The Cleveland Cavaliers' most crippling characteristic of the season has been their inconsistencies. Whether it's effort-related, focus-related, or conditioning-related, the Cavs have a less-than-stellar 15-12 record in mid-December.
On the other hand, Cleveland has plenty of time to figure things out, and advanced statistics suggest that the team has both a top-10 offense and defense despite what has happened to this point.
Darius Garland, Dean Wade, and Jarrett Allen are the longest-tenured Cavs. They've been through a lot for nearly five years by each other's sides, and Garland and Wade started their careers together in Cleveland in 2019. Knowing the trials and tribulations it has taken to get to this point, a mediocre start to the year — barely into the winter season — shouldn't make them flinch despite the challenge in the moment.
“It's pretty frustrating. I don't know if it's, like, the most frustrating I've been through,” Wade said after Tuesday's practice. “We did have a year where we won 17 games; that was pretty frustrating. With this much talent, and we're playing hard, doing the right things, it's frustrating to not see shots fall when they normally would. And I think that's the most frustrating part is we're doing everything right. We're taking the right process and doing it. It's just things aren't falling our direction right now and that is frustrating.
“But I wouldn't say it's the most frustrating thing I've been a part of because we still have that belief. We know we have the talent to come out of this on the right side. So, it's frustrating, but we obviously know we're a better team than what we're showing. We've just got to get some things squared away, go through a few things, fine tune some things, and I think we'll be back – we won't even remember this frustrating part.”
Garland had similar sentiments to Wade on Sunday evening. Following Cleveland's inexplicable loss to the Charlotte Hornets at home, he mentioned the constant tinkering by necessity and push-pull combinations that have kept Cleveland from putting together 48 minutes of its true brand of basketball. Garland feels it's about rediscovering their identity once everybody is back together.
“I think this entire locker room is positive, even the coaching staff,” Garland said. “I mean, everybody's positive. We know what we're capable of. We know what we have in this locker room, and we just have to find it. It's not on them in there; it's really just on this 15 in this locker room. What we want to do, what we want to really achieve, and how do we get through this funk? Because everybody goes through adversity. We went through it last year in the playoffs. So let's go through it now and try to figure it out so we can take those steps into the right direction, where we really want to be at later on in the season.”
“We've had a lot of guys in and out, had some bad bounces here and there, people not shooting well,” Wade added. “We're still out there, we're playing hard, we're doing the right things. It's just like, sometimes just things aren't falling. Loose balls going the wrong way, something like that. So, it's unfortunate, but I'm not sure exactly where the inconsistencies come from. But, you know, it's early still. We'll get it figured out, get it squared away.”
Allen was the only one of the three to attribute the struggles to a lack of confidence.
“I feel like we know we're a good team,” Allen said. “We know that we have all this ability to do it, but sometimes we all get down on ourselves. Sometimes you question yourself. I think if we get back to how we were last year, where we're not questioning if we could do it or questioning how far we're going to take it, I think that's going to be good for us.”
When it comes to figuring out the “why” behind the Cavs' lack of consistency, this trio provided different outlooks. No matter how any of them cut it, Cleveland has to be better from here on out — or else things could turn awkward quickly.
“There's still no excuse,” Garland said. “The guys out there are more than capable of winning basketball games and really competing at a high level. So there's no excuses for that. Just gotta find the energy and the competition, the spirit all over again.”
“I think we've handled it well,” Allen added. “We could have quit. You know, it's been a rough three, four weeks now about how our play has been, and we could have quit easily. We could have said this season might not be for us, but every single trial that we've been through, we've faced it head on, and I think we're going to continue to do that.”
