Cleveland Cavaliers Still Need a Tune-Up

What's up, Bleacher Creatures?    

It was great while it lasted, huh? I mean, of course, the Cavs' rampage through the NBA, which ended when their eight-game win streak stalled at the hands of the Pistons.

But I still think that the Cavaliers needs a little fine tuning before they are ready to play with the upper echelon of the NBA.

Are the Cavaliers are contender or a pretender? After their 96-89 defeat in the Palace, I would consider them a contender only because they play in the weak East, but they are far from being a legitimate threat to the Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, or even the Pistons.

Consider this: In their nine wins, they have beaten teams with a combined 43-58 record, and only two (Denver and Utah) had a record over .500.  In their three losses, two of them were to Boston and Detroit, who have a combined record of 23-10.

Although I know that those were on the road, a truly-elite team would have at least won one of those games—and New Orleans is far better than 5-5, because the West is so stacked their record is truly deceiving. In my opinion the Cavaliers must player better against these top-level teams before they can even think of challenging for a NBA title. 

Iverson going to the Pistons is going to be a problem for the Cavs, because he has always torched Cleveland—including a memorable 54-point clinic back in 2001.  For his career he has averaged 28 points and seven assists against the Wine and Gold to go along with a 14-5 record, which in my opinion makes Detroit even more dangerous.  

Can the Cavaliers play better?  Of course they can, and with the addition of Mo Williams and the new up-tempo Cavs can finally run with the best of them.  They have the shooters in Gibson, West, and Szerbicak, and a point guard in Williams to pair up with LeBron, but can they play with the big boys?

That remains to be seen—but at 9-3 right now, the Cavs may need a little more tweaking before they embark on a road trip that could well take them into June.