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The Cavaliers were a particularly odd manifestation of a defense because there really were no defensive stars. The defense was so balanced that four starters received votes for the All-Defensive Team and three of them received the same number of votes. By my defensive numbers, the Cavaliers were easily the most balanced defensive team, everyone contributing similar numbers of defensive stops. In my history of evaluating defensive players, I have never seen a team as balanced defensively as this one.
What this implies to me is that Coach Mike Fratello is a good motivator and the kind of coach who can keep a team from being bad. For many reasons, the Cavaliers should have been bad, having a dearth of talent. Talent-wise, the Cavaliers compared roughly to Sacramento -- both having one great guard and mediocre supporting casts -- but Cleveland's record was eight games better than Sacramento's because their defense was solid game in and game out, unlike the Kings'.
Well, that theory is going to be severely tested this year. Every single one of Cleveland's players who received votes for All-Defense -- Terrell Brandon, Chris Mills, Tyrone Hill, and Bobby Phills -- is gone. If Mike Fratello is truly a good coach, he is going to have to show it this year.
The defense should decline somewhat, especially at the start of the season when the players are still unfamiliar with one another. But there were a lot of reasons that the defense should have been bad last year and those reasons were overwhelmed by the coaching of Fratello. Specifically, Danny Ferry, Chris Mills, and Vitaly Potapenko aren't generally solid on defense, but they were protected by the slow down suffocating defensive scheme employed in Cleveland. If Mills hadn't departed to Boston, I would say confidently that his defensive numbers would go down, but he is getting the advantage of Pitino's scheme there.
This year, Fratello has to deal with Ferry again along with no-defense guys Sherman Douglas and Henry James. He also inherits a couple of rookies -- Brevin Knight and Derek Anderson -- who will get schooled early on. On the other hand, Fratello has a more intimidating interior defender in Shawn Kemp than he had last year. (Late note: Douglas was traded away before the start of the season for a future draft pick. So Fratello is gambling on Knight at the point slot. That almost guarantees a poor season for the Cavs -- too many raw players.)
Overall, the new personnel shapes up to be much less balanced than last year, which means a different test for Fratello. If he can make an unbalanced defense as effective as last year's balanced one, the Cavs will continue to be competitive. If not, there is not enough offensive talent here (unless Derek Anderson turns out to be special) to get into the playoffs.