Identity Crisis

Hey everyone – what’s happening? This is A.C., checking in. I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season and let me be the first to wish you a Happy New Year!

I haven’t blogged in a while, and I wanted to remind you that if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to drop me a line and I’ll get back to your questions in a few days on cavs.com.

Even in Saturday’s loss in New Orleans, it’s still good to see that the Cavaliers, defensively, are getting back to who they are.

The last three games – and even the fourth quarter of the Lakers game last week – they looked more like the Cavaliers from a year ago. And I think they understand that if they want to run, they’re going to have to run off turnovers and rebounds – not just have a “running mentality.” At times, the Cavaliers have had a tendency to slack off on the defensive end, but when they focus on truly stopping a team, that seems to be really when they are at their best.

Larry Hughes has been an enigma all year for the Cavaliers. We know he wants to be the two-guard, but it seems that he functions better for this team as the point guard.

And I think what Larry is going to realize – after what I’ve seen over the last couple games – is that there’s more opportunity to score when you have the ball in your hands. His biggest dilemma is when to set a teammate up or when to look for his own opportunity – because he’s used to looking for his own opportunity. But as he goes through learning how to play the point, he’ll be OK.

Between Larry and Sasha, the Cavaliers are struggling in their backcourt. Sasha hasn’t seemed to really get untracked since he rejoined the team. Right now, it just seems like he’s not focused, game-in and game-out. He’s almost to the point where if he misses a couple shots early, he gets frustrated and the rest of his game suffers.

Even if one part of your game isn’t working, you still play defense. But one thing is starting to effect everything else for Sasha. And he has to figure things out for himself. When you’re in a funk like he’s in, there’s nobody who can do that but yourself. He has to step across that line with total focus and realize that there are other things he can do if he’s not hitting his shot right away.

And what I’d really like to see out of Sasha is to focus on the finish. He does not finish well because he loses his focus. He’s talented enough to get the rim, but he needs to focus on the finish. And I think once he starts concentrating on focusing right through to the end of the shot, he’ll be OK. Because if you notice, he looks great right up until he gets to the rim and it seems like he’s thinking the “job is done.” And that’s when he starts getting frustrated – when those shots don’t go in.

Anderson Varejao ended his hold-out and has looked really good. Of course, unlike Sasha, Anderson has a different kind of game. Anderson plays a hustle game, so the only thing he needs to do is get into shape so he can “hustle longer.” He was a step or two off, at first. But now he’s got that step back and he’s ready to roll.

Right now, the Cavaliers problem continues to be their identity crisis. What happens – and has been happening – is that they lose their identity. They forget who they are. And now they realize, if they want to win, knuckling down defensively is how they’re going to have to play. And I’m expecting the Cavaliers to play much better on that side of the ball from here on out, because they understand that now.

In order to get back to their success from a year ago, they need to make it a possession game and run off rebounds and turnovers. I realize it sounds very simple, but really, that is the Cavaliers formula for winning.