Three ways the Cleveland Cavaliers can turn their season around

The season has obviously been a slight disappointment for the Cleveland Cavaliers so far. The team that won the East last season is just 14-11, sitting at the seven seed.

Luckily, there is still plenty of time left this season. Meaning the Cavs don’t need to be in panic mode just yet, and have time to figure out what has been wrong with this team.

Here are three things the Cavaliers can do to try and turn the season around.

1. Fix the three-point shooting

The Cavs have been in a serious shooting slump over the past few weeks. They are currently hitting at just a 34.3% rate, 23rd in the NBA.

For a team led by Donovan Mitchell, with shooters like Sam Merrill, Jaylon Tyson and Craig Porter around, there is no excuse to be such an inefficient team from deep.

Tyson has broken out to a 46% shooter, and both Merrill and Porter are above 40%, but no one else on the team is, and most aren’t particularly close.

When a team shoots as poorly as the Cavs are, it creates long rebound opportunities and easy fast break chances. The Cavaliers are near the bottom of the league in transition defense, and their shooting has been a huge factor to it.

If the Cavs want their offense to become as dominant as it was last season, they need to make a change. Whether it’s scheming around their slump, lowering the volume of treys sent up per game, bringing in a new shooter by the trade deadline or just making efforts to get players out of their slumps, something’s got to change.

2. Get healthy

Easier said than done, but health has obviously been a huge issue for the Cavs this season. Darius Garland never got healthy, and is still struggling with a toe injury. Even when he does play, he looks inefficient and can’t be the player he was last season.

Max Strus still hasn’t touched the floor this season. Jarrett Allen has missed plenty of games with a hand injury, Sam Merrill is out, Larry Nance was ruled out for several weeks with a calf injury.

Even guys like Lonzo Ball won’t play in back-to-back games out of fear of injury, something that’s plagued his whole career.

Simply put, it’s rare to see every Cavalier on the court and healthy. It’s okay for the Cavaliers to coast through the regular season, if players are getting healthy for a late season push and a playoff run.

Hopefully this week off gave some Cavaliers a chance to either get healthy, or get close to returning to action. Until then, it’s going to be a next man up mentality, and we need to see a lot of Cleveland’s depth.

3. It’s time to increase Tyson’s volume

One of the biggest story lines of the Cavaliers has been Jaylon Tyson’s emergence this season. He has brought energy to this team, and even stepped up as a vocal leader, when things looked gloom.

His efficiency has been through the roof, leading the team in 3pt% and being one of two players to play more than five games and hit on over 50% of their shots. The other is Jarrett Allen.

Despite this, he is seventh on the team in field goals attempted per game. He is currently behind Allen and Sam Merrill, attempting 9.5 shots per game.

It’s time to see just how good he can be. He has done everything right for this team, and when someone is as efficient a starter as he is, it’s worth seeing what they have.

He deserves to be taking closer to 12-15 shots a game, similar volume to De’Andre Hunter and Evan Mobley. Getting him more involved in the gameplan could be a huge boost for Cleveland, helping a sparkplug really bring some energy back for a team that often seems to lack it.