3 reasons why the Cleveland Cavaliers fell apart against the New York Knicks
By Chad Porto
No dependable bench players
The problem with building a defense-first team is that you prioritize defense overshooting and that was the biggest factor in the reason the Cavs lost. While the Cavs not having an offense worth talking about was a huge issue that the team dealt with all year, the lack of a bench with reliability was equally just as bad.
We saw it all year, a lack of shooting from the replacements held the Cavs back game after game. It led to the Cavs, seemingly, having to have huge fourth-quarter comebacks time and time again just to pull off a win. Despite all of this “talent” the Cavaliers couldn’t actually muster any number of truly easy wins.
This is all on the shoulders of the men who built the roster. They over-corrected with the defensive players, and in doing so stood pat at the deadline instead of trying to make the roster better. This absolutely bit them in the rear, and the team has to address this significantly in the offseason.
If they don’t, the Cavs will just constantly find themselves in similar situations, where the bench can’t step up and help bail out the team around them. Forcing them to over-rely on hero-ball to get wins. Wins that shouldn’t be that hard to get.