The Cavaliers and the team that could have been

The Cavaliers front office isn't afraid to make bold moves, and this is a good thing. In an NBA where there is too much group-think, the Cavs choose to make every move on how they evaluate players, not on how other teams do.

However, when a team goes out on a limb in three straight drafts, that team leaves itself open for criticism if the moves don't work out. And in the Cavaliers case, this is especially true. It is not that the team now has no options; there will be cap room going forward and the Cavaliers have a star in Kyrie Irving. Nonetheless, it's hard not to imagine how exciting the team would be in Cleveland if the Cavaliers handled a few things differently.

To be fair, the Cavaliers got the most important decision right: taking Kyrie Irving over Derrick Williams. It is easy to forget, but, with Irving coming off an injury-plagued season at Duke, some thought Williams was the better pick. Irving looks like he'll be a superstar for years, and Williams has been mostly a bust. So give the front office in Cleveland credit for this.

However, imagine if the Cavaliers made the following moves, all plausible ideas at the time (and not just revisionist history...

Take Jonas Valanciunas instead of Tristan Thompson It is hard to fault the Cavaliers too much for reaching on Thompson. He has turned into a valuable role player, as a high-motor player with a good feel for the game. However, Cleveland passed on Valanciunas, who is a legit 7-footer with ball skills and court vision. When Andrew Bynum isn't playing, the Cavaliers are an undersized team up front. Having Valanciunas would certainly solve that problem, and would remove a player from the logjam Cleveland has at power forward

Take Harrison Barnes instead of Dion Waiters This may be the hardest call on the list. Cleveland certainly reached on Waiters, but the consensus pick at the time would have been Thomas Robinson, who has not worked out so far either. Without Thompson on the team, it's certainly a possibility Cleveland would take Robinson with the fourth pick. However, the thinking here is that the Cavaliers saw that a team with Irving (who is still an awful defender) would need a good defender on the perimeter. That, plus better shooting than Waiters offers, would have been enough for the Cavs to reach slightly on Barnes, who has turned into a fine player for the Warriors with tremendous upside.

Take Victor Oladipo instead of Anthony Bennett It's still too early to call Bennett a bust, but he has been awful so far and doesn't look ready to contribute this year. The Cavaliers have sworn that they will make the playoffs this year, and the NBA-ready Oladipo would have combined with Barnes to form an excellent perimeter defending pair. He also moves well without the ball for a rookie, and the Cavaliers desperately need more movement from their guards when Kyrie has the ball.

Keep Shaun Livingston and don't sign Jarrett Jack Jack is a nice player, but he doesn't exactly fit on a team with a ball-dominator like Irving. Livingston has been a great player for the Nets so far, and is a much cheaper option.

Instead of signing Andrew Bynum, overpay slightly for Paul Millsap The Bynum signing was a good gamble by the Cavaliers, but Millsap might have been the steal of the offseason. With Valanciunas in the fold and no logjam at power forward anymore, the Cavaliers could have offered Millsap a lot more money than the Hawks gave him in exchange for a team option in year two. A two-year, $25 million deal with a team option in year two maintains flexibility and gives the Cavaliers a scorer currently averaging 15.8 PPG on 53% shooting.

Use the savings on the Jarrett Jack contract to sign a shooter The Cavaliers would still have plenty of cap room due to the discount Livingston provides. A shooter off the bench would make this team even better. Coincidentally, the Jack contract was very similar to the contract given to Kyle Korver. Maybe Korver would leave Atlanta to play with this exciting team for the same amount of money. If that didn't work, one of the other cheaper shooters on the market would have helped.

So let's compare the two Cavaliers teams...

Current team                         

PG Kyrie Irving                    

SG C.J. Miles

SF Earl Clark

PF Tristan Thompson

C Andrew Bynum

Bench Jarrett Jack

Bench Dion Waiters

Bench Alonzo Gee

Bench Anderson Varejao

Bench Anthony Bennett

Hypothetical team

PG Kyrie Irving

SG Victor Oladipo

SF Harrison Barnes

PF Paul Millsap

C Jonas Valanciunas

Bench Shaun Livingston

Bench C.J. Miles

Bench Alonzo Gee

Bench Anderson Varejao

Bench Kyle Korver

The hypothetical team certainly needs another big, and would have to find a veteran willing to play for the minimum or play Tyler Zeller a decent amount of minutes. But the starters fit much better together, with an excellent blend of offense and defense. Nobody needs the ball in their hands other than Irving, but the other players are all capable scorers. Also, four of the starters are young players who should only improve. There is also the potential for a deadly offensive small-ball lineup when Millsap rests, with Barnes at the four and Korver at the three.

