Mailing it In: Post All-Star Break Wish Edition
2013-02-20
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?
But steeeeven he’s playing so goood. No for real when he ojvthe floor the offense is jusr on entire different level
luke walton…please just retire..i hate you. other than that, speights needs a few more minutes i believe..he is playing well. but the big one, as a TEAM is perimeter defense..way to many 3s
We get robin lopez and stuckey sorry. Working off a mobile
So watching tonight i thought that lopez might be a guy valuable to us. What would u guys think of a three way where etroit gets gordon, NO gets spieghts walton and Bnight, and we get gordon and stuckey. If dumars likes gordon and NO is already sick of his act this might be a solid trade for everyone. It works btw. http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ar6fdso
First I want to agree with cols on his main point that we shouldn’t be worrying about anyone who wouldnt average 28 minutes on a championship team. That leaves irving waiters and TT. Everyone else is a means to one of those players including zeller AV and speights. If andy were capable staying healthy and i believe he is then he he moves into his own inbetween catergory. On the other hand i believe that casspi should be starting over Gee. When given consistent minutes he’s proven capable and if he proved himself he’d be another piece we could use… Read more »
Cool, Nbd, a couple more drafts we will be in good shape
Getting to the point of Nate’s article…
How about getting a couple more defensive rotations correct… Zeller, and Tristen especially need to work on this with the Over-Helping on the pick and roll, picking up the roll man when they roll to the basket and then the rest of the team rushing out to the shooters. Just more Hustle on defense would be extremely helpful to the team
Adam
Sorry. I just hate that comments keep getting lost. I’m actually extremely happy with the team. I think they are on the right track for sure. I just hate all the worry about role players. No one cares or should really care about Speights, Casspi and other roster filler. Just make sure we get the stars right and so far with Kyrie and Dion and Tristan we are in good shape.
Cols, Can u complain more and be more negative?
I dont think Grant will massively overpay Speights, most likely a front loaded deal to keep him here and is still flexible once our Rookie contracts are up.
Selling ultra Low on Andy isn’t the answer… he will never have less value then he does now. Having Tristen/Zeller/2013 draft pick/Oden? learn from his hustle and touch around the basket is.
I do agree that Casspi just isn’t good. So u got that one
Can CtB sign up for a better commenting system? One that doesn’t lose comments?
MF
Considering that Casspi’s shooting percentages haven’t been all that, he doesn’t get to the hoop very often and he’s been in the league now for 4 years and is still not able to get off a lottery bound team’s bench, maybe just maybe he isn’t very good.
Ever thought of that?
Especially since I actually like Casspi’s game. The guy would’ve been a good fit for this team. He was just totally mismanaged.
Can we all acknowledge how sad, once and for all, the Casspi situation is? What a freaking disappointment.
Start at the top:
Kyrie: defense and late game decision making.
Andy: Mid-range jumper
Thompson: 10-15 ft jumper; court awareness
Dion: defensive focus and jump-shot mechanics
Zeller: strength and physicality on the boards; post game
Gee: jump shot and handle
Speights: fitness
Elliington: handle
CJ: shot selection (don’t be afraid to go to the basket)
Livingston: mid-range jumpers
Walton: fitness
Gibson: jump shot/health
—————
Casspi, Jones, and Selby: haven’t seen enough to know (Jones, Selby) and Omri won’t be back.
Zellers jump shot. good god that was supposed to be something similar to the original Z’s jump shot, but man is it stinky. If he gets that together I think itll be a huuuuge boost for the cavs, because hes obviously not a bruising center down low.
Adam
Andy is injured all the time.
Speights, while useful now, is a free agent at the end of the year. He’s also the type of free agent, mediocre, who you shouldn’t give big money to.
That’s why they aren’t useful.
I would like to see a few things from our core players. I would like to see Kyrie learn to pass off the dribble more instead of always picking the ball up before he passes. When he does that the defense has more time to set up and try to cut off the passing lanes. CP3 and all the great point guards always pass off the bounce and that’s an area I feel Kyrie needs to work on. That and of course defense. I would like to continue to see Dion get to the basket and hit more of the… Read more »
Side note: I think Speights and Andy would complement each other amazingly… They cant guard a huge center, but other then that I think they would work really well together
Why arent Speights and Andy usefull?
OK
How about package Speights, Andy, and a late first round pick for something useful?
Not forever. But for some time, yes. Even if Speights re-signs with us and Dion and Zeller develop, we’ll still be short on quality rotation players. And we have at this moment only one star. We need growth from current players, and we need to hit on another player or two in the draft, through free agency, or in trade. Two of those methods will require draft picks. And we have to remember, many, many drafted players don’t pan out. Chris Grant has a very good draft record so far. But he’s going to miss sometimes, too. The more assets… Read more »
Tyler Zeller: learn how to get open and take a set jump shot from 15 feet rather than 19-20 feet. He can’t consistently hit that long jumper yet, and figuring out how to get his shot from a more manageable range might help his confidence going forward.
