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In the spirit of Christmas let’s make a naughty or nice list of some Cavaliers individual performance up to this point in the season. In an effort to be particularly full of holiday cheer players will be assigned a Christmas movie in lieu of the traditional A-F grading scale. Our grading scale will be A Christmas Story to Fred Claus. A Christmas Story is obviously the top honor that a player can receive and earning a rating of Fred Claus means a player might be finding coal in their stocking on Christmas morning.
LeBron James- A Christmas Story.
Much like A Christmas Story LeBron James is simply the best. A northeast Ohio product dominating the competition and his play this year has opposing fans say “oh fudge”.
Kyrie Irving- How The Grinch Stole Christmas
Similar to Jim Carrey’s The Grinch, Kyrie isn’t a classic but his quality and stance as a top tier player in the league is undeniable. Kyrie looks to be fully back from the knee injury he suffered in the 2015 NBA Finals and the league should be on notice. Kyrie is averaging career highs in field goal percentage and three point percentage causing the rest of the eastern conference to scream out “Hate, hate, hate. Hate, hate, hate. Double hate. LOATHE ENTIRELY!”
Kevin Love- Die Hard
A lot of people don’t consider Die Hard to be a Christmas movie and up until this year a whole lot of people thought Kevin Love was overrated. Well, simply watching Love or Die Hard will prove to anyone just how wrong those takes are. Kevin Love is having his best season as a member of the Cavaliers and is giving the offense a new dimension. The only reasonable reaction to watching Love play basketball this season is “Yippie-Ki-Yay, M******f*****!”
Tristan Thompson- Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer
Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is a necessary part of all Christmas movie lists, it’s not the best movie but it is undeniably an important and good Christmas movie. That is exactly who Tristan Thompson is. Tristan isn’t a member of the big three but without him the Cavaliers success would not exist. Like the animation style of Rudolph, Tristan’s play style is unique on this team, he does the stuff nobody else does. To this point in the season Tristan has continued to be the reliable big man that Cavs fans have known and loved for seasons.
Channing Frye- Home Alone
Channing has had a tough year off of the court but on the court he is playing his role extremely well. Like a young Kevin McAllister opponents often are not ready for his play style. Frye is all of the booby traps in Home Alone in a basketball player. A center who is shooting almost 47 percent from three is just not something you see every day and extremely difficult to game plan for when you also have to guard LeBron, Kyrie and Love. Channing Frye is the gift that keeps on giving to the Cavaliers offense “Merry Christmas ya filthy animals”.
Iman Shumpert- Krampus
Krampus is a newer Christmas movie. When I saw it I was expecting to hate it, but I was pleasantly surprised and it has quickly become a favorite of mine. This is exactly how Iman Shumpert’s 2016 season has gone. Coming into the season the idea of Shumpert being a relied upon member of the season was downright scary (just like getting a visit from Krampus). But as the season has progressed Iman has shown that Tyronn Lue’s faith in him was well founded.
JR Smith- Elf
Elf is not a good Christmas movie, it’s just not. And this year JR Smith has not been good either. It’s a shame. I love Will Ferrell and I love JR Smith. I want both to be great but it’s the holiday season and I can’t lie just because I like someone. JR has dealt with some injuries this season and I would bet on his play to pick up as the season continues but so far Smith’s play has Cavs fans yelling out ““Son of a NUT-cracker!”.
Richard Jefferson- Jingle All the Way
Hopefully RJ can turn back into Turboman during the playoffs because the Cavaliers could really use some wing depth.
Mike Dunleavy Jr. – Miracle on 34th Street
I was told Mike Dunleavy Jr was going to be good but just like Miracle on 34th Street he is an old thing that has done nothing to get me excited or make me think he is any good.
Chris Anderson- Fred Claus
Fred Claus is bad and Chris Anderson has been not very good so far this season. The Cavaliers are going to need him to have a Richard Jefferson like playoff resurgence but I am not sure that is in the cards for the Birdman.