Links to the Present: January 27, 2012

January 27th, 2012 by Colin McGowan

“Things have been difficult for Omri Casspi. When he made the trek from Sacramento to Cleveland, his jump shot was lost somewhere along the way. Casspi can’t blame U-Haul for that one. It has started to arrive, little by little. His numbers aren’t what people expected when he was acquired, along with a conditional first-round pick, in exchange for forward J.J. Hickson in June. He’s averaging 8.1 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists. Casspi is shooting 43.3 percent from the field, 31 percent from behind the arc and 67.7 percent from the foul line.” [Bob Finnan]

“Gee has gained notoriety for his offensive contributions off the bench and his occasional SportsCenter-worthy dunks. What might keep him in the NBA, however, is his defense. He has the strength to defend small forwards and the quickness and length to stick with shooting guards.” [Tom Reed]

“[The Cavaliers] turned the ball over 19 times on Wednesday, but still prevailed over the New York Knicks, 91-81. They’ll try to get things straightened out against New Jersey on Friday. The Cavs are averaging 17.1 turnovers per game, last in the NBA. Guard Kyrie Irving is averaging a team-high 3.6 turnovers per game.” [CBS Sports]

The Cavs have sent avid Yo Gotti fan Luke Harangody down to their NBDL affiliate, the Canton Charge, where he will teach the young’ns a thing or two about 15-foot set shots, keeping your hands up on defense, and “that China white.”

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Destination: 2013, Scenario 2

January 26th, 2012 by Kevin Hetrick

In this second installment of potential paths to turn the Cavs into a rising, 50 win team by 2013, the focus will be on several trades for this year.

First though, I want to discuss my expertise with the Collective Bargaining Agreement, or more precisely, my lack of expertise.  Case in point is that in the first Destination: 2013 Scenario, the issue of “front-loading” contracts drew some skepticism.  I should have referred to “signing bonuses”, which may be allowable (see here and here).  Ultimately it’s not important whether the “front-loading” was legal or not; if the contracts were constructed normally, the Cavs’ salaries go up by $2.2 million in 2013 – 2014 and instead of Omri Casspi as backup SF, the scenario is forced to go with “2013 Miami 1st rounder”.  Essentially, there’s minimal difference.  And that’s the important point; any CBA misapplications in these posts should be minor enough to not affect the big picture.  If this proves untrue, I am prepared for a public scolding. 

In this scenario, three trades will continue stocking the Cavs’ cupboard with young prospects.  These trades are:

Antawn Jamison to Charlotte for Desagana Diop, Matt Carroll, Derrick Brown, and Portland’s 2013 1st round pick (owned by Charlotte) – This is a salary dump for Charlotte.  They’re able to take the $11 million they owe Diop and Carroll off the books for 2012 – 2013.  They get hometown guy Antawn Jamison earlier than planned (Jamison has discussed a desire to finish his career with Charlotte).  They would have nearly $25 million in cap space available in the summer of 2012 for Michael Jordan to pursue a big free agent in addition to re-signing Jamison and D.J. Augustin.  For this flexibility, Charlotte’s price isn’t too high; they give up a kind-of-young, kind-of-decent small forward and a future, late first round pick.  The Cavs get those assets in exchange for the right to overpay two players for a year.  Mychel Thompson and Luke Harangody would be waived.

Ramon Sessions and Cavs 2012 2nd round pick to Oklahoma City for Cole Aldrich and Reggie Jackson – The Thunder are a team trying to win a championship this season, and a season-ending injury to Eric Maynor has left them with a roster hole.  Enter Cleveland to the rescue!  Sessions is an experienced option to spell Russell Westbrook for 15 minutes during the regular season and 8 minutes every playoff game.  OKC parts with two young pieces they don’t need.  Cole Aldrich was a lottery pick just 18 months ago, and despite struggles in limited NBA time, he was very effective in a D-League stint last year; finishing third in blocks per game and defensive rating and fifth in defensive rebounding percentage.  In two D-League playoff wins, he averaged 12.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks.  He’s big, young, & cheap and a more appealing back-up center option than what the Cavs currently have.  Reggie Jackson was the 24th pick in last year’s draft, and the Cavs could take a look at him as a long-term backup to Irving. 

