Links to the Present: Seeing Wins Editions
2014-08-18
Shawn Marion is coming to the Cavs. It’s old news now. However, people are still weighing in on what he will bring to the team. Jimmy Cook of King James Gospel kept his take on Marion very short. The Matrix brings durability, playoff experience, and great shooting. Cook also mentions that Marion played 31.7 minutes per game last season. That number will go down and his effectiveness will go up. The Cavs have hit title run Miami Heat status in that regard.
The team keeps getting guys like Mike Miller and Shawn Marion that could still be starters and big contributors for a less talented team. On the Cavs though, these guys will be role players looking to post the most efficient seasons of their entire careers.
The gravitational pull of LeBron James is helping the Cavs to become one of the most stacked teams in the league. It’s no wonder that when ESPN talks about the best NBA games in the upcoming season the Cavs have a ton of games on the list along with the Thunder. The Cavs are involved in eight out of the thirty-five games mentioned while the Thunder are in eleven of the games mentioned. People have seen LeBron dominate the league for years and are ready to see Durant LeBroninate (dominate) the league, so it makes perfect sense ESPN voted so many Oklahoma games as must watches. Thankfully, Durant won’t start his domination against the Cavs. Check out this stat:
Interesting sidenote: Durant is 0-5 against LeBron the Cavalier, losing by an average of 15.2 points
Durant will be 0-6 after his next match against the Cavs when LeBron locks him down on defense and is whipping passes to an open Kevin Love . It feels awesome to type statements like that and to again have so much bravado as a Cavs fan.
LeBron is also likely to be MVP. Don’t take my word for it though. Take the word of the ESPN forecast and sports fans.
Andy Varejao may end up being the MVP in terms of defense for the Cavs. Trevor Magnotti of Fear The Sword thinks that Andy will be going back to doing what made him great on defense over the years. Trevor is reasonable and talks about how Andy over commits on pick and roll defense and has trouble defending on the perimeter before he reminds everyone of Andy’s true skill set.
Varejao’s size can raise concerns about how well he can handle the bigger centers of the league, but in post ups, Varejao can be a very frustrating defender for even the best post-up threats of the league. Varejao rarely gets backed down in the post, and most of the time opponents have to settle for fall-aways, jump hooks, or turn-around jumpers from outside the paint.
Conventionally, we think of the modern defensive center as one that protects the rim, defends the PNR, and covers for mistakes by letting the mistakes come to them and bailing their teammates out by blocking shots at the rim. Varejao accomplishes the same goal through a different means. Varejao doesn’t let the mistakes come to him; he attacks the mistakes by flying around the floor like a crazed piranha that’s smelled blood in the water. And that might be more useful to the Cavs’ overall team defense than someone who can just block shots.
Trevor goes on to mention that Varejao will probably get to utilize his post defending skills more this year because Kevin Love, Shawn Marion, and Tristan Thompson are all capable pick and roll defenders. Andy and the Cavs are experiencing what Warren G. Harding would call a “return to LeBronacy.” Instead of players doing all sorts of things they are uncomfortable with, players will be playing to their skills under LeBron just like the old 60 win teams did.
Really sad to see you link that Cook article about Marion. It was horribly written with tons of obviously inaccurate information. Like Marion being a 49% career 3PT shooter (golly, 9 points better than Ray Allen!). When he’s actually 33%. And he didn’t shoot 48% last year from deep, 35.8%.
Pathetically poor article, borderline journalistic malpractice.
double ” downer ” corner after the last 4 yrs you aren’t ready to put some BIG TIME HURT on other teams —as far as the minutes it is a goal to reduce all players under the 33 minute mark ( even LeBron/ kyrie/ love )–it has worked for the spurs why not the cavs —which allows more minutes for other players —- I have all the confidence in blatt / coaching staff to figure it out and formulate a viable/ successful player rotation
Getting Love, Marion, Allen, Miller and more makes this team less interesting for me. With Love so many results may be a given and it clearly makes sense to get him. The fun in watching games for me is the unknown. I’d rather watch Bennett and Wiggins get better game after game with real chances to lose than to crush everyone game after game. If we crushed everyone with Wiggins it would be a lot more fun to watch and Love may or may not sign after this year. We live in Cleveland and nothing will go wrong such as… Read more »
I’d rather bring in as much talent as humanly possible so that winning is a better bet. But maybe I’m just tired of being the laughingstock of the NBA.
