CLEVELAND, Ohio – Years ago, before he even stepped foot on an NBA floor, while still playing in Barcelona, Cleveland Cavaliers veteran point guard Ricky Rubio felt suffocated every night in a must-win game. Expectations from overseas are contingent. Anything less than dynamic brightness is unacceptable.
As he left Europe and moved to the NBA, Rubio learned to better navigate the late-night hustle and bustle. He avoided getting caught up in the emotional rollercoaster of a marathon-like regular season.
He began to see the bigger picture.
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“It’s one of the hardest things in pro sports,” Rubio said recently. “My mantra is never too high, never too low. To know how to be the best version, you have to go through mistakes. There aren’t many teams that are made and instantly good. They are going to go through ups and downs.
“When we win the first eight in a row, it does not mean that we will immediately win the championship. As if it didn’t matter that we lost a couple recently. It’s knowing who you are. We are a team that didn’t make the playoffs last year. We are really young and learning. Learning is through experience and occasional mistakes. It will not come immediately. I believe in this team. That’s why I came back here. I believe we can be great. But it takes time.
That big-picture view has permeated the Knights’ locker room, especially during Devil’s Month.
When the NBA schedule was released six months ago, members of the organization immediately took notice of January. Cavs coach JB Bickerstaff included. As he made travel arrangements and scheduled rehearsal, recording and film sessions, January’s ruthlessness took a toll on him.
“When you see the number of games, the amount they travel, you realize it’s going to be a bear,” Bickerstaff said. “January is a tough month, but every NBA team has it. That’s not how the league picks its riders. There are different times for different groups. We have no excuse. No one gives us a sad party. You have to go out and get the job done. That’s why the things we do in training camp that put us in bad situations shouldn’t surprise us when we have a little trouble during the season.
It’s the same every year, Disney on Ice at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse sends the fans on a long first month hike. But the grind of January was more unforgiving this time.
Sixteen games in 30 days. More than half way down the road — a place where the Cavs are surprisingly unknown. 13 on game/game groups. Two sets back-to-back. Eight time zone changes. Donovan Mitchell’s grueling return to Salt Lake City. Ricky Rubio’s first sensation after 380 days of recovery from a torn ACL. That’s just the scheduling part.
Mitchell has been sick for a few days and has missed six games this month with the injury. The Cavs went 2-4 without him. All-Star prospect Darius Garland was benched twice. Dean Wade — a versatile forward who will be an integral part of Cleveland’s nightly rotation — is back from a seven-week layoff until January. The Cavs are 3-2 since his return.
With Wade and Rubio back, Bickerstaff is experimenting with different lineups and combinations, as well as trying to mix the two back up and get minutes for everyone — Bickerstaff’s given impossible task of refusing to expand to 11 and 12, preferring to stick to the rotation.
The rotation adjustments resulted in short-term leaks.
“Adding those elements to the team at the moment is one of the hardest things,” Rubio said. “There’s no time to do five-on-five and make mistakes first in practice. We need to figure out how to be the best version of ourselves. We have the tools and equipment to be a dangerous team and I think people recognize that. At the end of the day, it’s part of the process. We have to learn.”
After a flying start, going 8-1 to open the campaign and raising expectations even higher, hitting trouble has held the Cavs up a bit over the past few weeks. They haven’t won back-to-back games in more than three weeks.
As a result, he was criticized for Bickerstaff’s in-game adjustments, predictable fouls, roster management and decision-making, timeouts, and minutes allocation. Some criticisms are warranted. Bickerstaff hasn’t been perfect and still has a lot to prove, especially in the playoffs. Some nonsensical, over-the-top, sports talk-radio-style criticism unsurprisingly ignores the role of culture, managing personality, creating special team chemistry, and getting the team to buy into a defense-first mindset. Playing hard every night (mostly) and rallying from double-digit deficits frequently.
It did that despite retaining the most revered elements in team building, 19 different starting lineups and a still-flawed roster with a lack of shooting and a two-way wing.
