Cavs: the Blog - Cleveland Cavaliers TrueHoop Blog

No major content this morning, and so far it’s a slow news day for the Cavs.  So we’re mailing it in.  Open lines today, Cavalier fans.  We could talk about unheralded gems in the draft, Shaun Livingston and his thoughts that there will be a bidding war for his services, your favorite Boobie Gibson memory, or the symbiosis between narrative and narrative structure in literature and blog posts.  Carpe diem, my friends.

That's a winning team, right there.

Due to a scheduling snafu, you may not be receiving much of a recap here tonight.

The Cavs continued their winning ways though, picking up victory #21.  Trailing by thirteen late in the third, Cleveland’s offense blistered Utah for 36 fourth quarter points.  Miles tossed in all 12 of his during the final stanza, while Kyrie tallied 11 points and an assist in the last four minutes.  What did you expect though?

Other highlights included Kyrie piling up 10 assists, his third double-digit effort of the season.  Tristan pitched in 16 points on 55% true shooting, with 12 rebounds and 3 blocks, in one of his stronger offensive efforts in several weeks.  He looked particularly polished in the first quarter, with 7 points scored through various means, and also a quick-thinking dime to Gee.  Livingston and Walton added a few sweet-passing highlights, Speights pitched in 14 & 7, and Tyler, well, he didn’t do much; three points and four rebounds in 23 minutes.

Anyways, Go Cavs!  And fill in the blanks, commenters!  None of us was working on anything substantive.

In December, I penned a two part series on the summer of 2013 free agency class.  Click here for part 1, and here for part 2.  It’s time to check in on these guys and note what is still relevant and what isn’t.  The Cavs cap situation has changed a little bit.  The Cavs have restricted free agents in Omri Casspi, and Wayne Ellington.  No one expects the Cavs to extend a qualifying offer to Casspi, and Ellington’s offer is $3.1 million, but my bet is that his contract number will come in higher than that at around $4 million (I’d rather over-estimate than under-estimate).  In addition, C.J. Miles has a team option for $2.2 million, which is fairly reasonable for a bench scorer.  In addition, Kevin Jones’ team option is $788,000.  Marreese has an ETO option for $4.5 million which most people expect he will exercise to get more long term money.  The Cavs will have cap holds for their 2013 draft picks that I’m estimating at between $5-7 million (with four picks and many different slotting options, there’s a lot of flux).  Which gives them salary commitments of between $39.5 – $41.5 million, assuming Speights opts out.  With an estimated $60 million dollar salary cap, that gives the Cavs Approximate $20 million to play with.  But…

We all know that the plan is to save cap space for 2014 when you know who is expected to opt out of free agency.  I’m betting that it will take at least $19 million per year to sign him, unless he takes less money to build a better team. Furthermore, I’m assuming the Cavs will elect to keep Anderson Varejao in 2014, to both help lure a potential free agent, and because $4 million of his salary is guaranteed that year.  Alonzo Gee’s $3 million is non-guaranteed that year, and I would put the odds of him seeing that money from the Cavaliers at around the same odds that Andy straightens his hair and frosts his tips in 2014.  So the goal is to have about $42 million in cap commitments going into 2014.  Without Gee, with Ellington’s $4 million, and with $9 million in cap holds from the 2013 and 2014 drafts (that’s being conservative), the Cavs will have $40.7 million in cap commitments in 2014.  Whoa.  $1.3 million is not a lot of spending room.  Fortunately, the Cavs will be able to complete sign and trades in 2014, being so far below the cap, so they can ship out some salary to get some back. But one can see that planning for a future that may never happen can severely limit what a team can do in the present.

What does this mean for 2013 free agency?  It means that the Cavs are going to have to get very creative with contracts.  I don’t know how much the NBA salary cap allows them to front-load their contracts, but if they are able to offer players a $10 million dollar 2013 salary and a $1 million dollar 2014 salary, they ought to do it.  In addition, offering players expensive one year deals with the promise to consider signing them to salary cap exceptions in 2014 is also a good plan.

