As if winning the NBA Finals was not enough, the Cavaliers’ Summer League team is three wins away from winning the tournament in Las Vegas.
Much of that credit goes to coach Phil Handy, who is doing a great job with young players like Sir’Dominic Pointer, Michael Stockton, Kenny Gabriel, and others, but the two stars for the Cavs over the past week have been Jordan McRae and Kay Felder.
It took Felder a couple games to really get going, but after three solid performances to open up Summer League action, the 5’9″ point guard has taken off in the first two games of the tournament portion of play.
Felder scored 35 points and dished out 13 assists in the first three games, but scored 22 points on Wednesday night against the Celtics and put up 20 points against the Lakers on Thursday night.
Boston and Los Angeles have two of the more-talented rosters when it comes to Summer League squads, with several recent draft picks on each team.
As for McRae, he is making a case to be the MVP of Summer League.
The combo guard from Tennessee has scored 129 points in five games, scoring 23 or more four times.
Like Felder, McRae has gotten better as the week has gone on, scoring 32 on Wednesday night and 36 on Thursday.
Even though the Cavaliers squad consists of mostly players who will be nowhere near Cleveland in the future, it appears that the franchise just does not want to let any other team claim the title of “champions” in 2016 – even if it is only Summer League.
Although there are obviously more factors that play into the coaching staff’s decisions when it comes to personnel, head coach Tyronn Lue and his assistants have to be encouraged by what McRae and Felder are doing.
Felder might be a bit too raw at this point to expect to make an impact in the NBA right away, but McRae already has made some important appearances and is only helping his chances of being a significant role player in 2016-2017.
Throughout the summer, there have been rumblings, though nothing concrete, with regards to Iman Shumpert being a possible trade candidate.
It’s far too soon and there is not sufficient evidence that McRae would be able to step in and fill those shoes if the Cavs were to trade Shumpert, but based on how great the 25-year-old has been playing, it might be something to keep an eye on as we get closer to the regular season and eventually the trade deadline in February.
Perhaps McRae continues to impress to the point where Lue and company feel comfortable handing him more minutes and the Cavs deal Shumpert to address a different area on the team, like backup power forward or center.
Again, it’s too soon to get overly excited, but the way McRae is playing is certainly turning heads around the league, both from a fan standpoint and from the perspective of Cavs’ coaches and front office personnel.
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