Can the Cavaliers — the NBA’s most expensive team — snap out of their funk?

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What a difference a year makes. Last season, the Cavaliers set a franchise record by going undefeated in their first 15 games en route to a tidy 64-win campaign. Things are not going quite so smoothly this time around. 

These Cavs are a game above .500 after losing four of their last five, a stretch that included back-to-back defeats to the Bulls and a home loss to the Hornets. The lone win was against the Wizards, who are still technically a professional basketball operation. Cleveland eked that one out by four points. 

There are a lot of problems for Kenny Atkinson’s crew at the moment, health and availability being right near the top. Darius Garland has only played 13 of 29 games. Jarrett Allen, 18. Evan Mobley, last season’s Defensive Player of the Year, was cruising right along and playing well (apart from his free-throw shooting), until a recent calf injury put him on the shelf. He’s expected to miss 2-4 weeks. Donovan Mitchell has been the lone consistent bright spot among the four mainstays, but he was unavailable in Friday’s home loss to the Bulls due to illness. In that game, Atkinson ran out his 15th different starting lineup: Garland, Allen, Dean Wade, Jaylon Tyson and Tyrese Proctor. Are you making the cringe emoji face, too?

Before falling to the Bulls, Atkinson reportedly reached out to some friends who work for the Cleveland Guardians about how they overcame adversity last season on the baseball diamond. He pointed out that Cleveland’s MLB team hit some rough patches before figuring it out and winning the Central division. The Guards were 15½ games behind the Detroit Tigers at one point over the summer before winning the division. 

“This is just part of pro sports,” Atkinson said. “It’s hard to win in professional sports. And we go through the dip. You gotta manage it. You got to trust your group. I don’t think there’s ever a point you’re like, ‘Forget it, this is a disaster.'”

Stiff upper lip and all that. Sure. Hard to fault him for trying to keep morale up. But while the situation might not quite qualify as a disaster, it’s not good, either. 

The Cavs came into this season with high expectations. Cleveland was one of the betting and pundit favorites to win the Eastern Conference. Instead, more than a third of the way into the season, they’re 15-14 and in seventh place. 

Last season, the Cavs didn’t lose their 14th game until March. They were first in offensive rating and eighth in defensive rating. They had shooters everywhere and bombed away from deep, where they were fourth in 3-point attempts per game (41.5) and second in percentage (38.3). They were also first in eFG percentage (57.8). That group hit shots from all over the floor with a variety of players. This group? Not so much. 

The Cavs numbers have cratered from a year ago. They are 11th in offensive rating and 18th in eFG percentage. And while they’re still firing away from beyond the arc, taking the second most 3-point attempts, they’re hitting just 33.9 percent as a group. That’s the fourth-worst mark in the league. Hard to win that way.

Here, again, personnel and availability has not done the Cavs any favors. Max Strus was fourth on the team in 3-point attempts last season and made 39%. He has yet to play a single minute this season due to a foot injury. Meanwhile, Caris LeVert, Georges Niang, Ty Jerome and Isaac Okoro all play elsewhere now. Okoro was the worst shooter of the bunch and he still shot 37% from deep. The other three guys all hit 40% or better, led by Jerome who made 44%. 

In their places, Atkinson is left with a rotation that’s not quite so sharp in the shooting department. Aside from the core four, the players averaging the most minutes are, in order, DeAndre Hunter, Jaylon Tyson, Sam Merrill, Lonzo Ball and Dean Wade. Tyson is hitting 45.3% on 4.4 3-point attempts per game, while Merrill is shooting 44.4% on 8.3 attempts. That’s the good. The decidedly less good: Hunter (30.3% on 6.2 attempts), Ball (25.5% on 5.0 attempts) and Wade (29% on 3.4 attempts). Going from having consistent 3-point shooting up and down the roster last season to this bunch has been a rough transition. 

But the season is long, and everyone goes through shooting slumps. It happens, even to last year’s Cavs. The difference being that those Cavs had a solid defensive foundation to keep them competitive on nights when their shots weren’t falling. This year, the defensive rating has fallen to 14th.

Their issues at that end of the floor seemed to irk Atkinson the most after Friday’s loss to the Bulls, who put up 136 points against Cleveland. He said his guys couldn’t get a stop when they needed it most and reminded everyone that had happened in the two previous meetings with Chicago, where the Bulls scored 127 and 122 points, respectively. If you have designs on winning the East, getting pushed around by a Chicago team that’s two games under .500 isn’t great. (Although, in defense of the Cavs defense, the Bulls just dropped 152 points on Atlanta. Maybe the schadenfreude will be a comfort.)

The question now is how they snap out of it, or even if they can. Their +1.7 point differential is somehow 13th. Given the circumstances, that could be worse. Getting healthy certainly wouldn’t hurt matters. Following the latest defeat, Garland said he was feeling more comfortable in terms of his health and also knocking off some of the rust that had built up. He had 35 points (including six 3s) and eight assists in 33 minutes. It was easily his best game of the season. If they can get him going, suddenly that backcourt with Mitchell becomes deadly again. Then when Mobley (and even eventually Strus?) returns and everyone is fully fit, there might be hope. Maybe. 

Crossing your fingers and hoping for the best isn’t a great situation to be in considering the Cavs are the most expensive team in the league and well over the second apron — a poor return on investment that, according to a recent Cleveland Plain Dealer report, has left owner Dan Gilbert “unhappy.” When they made their move for Hunter last season, they also emptied out a lot of what was left in the asset cupboard. Unless they opt for an aggressive overhaul and move one or more of the main characters, it would be difficult to change this team in any meaningful way. It’s hard to imagine the Cavs trading Mitchell or Mobley, but if they get panicky enough — or if Gilbert’s unhappiness festers — would they send Garland and/or Allen packing? Or barring a personnel change, could last season’s Coach of the Year be this season’s hot seat casualty? 

Even asking those questions is a pretty clear signal that things are getting dicey in Cleveland. For now, as Atkinson said, they’ll try to ride out the dip. Perhaps, like his friends running the town’s baseball team, the Cavs can steady what has been a shaky operation and make a run. And hey, it worked for the Guardians. They made the postseason. No one tell Atkinson what happened when they got there, though. He has enough on his mind right now. 

This news was originally published on this post .

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