Here’s an excerpt from Tom Haberstroh’s latest insider piece, courtesy of TrueHoop:
Credit must be given to the shrewd Celtics front office for recognizing that Shaq is a finisher, not a creator. Last season, the Cleveland Cavaliers incorporated Shaq into their offense by feeding him the ball in the post early in the shot clock. Shaq would then pound his post defender closer and closer to the basket before turning for a quick hook that would send the ball on a line drive directly at the basket. As we saw in the playoffs, this strategy rarely produced consistent buckets, now that Shaq has lost the quickness and the lift to work a high-percentage shot. More importantly, it simultaneously disjointed the offense and neutralized the powers of LeBron James.
If you’ve been paying attention this season, you’ll notice that Boston rarely runs the offense through Shaq. The Celtics still execute the same sets that are predicated on off-the-ball screens, motion and penetration. But unlike the Cavaliers last season, the Celtics feature multiple scorers — not just one really, really good one — who can penetrate to draw weakside defenders. But not only that, they have both the selfless attitude and passing ability to reward the open man. The Celtics were aware that, even at 38 years old, if Shaq can get the ball within one foot of the basket, nothing stands between him and a thunderous dunk. They just need to get him the ball there.
And they have. We’re seeing an enormous shift in Shaq’s shot types this season, thanks to the passing skills of his teammates. According to Synergy Sports Technology, 29.5 percent of Shaq’s offense has been generated off basket cuts, tripling his shot share in Cleveland last season. But post-ups essentially have been phased out. In a Cavs uniform, nearly two-thirds of Shaq’s offense came from bludgeoning opponents on the block, but that’s been cut to just 26 percent in 2010-11. Consequently, Shaq has been assisted on 76.9 percent of his field goals in Boston, drastically higher than his career norms. Even though he played a season and a half with Steve Nash in Phoenix, Shaq has never been delivered the ball as effectively as he has with his new Boston comrades.
So it turns out that force-feeding the ball to Shaq and risking a turnover on a bad entry pass, then watching Shaq settle for an awkward jump-hook outside of the paint against single-coverage as his teammates don’t have enough space to make effective cuts is a less effective strategy than moving the ball and letting a giant man catch the ball near the basket and dunk it. Everybody except for Mike Brown knew this last season. It’s informally “There’s no way Mike Brown would have let the defense get this bad” week here on the blog, but one of my defenses of Mike Brown has always been that Shannon Brown is the only player to enjoy significantly more offensive success after leaving a Mike Brown team. (LeBron included!) Now that Boston is showing the NBA how Mike Brown should have used Shaq last season, that’s a tougher argument to make. Seriously, Shaq is shooting nearly 70% from the floor. I hate everything. Have a nice day.
I think we have to be careful not to always assign complete blame / credit to the coaches, especially when we know how much b.s. was swirling around the Cavs last year, that LBJ constantly broke plays, etc. The idea that Mike Brown didn’t know that Shaq would be better as a finisher than a creator is probably overly simplistic. It’s safe to assume, I think, that MB knows more about basketball than we do. He had intelligent coaches working with him, support from the video guys and scouts, etc. Presumably, you could argue, that Shaq had to fail last year as a creator to accept the idea that he should be a finisher – and what the Cavs were doing last year was trying to stroke Shaq’s ego and balance that alongside LeBron’s.
To share a positive, the Cavs blog is still one of the bet blogs in the truehoop network and now that Lebron left I can officially enjoy it!
LOL @ Zeiram. I agree, and I hope Krolik does more NBA player-focused pieces that mention the Cavs to showcase his strengths as a writer. With the team playing how it is now, there’s only so many recaps you can write about things sucking the old donkey dong.
I agree, Cavs: The Blog is still a great read, no matter how the team is doing.
I am looking at the struggles of the team this way: It is clear now that Lebron did not want to stay in Cleveland and was going to leave. When you lose a player like that, there are going to be problems. I love the Cavs and I want them to win every game, but the fact is they were going to an average to bad team this year, and if they are going to be bad, well you might as well be BAAAAD and get that top 5 pick, and you might as well get that horrendous year out of the way as soon as possible. I would rather that happen than be the 8 seed for two or three years before committing to the rebuild, and then be horrible.
The Cavs…have the lead?!?!? If they win we need a picture of your smiling face, John.
Never mind. Resume your regularly scheduled despair.
I’m just glad they played SOME defense.
John, it’s ok, bud…
I think the bigger reason for this has less to do with Mike Brown as it has to do with Shaq. Joining the Cavs, he understood he should defer to LeBron, but he didn’t want to defer to anyone else, even though is skills had faded. He refused to go to the bench even though he would have been far more effective coming in against second teamers with the opportunity to be featured without taking so much off of the table. Conversely, with the Celtics, he comes into a situation where 3 Hall of Famers have already learned how to defer for the betterment of the team, and it finally becomes clear to him that he is not only not the best player on the squad, but not even in the top 5. So, he doesn’t DEMAND to start, post-up and make trouble. Perhaps if Mike Brown were a stronger personality or whatever, he could have put Shaq in his place, but I really don’t think so. Shaq, unfortunately for us, has only come to terms with his skill decline this year, and not earlier.
“I hate everything. Have a nice day.”
I find myself saying the same thing over and over again! LMAO!