Cavs 2012 1st round draft pick plus Hornets 2012 2nd round draft pick (Cavs owned) and Portland 2013 1st round draft pick (Cavs owned, see above) to team with #3 draft pick in 2012 draft –For now, I’m staying the course of previous posts and assuming that the Cavs win 25 games and end up with the #8 pick in the draft (this thought is fading quickly.  I may have to recalibrate after the back-to-back with Boston).  The Hornets pick will be around #35 and the Portland pick should be in the 20 – 25 range.  A third team would be brought in offering a late 1st round pick (let’s say 24th) for the 33rd and 35th picks this year.  So the Cavs’ primary partner in this trade ends up with #8 and #24 in 2012 and #23 in 2013 for the #3 and #33 in 2012.

This seems reasonable to me, considering how redundant the 2012 draft will be for big men.  ESPN projects 7 of the top 13 picks as power forwards, with 11 of the top 15 as centers or power forwards.  The #3 pick this year will likely not be viewed as a “mega-star waiting to happen”.  There is a relatively good chance that the team at #3 can say, “there will be someone we like at #8, plus we get two other decent picks…let’s take the trade.”

This scenario is counting on it and with the third pick in the 2012 draft, the Cavs select  Harrison Barnes.    The Cavs fill the roster with one-year contracts to Derrick Brown and others (Ray Allen for 1 year, $8 million anyone?), and have an up-and-down 2012 – 2013.

Heading into the summer of 2013 (approximate $62 million cap), Cleveland’s existing obligations (and salaries) would be Anderson Varejao ($9.1 million), Kyrie Irving ($5.9 million), Harrison Barnes ($4.6 million), Tristan Thompson ($4.3 million), Cole Aldrich ($3.2 million), and Reggie Jackson ($1.3 million).  After almost knocking off the Heat in the first round of the 2013 playoffs (ultimately wearing them down, leading to a third straight Finals defeat), the Cavs use the 15th pick in the draft to choose Brazilian seven-footer, Fab Melo out of Syracuse.   Melo and the other 1st round pick total $3 million.  Omri Casspi’s option would not be picked up, and Alonzo Gee was re-signed after 2011 – 2012, starting at $1.5 million per year.  Finally, Daniel Gibson would be kept at $3 million per year.  The team’s commitment to those 10 players in 2013 is $36 million; the other $26 million would be offered to:

Paul Millsap –It’s not sexy, but the acquisition adds an offensive force to the front line.  A four year, $46 million contract (starting at $11 million) will take Millsap through his age 28 – 31 seasons.  Last year, he averaged 17 & 8 on 58% true shooting.  He has one of the better power forward jump shots and is a fierce rebounder.  Utah is unable to justify spending this amount on Millsap, as they consider the upcoming contract extensions for recent top 5 picks Derrick Favors & Enes Kanter.

Kevin Martin – To reach an even higher level, Cleveland pursues a fourth source of offense along Irving, Millsap, and Barnes.  Martin has been one of the NBA’s best scoring two-guards for over a half-decade.  A high-salary, short-term offer is made for 2 years and $20 million, similar to, but more pricy than recent contracts for Jamal Crawford and Richard Hamilton.  Houston decides it’s not justified to tie up this money on a thirty year old, as they go all-in pursuing James Harden, Steph Curry, Tyreke Evans or Demar Derozan.

Tiago Splitter – With Varejao, Millsap, Tristan T, and Fab Melo in fold; this is a luxury buy.  Nearly 7 feet tall, Splitter rebounds well and scores efficiently, providing a 4th big man to keep the rookie from being overly relied on.  Also it’s a gimmick; once you start amassing tall Brazilians, it’s hard to stop.  Andy, Tiago, and Fab can do whatever it is that giant Brazilians do in Cleveland.  In order to steal him from the Spurs, the Cavs offer 4 years, $20 million (starting at $4.8).  The Spurs start a rebuilding process that summer and can’t justify paying Splitter through his age 32 season.

The 2013 – 2014 roster is (ages in parantheses):

PG – Kyrie Irving (21), Reggie Jackson (23), 2013 2nd round pick, – With Irving in his 3rd year in the league, he’s makes his first Eastern Conference All Star team.

Wings – Kevin Martin (30), Harrison Barnes (21), Daniel Gibson (27), Alonzo Gee (26), Miami’s 2013 1st  round draft pick – Martin and Barnes represent a huge offensive upgrade from the current roster.  Gibson, Gee, and the first round pick are relied upon for defense.  Barnes would be the team’s 6th man, with a defensive minded player starting over him.

