Is it too early to judge this Cavaliers team? Quick notes on tonight's game

   

    

 As the Cleveland Cavaliers look to regroup for a showdown with the New Orleans Pelicans after their loss to the OKC Thunder, questions continue to surface about this team. Lebron James, who has been under a microscope as only he could, missed a marquee game because of a sore knee. This will certainly just fuel the fire of the critics who say he's slowing down. James is even being ridiculuosly tallied on his dunks this year and how he's dunking at a much lower rate. The notion that James is slowing down is absurd, he is still putting up great numbers, leading this team in just about every important team category. While his scoring is relatively down, we noted that scoring is down across the league in general. Kobe Bryant leads the league in scoring at 25.5 PPG, a few years ago that would have been good enough for maybe 4th or 5th in scoring so we can give James a pass on that.
    As you watch the Cavs progress through this early stage of the season however, there are certainly concerns. The Cavaliers are not a good defensive team. James is far and away their best defender,  their other two marquee players (Love and Irving) are average defenders at best. Watching the game tonight, with James out and Kevin Durant still on a minute restriction, the attention turned to the point guard battle between Russell Westbrook and Kyrie Irving. However, from the onset you can tell the difference between the two players, Westbrook started defending Irving and was on him much of the night, while Irving began the game defending Andrew Roberson (who?????).  To say that the Cavs can get out of the East is a fair argument. The East is a weak conference, not taking anything away from the Toronto Raptors, but if the Raptors are first in standings, then you can certainly see Cleveland steamrolling their way to the finals on pure offensive firepower.
   The cavaliers also need to figure out what to do about Dion Waiters. Waiters' game simply does not revolve around standing in a corner and jacking up jumpers, and he certainly is not making any attempts to try to hide his believe that his game is more than that. The Cavs got outscored by 17 with Waiters on the floor today.
   On another note, even with James out, Kevin Love still did not get many touches, attempting just 13 shots, he finished with 18 points and 16 rebounds. Clearly Irving has made a point that after James, he will certainly be the one taking the most shots on the team. He finished with 21 shot attempts for 20 points and 6 assists. Again, maybe it is still a bit early for this team to judge on what the final product is. Meanwhile we can continue to microscope the fact that Lebron isn't dunking as much as he used to.

As we head into the elimination round, what role will each USA player play?

Image from bleacherreport.com

As elimination round begins, let's take a look at what each player has to do for team USA to take gold in London.
Chris Paul
Paul lead the USA in minutes played in the preliminary round, he will be the starting point guard, he must be a bulldog on the defensive end, stifling opposing backcourt players to create turnovers and transition offense for his team, we all know that the US wants to get out on the open court, and Paul must be the first catalyst of that. Defense leading to offense, dont expect much scoring from him, he knows this team doesnt need him to score, he will focus more on getting Kevin Durant open looks and finding his wing players on the fast break.
Kobe Bryant
Kobe is the starting SG, at this point we don't know understand why, he has been extremely inefficient with his shot selection, and sometimes tries to force the issue on a team where frankly he does not need to (shot 4-17 going into the Australia game). In addition, his defense (which was his calling card in beijing) hasn't been all that good. Perhaps he's biding his time for when it matters most, but Kobe needs to choose his spots on offense and focus on being that bulldog he was in international play on defense.
Kevin Durant
Durant needs to do what he has been doing, shooting the ball. He's the USA's leading scorer and nothing more is expected of him but to shoot the basketball.
Lebron James
The US's swift army knife, Lebron must continue to do whatever is necessary for this team. For the most part he has not looked to score unless needed and is more interested in being a facilitator and thats what he must continue to do. His presence is more needed on the defensive end though, where he is asked to guard bigger low post players every game, aside from Chandler and Love who else with playing time can guard bigger players with consistent success?
Tyson Chandler
The Team's only true big man, stay out of foul trouble Chandler
Deron Williams
Williams must do the same as Chris Paul and try to limit his turnovers, he has been a turnover machine in these olympics, which does not help the US much.
Russell Westbrook
Westbrook has been the team's best perimeter defender, tormenting opposing ball handlers and providing energy for his team with his highlight dunks, he needs to do the same on defense and NOT take crazy shots 2 seconds into the shot clock
Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo has clearly been a monster scoring the ball, nothing more is expected of him as he battles Durant for USA leading scorer,
Andre Iguodala
The mini swift army knife, he needs to continue to be a lockdown defensive threat whether its guarding 6-10 bigs, or 6-3 guards, on offense anything he provides will be a boost.
Kevin Love
After Carmelo, Love is the most important player off the bench, the only other big on the team with legitimate playing time, he has to establish himself in the low post and NOT shooting threes, and HAS to rebound, he knows he will be depended on heavily when Chandler gets in foul trouble, and must be a presence inside.
James Harden
make threes? Harden does not play a lot, when he does the game has usually been decided
Anthony Davis
Must remember to put his jersey on before walking out on the floor