Some other factors have come in to play too.  With the development of Tristan Thompson, a power forward who will play more than 10 minutes a night is no longer really a necessity in free agency.  As such, it makes much more sense to go after players who can play center, small forward, and guard.  This rules out players like Maul Millsap, David West, Karl Landry, J.J. Hickson, and Jason Maxiell.

The Cavs Own Free Agents: The first thing the Cavaliers will have to consider is what to do with their own free agents.   And yes, I realize I didn’t even cover any of them in the earlier iterations of this series.  Of course, Ellington wasn’t playing well then, and Speights was so buried on the Grizz that I didn’t think he’d turn down $4 million next year.  But it shows you what I know… We’ve already gone over what it will take to keep Wayne Ellington.  The bet is three years, $12 million.  With the way he’s played, he may get closer to $5 million per year from another team.  That would be a hard offer to match.  As for Marreese Speights, who can play both big man spots, what if Cleveland could offer him $15 million in year one, and $1 million in years two and three?  Is this even possible?  That would be the ideal contract: around $5.66 millon per year for three years averaged, but with low cap hits in years two and three.  Someone with some salary cap brains answer this question for me, please.  Otherwise, he is probably not worth paying him the long term contract he seeks.  Signing Shaun Livingston to a similarly front loaded deal with maybe $4-5 million this year and league minimums in subsequent years (for a three year deal, total) would be a good answer to signing him long term as well.  An average contract of just over $2 million per year seems about right.  The final question here is, do the Cavs try to bring back Luke Walton?  He certainly has outplayed all expectations this year, but to do it again at 33 is asking a lot.  Still, he is a guy who can play both forward spots, and make the offense flow.  Would he be worth a league minimum for another year or two before transitioning into coaching?  Probably.  (And yes, I can’t believe I just said that.)

Who’s worth spending long term money on in 2013? This is a very short list, populated with people who are supreme talents, and/or people who would be easy to move if the Cavs wanted to clear cap room in 2014.  Dwight Howard would probably be at the top of it, but he’s not coming to Cleveland, and he is apparently a clown.  Chris Paul is on that list, but he plays the same position that Kyrie Irving does.  However, they could very easily play together, and CP3 could show Kyrie how to be GREAT.  It’s an intriguing option, as Cp3 and an unnamed 2014 perspective free agent are reportedly good friends.  But Cp3 will be looking for an $80 million over four years contract, and unless things absolutely blow up in Clipperland, he’s not leaving Los Angeles.  If you’re the Clippers, do you swallow that contract and pray his knees hold out?

This leaves Josh Smith who can play the 3, but will also want $80 million over four years and plays the same position as 2014 Player X.  If you’re the Cavs do you go after Smith, hoping you can move him in 2014, or because you’re afraid 2014 won’t pan out?  Smith is a great two way player who can be electric at times, but can also be a headache who takes bad shots at times, and is not a go-to scorer.

Al Jefferson?  He’s probably going to get too much money since he’s a legit center.  Andre Iguodala?  In the words of Bill Simmons, he’s a third banana making second banana money who wants first banana money.  Andrew Bynum?  Thank God for dodged bullets.

What about the restricted free agents? There are a few restricted free agents still worth looking at, most notably: Nikola Pekovic, Tiago Splitter, Tyreke Evans, and Gerald Henderson.  Splitter and Pekovic because they play center, and are still relatively young, are going to make northwards of $10 million a year.  Someone will pay them that.  Their teams are going to have a very hard time matching this number.  My bet is that Minnesota matches and that San Antonio doesn’t.  If you’re Danny Ferry, would you pay Josh Smith almost $18 million a year, or would you try to get Splitter for $10 million and move Horford to power forward?  If I’m Chris Grant, I’d be extremely tempted with both.  I’d bid these guys up just to tie up other teams’ time and salary.  I still think Splitter would be awesome with Varejao, but we’d have to take a Xanax every time that Brazil played international ball.  I like Pekovic: his toughness, his ability to check opposing centers (at least in terms of body), but I just get this feeling that he’s likely to sign and retire: sign a big fat check and balloon up to 350.  Though, he does look like a character from Grand Theft Auto IV, so maybe not.