The Cavs starting lineup has a couple very important defensive skills. Each player is between a plus rebounder to a dominant rebounder for his position(everyone talks about that) and each guy is a good to great post up defender. Love, Andy and Bron can all defend very well in the post. What they may lack in traditional rotational shot blocking, they may make up in effectively guarding one on one without help. The defense isn’t likely to be elite, but it won’t be horrible.
I like the optimism. I believe the Cavs can be “good” on defense! I’ve never worried about Andy’s skills on D, just staying healthy. But I’m not convinced this team will hit the ground running. I hope it does, and it would say a lot about David Blatt, but implying that these new parts will work together right away is reaching. When LeBron went to Miami it already had a defensive system, culture, and a coach in place, and retained Wade, JoelAnthony, Jones, chalmers. It was a big transition, but not huge. CLEVELAND now has to balance these things: -new… Read more »
I disagree that Marion, Miller, Varejao, and Delly expect “significant minutes.”
AV has been used sparingly and will continue to be. He’s injury prone. Delly is a back up and played back up minutes last year. Marion and Miller are both old veterans. They understand that they are there to mentor, play some minutes, and be a factor come playoff time. I highly doubt any of the guys you mentioned are going to be upset playing limited minutes.
Marion and Miller are old, but they’re not quite over the hill. They are the Shane Battier/Ray Allen of the 2012-13 Heat. Both taking pay cuts and are big time playoffs contributors. If healthy they might be getting minutes ahead of Waiters and Thompson. If you think Waiters and Thompson won’t be upset with less minutes, especially coming off a big season where they posted big numbers, you don’t know NBA players. Young NBA players, especially talented ones (not Chalmers and Norris Cole) need to shine and get paid.
M&M are very unlikely to wind up with more minutes than W&T. For one thing, as you get older, it takes much longer to recover from whatever. All the old crew is likely to not dress for lots of games.
The plan is keep everyone’s minutes down, particularly LJ, KL, and AV.
Everyone, including young players, likes to win. When you have a problem is not getting minutes on a losing team.
The way I see it, the minutes go so: Starting 5- Irving, Miller, Lebrun, Love, TT. 6 minute mark Andy and Dion come in for Miller and TT. (Irving, Dion, Lebron, Love, TT) 9 minute mark Delly and Marion come in for Love and Irving. ((Delly, Dion, Bron, Marion, and Andy) At the start of the 2nd Love comes in for Lebron, and Marion slides to the 3. (Delly, Dion, Marion, Love, Andy. 4 minutes in TT and Irving come in for AV and Delly. ( Irving, Waiters, Marion, Love, TT) 6 minutes in Lebron and Miller come in game… Read more »
Also I dont want Alllen. Allen will need to play unlike Jones and he was losing alot of effectiveness last year especially in the finals
Weird that so many . 59% TS last season, 90% from the line, and he His decline was due to age, sure, but also the Heat overused him because D-Wade
Ray’s reportedly thinking about retiring so I don’t think he’s going to demand a ton of minutes. Having him for 65 games at 15+ minutes a night
Weird that so many Cavs’ fans are anti-Ray Allen. I get it if you don’t want to root for an ex-Celtic but otherwise why wouldn’t you want him at the vet minimum? 59% TS last season, 90% from the line, and he can still get to the rim on occasion. He played 26 minutes a game last year because the Heat leaned on him to try to preserve Wade. He can’t handle that kind of load anymore, but he can still be valuable in a limited role and if he’s weighing retirement, I doubt he will demand a ton of… Read more »
Didn’t mean he stinks. I think he’d be very useful player on many teams. I just don’t think he fits here. We have a lot of wing players. Some that are young and need to play to develop. Some that are too good to keep off the floor. I’d rather have Dion, Marion, Miller, Delly, and Lebron get those minutes
I agree about distribution of minutes and I don’t think coach Blatt can handle that and that is why I wanted a Karl + Price combo . Let’s hope I’am wrong, by the way , it doesn’t make much different who is the coach if the team has great or good + players on its roster they will win.
Haha, brilliant Matrix picture for Shawn Marion, aka The Matrix Reloaded.
Props for “return to LeBronacy”
This team is great. Now if we can add Ray Allen…