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CLEVELAND, Ohio – Larry Drew left Quicken Loans Arena Thursday night without a restructured contract. He bore only the brunt of another decisive loss for the Cleveland Cavaliers, this time against Denver Nuggets, who has seven wins.
The points in 19 points show why Drew wants a new deal before becoming the interim coach for the rest of the year – and maybe even beyond.
This is also why the Cavaliers seem to be heading for that.
"The discussions are moving in the right direction," Drew said Thursday night. "Progress has been made and things are moving in the right direction."
For clarity, Drew spoke to his agent, Andy Miller, on Wednesday night, and was satisfied with what he had heard. But exchanges between all parties have taken place since Sunday and this particular negotiation is terribly delicate for various reasons that have already been exposed.
On Monday afternoon, when Drew called himself "voice" as opposed to acting, he spoke of the difficulty of this challenge.
The Cavs are in a strange place. They entered the season with the hope of succeeding. But General Manager Koby Altman slowly began to change. It now honestly assesses whether this is still possible while weighing short- and long-term goals and trying to determine if there is a way to align them.
That's why Drew wants a new contract. That's why he's looking for more security.
"Certainly, when you talk about rebuilding, it's not an easy thing to do," Drew said recently. "It's usually something that takes a little time.If it takes time, I'd like to be part of it.I informed the organization of this, that it will not happen not overnight. "
Thursday was the perfect example.
There are only a few days left to crush the Hawks and to feel satisfied with the team's progress – indicating a selfless ball mark and total team effort – all this hard work has collapsed quickly, the Cavs having been completely surpassed by the Denver Nuggets.
In the last three quarterfinals, Cleveland has been outclassed 95-64. Tristan Thompson said the players were starting to "go away from the game plan" when adversity arrived.
"We wanted to be aggressive and set the tone early," Thompson said. "That's what we tried to do, we skipped them for the first 19 or 20 minutes, and then after we were away from what we were supposed to do, they jumped on us."
If all goes well and the Cavs give Drew what he wants, he will be in a long season.
With the development of players at the center of this plan, part of its responsibility is to build franchise building blocks such as Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, Larry Nance Jr. and perhaps a few others. It is an obligation.
Given the lack of talent, with players camouflaged as starters, losses would accumulate, which could threaten to separate the teams.
Drew should also handle the situation of JR Smith. The veteran with a jagged past was out of the rotation of the first three games before Tyronn Lue took into account the desires of the reception and surprisingly put Smith in the game for two consecutive games against Brooklyn and Detroit. Smith was unable to convince anyone he deserved of the promotion, scoring seven points on 3 out of 12 among the players and 0 out of 5 among the 3 points in 38 minutes.
These performances, following an incoherent training camp and two terrible seasons, led to Smith's demotion.
But it's clear that the 33-year-old shooting goalie who started the last three seasons is not happy with his new role. He said Thursday morning that he was hoping for an exchange and that it is hard to look good and pretend that everything is fine. It was an understandable answer, but a response to the chaos that Drew would adhere to.
He should keep Smith in the lineup, making sure he remains a good teammate and a positive influence behind the scenes.
Still, Drew's toughest challenge has become blatantly obvious to Denver. It is breaking the bad habits that infected the locker room.
"It's one of the hardest things to do when you're in control of a situation where guys have bad habits," said Drew. "When you're a young team, you're going to have to live with some of these things, especially with younger guys, hoping that the more they play, the more they'll learn, we'll continue to try to fix them by showing them on film, by sitting down with them, somehow explaining things.You have to stay with that.Just when you think that you are going to turn the corner and that they suddenly see, they come back to those habits, so we have to stay with that and continue teaching. "
This helps to explain the drastic turnaround during the match. Drew said the bad habits came from having young players and new guys in different roles.
The Cavs are still trying to find an identity. They are looking for a defense system that would allow them to be something other than a disaster for that purpose. Kevin Love stays away with a toe injury, greatly reducing Cleveland's chances of competing with top-ranked teams like the Nuggets.
Thompson, who did not want to isolate anyone, said he also felt bad habits.
"It's a learning process at the end of the day," he said. "LeBron said four years ago that guys are going to have bad habits because they simply do not know what it takes to win or be able to win. not enough victories on their resume to know what it looks like.
"Some guys win 25 games and think the season is good, it's bad in the NBA, it's terrible guys have to learn to break bad habits and that's what we're going to have to do. make."
Drew also acknowledges that some of the answers he seeks stem from the experiment, which Lue also explained before being fired on Sunday morning.
"After tonight's game and a conversation with my team, I really see things we'll probably have to make adjustments with and it's part of this game," said Drew.
He would not reveal these settings. But the second trimester, when the Cavs tend to lose energy, will be examined under the microscope. This could also result in altered rotation or a few different combinations.
This tends to happen with a new group, which is why it would be beneficial to have Drew's experience.
Yes, the Cavs have some reserves from the 2016 title team. Of course, they have brought back last year's team players who qualified for the finals of the NBA.
But there is a lot of news here. As Thompson said, four years ago, it was James who had to teach young people to win.
This time, Drew does not have to let James stay still in the corner while letting Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters dribble through the air of basketball before chucking the challenged riders to show them the value of the game. team game.
It's on Drew to get it fixed. For the moment anyway.
Like everyone else, he recognizes the strong climb ahead. Nights like that of Thursday, when the Cavs were whitened on their own, will probably be more common than a 22-point win. Not easy for anyone.
Nights like Thursday are the reason why Drew is adamant about a new deal.
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