As for Evans and Henderson, they both can play either wing spot, though they’re undersized for the 3.  They both are players with very intriguing skill sets who are trapped on horrible teams.  Someone will make a run at these guys, and both players should pray they can get off their current teams.  But unless someone massively overpays, they won’t be going anywhere (though with the Sactown ownership situation, who knows).  Still, it might be worth the Cavs time to throw offers their way to tie up their teams’ cap.

The Other Guys: So this leaves a chunk of players who the Cavs should go after via my plan: cheap players, and/or 1 year deals with the promise of future salary cap exceptions, or front-loaded contracts; who can play multiple positions, mainly at the wing and big man spots.  Tony Allen, Anthony Morrow, Martell Webster, Al Harrington, Chase Budinger, Dorell Wright, DeMarre Carroll, Elton Brand, Josh McRoberts, Austin Daye, Earl Clark (yes please), Samuel Dalembert, Jermaine O’Neal, Cole Aldrich, Mike Dunleavy (my fave for this category), and Brandan Wright; and (if Livingston leaves) Randy Foye, Jarrett Jack, Devin Harris, Beno Udrih…

Final Thoughts: I’ve been giving a lot of consideration to Mallory’s ideas from Friday.  While I don’t think that signing Iguodala is the right answer, the Cavs cap situation in 2014 allows one max player, and not multiple.  This may not be ideal…  The answer might be to trade in the 2013 draft.  My trade?  Both draft picks in 2013, plus a 2015, and Alonzo Gee and Tyler Zeller for?  Jared Dudley and Marcin Gortat.  Gortat’s contract doesn’t go past 2014, and Jared Dudley’s is uber reasonable for one of the best wing defenders in the league who can also hit open 3s and guard 4 positions.  Would the Cavs get a player better than him in the 2013 draft?  Doubtful.

Update: Thanks to frequent CtB commenter and collective bargaining consultant JAG, it appears I was wrong in the Cavs’ ability to frontload contracts.  Here’s his note.

AFAIK Nate, decreases  from year to year in a contract are subject to the same rules as increases. The standard raise/decrease limit is 4.5%  but depend upon if any exceptions are used to sign the contract. The max increase/decrease available I’ve seen listed using certain exceptions is 7.5%. I don’t think Speights qualifies for any exceptions that could allow a 7.5% yr/yr change sice he had to waive his Bird Rights. Also note that because his time of service is between 0-6 years, his MAX contract is something like $13.668M for the first year. The poison pill type of contract that allowed Houston to steal Asik and sign Lin was a result of a part of the Gilbert Arenas Clause, which allowed Houston to average their salaries over the length of the contract for CAP purposes but not their original teams.

So it appears that outside of the Gilbert Arenas rule, there is no way for teams to jigsaw contracts to make them fit in the cap from year to year, as I was proposing.  Thanks for clearing that up, JAG.  The Cavs can overpay players in 2013 to play on one year contracts, but they have no leverage in keeping those players at lower salaries in years beyond that.

FINALLY!

When last we recorded, Tom and I had the unfortunate responsibility of covering a horrible loss to the T-Wolves.  Not anymore!  After many, many, many, attempts, the Cavaliers finally took down their rival Chicago Bulls in an exciting victory.

On today’s Podcast Tom, Nate and I discuss the Cavs 101-98 win over the Chicago Bulls. Topics include Dion Waiters’ improvement, the Cavs’ offense, Luke Walton, Tristan Thompson, and the bench. We also touch on whether or not Kyrie and Dion Waiters can co-exist, and who is a better long-term piece – Wayne Ellington or CJ Miles.

