize that it make take another year before that happens.

However, if this season is going to be another defined by the growth of our young players, the benching of Waiters should have been handled better. At any point while the Cavs bench was on the court stumbling through the motions Scott or one of his assistants should have been talking to Waiters about any mistake he had made.

"I don't know. I cant explain it," Waiters said of why he watched the fourth quarter from the bench.

For Waiters to have no clue why he was benched for the final quarter is unacceptable. Scott has the comfort of having his extension picked up for next season but shouldn't hinder any on court growth while he tries to show who's running the show.

His inability to relate to the enigmatic J.R. Smith hampered Scott's tenure in the Big Easy, hopefully tonight won't become a similar trend as the Cavs look to build towards the future.

What happens in Vegas

In the days leading up to the Cavs first summer league game against the Bobcats, I found myself much more excited than any person should be for an exhibition game.

The chance to break out the Kyrie Irving-Dion Waiters back court duo for a test drive while also getting a first look at Tyler Zeller and another helping of Tristan Thompson made the match up worth watching.

When Irving broke his hand the day before in practice it dampened my enthusiasm some but still seeing the rookies for the first time together still brought a level of importance to the game.

The game did little to change my opinion on the two newest Cavs in any light. As expected, the play was pretty sloppy with constant turnovers and whistles dominating.

One thing I can take away is that Waiters isn't afraid to be aggressive on offense and I envision that being a good thing once paired with the R.O.Y. His Chris Webber moment at the end was a bonehead mistake but one I'd rather have him making now and one that he should learn from.

Zeller nailed some long two-pointers and really continued to do the things that made him so successful the past few years in college. I love the way he runs the floor and rebounds. Pairing him with both Thompson and Anderson Varejao is going to be great for this team's ability to keep possessions alive and should lead to a lot of second chance points.

The first time Samardo Samuels stepped on the court I had to do a double take to make sure it was the same guy who struggled to make it up and down the floor all season. Samuels must have finally listened to Byron Scott's complaints about his weight. While he still looked like the player from a season ago, it's nice to see he's taking his conditioning seriously now and could help him stick around as a big man off the bench.

The Cavs are back in action again tonight against the D-League Select Team and I expect for Waiters to look a little more comfortable in his second professional game.

A mock draft state of mind

By: Kyle Schimming

Well nobody will ever be able to say that GM Chris Grant is predictable.

For the second straight year I made the trip down to The Q to watch the NBA Draft and for the second consecutive year the Cavs turned in a selection at #4 that was met with a chorus of groans by most in attendance.

Normally when fans burst into boos it's a result of terrible play or lackluster effort, but the jeers delivered the past two draft nights have been caused by the front office taking a player that most in attendance were not expecting.

Tristan Thompson was a relative unknown to Cavalier fans leading up to last years draft and the same can be said for 2012 draftee Dion Waiters this time around. 

Thompson had an up and down rookie season but proved to be a decent enough selection considering those picked directly before and after him. I like his potential considerably more than Derrick Williams and Enes Kanter going forward and while some say the Cavs whiffed by passing up Jonas Valanciunas, I can't blame Grant for taking the more sure thing rather than falling in love with the mystery of the big Lithuanian. 

Turning my attention towards this years draft, I admittedly was in the majority of Cavs fans who were expecting and hoping for one of the Barnes/Beal/Kidd-Gilchrist trio to land in Cleveland. Most of the conversations overheard prior to and immediately after the selection were focused on these three players and the need to come away with one. 

My disappointment in selecting a college sixth-man turned to excitement the more I learned about Waiters' game and after reading article after article labeling Waiters as one of the prospects with the most potential going forward. 

Considering that some of the people who are now comparing Waiters' ceiling to NBA stars Dwayne Wade and Russell Westbrook are the same who had him failing to the middle to late lottery, it's clear just how credible mock drafts from even the top league insiders really are. 

None of the so-called "draft experts" foreseen the Cavs choosing the combo guard from Syracuse, or most of the other names called on draft night for that matter. While its fun to look at the various mock drafts leading up to draft night and some do have bits and pieces of correct information, the entire draft process is a game of cat and mouse and fans need to take everything with a grain of salt.

Taking a step back from what is being released by the media and the juicy rumors we'd all love to believe are true, the selections of Thompson and Waiters will ultimately be graded by their play in the future rather than where Chad Ford or Y! Sports had them falling in the draft. 

A backcourt of Kyrie Irving and Waiters leading this team into the future has me intrigued and it's nice to see the beginning of the future core start to take shape. 

Going forward I'm planning on holding off judgement for the direction Chris Grant steers the franchise in, no matter how exciting the ESPN Draft Simulator may seem.