Cleveland Cavaliers Are Not a One Man Team

In the National Basketball Association, the Cleveland Cavaliers are not a one man team. They are a five man team with a bench, just like the other twenty-eight teams in the league. Cleveland has other less heralded players who contribute to the team's success: 52 wins and a second place finish in the Eastern conference. I would like to point out that the team won three of the four games without their starting small forward. They even have three other players who scored in double digits: Larry Hughes (14.9), Zydrunas Ilgauskas (11.9) and Drew Gooden (11.1). Cleveland would surely miss those 27.3 points per game, and 6.7 rebounds per game, but I am sure they would forget about the 70% free throw percentage. But this article is not a hypothetical "what if Cleveland had the #2 pick and used it on Darko." (I'm a Pistons fan in case you're wondering why I mention him in this article about the Cavaliers) The goal is to argue that they are not a one man team.

The center Ilgauskas mainly is a jump shooter. Gooden can post up. The offense does not run plays for Varejao. His offense arises from hustle and aggressiveness. Gooden, Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao represent a majority of the team's offense rebounds. How good would Cleveland be if they did not have second chance points? Not as good. The team's 44.7% field goal percentage ranked 24^th in the league. They led the league in offensive rebounding, 12.7 offensive boards per game. Free throw shooting was a problem all year. They were 28^th in free throw shooting. I'll give you one hint to which team finished last: S. O'Neal is the center for this team. The tenacious rebounding efforts of Cleveland's other players has helped them win some key games. However, the "King" had to be less than perfect so his teammates could rebound his missed field goal attempts. So now that I have identified that the other players in the front court can hold their own offensively and defensively, who is in the back court?

Larry Hughes and Sasha Pavlovic maintain the back court. Hughes has been injured in past years. This year he only missed 12 games which was his second highest for a season. He played in 73 games for Golden State in the 2001-02 season. He put up big numbers with Washington and before that at Golden State when he was the primary offensive option. Pavlovic average 9 points per game in 23 minutes of action. I mention this because that would be about .4 points per minute, the same as Hughes. Eric Snow is the backup point guard. In his career his assist to turnover ratio is 3 which is where a GM and coach would expect a point guard's stats to be. Other than his low turnovers and his defense, Snow still has disappointed with free throw shooting. I recall him missing free throws in college as we both went to Michigan State but at different times. Nobody is perfect. We learn to live with our faults.

Looking at the overall league from a non biased perspective, Cleveland is definitely not a one man team. They depend on one player more than others though. That is not the same thing. He makes his teammates better I could also argue that Hughes gets more open looks since his teammate is being guarded by the Tayshauns and the Marions of the league. Saying that the Cleveland Cavaliers are a one man team is like going to Chick Fil-A on a Sunday. They just don't go together.