Front Court – Paul Millsap (28), Anderson Varejao (31), Tristan Thompson (22), Tiago Splitter (29), Cole Aldrich (25), Fab Melo (22) – Millsap and Varejao operate as one of the league’s better starting tandems.  In his age 22 season, TT has developed into a great first big man off the bench.

The team probably isn’t a future champion, but an all-star point guard, three additional quality scorers, and a deep front line – that’s a 50+ win team and the average age is only 25.

The most crucial step towards building a champion relies on trading “assets” for the “final pieces”.  There are 5 players under age 25 not named Kyrie, Harrison or Tristan.  There are also seven draft picks total in 2014 & 2015.  Ideally some of this can be packaged with an expiring contract to acquire the right veterans to push the team over the top, similar to the Pistons acquiring Rasheed Wallace in 2004. 

And there it is, through a hazy future I can see it…the 2016 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers!

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Links to the Present: January 26, 2012

January 26th, 2012 by Colin McGowan

“The Cavs basically played like crap. They went about 8 minutes in the second quarter and scored just 4 points on the New York Knicks defense. Once again, they had way too many turnovers (19) and we just all-around really sloppy. Fortunately, the Knicks are even more dysfunctional. The Knicks committed 23 turnovers and had an even more stagnant offense. Amare Stoudemire led New York with 19 fairly empty points on 19 shots. He had some nice dunks down low as no one on the Cavs can really check him, but he made some careless offensive fouls and for some reason the Knicks refuse to run pick and rolls. If they watched any film from Amare’s time in Phoenix (I loved those teams, I watched them all the time), they would know that he is virtually unguardable as the roll-man on a PnR. The Knicks, however, have zero guards capable of running an effective pick and roll. That’s just one of the reasons why I believe Mike D’Antoni will be fired and also why I believe he will be wrongly fired. It’s not his fault that the front office assembled a roster that doesn’t fit with his offensive schemes at all.” [Conrad Kaczmarek]

“Varejao had 10 points, 16 rebounds and was a pest all night Wednesday as the Cavs continued their dominance over the Knicks with a 91-81 victory. It was the Cavs’ 12th win in the last 13 games against the Knicks, who haven’t won in Cleveland since Nov. 29, 2006.” [Jason Lloyd]

“As the All-Star game draws closer, it will grow increasingly difficult to omit Varejao despite his reputation for flopping and the incredibly misconception regarding his value.  The box score, typically Varejao’s arch-enemy, shows that the Cavaliers’ center is second in the Eastern Conference in rebounds per game (11.2)  and total rebounding percentage (21.0) while possessing a lead over New Jersey’s Kris Humphries in terms of total offensive rebounds and offensive rebounding percentage (16.6).” [Scott Sargent]

“The one thing we talked about before the game (against Miami) was just getting back to playing the way we are capable of playing, especially on the defensive end. I thought we did that (Tuesday) night.  The (22) turnovers cost us dearly against a team like Miami, but tonight the effort on the defensive end was just as good, if not better. I thought the energy was just as good, if not better, and I thought our focus was there for 48 minutes.” [Byron Scott via Tom Reed]

This is a couple days old and almost pure speculation, but I can’t not post a link to an article from a reputable writer like Sam Amico discussing rumors that LeBron could be headed back to the Cavs in a couple of years. No, I don’t think it’ll happen either, but at the very least, it’s fodder for discussion.

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Recap: Cavs 91, Knicks 81

January 25th, 2012 by Mallory Factor II

Mmmmmmmhm!  That was one of the more enjoyable Cavs games this season, and not just because it was a win.  Except for a few bad apples (Razor Ramon, anyone?) the team was firing on all cylinders on both sides of the ball, and really did a great job of holding New York’s “big three” in check.  Granted, that might be because they’re really not such a big three, but whatever, it was a good win, and you really can’t ask for more.

Before we get to the good, the bad, and the rest, I want to lay out one point in mathematical terms…

Anderson Varejao >>>>>>>> Everyone else.

Really, I could end this recap here and anyone who watched the game would understand exactly what I meant.  But alas, you’re not that lucky.