As always we’re on SoundCloud at – https://soundcloud.com/cavstheblog/0025-feeling-bullish

And on iTunes at – https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cavs-the-podcast/id528149843?mt=2

Enjoy!

No major content this morning.  Instead, a topic: pick a Cavalier, and describe one thing you’d like him to improve before the end of season.  I’ll start.

I’m hoping that Kyrie starts to distribute a little more, especially at the ends of games.  Kyrie Irving’s AST% (the percentage of teammate field goals that he assisted on while on the floor), is down from 36.5% last year to 30.7% this year according to basketball-reference.  (It’s down to 32.4 from 28.9 according to NBA.com).  His assists per 36 minutes are also down from 6.4 to 5.7 this year (basketball reference).  The perplexing thing about this is that his teammates are better this year, at least anecdotally.  Yes, Kyrie’s scoring is up 5 ppg, from 18.5 to 23.5 and the Cavs per game scoring is higher this year improving from 93 ppg to 97, with a slight increase in pace of 91.3 to 92.5 possessions per game.

But Kyrie tries to force things in the fourth quarter this year.  Last year, Kyrie’s fourth quarter shooting was .518 FG% and .410 3P%, which was higher than what he shot in the first three quarters.  This year, it’s .438 FG% and .283 3P%, which is lower than his first three quarters shooting percentage.  (Kyrie shoots a ridiculous .511 and .519 from 3 in the the first two quarters, this year).

Checking NBA.com’s, fantastic interesting new stats engine (I’m not sure they’ve worked out all the bugs yet), we can see that Kyrie’s assist percentage does not fluctuate much from quarter to quarter.  But what does fluctuate is the defense.  As we’ve been able to see, defenses are keying on him in the fourth, knowing he’s going to force it.  Passing it to a wide open teammate on the wing versus throwing up a double teamed 3 pointer is always going to be a better option  Kyrie may have to learn to pass more when he’s being trapped and double teamed until defenses even out on him.  Let’s hope his teammates step up and help him out.

So commentariat, what would your focus be if you were the Cavs player development coach?

How many times has Kyrie dunked this year? Two? Anyways...take that, World!!

First off, congrats to Kyrie on winning the three-point contest, and his 47 combined points between two All-Star weekend games.  At my house, we finished a lot of cleaning on Saturday and Sunday, plus I made it to the gym…I feel accomplished, but Mr. Irving probably had the better weekend.

But now, it’s time to move on; there are more games to be played.  When Cleveland plays New Orleans on Wednesday, they effectively finish two-thirds of their season.  As of the All-Star break, exactly two months remain until the 2012 – 2013 campaign ends; it progressed relatively quickly.

The final twenty-nine games present a manageable schedule; eight teams play less than Cleveland, seven also have twenty-nine on the schedule, and fourteen squads suit-up more often.  Their thirteen road tilts are the fewest remaining in the Eastern Conference; only five games are outside the Eastern Time Zone, and they never travel west of Texas.  After a four-games / five-nights stretch to end February, the team faces only three back-to-backs total in March and April. Unfortunately, the combined winning percentage of their remaining foes is 0.516; they play the Eastern Conference Divisional leaders seven total times, and face opponents with winning records on seventeen occasions.

So what does it all mean?  How many more wins can be hoped for? Let’s look at the remainder of the season.

Wednesday, February 20th – Cleveland only plays once prior to Thursday’s trade deadline, in their sole ESPN-televised game of the season.  New Orleans looks strong lately, winning four of five, including steam-rolling Portland by 36 last week.    This is the second night of a back-to-back for them though, and they are 19 – 34, with the game in Cleveland…let’s say the Cavs start their post-All Star stretch with a victory…unless all the youngsters are still hungover on their recent celebrity-binge.

February 23rd to the 27th – Four games in five nights in four cities, as Cleveland tours Orlando, Miami and Chicago before returning home to battle Toronto.  I project one win here; Orlando is playing their fourth-in-five, while Cleveland visits on two days rest…plus Orlando has lost 13 of 14.  As Cleveland wears down, facing the Heat and Bulls, the last few games of this stretch look like losses.

