The Cavs’ young core is progressing. Now it must build consistency

The Cleveland Cavaliers had been in this situation during the first few games of the season. They were coming off two wins with the Philadelphia 76ers as their next opponent.

Yet, there are significant differences between these two moments in the season. The Cavs had Larry Nance Jr., Andre Drummond and Kevin Love all out on the floor together, while the Sixers did not have Joel Embiid for the December meeting. Fast forward two months, the Cavs missed those three veterans, alongside Taurean Prince, Matthew Dellavedova and Cedi Osman, while Embiid was in the lineup. 

December’s win over Philadelphia set the Cavs’ longest winning streak of the season at three games. February’s win matched that streak and brought the end of a brutal month for the Cavs to a close. 

“Any time you get a tough win like this, it validates what you’re capable of,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “And our guys, I thought tonight, were really good defensively against a high-powered offensive team. Obviously, Embiid is a handful, Ben Simmons obviously an All-Star-caliber player. But I thought our guys did a really good job defensively, and that’s what it comes down to, how many stops can you get when it matters most. Tonight again, I thought we did a great job on that end of the floor.”

The Cavs’ 112-109 overtime win against the 76ers adds value to their recent success. The wins against the Hawks and the Rockets earlier in the week snapped the losing streak, but those were games against teams of similar caliber and position in the standings. A three-game streak isn’t a reason to draw major conclusions, nor is just one win over a playoff-contending team. 

Saturday’s game against the top team in the East provided another outlook on potential. Their young core of Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Isaac Okoro, and Jarrett Allen are growing individually and collectively, figuring out how to play with one another and the details of the game needed to take the next step. Those four accounted for 82 points against Philadelphia. 

“It’s experience, and it’s opportunity,” Bickerstaff said. “To put ourselves in close games in the fourth quarter against really good teams, you’re going to have to make plays. And you don’t do it until you get that experience and the opportunity. Our guys are taking steps in the right direction. There’s no doubt about it. We just have to continue to put ourselves in these situations so we can continue to get better as a team.”

The West Coast trip, while filled with blowout losses against playoff-contending teams, allowed their younger players to see how those types of teams played, defended and moved on the floor. Garland said that the West Coast trip, amid the losses, made their core unit and the team stronger because they understand what is necessary to win games. 

Okoro says they’ve taken those details and tried to implement them into their games. 

“I feel like that’s all we need is to put pieces together,” Okoro said. “I feel like once we just locked in on the defensive side, and we had each other’s backs on the defensive side on the help, I feel like we’re there. Offensively, we’re starting to move the ball around, get each other assists, moving around, crashing the rebounding. Now we’re starting to play as a team. And it’s just fun. It’s always fun to win games.”

Being without their veterans on the court, it became the responsibility of their young core to lead the team.  Since the beginning of the season, Bickerstaff has started three players under 22, with Garland, Sexton and Okoro playing 21 games together this season. For the three previous games, the Cavs’ starting lineup featured four players, 22 years old or younger and 24-year-old Dean Wade, in his second year in the league. While they need to build on the consistency of their play, Garland said he believes they will come with the sense of fight to each game. 

“It’s giving us the ball, and they’re trusting us,” Garland said. “That’s the one thing that has really just made me more confident like they trust us. It’s super cool having the ball in my hands, and I know that my teammates and the coaching staff know that I’m going to try to make the right play 100 percent of the time.”

“It’s just really fun playing with these guys and playing for the coaches because they make everything fun,” Garland said. “We were in overtime just making jokes, trying to keep everybody uplifted. They had confidence in us that we were going to win that game tonight. It’s really fun having that behind you, so it’s not a lot of pressure or anything on the young guys. It’s just fun being in this organization because they have a lot of trust in us.”

Even as Garland struggled with his shots to go in — shooting 4-of-10 from the field in the first half and missing all six of his shots from the field in the third quarter — and became discouraged, he tried to stay poised and help in other ways.

He dished out nine of the Cavs’ 24 assists, creating shots for his teammates until his shots fell in the fourth quarter and overtime. Garland’s assist numbers continue to rise, as he averaged 8.8 assists over the last four games and is averaging 5.8 assists per game for the season. With that, so does the Cavs’ ball movement. 

“It just brings joy to me when I get an assist, I’m not going to lie,” Garland said. “When people are making shots, it’s fun to watch. That’s all I’m trying to do is have fun on the court, and when I’m getting everybody involved, I’m having fun, and they’re making shots, they’re having fun. It was a team effort. I tried to stay aggressive and find open guys.”

Okoro’s continued growth shows up on the offensive end. He scored a career-high 15 points against the 76ers before fouling out of the game, and in four of the last five games, Okoro has scored in double digits. Okoro said he’s starting to feel more comfortable on the offensive end, finding his spots to take his shots. He also dished three assists, crashed the boards as he grabbed eight total rebounds and had three steals.

They aren’t completely losing that veteran presence, though, as guys like Dellavedova, Nance and Love are a part of timeouts, pointing out details to their teammates and trying to help how they can. Dellavedova recently joined the bench for the first time this season as he has been sidelined with a concussion and an appendectomy. 

Dellavedova offered Okoro tips on Ben Simmons, telling the rookie to force him baseline because then Okoro would get help from his teammates. In another possession, Garland signaled for one of his teammates to move, which led to a bucket for the Cavs. 

“I literally pointed at Delly afterward and was like, ‘Yep, that was a good one, my guy,’” Garland said.

Because of the injuries to their vets, it’s given the young players both in the starting unit and guys like Dylan Windler and Lamar Stevens who come off the bench, a space to learn and play important minutes against elite teams in the league.

Bickerstaff and his players know they aren’t a finished product yet. They are just coming up on the halfway mark of the season, and the growing pains the Cavs have experienced in the first stretch were normal. Bickerstaff had to remember the expectations surrounding younger players and the allotted room for growth as they lost veterans to injuries.

They still rank last in the league in offensive rating, averaging 104.7 points per game. Their defensive rating is 22nd in the league at 112.9. They still take the least amount of 3s in the NBA, relying on their presence in the paint. These three wins don’t negate those needed improvements on both ends of the floor. 

But through this recent stretch of winning games, they’ve found ways to get necessary stops on the defensive end and execute in transition. They embodied their will to turn their defense into offense. 

This core group of younger players is taking the steps to improve and build a consistent style of play. They’ve played 16 games together throughout the season, averaging 16 minutes per game. Still, recent games where Allen has started at center allow for chances to build that needed chemistry of the young core. 

It just takes time and experience. 

“I think you have to learn, and when you’re playing with that much youth, sometimes you learn the hard way,” Bickerstaff said. “But again, sometimes youth is so naive, it doesn’t know any better. And you can go out and have some success because you’re not overthinking it. But we have to be patient and understand that it is a process. And the true test of youth is consistency. That’s the most difficult thing in our league is to find consistency. So, we’ll keep putting our guys in positions to be successful. I bet on them continuing to get better. But again, time will tell, and the consistency will come.”