The Good

Andy – The good absolutely has to start with Andy.  He was simply amazing on D.  Not only did Andy do his regular disruption act near the basket, he had two blocks and four steals to boot.  Furthermore, by the end of the game he was clearly starting to get into Tyson Chandler’s head.  Chandler, who thrives on muscling himself inside the basket without the ball, and then receiving a pass to slam it home, was having a hard time getting Andy out of the way.   And it wasn’t just Andy’s D that was great.  Varejao added 16(!!!) rebounds (8 on O, 8 on D) and 10 points.  Andy did have 5 TOs, but that’s forgivable considering how many second chances and extra possesions he was able to get the team.  This was the prototypical Andy game, and really showed what the Cavs were missing last year with him out.

Antawn Jamison – Every time we start to bitch about this guy, he pulls one of these games out and makes us (or at least me) double check myself a bit.  Sure, he’s usually pretty worthless on D, and shoots waaaaay too much, but on nights like this it’s actually great having him on the team.  Jamison scored a team high 15 points on 6-15 shooting (3-4 from downtown) and played passable D for most of the game.  He started hot and slowed down, so his shooting % isn’t great, but I really think he was the catalyst to this game, and we owe a large chunk of this win to him.

Alonzo Gee’s defense – he really did a good job of keeping Melo in check.  Whenever he was on the court, Melo was noticeably less comfortable taking shots.  On the whole, the entire second unit really did a decent job on D (minus Razor Ramon.  We’ll get to him in a minute.)

Kyrie Irving’s game management – I railed Irving two days ago for turning the ball over a lot and generally looking out of sorts while moving the ball around the court.  I have to say he did a great job of slowing the game down a bit and making smart passes.  His 7 assists (a bunch of those inside to Andy) were really smart, good passes.  He even managed to turn the ball over just two times.  But other than his game management, he had a forgettable game (more on that in a sec).

Omri Casspi’s dunk.  Seriously, damn.  He saw what Gee did last night and obviously decided “Hey, I think I could do that, but with my left hand!”  Result: awesome.

(and note – Casspi played pretty dang well himself tonight.  13 points and some decent D on Melo – I’ll take it)

The Bad -

Ramon Sessions – This has to be the low point, right?  1-5 shooting (he hit a WIDE open 3.  But my heart stopped when he took the shot anyway), two turnovers, and some seriously awful D.  He let Mike Bibby hit a shot.  MIKE BIBBY!!!!  If you watched close, you could see Ramon fail on defending the P&R, lagging way too far off his man, and completely blowing his assignment.  He had 5 assists, but that’s probably because he realized he can’t shoot anymore, and just started dishing it inside to Andy.

Kyrie Irving game minus his game management – He had his worst shooting day since his first game as a pro and kept getting pulled out of position on D.  Did anyone else notice how often Kyrie ended up underneath the basket, guarding Chandler, with his guy completely open on the wing?  I counted that happening at least 3 times.  There’s no way 6-2 Irving should ever defend 7-1 unless it’s as a circus act.

The Rest

I don’t really want to call it good, because the sample size was pretty small, but Ryan Hollins is actually starting to look like a real NBA player!  He shot 4-4 for 9 points and played some nice D on Chandler.  If he hadn’t picked up 4 fouls in just over 11 minutes (!!!) we might be able to say he could win some playing time…

Again, I don’t really think he’s worthy of a good (3-7 shooting isn’t very good) but Samuels had another decent game off the bench.  If Samuels and Hollins can become reliable second unit bigs we could see ourselves staying competitive in a lot more games.

This isn’t about the Cavs, but was I the only one who saw the 10ish minutes that Melo decided to play point forward/distributer?  He did a pretty nice job, and ended up with 6 assists.  Other than that, and the fact that Amare pretty much had his way on offense, the Knicks stunk pretty bad.  I’m really tired of hearing Shumpert’s name (I do live in NYC, though…) and the big 3 definitely don’t look so big.

The next game is the lowly Nets.  Maybe we can get ourselves a nice little winning streak.

Until then, enjoy!