March 1st to the 8th – The final four games of this homestand feature four potential playoff teams in the Clippers, Knicks, Utah, and Memphis.  LA  and Utah travel across the county, and the former plays on the final night of a back-to-back.  So does NY; my crystal-ball shows two Cavalier wins out of this gauntlet.  The revenge of Jon Leuer could throw in a monkey-wrench though.

March 10th to the 15th – Cleveland continues meandering through a leisurely seven games in sixteen nights, while also gaining some respite in the quality of opponent.  Toronto, Washington and Dallas are all lottery-bound, and although the Cavs travel to Canada and Texas, the Mavericks face night two of a back-to-back, while the Raptors return home from a west-coast trip.  Due to Toronto’s current four-game win streak since the Rudy Gay acquisition though, I think the otherwise-rested Cavs snag only one victory during this stretch.

March 16th to the 27th – For strength of opposition, this stretch of five games rivals any.  Beginning with the second night of a back-to-back in San Antonio, they progress to play Indiana, Miami, Houston, and Boston.  Fortunately, the Pacers, Celtics and Heat voyage to Cleveland, and Miami is playing their third game in four nights at the end of a five-game road trip, while Boston faces a fourth-game in six days against the Cavs with four days rest.  I’ll give the Wine & Gold two wins during this stretch.

March 29th – Philly comes to Cleveland, potentially unravelling as the conclusion of a disappointing season nears.  Cavs win.

March 31st – Next voyaging to New Orleans, the good guys face the Hornets as they wrap up a seven-game homestand.  They have emerged victorious 14 of 26 times since Christmas, and pick up this game, too.

April 1st – Playing on back-to-back nights, away from home, Cleveland faces the Hawks, who will be battling for playoff seeding.  Unless they trade Josh Smith and Al Horford and blow everything up.  For now, this W slides to Atlanta.

April 3rd – Next up, at home, the Cavs face Brooklyn, winners of 17 of their last 25.  The Nets are on the final game of an eight-game road trip though, and play the Bulls the next night.  Currently, the two teams are separated by one game for first-round home-court advantage.  I say that Brooklyn looks past this one, and Cleveland sneaks out a home-court victory.

April 5th to the 7th – Tilts against the Celtics and Magic follow.  Kyrie thrives at the Boston Garden, and Orlando faces game five of a road trip, probably in full-on tank mode.  I foresee a tidy, three-game win streak for the Cavs.

April 9th and 10th – Probably two losses here.  First, the Cavs head to Indianapolis to square-off with a Pacers team likely jockeying for the #2 seed in the East.  I plan on attending this game, so hopefully my prediction is incorrect. The next night, the Pistons, on two days rest, visit Quicken Loans Arena to battle the weary Cavs.  Detroit has supplanted Toronto as the lottery-bound-divisional-rival-that-Cleveland-inexplicably-can’t-beat…I expect that to continue in April.

April 12th – Sandwiched between a nationally televised game with Chicago, and a potential night with major playoff seeding implications against Indiana, New York engages the Cavs, in Cleveland, on the second night of a back-to-back.  I expect the Wine & Gold to sneak one past the Knicks, scoring an upset that helps solidify Indiana’s quest for the second-seed.  This may be wishful thinking on my behalf.

April 14th to the 17th – This stretch amounts to silly-season.  Philly squanders their first-round pick if they make the playoffs this year.  Currently injury-ravaged, perhaps they are booking summer travel plans by mid-April.  The next night, Miami travels to Cleveland on the second night of their own back-to-back, possibly with nothing left to compete for in the regular season.  Finally, in the regular season finale, the Cavs travel to Charlotte, for a game that is definitely not on national television.  I think both teams should agree to play Rising Stars game style; run up-and-down the court, no defense, and see who can win 148 – 143.  Maybe Kemba Walker can even through an alley-oop off the backboard to Dion Waiters.  As a whole, I will guesstimate that Cleveland wins two of three during “silly season”.

