Things haven’t gone smoothly for the Cleveland Cavaliers this season. Injuries are partially to blame for that, but they aren’t the sole reason. The Cavs haven’t had the effort needed to consistently win,
and they haven’t had good enough shotmaking to bail them out. They know this and are using the break in their schedule this week to get back on track.
The team had what De’Andre Hunter described as a “long film session” on Monday to go over where the team hasn’t played up to their capabilities.
“It’s more so just our compete level,” Hunter said on Monday when asked about the specifics of the film session. “Just competition, just being ready to play. There’s not really much X’s and O’s. It’s really just our energy. Doing the things that we can control night in and night out, whether we’re making or missing shots.”
From the sounds of it, the coaching staff wasn’t too gentle with how they approached the film session.
“He (head coach Kenny Atkinson) just called us out,” Hunter said. “He broke down exactly what we needed to do. Exactly what we haven’t been good at, and we watched it. Being able to see that as a whole team isn’t the easiest thing to see when you’re not doing well, but we saw a lot of that today. And like I said, I think it’s going to help us.”
After the film session, the team had a players-only meeting. Neither Hunter nor Thomas Bryant went into detail about the specifics of the meeting, other than acknowledging that this was needed.
“It just shows that we’re all bought in,” Hunter said of the meeting. “We’re all not happy with where we are. We’re all trying to be better, and we have a common goal.”
Support us and Let ‘Em Know with Homage!
Anything bought from the links helps support Fear the Sword. You can also shop all of Homage’s Cavs gear HERE. The link to the new City Edition shirt can be found HERE.
Teams have gotten off to slow starts and been able to rebound and make the NBA Finals. Last season’s Indiana Pacers, who were 10-15 at this point in the season, overcame a slow start to be one game away from winning a championship.
Bryant was on that team. And while we don’t know if this slow start will help the Cavs in the long run, last year’s Pacers team had to go through that rough first third of the season to get to where they did.
“Sometimes, you have to feel that playoff-ready mode,” Bryant said. “You have to feel those types of games. You have to feel those types of feelings throughout the season, that way it gets kind of engraved into you as the year goes on.”
The Cavs didn’t have that last regular season when they were running through the league en route to 64 wins. They had limited adversity, didn’t have to deal with prolonged injuries, and made winning look easy last season. And when they met adversity in the second round of the playoffs, they simply weren’t ready for it.
This season has felt like the complete opposite at times. We’ll only know that this slow start was helpful if the Cavs can overcome their playoff demons this spring.
The Cavaliers aren’t using this week to change their on-court process. They believe in who they want to be as a team, but the execution and effort haven’t been there. That’s what they’re trying to fix.
“You don’t panic or don’t overreact,” Atkinson said. “[This is a reset] in emphasizing our principles. Principles apply on both ends, and then kind of double down on our processes.”
Despite what we’ve seen on the court lately, this group does have a good foundation and can be a great team. We’ve seen that too often over the last few seasons to believe otherwise. However, they can’t keep playing as they have so far and expect things to change.
“Part of this reset is just getting back to what we started in training camp and our identity,” Atkinson said.