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Links to the Present: January 25, 2012

January 25th, 2012 by Colin McGowan

“‘That’s more like it.’ That’s likely how Cavs fans felt after watching their discomforting defeats over the weekend — then witnessing how Cleveland fought to the finish against LeBron James and the Heat. Perhaps what Cavs forward Antawn Jamison said at practice Monday is true: ‘Last year is last year.’” [Sam Amico]

“I swear the Knicks are a professional comedy group. With all of the fanfare surrounding the Carmelo Anthony acquisition, and Amare Stoudemire proclaiming that ‘New York is back’ on like four separate occasions, and then drastically overpaying for Tyson Chandler in the offseason, you’d think that the Knicks were just steamrolling through the Eastern Conference. I mean, that’s at least what Knicks fans thought would happen. Instead, the Knicks are just 7-10 and haven’t really beaten many good teams. Melo is hosting his own personal brickfest every night and Amare may or may not have retired during the lockout and just didn’t tell anybody. Knicks fans want to fire Mike D’Antoni and they have Josh Harrelson and Mike Bibby playing meaningful minutes. While Community is off the air, I think New York Knicks basketball may be the best comedy on TV.” [Conrad Kaczmarek]

“Irving is showing everyone why the Cleveland Cavaliers chose him with the first overall pick in last year’s draft. He has improved his pick-and-roll play and demonstrated an ability to break down defenders and create offense for himself and his teammates. In isolation situations, Irving produces 1.189 points per possession (this includes points he scores and those generated by assists). That puts Irving in the top 4 percent of NBA players. Irving scores most effectively from isolations at the top of the key. He knows it, too, and finds a way to begin 48 percent of his isolation possessions from that spot, according to Synergy Sports. On those plays, Irving drives to his left 58.3 percent of the time.” [Sebastian Pruiti]

And here’s a Youtube video of that ridiculous Alonzo Gee dunk from last night.

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Recap: Heat 92, Cavs 85 (Or, too much Bosh)

January 24th, 2012 by John Krolik

Overview: The Cavs kept the Miami Heat from imposing their will on them for most of the game, but Chris Bosh’s 17 fourth-quarter points led the Miami Heat to a somewhat lackluster 92-85 win over the Cavaliers. Kyrie Irving led the Cavaliers with 17 points in 26 minutes.

Cavs-Related Bullets:

You’ve gotta give the Cavs a lot of credit for taking the Heat out of their game on Tuesday night. The Heat’s offense is built around Pace, Space, and LeBron James being a beast, and none of those things worked for Miami on Tuesday. The Heat managed only four fast-break points, shot 5-18 from deep, and LeBron was held to 18 points on 8-21 shooting.

Unfortunately for the Cavs, Chris Bosh reminded everybody why it’s a “Big Three” in Miami — with the Heat’s best player having an off-night, their second-best player out with an injury, and their shooters drawing iron time and time again, Chris Bosh was able to simply take over the game with a mix of tough drives to the rim and smooth mid-range jumpers. At some point, that’s just unfair, but that’s life in today’s NBA. It would have been nice if Tristan Thompson was available, because he may have been able to bottle up Bosh somewhat, but there’s little comfort in wondering what could have been.

Offensively, the Cavs had a few good performances, but no huge ones. Kyrie had 17 points on 11 shots, but Byron Scott is still steadfastly refusing to give Irving superstar minutes, presumably because of his defense. (To Scott’s point, Norris Cole and Mario Chalmers did have 19 points on 12 shots on Tuesday, which pretty much negated Irving’s offensive effort.) Alonzo Gee continues to look like a new man — he kept the defense honest by hitting a three, which opened up the lane for a HUGE and-1 dunk. I continue to be amazed by his development into an actual NBA player this season.

Samardo had a great game, but I refuse to get sucked into believing in him — we’ll see if he can keep this up before calling him a legitimate piece for this team.

This game was pretty much a classic good news/bad news story — the Cavs did everything right and kept the Heat from playing their game while holding their best player (and the best player in the NBA) in check, but came up short because the Heat’s 3rd-best player is far better than anyone on Cleveland’s roster. It’s an uncomfortable truth, but it’s the truth nonetheless. Hopefully the Cavs can bring this kind of effort against teams with less star power, because the results will come if they do.

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Rookie Roundup – Ouch…

January 23rd, 2012 by Mallory Factor II

Every two weeks I’ll give a little recap of what our youngsters are up to, how they looked, and what to expect.