I want more off ball movement from Kyrie and Dion. Back cuts. Cross screens.
Cols, why do you want more draft Picks… with the Picks/Young Players we have right now will are going to run out of room on the roster for first round picks by 2016… Now if you say trade Speights + late first round pick for an early first round pick I can get behind that, but we cant turn players into picks forever?
Really, the stat I want to see improved is Anderson Varejao’s Games Played, but that’s obviously not something the player development coach has any control over.
As far as our youngsters go, though, I’d want TT working on free throws, Waiters on long-range shooting, Zeller on boxing out and rebounding, and Kyrie on defending. None of this is anything new, but it’s the weaknesses in their games, and opponents will attack those weaknesses relentlessly.
I’d also like them to trade Speights for something, anything, before he leaves via FA.
Kyrie Irving–effort/focus/intensity on defense. i’d like to see him be a leader on both ends of the floor. he could take some cues from Livingston on the 2nd unit. The Cruiser is a vocal leader on that end of the floor, calls out defensive assignments, communicates well with his teammates, and gives good effort on each defensive position.
Freon’s shot selection has gotten much better lately. Actually, as soon as Coach Scott delegated him to second unit duties he started attacking with reckless abandon. And he’s been converting more around the rim ever since. It’s exactly what he needs to be working on. He can’t make anything from outside 15 feet right now and that’s fine – hopefully it focuses his efforts on being a slasher. That’s what the Cavs need out of him – someone that just relentlessly attacks the basket and gets to the FT line. I’d like to see the Cavs in general sort out… Read more »
I guess I should (sorta) defend myself. I agree Saint Weirdo’s shot selection has improved recently, but it still has room for more improvement. Some nights he still falls into his old pattern of long 2 after long 2. He’s definitely doing a better job over the last six weeks or so.
Whoops, Nathan didn’t even mention Dion.
Cols, I don’t know if you noticed, but this post isn’t about Dion’s shot selection, it’s about Kyrie’s passing. The remarks about his shot selection are from commenters who don’t write for the blog, unless Nathan is the same person as Nate Smith.
Yep
Dion is already much better. CtB just won’t ever get over them drafting him I guess.
Grover13, you are spot on regarding Waiters. I don’t understand why so many Cavs fans are acting like he hasn’t drastically improved in this area over the past month and a half. In a post before the All Star break, these figures were listed in regards to DW. In January and February, he has increased his true shooting to 52%, he gets to the rim 5 times per games, and is converting at 62% at the rim in 2013 (58 of his last 94). He still gets almost no calls when he goes hard to the rim which drives me… Read more »
I won’t say Dion’s shot selection….because that seems to be already improving. So I’ll let that one go. I’ll throw this out there, even though it sounds weird- I’d like to see some of the Cavs bigs knocking people down. Get a flagrant foul or a ‘T’ every once in a while. We need to create a reason to make teams think twice from going in the lane. The counter-argument to Grant drafting all of these nice guys with great work ethics is “softness”. There needs to be a time in a game when a message needs to be sent… Read more »
I remember we had the same issues with Lebron, i.e. shot/pass selection late in games. People always killed him for passing off to journeymen like Donyell Marshall and Damon Jones for shots in the 4th…Kyrie has the opposite problem. Not sure which is better. @ Adam I really think that Tristan already has the mid-range jumper in his arsenal, he just seems hesitant to use it for whatever reason. Rumor has it he tied or beat Byron Scott in a 3-pt contest during practice. I sure hope he brings it out in a game soon, it would open up the… Read more »
1. Trade free agent to be Speights for any 1st round pick
2. Figure out a way to make CtB stop with the St. Weirdo nonsense
3. Show CtB that Waiters has been making his shots lately so they can stop complaining about his shot selection
4. Improve the team defense
Definitely Dion’s shot selection, I want to see more Dwyane Wade and less Monta Ellis in his game over the final 2 months. Also, it probably won’t happen this year but I would love to see Tristan develop a short-range jumper to keep defenders honest.
The strange thing is that in clutch time (last 5 minutes, neither team leads by more than 5 points), Kyrie’s efficiency numbers actually rise. To me, this suggests that his poor overall 4th quarter numbers are a symptom of him trying to shoot the Cavs back into the game when they’re down 10 or 15 in the middle of the fourth. That said, he definitely needs to work on seeing the whole floor. Too often defenses are able to anticipate his passes and cut them off, leading to turnovers or forced shots. Part of this is on Scott. Too often… Read more »
Saint Weirdo: Shot Selection (Honorable mention wish – Kyrie Irving: Defense)