Cleveland Cavaliers: 5 steps to repeat as NBA Champions

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Feb 6, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Mo Williams (52) dribbles the ball as New Orleans Pelicans guard Toney Douglas (16) defends in the fourth quarter at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /

Step 4: Get backups that can make plays

Obvious observation: Cleveland isn’t as good when Irving, James, and Love aren’t on the court.

In the Finals, Cleveland struggled mightily when their star players were resting. Early in the series, the Warriors were able to slice and dice up the Cavaliers players and scored whenever they felt compelled to do so.

However, it wasn’t just the household-name Warriors that were making easy work of the Cavaliers. For example, role player and backup point guard, Shawn Livingston scored twenty points (on 8-10 shooting) in game one.

The fact of the matter is that the Cavaliers did shut down Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. Golden State’s dynamic duo accounted for twenty points on 8-of-27 shooting in game one. Basically, Cleveland did everything defensively that they were supposed to do, except they failed to stop the Warriors second-team.

When re-watching game one’s tape, the defensive blunders were being made by Cleveland’s second-team. The Cavaliers tried to bring James, Irving, and Love (or a combination of the three) off the court to rest. Whenever they did so, Cleveland’s replacements were slow to move in transition and unable to make stops.

On the offensive side, whenever Channing Frye or Mo Williams subbed in for the Cavaliers, the offense typically ran itself into the ground. This forced the Cavaliers to run a high amount of players where either James or Irving maintained an isolation with the ball and it was up to the ball handler to take it to the basket.

This effectively turned the Finals into a game of energy conservation. Cleveland’s stars knew that they team would perform badly whenever one of its leaders came out of the game. As a result, the team just had to hope that James, Irving, and Love could somehow find enough energy to make an impact in the fourth quarter.

Moving forward, Cleveland needs to solidify their second unit. The team has a tiny amount of cap space available, thus it is unrealistic for the to sign a player that will make a huge impact next season.

Instead, the team should continue to coach up existing players such as Iman Shumpert and Jordan McRae. If Cleveland is unable to develop a strong second unit, then the team will definitely be in trouble next year in the Finals.

Next: Step 5: Embrace differences

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