Links to the Present: Defending the Defense Edition

This fact gets repeated whenever “the Cavs” and “NBA Finals” are mentioned in the same breath: Only three teams in 37 years have won a championship with a regular season defensive efficiency rating outside of the top ten. The last championship team without a top ten defense was the 2000-2001 Lakers, and they had Shaq and Kobe. The fact that these players are first name only guys sort of explains a lot about that Lakers run.

The Cavs currently rank 20th in defensive efficiency for the season. And, as Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com pointed out, the Wine & Gold aren’t even a top ten team after their big January shakeup.

While the Cavaliers have improved in defensive efficiency from Jan. 15 to March 29, they still aren’t in the top 10 during that stretch, ranked 11th.

Let’s reason this poor defensive ranking away. To start this task, let’s focus on David Blatt’s coaching on the defensive end. Early on in the season, the Cavs were trapping on pick and rolls involving a big man and a ball handler. It didn’t work out, as Kevin Love, Anderson Varejao, and Tristan Thompson all had issues determining when to return back to their old assignment after trapping. Crafty teams simply made a pass or two and could find the guy no Cavalier could cover or contest.

After the trade for Timofey Mozgov, Blatt finally switched into a more conservative scheme to dealing with pick and rolls. Timo simply dropped back. He watched in awe as Kyrie Irving or another guard fought around a pick and funneled helpless victims to the paint. The Cavs started to look pretty competent defensively.

And, that brings us to now. Now, Blatt is playing around a little again. He has been doing so most games, since the Cavs started blowing out opponents heading into the second half or midway through the third quarter (more on that below). Sometimes Blatt trots out the trapping defense when Tristan is at center and Iman Shumpert is on the wing. Shump is great at covering large chunks of ground to close out on a shooter. Sometimes the Cavs run a zone on the perimeter where Matthew Dellavedova and Iman let opposing guards pick their preferred form of harassment. Pick the left side and you enter the Delly Zone. Pick the right side and get Shumped. Other days Blatt has the Cavs switch defensive assignments on all picks. He’s experimenting with the defense, and opponents score a little more than they might otherwise score.

Blatt is experimenting with the lineups too. Sometimes the fourth quarter is all bench stars,  who have been known to give up large leads. And, that is actually the major reason the Cavs aren’t in the top ten defensively, at least since January 15th.

Looking at the whole season, the Cavs rank third in the league for points margin through three quarters. They are leading by an average of 4.6 points going into the final 12 minutes of games. This stat includes the entire chunk of the season when the Cavs were .500 and periodically allowed teams to come from behind after just one quarter. Through January 14th, the Cavs were behind by .5 points entering fourth quarters.The Cavs actually score just .1 points more per fourth quarter than opponents (13th). They did so pre trade too.

In the third quarter, the Cavs score 1.2 points more than opponents (7th). Before January 15th, they scored .5 fewer than opposing teams in the third (20th). That is almost a full two point swing in the span of two and a half months, which is crazy and means the team is actually even better in the third quarter if this stat were isolated to their specific winning run. The Cavs third quarters are currently so amazing that they have allowed them to keep playing fourth quarters, with mainly reserves, the same way they did (production-wise) when they were .500 for the year. However, now they come away with wins.

What would happen if the Cavs played their best guys in their best defensive scheme the entire game? I’m guessing the defense would rank in the top ten given the extra couple of stops in the fourth, but I would rather have Blatt trying out new defensive tactics and developing the bench.

On to the links!

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John Schuhmann of the Hang Time Blog examined the Clippers defense last week. The highlight of his piece is the breakdown of the Clippers trapping defense.

And if the drive isn’t contained, the pressure goes back to the bigs to defend both the driver and his own man.

Now, that is a familiar site to Cavs fans: a large lumbering big unable to get back to contest an open dunk. It’s purely coincidental that this defensive breakdown occurs against the Cavs.

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The Hardwood Paroxysm roundtable this week was all about where the big free agents in the coming years will end up. It’s no surprise that Kevin Love was mentioned.

Daniel Leroux (@DannyLeroux): The Cleveland Cavaliers. Max-level players like Kevin are smart enough to know that their best opportunity to maximize both their salary and power is to have a deal that expires in 2016. As such, if Cleveland is amenable (and I am confident they would be), Love can opt out and sign a “LeBron Special” of a one year deal with a player option or even just a single year deal. That kind of contract would also give Love the ability to deny any trade because the CBA is the CBA.

Follow the church of the dollar, Mr. Leroux. Its prophecies usually pan out.

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Kirk Lammers of WFNY did a complete breakdown of LeBron James’ turnover issues this season. He took the time to classify 101 turnovers and find videos representing the King’s looseness with the rock.

LeBron just needs to embrace his zen side and stop forcing the ball through multiple defenders for a pass.

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Since the season is essentially dead until the playoffs, ESPN Insider had NBA people vote on the top thirty point guards in the NBA. Kyrie was ranked number four; somehow both Mike Conley and John Wall were ranked behind Damian Lillard. Defense must not have been accounted for.

“He’s an unbelievable finisher and his 50-point performance shows he can score at an elite level. However, he hasn’t played in a playoff game yet. Can he knock down big shots when people are loading up on LeBron and the stakes are high? Can he make big shots in the playoffs? That’s the question.” — NBA assistant coach

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Here are two someones the Cavs could have had.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lsj-Mdd-v4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jaiTOOR8yg

Does Andrew only get one play on the Sports Center Top Ten now because Rudy Gobert erased one of his shots? Does one opposing highlight make another highlight not exist? The Timberwolves lost this game 104-84.

Earl’s Pearl of the Week

Blake Griffin ripped on Austin Rivers a couple of days ago in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvKhIofSfH4

The hug at the end shows it’s all love. The team treats each other like brothers. Earl surely appreciates this type of pranking, since he has a younger brother who is also challenged on the basketball court.

Bottom Line of the Week

David Blatt on Matthew Dellavedova:

“Every good thing that happens to that guy, he deserves,” Blatt said recently. “Matty worked his way into being a good player. He is purely a function of outworking everyone, all of the time. When he gets his chance, he gives you all he has.”

Would you rather have no talent or work hard? This seems like a veiled insult by Blatt if you don’t know that Matty is one of his favorites guys on the Cavs. It’s awesome that Blatt is willing to give Delly props in the media when fans often refuse to appreciate him.