The Cavaliers are fine going forward, and will have plenty of cap room to try and improve. However, it is difficult to not imagine how easily this could have been the most exciting up and coming team in the league.

Podcast 2

Donnie and Drew share their thoughts on the start of the NBA season, and what we can take away from the small sample size.

Will Minnesota make the playoffs?

By: Drew Marion

The Timberwolves have missed the postseason every year since 2004, and the rebuilding efforts have not proven worthwhile up to this point. There is no doubt that Minnesota has talented players, but they have not yet been able to piece together a full season to creep into the playoffs.

This year that changes. It's early, but the T-Wolves have played well enough to warrant a closer look as a playoff contender. While they lack the talent and attention that Golden State, Oklahoma City, and the Los Angeles Clippers have and most likely won't be in the conversation for championship contention, Minnesota certainly looks like a quality playoff team.

While Minnesota did lose by 13 to Golden State on Nov. 6, their only other loss was by 1 point at Cleveland on the second night of a back-to-back. Interestingly, these are also the only two games that Minnesota failed to score 100 points. Normally, it would be a concern if a team has to score 100 points to have a chance to win the game, but in the West, 8 of the 15 teams are averaging over 100 points against. There are only 2 teams in the entire conference giving up less than 96. Most teams are running high-temp offenses focused on piling on points. Minnesota fits in very well with this style of play, and has the scorers to keep pace with just about any team in the league. They lead the West in point differential, at +7.1 per game. Scoring is not a problem for the Timberwolves this season.

Currently, the T-Wolves are 5-2 and have the 3rd best record in the Western Conference. Chances are this won’t be where they end up at the end of the regular season, though, and that ranking could drop in the coming weeks. At the end of November and beginning of December, Minnesota will play a 7 game stretch that includes matchups with Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Miami, Houston, Dallas, and Indiana; all teams with winning records.

However, Utah and Denver have each yet to be played, meaning there are 8 games left against opponents who thus far have a combined 1 win. There are winnable games left on the schedule for the Timberwolves, despite the depth of the Western Conference.

The key to Minnesota’s success will be their health. Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love have yet to play a full season together, but each appear to be healed from their previous injuries. Love’s twice-fractured right hand is not bothering him anymore, and Rubio came back from ACL surgery last December after injuring it near the end of the 2011-2012 season.

While their two stars are healthy, injuries to backup center Ronny Turiaf and projected starting small forward Chase Budinger have already occurred. Budinger had arthroscopic knee surgery at the beginning of October, and hasn’t been given a timetable for a return. Turiaf fractured his right elbow going up for a rebound against Oklahoma City earlier this month, and, like Budinger, has no timetable for a return.

Injuries are never good news for a team, but, in this case, the T-Wolves are deep enough at these spots to afford them. Corey Brewer has stepped in for Budinger and has reached double digit points in each game this year. Starting center Nikola Pekovic has played well given his increase in minutes, though his shooting percentage is nearly 12 points lower than it was last year. Derrick Williams has provided enough flexibility to comfortably play either forward position with Love playing well as a center for extended periods of time.

If the Timberwolves are able to weather through these injuries like they have already, they would be in a great position once these players are able to return.

The reason this team has been able to get off to such a hot start is simple. They have two starters named Kevin, and each have played tremendously well to start the year.

Minnesota knew it needed a second scorer to complement Love on offense, so they signed Kevin Martin during the offseason. Martin ranks 6th in the league in scoring at 23.9 points per game, and his 3-point percentage of 57% is tops among all players with at least 5 attempts per game. His value as a reliable scoring option is critical as teams are no longer capable of focusing on just Kevin Love anymore, and Love is certainly reaping the benefits.

Kevin Love is having an MVP-caliber year. Over the weekend, he barely missed out on a triple-double against Dallas last Friday (35 points, 15 rebounds and 8 assists) only to have Rubio reach that mark against the Lakers two days later (12-10-14). Rubio’s efforts could be a sign of things to come, but his play this year is largely overshadowed by what Love is doing.

Love leads the league in rebounding at 14.4 per game, and is second in scoring at 26.9 per game. He also leads all power forwards with 4.7 assists per game. In fact, that's even more than Jeremy Lin and Derrick Rose both have this season. Love’s shooting percentage is at 47%, the highest in his career, and is making contributions all over the floor. Not surprisingly, he again is leading the league in double-doubles, and has gotten one in each game this year.

Love's PER of 29.96 would be the highest for any player not named LeBron James since the end of the 2010 season. Obviously, the MVP award is LeBron’s to lose, but given Minnesota’s run of mediocrity over the past decade, Love should garner serious consideration for the award at the end of the year for the award.