*Sigh*…

Much has changed since I last wrote about our young heroes.  Since Monday the 9th the Cavs have gone 2-5, including two abysmally bad loses, and the team as a whole has looked very, very off.  We’ve seen some half decent efforts (Thompson’s last game, against Atlanta)  and some terrible ones (TT’s game the day before, against the Bulls)

The point is, it’s been a rough two weeks.  Much of that is related to the shooting woes of Sessions and Gibson, and the on and off play of Jamison, but I think our two rookies had quite a bit to do with it – lets take a deeper look:

Thompson:

My honeymoon period with Thompson is over; I can tell you that with certainty.  I still like his game and think he can be good in the future, but I’m no longer the naive, starry-eyed boy I once was with him.  Thompson’s power and athletiscism is great – it’s fun and exciting to watch and yields one or two WOW! plays a game.  But beyond the entertainment factor, there’s not a whole lot to love.  He constantly looks confused on defense, and relies purely on his athleticism to stop his man, which pretty much killed him against the Bulls, who have big guys who know how to move in the post.  While his D rebounding has gone up to around 3 a game (which is about a half a rebound better) I really don’t think they’re pure skill rebounds – he’s not great at boxing out and it almost looks like he has to struggle to get himself into D rebounding position at times.  His defensive rebound rate is 19.6 which isn’t wretched,  but isn’t high enough for a guy who doesn’t do much more than that (and block shots) on D – it puts him at about 80th in the league.  Obviously, as our mantra goes, he’s young and he’ll learn, but 15 games in, we’ve seen little growth on the defensive side.  On a bright note, though, he’s still a blocking machine, and it couldn’t be more fun to watch him leap up and swat a ball.

What really concerns me, though, is his offense.  While he’s still great at doing what he’s always done (facing the basket and throwing it down with authority) he hasn’t really shown much improvement in the post, which is critically important, particularly for a guy his size who won’t be able to use pure power against the Dwight Howards and Andrew Bynums of the NBA.  At the rim, TT is shooting a good 57% (especially for a guy who spends most of his time in the paint),  but at just 3-9 feet away, his numbers drop to 38.2%, meaning our guy has a lot of learning to do even just a few feet away from the hoop.

I do think Thompson has a ton of upside (I’m still excited!!!) but the few game grace period is over – it’s time to start nitpicking and looking for improvement.

Irving:

Now here’s where I’m really concerned.  Kyrie’s D has looked pretty stinking bad recently.  He got torched regularly by Watson in the Bulls game, and was equally inept against the likes of Nate Robinson and D.J. Augustin.  It’s not that he’s playing the worst D in the league or anything, but considering the high expectations we had for him, and even giving him a little leeway because he’s a rookie, to say his defense has been a disappointment up to this point is an understatement.  Consider this: according to Basketball Reference, Kyrie’s offensive rating, the amount of points his team would score with him on the floor given 100 possessions, vs his defensive rating, the number of points the other team would score with him on the floor given 100 possessions, is 106 to 107, meaning his team is being outscore while he plays.  And considering the amount of offense Kyrie has been producing, that’s pretty startling.  There are times where he flashes some great speed chasing someone down the court, or making a nice cut off move to the basket, but he’s regularly struggled off the pick and roll, and his lateral movement doesn’t seem to be where it should considering his scouting report.  Hopefully this is rookie malaise, but it’s definitely something to keep a close eye on as the season progresses.

On offense, Kyrie is still his stellar shooting self.  I won’t harp on the numbers too much, but he’s averaging a nice 17.4% shooting at 50% in under 30 minutes.  That’s amazing efficient scoring (his true shooting % is about 6 points above league average too, which is nice.)  That being said, it’s not all fantastic on offense.  Quite frankly, Kyrie has had some serious issues passing the ball.  His turnover numbers are terrible – almost four a game at under 30 minutes – and his turnover % is 19.4 which puts him farther down the list than I was hoping, considering how highly regarded his passing skills and decision making were.  I’m not sure if it’s the pace of the game that’s causing him to make mistakes (the Cavs play the 6th fastest in the NBA, with 93.5 possessions per game) or if he’s just trying to do too much.  Whatever the case, lets hope he can cutdown the turnovers and raise his assists average.

I’ve been harsh, I know, but it’s really not all bad.  We have two young players, one who has definite star potential and another whose natural born athletic abilities could make even the most pessimistic smile, and our future looks bright.  As long as they improve, I see very good things coming!

Hopefully in two weeks I’ll get to talk about Mychal Thompson.

