Why the Cavs Need New Blood
The Cavaliers had yet another pitiful performance on Tuesday night. On top of the horrible performance was an injury that will shake the team and give yet another chance for the Cavs to overcome adversity. Although, the team has yet to successfully overcome adversity since the 2016 NBA Finals.
With Kevin Love’s injury brings yet another lineup change that Coach Lue and the coaching staff must construct. Love had just been put at power forward for the second time this season after playing at center for the vast majority of the year. Love had thrived at the center position, but only at the offensive side of the floor. The Wine and Gold will miss his production severely as he is the second-leading scorer for the team with 17.9 points per game and he grabs a team-leading 9.4 rebounds a game.
The worst part about Love’s absence is that there isn’t a player that they can plug in that will replace anywhere near the level of production that will be missing. Cleveland has missed a rim protector since Timofey Mozgov left in the summer of 2016. The Cavs also lack any center depth and only have Ante Zizic on their bench as a true center; Zizic isn’t anywhere near ready to play starter minutes in the NBA.
There is one possible solution to fixing their problem with Love being out for close to two months. They need to make a trade and soon! The Los Angeles Clippers are getting closer and closer to rebuilding. Their recent trade of sending away Blake Griffin points toward a tiny step towards rebuilding. Now that DeAndre Jordan is the only key piece left on the Clippers, the Cavs have to seize the moment and pry Jordan off the Clippers’ hands.
While Jordan wouldn’t replace Love’s offensive prowess, he would make up the rebounding stats and more. Jordan is currently averaging 14.9 rebounds per game this season. Jordan would be a breath of fresh air and might jump start this team. Jordan has been known to play with a high motor and be relentless with his effort.
It may be easy for Jordan to comply with the change as he is basically playing for nothing at this point and is on a team that’s on the outside looking in for the playoffs.
