The Cleveland Cavaliers were exposed against the Washington Wizards.
The two teams have had a rivalry going on in the past couple of playoffs, and it really left a mark on the Cavs to take their first home loss of the season from the Wizards.
It also unraveled the Cavs big weakness: small-ball. The Cavs inability to compete with and defend the new style of offense cost them a title last season as the Golden State Warriors ran rings around the Cavs despite LeBron's best efforts.
In the game against the Eastern Conference Champions, the Wizards employed line-ups that had Jared Dudley at center when Gortat was taken out. Cleveland.com chronicled their team's struggle to keep up, specifically, Timofey Mozgov whose numbers are down after knee surgery this summer.
The Russian center was acquired by Cleveland as a rim protector as they expected to battle Western Conference powerhouses with towering centers like DeAndre Jordan, Dwight Howard, Marc Gasol and Tim Duncan. Instead, they got a lot of Draymond Green.
As the Warriors become the paradigm of team success, more teams like the Wizards are expected to follow the trend. The Cavs may need to adjust their line-up defensively to address this. Good thing they still have their best trade asset according to Bleacher Report.
The Cavaliers can still use the Brendan Haywood trade exception which means they can trade for a player with a salary up to $ 13.2 million. They can use it to acquire a small ball defender who is strong enough to match-up against power forwards and small-ball centers yet quick and agile enough to keep up with the fast pace-someone like Kenneth Faried of the Denver Nuggets.
Faried has been on the trade rumor mill as the Nuggets struggled. They had a surprising start but are now on the cusp of an eight-game losing streak. His salary is pegged at $ 11.2 million.
While this sounds like a good possibility for the Cavs, the Nuggets may want more than a trade exception for Faried, so Cleveland may need to add some draft picks. Still, if the Cavs want to go all in this season, they need to address their weakness now that it has been revealed.