Until then, enjoy the Cavs!

Posted in Rookie Roundup | 16 Comments »

Links to the Present: January 23, 2012

January 23rd, 2012 by Colin McGowan

“It’s only a matter of time before the Cavaliers retire former center Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ No. 11 jersey. It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when. It will happen, probably this season. No ceremony has been scheduled for the special assistant to general manager Chris Grant.” [CBS Sports]

“In the past few years, James has connected with many NBA prospects through his invitation-only camp in Akron. Had Irving and fellow rookie Tristan Thompson — represented by James’ longtime friend Rich Paul — gone to any of 29 other teams, their friendships with the Heat small forward would be viewed through a different prism. But because it’s Cleveland and because of the history, Irving understands the increased level of sensitivity.” [Tom Reed]

With Anthony Parker’s back ailing and Boobie Gibson on the mend, the Cavs have called up Christian Eyenga.

Here’s a look at the Cavaliers season by the numbers from Fear the Sword.

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Recap: Cavs 94, Hawks 121

January 21st, 2012 by Colin McGowan

The Cavs were crushed by the Hawks on Saturday night. It was a joyless drubbing. I’m gonna rely on the Twitterverse to describe this one.

1st Quarter

“Ball’s in the air. The building is half empty.” [PD Cavs Insider]

“Jamison had a nice defensive stance there. He looked really good as Teague blew by him.” [realcavsfans]

“Does the city of Atlanta know its team is 11-5, or has the malaise of mediocrity taken hold?” [Eric Knappenberger]

2nd Quarter

“Yeah, stop leaving VladRad open.” [Conrad Kaczmarek]

“Hawks timeout skit included a “Cavs” fan in a LeBron jersey. Real #Cavs didn’t look amused.” [Jason Lloyd]

3rd Quarter

“My, that escalated quickly. #Cavs” [Scott Sargent]

“In the past 8:22 — spanning second and third quarters — the Cavs have been outscored 32-10.” [PD Cavs Insider]

“#Cavs have exactly 2 offensive rebounds. Yikes.” [Jason Lloyd]

4th Quarter

“Boredom warrants a Christian Eyenga update… shooting 40% from the field, 10% from three and 64% from the line in 8 games with Canton.” [Eric Knappenberger]

“Willie Green just caught an alley oop. I think we’re done here.” [Conrad Kaczmarek]

“What a boring loss!” [Colin McGowan]

Okay, we’re done here. Miami on Tuesday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Posted in Recaps | 14 Comments »

Recap: Cavs 75, Bulls 114 (Or, Scalabrine was plus 5)

January 20th, 2012 by Kevin Hetrick

When you’re a team with a 19 year old PG and your wings are a combination of undersized, unathletic & undrafted and your starting power forward is a floor bound 35 year old…well, occasionally you run into a team that’s better than you.  And sometimes you epically crap the bed.  Tonight was the latter.

The game started with the Cavs leading 16 – 15 behind three Irving darts from long range.  And everything was massively downhill from there.

I planned on handling this recap similarly to my previous entry, offering a summary of interesting early season trends, and how it related to the game that was played.  Really I don’t want to talk about the game that was played, but there’s probably some worthwhile stuff below.  The general format works for me for a few reasons:

  1. Many of my posts are about the draft or future considerations; the occasional recap is my clearinghouse of present day Cavs related thoughts.
  2. I’m a stats guy and this is a good format for communicating some of those.
  3. I have a 6 week old, am kind of on her schedule, and watched the game with her.  It helps to have the bulk of the writing done ahead of time.

With that, here are some early season trends in italics, followed by how things played out tonight.  The coverage of tonight is pretty limited, but I probably hit most of the low points.

Kyrie Irving’s pretty good – Most of what can be said has been: 18 points and 5 assists in 28 minutes a games, 48/38/84 shooting, too many turnovers, not enough defense…you know the drill.

What’s there to say?  Kyrie was the 2nd best player on the team tonight?  Not exactly a compliment this time, but it’s the best I’ve got.  13 points on 11 shots and 3 assists against 2 turnovers.  The Cavs were only minus 9 in his 22 minutes.

Varejao, too – Varejao’s rebounding is the season’s other recurring theme.  His rebounding rate is 4th best in the league, which is a leap from prior seasons.  Part of this can be attributed to his switch to center, but he’s been playing at a high level.

