Links to the Present: The Jimmer Hawes Edition

2014-03-03 Off By David Wood
Spencer Hawes has very efficient finger pistols when playing with Kyrie Irving.

Spencer Hawes has very efficient finger pistols when playing with Kyrie Irving.

The Jimmer Fredette saga never had a chance to start in Cleveland, but the Spencer Hawes saga has more than made up for that.

“‘We are very excited to add a player like Jimmer to our roster,’ Bulls GM Gary Forman said in a statement. ‘We’ve followed him closely throughout his collegiate and professional career, and believe he’ll be the type of player that will fit in with our group and be an asset to the team.'” [Ben Golliver, sportsillustrated.com]

“He’s a terrific shooter, but he’s undersized and he’s a terrible defender. He wasn’t going to supplant Matthew Dellavedova in the rotation, and with the injured guys coming back soon, the Cavs were honest with him and told him he’d be sitting the bench a lot.” [Jason Lloyd, ohio.com]

The Cavs couldn’t sign the Jimmer who certainly would have helped them spacing wise with his 40 percent career three point shooting.  However, he will at least make watching the scoring challenged Chicago Bulls much more enjoyable.

“Nobody rolled up his khakis and dug into the muck quite like Sixers GM Sam Hinkie, who managed to acquire six second-round picks by participating in deals with the Clippers, Pacers, Cavaliers, and a three-team deal with the Nuggets and Wizards.”  [Ben Golliver, sportsillustrated.com]

“Consider this for context: an NBA player who averages 25 minutes a night and appears in 70 games will log roughly 1,750 minutes over the course of a season. Of the 180 second-round picks taken between 2004 and 2009, only 55 have played at least 1,750 minutes over their entire careers. In other words, less than one-in-three second-round picks over a six-year period have managed to hang on for what we would consider a single season’s worth of decent playing time.”  [Ben Golliver, sportsillustrated.com]

“Sixteen 2013 second-round picks have yet to take the court this season and only seven players from this group have managed to log at least 100 minutes.”  [Ben Golliver, sportsillustrated.com]

“Of the 150 second-round picks from 2009 through 2013, just four have so far proven to be strong, dependable starters and/or standout postseason performers: Chandler Parsons, Thomas, Lance Stephenson, and Danny Green.” [Ben Golliver, sportsillustrated.com]

Almost every week Ben Golliver of The Point Forward blog at Sportsillustrated.com does a ten player rotation team revolving a unifying factor.  Last week’s team was the all second round picks team.  I was surprised to realize that second round picks are almost entirely luck based for results.

When the Cavs traded for Spencer Hawes, I thought it was a terrible idea to give up two second round draft pics, Henry Sims, and Earl Clark.  Henry Sims looked like he might be able to run the floor and grab rebounds in the future, possibly even in the present, and we could always ditch Earl Clark next year because his contract of 4.25 million was non guaranteed.  The stats mentioned above that Golliver presents make me feel a lot better about the Cavs giving away second round picks for Spencer Hawes.  Right now, Hawes is helping the team to build a winning occasionally culture and building team chemistry on a team smothered by anger ball decisions all year.

“The Cavs have really embraced the pick-n-pop game with Hawes, running this for over 25 percent of Hawes’ offensive sets” [Trevor Magnotti, rightdowneuclid.com]

Trevor Magnotti of the Right Down Euclid blog gives a great breakdown of how Spencer Hawes is scoring his points for the Cavs all the way through the last week’s Thunder game. He even analyzes some of the possessions that lead to the beautiful pick and pop that is so common place for Hawes now.

“Since coming to the Cavs on Feb. 20, Hawes has made a big difference in the offense. He’s able to space the floor, which creates driving lanes for Deng, Kyrie Irving and Jarrett Jack. I would try to sign him to a multiyear deal, perhaps in the $8 million to $10 million range.” [Bob Finnan, morningjournal.com]

Hawes has made the Cavs offense look more like a top NBA offense with his ability to set up teammates and demoralize the opposition when he is left open, so it is no surprise people are calling for the Cavs to re-sign him. And, why would Hawes turn down an offer?  He is getting the most open shots of his career so far.

“He [Jarret Jack] said he expects shooting guard Dion Waiters and swingman C.J. Miles back in the lineup soon. At that point, he said he might be headed back to the bench.” [Bob Finnan, new-herald.com]

“I spoke to Anderson Varejao after Friday’s win over the Jazz and he expects to be back playing in games in the next few days.” [Jason Lloyd, ohio.com]

The timetable for the injured Cavs is just as vague as always.  Hopefully, they come back soon, so if the Cavs do make a playoff run there is a set rotation in place.

 

 

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