CLEVELAND — The Cavaliers don’t have the right pieces to beat the Golden State Warriors.
They can’t score enough points.
They don’t have the depth.
They don’t have the consistency.
They don’t play good enough defense.
Too many players that carried a big load as they extended the Warriors to six games in the 2015 Finals have become liabilities instead of assets.
Don’t just take my word for it. After a 108-97 loss to the Warriors on Friday night at Quicken Loans Arena left the Cavs one loss from elimination in the NBA Finals and the Warriors one victory from their second consecutive championship, Hall of Famer Magic Johnson expressed the same sentiments on Twitter.
“The Cavs are going to have to make some major moves this off-season if they’re going to bring a championship to Cleveland,” Johnson tweeted.
Barring a shocking revival in Game 5 on Monday night at Oracle Arena, the offseason will start minutes before the clock strikes midnight.
Johnson also tweeted that the Warriors are young enough that they could win “three or four championships in a row.” And he should know. His Los Angeles Lakers earned five rings in nine seasons, three coming in his first six years in the league.
But the Cavs can’t make the mistake that the Bill Belichick/Mike Lombardi Browns of the early 1990s made. After losing three times to the Steelers in 1994, Lombardi said that the Browns had to design their team just to beat Pittsburgh.
Art Modell blew up that plan by moving the franchise before fans could see if it worked. But such a strategy doesn’t seem to fit in the NBA. The Browns were focused on winning their division and getting to the playoffs. Modell kept learning the hard way that he was never just one player away from the Super Bowl.
The Cavs have too many potential Finals opponents in the strong Western Conference and some young teams in the East, especially the Toronto Raptors, which could make getting there more difficult. While the Warriors do look like a budding dynasty, big free agency moves could change that.
The Cavs must scramble to build a better roster while LeBron James, now 31, is still in his prime. With James’ jumper deserting him, that’s looking like a shorter window than the front office may have thought at the start of the season.
Iman Shumpert, Matthew Dellavedova and Timofey Mozgov have contributed virtually nothing in the Finals and now look expendable, but Dellavedova and Mozgov were already in contract years.
The Cavs have few assets, save for the Big Three and Tristan Thompson, who plays better against the Warriors than any other opponent he’s faced in the playoffs. They’ve traded away many future first-round draft picks, with 2017 the only one in the next three years. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert is footing the bill for the highest payroll in the league and may not want to go higher.
Essentially the Cavs need a rim protector, a backup point guard, a lock-down defender and a couple reliable outside shooters. Not to mention better chemistry, ball movement and a commitment to defense from Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.
Barring a major roster overhaul, the Cavs are going to have to greatly improve their defense to win a championship. The Warriors set a Finals record with 17 3-pointers in Game 4. The Cavs made only six after thriving from beyond the arc against the Pistons and Hawks.
I wouldn’t want to be in Cavs general manager David Griffin’s shoes.
This is the 33rd time in NBA history that a team has trailed 3-1 in the Finals; none of the previous 32 came back to win a championship. Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said his post-game message was, “ ‘If you don’t think we can win, don’t get on the plane.’ ”
All surely will, even if their hearts are not in it. But on the flight back from Oakland, the odds are some will be pondering a future filled with questions, including solving the daunting puzzle of finding the right pieces to beat the Warriors.
If only it were just the Warriors they have to worry about.
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