Andy’s 14 points brought him back to averaging a double-double for the season.  Sometimes, we as fans, need to focus on the moral victories.

The whole team is rebounding – Cleveland is the NBA’s 4th best rebounding team so far this season.  Tristan Thompson has stepped up his defensive rebounding and is currently 14th of 78 power forwards for rebounding rate (keep up the great board work, Mr. T!).  Sessions and Irving are the 3rd and 13th best rebounding PG’s, respectively.

How do I make a big “thumbs down” on the computer?  Unfortunately, Chicago rebounds better than everyone else.  The Cavs were outrebounded 54 to 38.  Thompson had 1 defensive rebound in 17 minutes.  Maybe I jinxed them by typing this before the game.

Jamison the key to victory? – In games where Jamison has true shooting over 50%, the Cavs are 5 – 1.  When his true shooting is below 50, 1 – 6.  This may be indicative of how soft the opposing D is, but if Jamison can operate as an effective second scorer, the Cavs are pretty good.

Well…he, ummm…Jamison lead the team in minutes (18% true shooting).

Changing of the guard (er, small forward?) – After a start to the season that left Cavs fans cursing, Omri Casspi had put in three decent games in a row.  In similar minutes; Casspi is averaging 13 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 turnover against LA, Charlotte and Golden State, while Gee has lagged at 6 points, 3 rebounds and 3 turnovers.  The Cavs are +1 during Casspi’s minutes and -13 for Gee.

Casspi was minus 8, compared to Gee’s minus 26.  I’m not going to infer that this means anything; everyone sucked tonight.  The Cavs did go three minutes without Gee or Casspi on the floor tonight, but alas the Irving / Sessions / Gibson lineup also sucked (outscored 7 to 2 in 3 minutes)

Concerned about Thompson? – I only mean concerned depending on what you think his ceiling is.  TT is scoring on 48% of his field goal attempts and 37% on free throws.  That’s not good, but even worse, is that in January those numbers are 46 and 31 (31!).  This summer, I posted a goofy series called Diamond in the Rough.  In the Luke Harangody piece, I noted that only 30 PF’s in the last 9 years had played 500 minutes and posted a true shooting percentage under 46.  Of those, only four ever had a modicum of success after that season: Tyler Hansbrough, Darrell Arthur, Kris Humphries and Jared Jeffries.  Tristan’s walking that line (47.3% true shooting to date), where no one has recently climbed out of the abyss to be more than a borderline starter.  It’s only been 13 games, but we need to start seeing a little more offensive effectiveness from TT.

Thompson was generally overwhelmed by the Bulls’ super-defensive subs: Taj Gibson and Omer Asik.  His 2 of 10 shooting and 0 of 2 from the line probably drops him below my totally arbitrary 46% true shooting line.  He can be a bit of a ball-stopper on offense, and needs to let the offense come to him.

They pull the trigger on the right looks – Per possession, the Cavs were taking the 3rd least amount of shots from 3 to 23 feet in the NBA.  This is important, because those are the worst shots in the game.  Across the NBA, teams convert 63% at the rim, 51 (efg%) on 3’s, but right around 37% for all ranges from 3 – 23 feet.  The Cav making the smartest shot selection is Casspi, with 67 combined shots at the rim plus three point attempts, versus only 21 shots from “mid-range”.   Others playing this way include Irving with 100 / 79, Gibson at 61 / 26, Gee at 46 / 21 and Parker with 46/33.

Except for Sessions and Jamison – Through the Golden State game, Jamison had taken 117 shots between 3 and 23 ft.  As shown above, all four wings have taken 101 combined.  Sessions’ ratio is 40 / 62.

I thought this was kind of interesting, but it didn’t matter tonight.  Everyone was chucking hot cans of garbage at the basket (Sessions 3 of 12, Gibson 2 of 10).

Semih Erden fouls too much – That’s my obvious statement of the night.  But to show how frequently he’s fouling; out of 337 players with 10+ minutes per game, his 21 fouls in 79 minutes outpaces anyone else in the league by 2 fouls per 40 minutes.

There was a Samardo Samuels and a Luke Harangody sighting tonight!  That’s all I have to say about that.

Summary: This game was a miserable experience and I look forward to going to sleep now.  Hopefully a much better performance is on the horizon tomorrow in Atlanta.

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