Bowties, defense and 'junkyard dogs': How the Cavs are building a winning culture

Brian Windhorst and a squad of ESPN's Insiders benignant retired beingness and the quality from successful and astir the NBA world.

A fewer minutes earlier the Cleveland Cavaliers' location opener past month, proprietor Dan Gilbert addressed the players successful the locker room.

He spoke astir the excitement for the play earlier turning superior and telling them astir his oldest son, Nick Gilbert. NBA fans mightiness retrieve Nick from the 2011 draught lottery, erstwhile helium was the team's on-stage typical and bully luck charm. When the Cavs won the lottery that night, getting the close to draught Kyrie Irving No. 1 overall, the 14-year-old Nick declared "what's not to like?"

Nick has neurofibromatosis, a familial upset that causes tumors to turn connected nerves. For Nick, they've ever grown successful his brain. He has fought them passim his 26 years and the conflict has been daunting.

Dan, who has been successful a wheelchair since suffering a changeable successful 2019, told the Cavs players Nick needed 3 antithetic encephalon surgeries successful the past 2 months.

"He's a fighter," Dan said, which was shown connected the team's YouTube series "The Road Back."

"And he's fighting."

The squad has dedicated the 2022-23 play to Nick and has been wearing a bowtie decal connected their warm-ups, a motion to Nick's trademark neckwear. The bowtie helium wore astatine the 2011 lottery, the Cavs believe, was the crushed they won the lottery again successful 2013 and 2014 and jumped up to draught No. 3 successful 2021 erstwhile they landed young prima Evan Mobley. It was contiguous astatine each of them, adjacent erstwhile helium wasn't able.

Uniting astir Nick is different enslaved for this Cavs team, which has dilatory and deliberately been gathering an admirable team-first civilization implicit the past respective years that has been halfway to their 8-2 start.

It's not a caller concept, of course, but wanting it and really selling that civilization are precise antithetic realities. Coach J.B. Bickerstaff has sold it to his team, and it's possibly champion personified by an grant aft victories that helium designed to beryllium a unifying force.

Midway done past season, Bickerstaff unveiled the "junkyard canine award," fixed retired to the subordinate who was the scrappiest and hungriest performer successful the win. It came implicit with a purposefully ridiculous oversize aureate chain, ripe for quality league deterioration and societal media postings.

This besides isn't a caller idea, but that's overmuch little important than buying into it. Earning that grant has go a large woody successful the Cavs' locker country and, therefore, a contention connected the level during games. It goes for players who dive connected the floor, instrumentality a captious complaint oregon unafraid a large rebound.

Sunday nighttime aft a roadworthy triumph against the Los Angeles Lakers, Bickerstaff was acceptable to denote the grant and reached into the award's traveling lawsuit lone to find it empty. Which is erstwhile Kevin Love, present successful his ninth play with the team, roared distant and revealed the players had flipped the tables and were giving the concatenation to their manager aft an affectional halftime code had fired up the Cavs' defense. Bickerstaff had to blink distant tears.

.@cavs caput manager J.B. Bickerstaff receives the Junkyard Dog concatenation aft their large triumph successful LA ‼️pic.twitter.com/4fJfWX5eFd

This each mightiness dependable a tad hokey for grown multimillionaires. But the connections are contiguous successful much tangible ways, too.

When Donovan Mitchell arrived implicit the summertime pursuing a blockbuster trade, he'd done his homework connected however the Cavs run internally. Perhaps delicate to the conception helium had issues with erstwhile Utah Jazz teammates, Mitchell came successful with a team-first cognition that instantly impressed teammates, squad sources said.

Cavs players, coaches and beforehand bureau members noticed Mitchell showed nary ego from preseason workouts close done the commencement of the play and aggregate squad members said they believed it helped him acceptable in. When All-Star defender Darius Garland went down successful the archetypal crippled with an oculus injury, Mitchell's determination into a much pronounced enactment relation was seamless.

Mitchell has been 1 of the Eastern Conference's champion players successful the archetypal period of the season, averaging 31.4 points and shooting 49.2%, some of which would beryllium vocation highs.

The team's togetherness shows successful its corporate defense, ranked 2nd successful the league, and however it has pieced unneurotic a large commencement contempt immoderate injuries. The halfway 4 of Mitchell, Garland, Mobley and Jarrett Allen had played a combined 28 minutes unneurotic implicit the archetypal 8 games due to the fact that of assorted wounded issues.

It's each acceptable up for an unexpected large crippled connected Friday, erstwhile the Cavs sojourn their aged adversary, the Golden State Warriors. It's the archetypal clip successful the 5 seasons since LeBron James near Cleveland that the crippled has had existent meaning. It's besides been 25 seasons since the Cavs made the playoffs connected a squad without him, a streak this squad looks similar it mightiness yet break.

Speaking of the Warriors, here's NBA newsman Tim Bontemps connected a processing contented for the defending champs:

Fountain of younker some fruitful, troublesome for Warriors

Golden State entering Monday's crippled against the Sacramento Kings with a 4-7 grounds is shocking. The information the Warriors were 4-7 erstwhile their starting 5 of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney had outscored opponents by 26.2 points per 100 possessions is downright unbelievable.

Why is Golden State struggling? It is getting tally disconnected the tribunal erstwhile the youngsters participate the game.

Over the summer, the Warriors opted to not re-sign seasoned seat players Otto Porter Jr., Gary Payton II and Nemanja Bjelica, each of whom played minutes successful the 2022 NBA Finals. In doing so, the Warriors sent a wide message: the ongoing blending of the team's seasoned halfway and its young endowment (namely Jordan Poole, James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody) would instrumentality yet different measurement forward.

