Non-stars have not aligned for Cavs
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers’ top role players have not been on a roll in the 2017 NBA Finals.
That, however, singles out for too much criticism the bit players — or in the case of the neglected Channing Frye, the bit watcher.
There is enough blame to go around, and it goes back much further than the NBA Finals.
Regarding the “on a roll” metaphor, it is certainly possible that backup point guard Deron Williams is on a bagel, shooting 0-for-11 as he has in the three losses to Golden State.
This is Williams’ 12th season and first NBA Finals.
It is Kyle Korver’s 14th season and first Finals.
Korver is a 43.1 percent career three-point shooter. Forty percent makes you a dead-eye. He made 48.5 percent of his three-point shots with the Cavs after joining them in the regular season.
Korver has sunk just nine of his past 32, counting five games against the Boston Celtics and the three against Golden State.
He fired blanks in the final minutes Wednesday when one more triple might have handed the Warriors, unbeaten in the playoffs, a loss.
Frye has played 11 seasons. For a second straight Cavaliers season, he has played a big role in getting the Cavs to the Finals, then has been benched because of the lethal small-ball lineup of Golden State. Coach Tyronn Lue thinks this makes him a defensive liability.
It’s hard to believe the 6foot-11 Frye, a “stretch” big man who has shot over 40 percent from beyond the arc in both the regular season and the playoffs, couldn’t guard Zaza Pachulia or JaVale McGee well enough to get on the floor.
Lue’s use of Richard Jefferson, who is in his 16th NBA season, is dictated by Jefferson’s s ability to spell LeBron James in defending Kevin Durant.
James has to conserve some energy for offense. Except for sloppy ballhandling in the Finals’ opener, he has been brilliant.
But if Korver keeps missing and Frye keeps sitting, Lue might go out without using all his weapons.
Players object to selective criticism of their play, such as when reporters take a few poor games in high-scrutiny events and use them to compromise a solid season or career. But that is the way it works in sports.
It was a comfortable assumption that the playoffs were an eraser, and the regular-season Cavs’ half-baked defense, sloppy execution, wasted leads and general laxity could be changed with the flip of some magical switch.
It worked in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
But bad habits hurt most when they occur against good teams. The clock is running out on the Cavs’ reign. It is also running out on an aging team.
David Griffin’s time as general manager, conducted under constant win-now pressure, might be running out, too. The spare parts, which were all he could acquire, given the salary structure, have struggled.
Jefferson is almost 37, Frye is 34, Korver is 36, and Williams is almost 33.
After the Finals, they will have plenty of company when it comes to regrets.