Cleveland’s 8-7 record in January — including a lopsided loss to short-handed Golden State, a baffling shooting game at Utah and a misfire on the road in Memphis — fueled a frenzy about a young team of 31. A -21 record, tied for fifth-best in the dreaded Eastern Conference and seventh-best in the NBA, is somehow good. Low performance.
Never mind that the Cavs are ranked No. 1 in defense, No. 10 in offense, and No. 2 in scoring. Or they’re one of three teams to rank 10th in offense and defense — title contenders Boston and Philadelphia are the others. Or that they have the league’s second-best point differential.
Just 15 games into this month, the Cavs are 10th in scoring defense, 12th in scoring offense and seventh in scoring.
“The games we played on the table were close and I thought we could have finished, but this is not a league to jump on,” Bickerstaff said before breaking down the Los Angeles Clippers under Sunday. “We have to take care of business, but there is a learning curve. You look at where we started to build this thing to where it is now, and we’ve come a long way. You look at a group of top teams, and how many of them have 21, 22 and 23 year olds as their main target? There are lessons our men must learn. We are in a great place. In some cases we leave a little food on the plate but we are as much or more than we expected.
It’s hard to argue that Boston, Milwaukee, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia have always been, and still are, on a different level when comparing Cleveland to other top-tier teams, though.
Philadelphia is off to a 1-4 start. Mighty Milwaukee has several losing streaks, including a four-game losing streak. Boston has lost three straight in building Orlando and has five losses in six games. Even star-studded Brooklyn has two four-game skids, including one after Kevin Durant’s injury. The Nets are just 4-6 without Durant.
What the Cavs have gone through can be frustrating and frustrating, especially given the nature of some of their sliders. But also… normal.
73 The victorious warriors are no more. So did the Bulls of Jordan’s era. Every competitor has flaws. And Cleveland’s clock isn’t ticking as fast as the others.
His track record is ugly. Late-game mental breakdowns and fourth-quarter slumps can be hard to stomach. But it’s all part of the journey.
For months, the Cavs have said their goal is to peak in April and May, not January or February. With the youth on this roster — and some health and scheduling issues tied to their current record — there’s reason to believe they can grow organically through the rest of this season and without outside additions at the trade deadline. This shouldn’t be discounted, though, for an aggressive front office overhauling the roster before Feb. 9. Stay active in pursuit of updates.
“We’re a playoff team right now, but we’re working toward bigger things,” Rubio said. “We have to take a bumpy road to get there. If we have to lose some games on the road to figure it out and be good at the end of the season, I’ll take it.
Rubio’s protégé Mitchell had the same idea.
“The biggest thing is understanding and getting more grace with us as a team,” Mitchell said Monday. “Many of us have not been where we want to be and we have to understand that many of the teams we play against know what it takes. They know how to approach each night. Understanding the energy they bring. I think we all want to learn and say we want to be in the second race now, but at the end of the day, that’s not the case. I have to keep building and growing, and the season isn’t over yet. Keep our eyes on the big picture. I think we’re doing a good job of that, but we understand that we’re being patient with ourselves and growing into what we want to be.
Bickerstaff spoke with the team about this topic before they embarked on their most recent road trip. Those conversations happen regularly. It was only very recent.
With the All-Star break approaching, going into the NBA’s dog days, and the second-easiest schedule remaining, Bickerstaff thought it was important to check in on where they are. Not just their place in the table, but how much they’ve improved over the season and where they can still improve.
“When you start putting the elements back into the lineup and figuring out your rotations, guys who haven’t played in a while, it takes a minute,” Bickerstaff said. “It’s a team sport and every individual has an impact on the next one. We all get caught up in the moment, especially in a game, and you get frustrated because you see what’s going on. But when you sit back and look at it, no team has ever been through these situations before. Every team in this league is three-four- “He’s on a five-game losing streak. It’s part of the deal. You play 82 games for a reason. I’ll say it again: We’re in a good place.”
“You’re moving towards an end goal and you hope you’re in good shape when that end goal comes.”
Time will tell. But that time is not now.
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