Poole, the rising prima who Golden State lavished a $140 cardinal hold connected past period is minus-97 connected the season, ranking him 447th retired of 448 players. Kuminga is minus-59, 432nd successful the league. Wiseman, who didn't play Monday, is minus-69 successful conscionable 137 minutes.

What's particularly troubling for Golden State is, extracurricular of reserve defender Donte DiVincenzo missing clip with a hamstring wounded successful his near leg, the Warriors person been comparatively steadfast to commencement the season.

In different words: There's nary cavalry riding successful to prevention the defending champs.

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Kendrick Perkins details the challenges Steve Kerr is facing with this year's Warriors team.

Where tin Golden State spell from here? In the abbreviated term, the close attack mightiness beryllium to bash nothing. Wiseman, successful particular, needs to play -- helium has hardly gotten much than 1,000 combined minutes of NCAA and NBA gametime since the commencement of his freshman play astatine Memphis.

But tin Golden State spend to springiness its youngsters on-the-job grooming portion competing for a championship? Warriors manager Steve Kerr said past week that determination volition beryllium changes to his rotation, but aft previewing those tweaks during Saturday's loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, it's unclear what Kerr's last merchandise volition become.

That leaves 1 different possibility: the commercialized market.

As of now, it's hard to spot the Warriors making specified a pivot distant from their young players. There has been excessively overmuch time, wealth and sweat invested successful them.

But the NBA is, successful the end, a bottom-line business. And if the 2nd portion continues to conflict portion the starters shine, determination could beryllium hard decisions to make.

Checking successful connected the first-place(!) Utah Jazz is NBA newsman Tim MacMahon:

Mike Conley volition person nary of this Jazz vessel talk

As a omniscient meme erstwhile asked: "What's going connected successful Utah?"

The abbreviated reply is overmuch much winning than anticipated for a franchise that made a strong, abrupt displacement to rebuilding this summer.

"If they're going to lose, they've got to get escaped of me, too," Conley, the lone Utah starter from past play who wasn't traded during this past offseason, told ESPN.

Conley cracked a large grin arsenic helium made that statement, but there's immoderate information being told successful jest. The Jazz veterans recognize Danny Ainge and the beforehand bureau are focused connected gathering for the aboriginal aft a Thunder-like haul of draught superior headlined the commercialized returns for erstwhile franchise cornerstones Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell.

But determination is simply a content wrong the Jazz locker country that they're bully capable to triumph present -- and a 9-3 commencement has provided convincing grounds that they're right. Those players -- a operation of leftovers from past season's roster and caller commercialized arrivals -- delight successful proving doubters incorrect who predicted Utah would person the champion lottery likelihood to onshore French phenom Victor Wembanyama.

Conley, who is simply a fewer months older than 34-year-old rookie caput manager Will Hardy, describes the Jazz's vibe arsenic "loose, amusive and truly chippy." It's a stark opposition to past season, erstwhile the Jazz had chemistry problems and the unit of precocious expectations.

The Jazz deficiency starpower -- though Mitchell commercialized portion Lauri Markkanen (21.8 points, 9.4 rebounds) and Utah leftover Jordan Clarkson (17.9 points, 5.3 assists) are thriving successful larger roles, putting up the champion numbers of their careers. Opponents and scouts rave astir however hard and selflessly this mishmash roster plays for Hardy.

"It's not the aforesaid squad astatine all," Conley says. "We've got thing astir america that's conscionable gritty and mean and carefree astatine the aforesaid time."

Here's NBA front-office insider Bobby Marks with immoderate escaped advice:

On the Nets, I'm speaking, err, typing from experience

Desperation: The astir lethal connection successful the front-office vocabulary.

I person plentifulness of acquisition with that connection from my clip moving successful the Brooklyn Nets beforehand office.

The examples are endless:

• The failed commercialized to onshore All-Star Carmelo Anthony that resulted successful Deron Williams.

• The Gerald Wallace commercialized (and a lightly protected lottery prime that became Damian Lillard), aft being near astatine the altar by Dwight Howard.

• The eventual Williams five-year max declaration contempt concerns if helium could beryllium the look of the Nets' franchise.

But however tin you locomotion distant from a subordinate you mortgaged portion of the aboriginal to acquire? (We don't request to spell into much item astir the Boston Celtics trade. That turned into a catastrophe that acceptable the enactment backmost years -- each retired of desperation.)

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Kevin Durant reflects connected a tumultuous week for the Nets disconnected the court, and says the players are uncovering solace by playing basketball.

So wherefore play the crippled of revisionist history?

Because 8 years ago, we arsenic an enactment (and I played a ample role) had the accidental to chopped our losses. Instead, we passed connected trades for Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez. Instead of taking a big-picture attack with an oculus toward the future, we held connected for beloved beingness to the trades of the past. Veteran Lionel Hollins was hired arsenic coach. The thinking? A seasoned tough-minded manager was needed for the existent roster. Hollins did not marque it done 2 seasons.

All of that leads america to proposal for the current-day Nets: Don't marque the aforesaid mistakes.

If the feeling is that Irving is not portion of the future, don't beryllium acrophobic to nonstop him home, this clip permanently.

If hiring Ime Udoka is much of a "Hail Mary" effort to salvage the season, past hold until the offseason and behaviour a much thorough search.

If the close commercialized bundle materializes for Kevin Durant, bash not fto the ghosts of past trades get successful the way.

Yes, it is casual for maine to beryllium down a keyboard and a microphone.

I person thing invested successful the Nets, dissimilar the existent beforehand bureau that has invested everything.

But conscionable retrieve this: The strongest beforehand offices run without blinders connected during the season.