NBA Playoffs Will Decide Who These Cleveland Cavaliers Actually Are

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On the doorsteps of completing the 2015-16 regular season, is it possible we still have no idea who the Cleveland Cavaliers are?

This is a 57-24 team that battled injuries to start the year, fired its head coach in January and has showcased breathtaking basketball mixed with frustratingly lackadaisical play.

Of course, no one will care what transpired from October through May. The Cavaliers will determine their success based on hardware and nothing else.

When playoff times get tough (and they will), what can Cleveland truly hang its collective hat on? For the Cavs to capture the first championship in franchise history, they must forge an identity, but few observers seem to know what that identity is after the regular season.

Past Necessity

The Cavaliers struggled with this same problem a year ago, trying to figure out who they were and how to maximize their incredible blend of talent.

The solution finally presented itself in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Chicago Bulls. With Kevin Love lost to a shoulder injury from the previous round and Kyrie Irving hobbled with a bad knee, Cleveland had to improvise on the fly.

It was during this game that then-coach David Blatt inserted Tristan Thompson into a starting lineup featuring LeBron James, Iman Shumpert, Timofey Mozgov and Irving. Matthew Dellavedova also took on a larger role due to Irving's limited minutes and mobility.

Alas, there it was. With no Love, J.R. Smith (at the time suspended for smacking Avery Bradley the round before) and a hobbled Irving, the Cavs became who they were forced to be. A defensive, slow-the-pace-down and grind-it-out style of play wasn't sexy, but it proved to be effective.

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This defense-first squad went 10-2 over its next 12 contests, even stealing a pair of victories from the mighty Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.

A lack of depth and offensive firepower doomed Cleveland against the Warriors, but it was only due to their defense and pace that the Cavs even managed to force a Game 6.

Now, the Cavaliers must recapture a similar identity. Minus the injuries, of course.

Mistaken Identity?

Despite what most think of the Cavs, head coach Tyronn Lue claims the team has already found its niche.

"We have an identity. I think we play with a pace," Lue said after a March 29 loss to the Houston Rockets. "Teams now are conscious about getting back and taking us out of transition. When we get out in transition early, teams struggle to stop us. I think our identity right now has been pushing the ball and pushing the pace, but we have to get back to our defensive mentality."

Well, he's half right.

Despite what Lue or any of the players may think, Cleveland still has shown no committed effort to pushing the pace on a regular basis.

Before Lue took over, the Cavaliers averaged 95.05 possessions per 48 minutes, 28th in the NBA. In 40 games with him, Cleveland has only slightly increased to 95.98, 24th in the league.

For comparison, the Sacramento Kings lead all teams with 102.19 possessions, with the Warriors slightly behind at 101.64. Playing at a faster pace isn't necessarily a measure of success, but it's curious that Lue would peg that as a large part of Cleveland's supposed identity.

On the other hand, he also spoke of getting out in transition, something Cleveland actually has been successful at.

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In addition to boasting the league's highest field-goal percentage (46 percent), the Cavaliers average 1.20 points per possession when they run, second to the Toronto Raptors' 1.21 mark, per NBA.com.

"Our main focus is to attack the basket early and get out in transition with Kyrie and LeBron," Lue said. "When teams load up and protect the paint, we’ve got to spray it out for shots."

Despite Cleveland's transition success, it scores just 13.3 percent of its total offense this way, a number that ranks 15th in the league.

"I think our offense coming into transition isn’t so random anymore," Irving said. "It’s flow offense with Bron setting screens or guys setting one to two pick-and-rolls and we’re just playing the game. Having a lot of active cutters on the backside and when you have that guys are getting open shots."

Kevin Love echoed such sentiments to NBATV following Cleveland's 109-94 trouncing of the Atlanta Hawks on April 1. 

The Cavs have the athletes required to push the ball. James and Irving can both lead the fast break, and Love's outlet passes are still among the NBA's best. Increasing the tempo is a tremendous offensive identity that Cleveland still needs to forge.

The Ideal Image

Pace and tempo are nice and all, but Lue cautioned that there's still one style that Cleveland must adopt come the postseason.

"I think our identity has to be defense," said Lue. "We have to continue to try to get stops because if we have a defensive identity we can get out and run in transition. That kind of opens everything for us. For us, we have to get back to our defensive mindset."

The Cavs' defensive rating stands at 102.1 on the season, barely sticking in the NBA's top 10. Under Lue, however, it's slipped to 104.6.

Good defense was easy to come by with a core of James, Shumpert, Mozgov, Thompson and Dellavedova in last year's playoffs. Now with liabilities in Irving and Love that need court time, Lue will need to get more creative.

This could include going small, sacrificing a big like Love or Mozgov in stretches for a defensive-minded wing such as Shumpert or Dellavedova. It may mean James guarding power forward one series and a point guard the next, something he's capable of.

Lue also recently named Thompson the starting center over Mozgov, a move that should improve Cleveland's defense, pace and athleticism. Lineups with Thompson and the regular starting four are plus-12.3 points per 100 possessions, while those same lineups with Mozgov are a minus-7.6.

Whatever it may be, a defensive identity like Lue mentioned needs to come first before all else.

Greg Swartz is the Cleveland Cavaliers Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @CavsGregBR.

All quotes obtained firsthand. Stats via Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise sourced.