Summary: I am not sure what was accomplished here.  I started with a concept of having a pre-All-Star break post, and then something immeditely after the All-Star break.  As an eternal optimist, I forecast Cleveland for 14 wins in these 29 games.  They finish with 30 wins and perhaps the 7th-most ping-pong balls.  I can support this scenario.

Four Cavaliers in the rising stars game tonight, a game which features even less defense than an actual all star game. TT, Kyrie, and Waiters all acquited themselves well. Team Chuck with only TT representing the Cavs, beat Team Shack (whatever that means) 163-135. Kyrie led team Shaq with 32 points and 6 dimes, mostly off of dribbling to the basket at will, and countering that with feathery step back jumpers.

Tristan Thompson had a double double of 20 and 10, and was endemic of team Chuck’s plethora of quality big men. The 54 to 21 rebounding advantage might have had something to do with the final score.

Dion Waiters had a nice game with 23 points on 11 of 12 shooting, including a lob dunk off the glass where his head was at the rim. Towards the end a dunk contest broke out, and Dion had a wicked between the legs slam, followed by a pretty lame lob to himself.

Tyler Zeller pretty much deferred during his 16 minutes, and just collected 4 points and 4 boards.

All star games are by their nature an absurdist abstraction of basketball. Tonight’s was no exception, except no one told Kenneth Faried that he wasn’t supposed to be trying that hard. He was all over the court with rebounds and dunks, even hustling at the end of the game when team Chuck was up over 20. Many of those points were fed by sweet no look one handed passes by Ricky Rubio. His actual trying earned him MVP honors.

Towards the end a crossover contest developed between Brandon Knight and Kyrie Irving, and as can be evidenced from the video above. Kyrie won that contest with an absolute ankle breaker that made Knight end up on his face, and brought some excitement to a game that had gotten pretty ho-hum.

For three of four Cavs to play great in the game was awesome, and Kyrie and Dion probably had the top two plays of the game. Exciting stuff. Kyrie was -22 for the game though. What kind of schmuck looks at +/- in an all star game? This kind of Schmuck.

Finally, the Cleveland Cavaliers are interesting again.  Two seasons ago proved brutal, last season presented a team still in flux…now, the franchise provides a product offering real topics to routinely banter about.  The team won 11 of their last 25, and their per-game margin is only negative-2 during that time.  Over the recent one-third of a season, they compete almost every night.  I actually get a little nervous for the games again; will the young guys produce?…can the team avoid a blow-out?…can they beat the bastion of accomplished veterans coming to town tonight?

This was a lot of fun.

The season started miserably, with Cleveland winning only 5 of the first 28 tilts.  Kyrie missed eleven games, while Waiters sat eight; three guys wore masks at the same time.  Eighteen of the first thirty games were on the road, while Andy went down for the season in the midst of an 8 games in 12 days stretch.  The season looked bleak, unless the team’s young nucleus started providing a lot more nightly punch.

And, they did; Tristan Thompson being the most impressive example.  Early this season, TT exhibited many similar traits to his rookie year: too many shots getting blocked, sub-50 percent true shooting, miniscule assist rates.  His defense was progressing nicely, and his offensive rebounding still thrived, but it was only seven weeks ago that I wrote this. The basic theme being that Tristan plays strong defense and does a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score.  Generally speaking, the article was well received.  Then…BOOM!  Eight of his next eleven games were double-doubles!  Over nearly two months, his averages reach 14 points, almost 10 boards on 53% shooting and 70+% from the line!!  He nets more assists than turnovers!!  Andy got injured, and Tristan became unleashed to flash the post and face-up games he has been working on in the Cavs’ secret underground laboratories.  Keep up the strong work, youngster!