His case for MVP will only be strengthened by Minnesota reaching the playoffs. It’s hard to dethrone King James any season, and if Paul George can lead Indiana to the number 1 overall seed, he could steal some votes away. But if Love is able to lead the Timberwolves to the playoffs for the first time since 2004, and plays at or near this level for the remainder of the season, the award should be his.

The Next Step: How Paul George becomes a top 10 player

Anyone who didn't know about Paul George was probably surprised to see a third-year player go toe-to-toe with LeBron James in the conference finals. George and the Pacers ultimately fell short against the Heat, and any chance of dethroning the champs this year may hinge on George, the team's best player, taking another step.

But George isn't sneaking up on anyone this year. And, after taking a decisive step forward last season and moving from #75 to #13 in ESPN's NBA rank, can George actually get much better?

While it may seem like George has peaked, there is still room for significant growth on the offensive end. Specifically, if George can be a much more efficient player, he could become one of the ten best players in the league.

George's defense has grown to the point where he is one of the premier perimeter defenders in the league. While George was playing small forward, opposing small forwards only had a 12.0 PER, according to 82games.com. (An average PER is 15.0, and 12.0 is worse than the top 42 qualifying small forwards in the league). His height, length and athleticism cause problems for any small forward, and it's his size and instincts that make him the prototype defender for James and Kevin Durant.

As he gets more experience, George should be able to be more disciplined on the defensive end as well. George tied with Matt Barnes for the second most fouls per game by small forwards last season at 2.9 (Carmelo Anthony led this category at 3.1, and this was a result of playing a ton of power forward as well). With Danny Granger's health still an uncertainty, the Pacers will continue to rely on George as much as last year. He must trust his defensive instincts and resist from the unnecessary reaching fouls he picks up from time to time.

He should lower his foul total from last season, but George's defensive improvement will be incremental. Where he must make more drastic improvement is on the offensive end.

His raw numbers look decent enough, as he averaged 17.4 points per game and 4.1 assists per game last year. However, George was not very efficient offensively.

With Granger missing almost the entire season, George was asked to be a high usage player for the first time in his career. And, like most players in their first high-usage season, George had some problems with turnovers. He was fourth among small forwards in turnovers per game last season, and two of the players ahead of him (Durant and James) have a significantly higher usage rate.

George had a big problem with decision-making in the pick and roll early on in the season. George tried to split the double team too often, and, according to an article by Zach Lowe, Pacers coach Frank Vogel almost scrapped all pick and roll sets for George during his turnover prone first few months.

Fortunately for Indiana, George improved in the pick and roll and his turnover rate went down as the season went on. However, he still forced the issue too much when Indiana went into a scoring rut. The Pacers went through bouts of inconsistency on offense, and George would often respond by trying to handle too much of a scoring load by himself. He must continue to trust the offense, and this, coupled with the natural progression of a player in his second year as a main option, should reduce his turnover rate this season.

Another area that George needs to improve is his shooting percentage. George ranked 19^th out of 25 qualifying small forwards in field goal percentage. His 42.7% shooting pales in comparison to other elite small forwards. Even with their high usage ratings, LeBron James and Kevin Durant shot 56.5% and 51.0%, respectively. Even Carmelo Anthony shot 44.9%.

For a player who shot a lot from the outside, George shot a respectable 36.2% from 3 last season. But George had issues inside the arc, shooting only 45.7%. For a shotmaker like George, this number has to be higher.

Part of George's issues came from his shot selection. As mentioned before, George sometimes had problems forcing the action. This was especially true when he got offensive rebounds. Often, George felt the need to a force up a difficult shot, as his eFG% after he grabbed an offensive rebound was only 41.0%, according to nbawowy.com. This was the lowest among all qualifying Pacers.

George also didn't perform as well as expected around the basket. He tended to fade away on too many shots near the rim, and, as a result, didn't draw enough contact.

George only averaged 3.5 free throws per game last year, half the number of James and much less than Durant's 9.3. All elite perimeter players can get to the rim when their shots aren't falling, and this is an ability George hasn't shown consistently enough.

It may not seem like a big deal, but getting to the free throw line is a crucial part of most superstars' games. 9 of the top 10 players in free throws attempted last season were All-Stars. Paul George must learn to get more contact in the lane, and get to the line more often. If he can, not only will he get more high percentage looks at the line, but some of those missed two point attempts in the lane will go away as well. His shooting percentage and points per game would both receive a bump, giving him a significant spike in efficiency.

The early returns on George this season are very good. Obviously, it has been only three games, but George has shown a conscious effort to get to the line, averaging over 7 free throws a game so far. While it is doubtful that will average 25.7 all season, if he can continue to be efficient, George could finally become a top 10 player in the league.