Alec Burks had been shooting poorly to start his Cavaliers tenure (16 of 47 through his first four games), but all past sins have been undone by this game, which ties a season high in points for him and ties a CAREER high in assists. Maybe he’s finally gotten used to the different layout of his new home arena. Maybe he’s gotten used to the fact that the locker room stocks a slightly different assortment of Gatorade flavors. Maybe they finally got the nameplate for his locker made. Maybe his teammates stopped hazing him even though he should really be the one hazing them because he’s older than most of them. Whatever the reason is, Alec Burks looked like the Alec Burks of old in this game.
With Burks’ arrival on the Cavaliers, we can finally see what he looks like as a featured piece off the offense. Aside from maybe the 2013-14 season and the start of the 2014-15 season before he injured himself, Burks hasn’t ever been a main feature on offense in his career. Now he comes in and is right there in the mix with Rodney Hood and Jordan Clarkson in the fight to be second banana behind Kevin Love (assuming K-Love isn’t dead right now). The only problem with this situation is that all three of those players kind of play the same position. Burks will have to continue to show a willingness to pass the ball and not be a total black hole like those other two dudes if he wants to differentiate himself.
Or they could just have a team full of black holes with no passers and then wonder why they don’t win any games.