Kyrie continues playing as the offensive wunderkind that showed-up fresh-faced last year.  He ranks sixth in the league in scoring, and fourteenth in PER.  His all-star debut happens this weekend, and he does not turn 21 until next month.  His ball-handling and shooting are so sublime as to almost be  unreal.  His 40 points against Boston, 35 against Oklahoma City, and 33 in Atlanta keyed recent victories against likely playoff teams.  And who can forget the 41 in a narrow loss at Madison Square Garden, or the buzzer-beater to beat Toronto last month?  But, with great power comes great responsibility.  There is little reason to think that Kyrie’s ceiling is not around Chris Paul-level; basically, the third best player in the NBA.  To get there though, Kyrie must shore-up his ball distributing and defense.  Did you know that Chris Paul twice lead the league in assists, and is a five-time leader in steals?  I don’t know if you are following the pre-draft stuff I have going at Hardwood Paroxysm, but Chris Paul’s 2008 – 2009 was a completely dominating effort on both sides of the ball.  Kyrie possesses the skills and smarts for similar accomplishments; he needs to hone in on these other aspects of his game and get there.  He has only two double-digit assist games this season, contributin to his ranking 26th in the league for dimes.

The other huge event trend-setting the Cavs towards respectability was the Chris Grant robbery of Memphis.  Waiver-wire pickup Jon Leuer, sent packing to cost-slashing Memphis for Marreese Speights, Wayne Ellington, Josh Selby, and a future first-round pick?  Did I read that right?  In ten games with the Cavs, Speights looks rejuvanted, providing a nearly 20 PER, while averaging 13 & 6 to shore-up a previously horrendous bench.  Ellington has exceeded his expectations, tallying 18 made-threes versus 5 turnovers, as his introduction to Cleveland features a soaring 17 PER.  Add in the ball-movement of newly acquired Shaun Livingston, and long-time C:tB favorite Luke Walton, and the NBA’s worst bench suddenly looks like one of the more fortified crews.  Keep up the strong work, Herculoids!

The 2012 draft class brought much promise, but also the growing pains expected from inexperienced players.  Dion Waiters’s December was appalling, including eye-scratching 34 / 21 / 63 shooting. Since the New Year though, he has increased his true shooting to 52%, as he still gets to the rim five times per game, but is now converting at 62% there (58 of his last 94).  He recently struggles from distance, shooting 1 of 11 from three in February, but an array of skills is becoming apparent from the young shooting guard.

His draft classmate, Tyler Zeller, still often leaves much to be desired; he looks like a rookie, frequently being abused on defense and the boards, and looking a touch tired in his shooting.  His playing time saw a significant reduction from January to February from 35 to 25 minutes per night.  So far, this appears to benefit his play.  If T-Zell can average 7 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 turnover on 55% true shooting for the rest of the season, as Speights reduces the rookie’s workload, that would be awesome.

Aside from the trade and the youngsters, there have been a few other silver linings of the season.  Alonzo Gee rim-rattles frequently with ferocious dunks.  Pargo mania was fun for a few weeks; the 28 points he scored against Philly to break-up a prolonged, depressing losing streak will always be cherished (Philly recently signed him to a 10-day contract).  C.J. Miles going unconscious in December, scoring 15 per game with 49% three-point shooting was enjoyable.

And of course, there is Andy.  This weekend was supposed to be his; 14 points, 14 rebounds…22 PER.  His energy and skill level were at all-time highs early this season.  An absolute beast through the dark, early days of the season, his 9, 23 & 9 against Washington, the 15 & 22 against Memphis…10 straight games with 15+ rebounds was the longest streak in the NBA since 2003.  The Kyrie-to-Andy pick-and-roll became a sight to behold, and his play was infectious.  Hopefully you are in Houston, partying like a rock-star this weekend, Andy.  Unfortunately for the third straight year, his season was cut down by injury, this time involving an ominous blood clot.  Get better, Wild Thing.  Next year could be a lot of fun, and you need to be a part of it.

I’m going to end there.  Surely I missed several notable events from the first 53 games; this article was penned in about an hour before going to work this morning.  Help fill in the blanks in the comments section; what are the most memorable highlights (and lowlights) from this season?