Podcap: Cleveland 120, Oklahoma City 112 (or, Situations Matter)
2018-02-14https://soundcloud.com/ctb-5/episode-161-situations-matter
“Analytics be damned” was the consensus of this podcast as we all agreed that when it comes to NBA players, situations matter more than a mathematical abstraction of their output. Effort, we noted, is a variable, not a constant.
As we watched the last two games, every player on this team, from the new guys, to a suddenly enthused LeBron, to a much more confident J.R. Smith, to a suddenly-receiving-playing-time Cedi Osman, at least seven guys on this team are in much better situation than they were 10 days ago.
The new look Cavaliers took that new outlook to Oklahoma City, where they followed the King’s lead (37-8-8) to a dominating second half victory against the Thunder. J.R. added eighteen, all from downtown as he went 6-9 on threes. Hood, Green, Nance, and Clarkson combined to score 51 and had all had double digits. Oh, and there was this…
Clarkson/Hood/Green/Nance had a:
123 oRTG
78.7 dRTG
44.3 Net Rating
17 minutes— Mike Zavagno (@MZavagno11) February 14, 2018
Nate, Tom, and EvilGenius hopped in the podcast booth for the third time in week to gush about this team some more. Most of the chat revolved around why these Cavs are in much better situations now, the fallacy of the “big three” era, the incredible lineup flexibility the Cavs have, our love affair with Rodney Hood’s jumper and Larry Nance’s floor game, and the need for some superior nicknames for this team
We also talked J.R.’s rejuvenation, how things went south so fast with Dwyane Wade, why Cedi Osman didn’t get much run Wednesday, why Steven Adams gives the Cavs so many problems, Russell Westbrook and his glorious penchant for yolo shots, why the Lakers sold so low on Clarkson and Nance, and possibly our least favorite Cavalier ever (hint: his name rhymes with Thisaiah Omas).
There was a lot to love in this game and a lot to love on this podcast, as it was admittedly our least focused in some time. Our thoughts wandered all over the place to stories of Tom’s Dad, to a debate over Chief Wahoo, and what we’re going to do for a week without the Cavs. What a change a week makes…
Listen above, on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts or Google Play.
Anybody who says team chemistry and morale don’t matter to a player has never followed the career of J.R. Smith. He’s like a totally different person/player when he likes his situation, it’s uncanny.
Larry Nance, Sr. is an awesome dude…
Apologies for the overload, but just posted a deeper dive into the swapping of fountains for drains… hope you enjoy…
No such thing as too much content on CtB, EG. Thanks!
+1 Simmo. No such thing as too much content. Plan on seeing KLove at he Grove here in LA tomorrow. Wife gave me a pass
Tom you need to visit LA more. Great area ! Here with my wife on vacation listening to this pod. Yesterday went to the Grammy Museun near the Staples Center, and in 2-3 blocks of walking I saw two Laker/IT jerseys being worn already. They will be sorry. As Randy Newman wrote, I Love LA ! Kevin Love as you may have seen is appearing Thursday at Banana Republic at the Grove shopping center adjacent to the Farmer’s Market here as EG knows. Need to convince my wife to go “shopping” there.
What I saw when I went to LA: -Some pretty sketchy areas around the airport. -8 lane wide gridlock on the 405 trying to get out of the Airport and up into the Mojave. -The sign for Reseda which made me want to pull off and see Mr. Miyagi’s backyard. -Spent the weekend at Seal Beach (down near Long Beach). One car’s license plate: LuvBNRich. -Spent the night at a very wealthy man’s house. He was in the process of completing a $400,0000 backyard remodel. His property was beachfront. Interestingly, the remodel was all about putting in a fancy bar… Read more »
Additionally for a 2 bedroom 1 bath house with a tiny kitchen you are probably paying 1-1.5 million plus depending on the neighborhood/part of the city proper.
Yeah, you can’t really live in LA proper… especially if you have kids in school…
Next time, let me know and I’ll make sure you see some better stuff…
Buyout talk next time?
Who do you want to target? Who’s available?
For sure on Sunday during our ASG pod…
On the salaries: Cavs only took on about 2 million THIS year.
IN: Hill $20, Clarkson $11.6, Hood $2.4, Nance $1.5 = call it $35.5.
OUT: Shump $10.3, Crowder $6.8, IT $6.3, Frye $7.4, Wade $2.3/$1.5, Rose $2.3/$1.5 = $35.5/$33.8 (cap).
Now, we took on future money as Shump/Crowder was our only future money whereas all the other guys have future money (if we match on Hood). And that is GOOD.
So basically the Wade trade was strictly salary saving (from the Cavs perspective). Just saw the pick is 2024 2nd round (31-55 protected). If it isn’t conveyed, Miami’s obligation extinguished… So if Miami doesn’t make the conference finals basically Cavs get nothing.
Don’t really care, just interesting.
Meh, still better than outright waiving his contract and paying the salary. This definitely was the best case scenario. No one was giving up an actual asset for the old Fella.
Yeah, I agree. Just thought, “Wow. Now THAT pick is PROTECTED”
I think we wanted him out of the locker room as well.
When love gets back im hoping our offense doesn’t slow down , anyone nervous bout that? We already have lbj slowing things down way too often
I don’t think it will. Love’s outlet passes are singular in the League. He also plays much, much better when the ball is moving. I think Love is going to fit perfectly with this team. Even thrive. His defensive rebounding capabilities are still a big need for this team.
Yeah looking forward to those outlet passes from Love to Nance!
until about January when the poison had thoroughly courses through everyone’s veins, I thought Love was playing fantastically. he was very active in offense when it the majority of his shots were perimeter
Sure agree. Love was essentially 20/10 before the poisonous one started playing.
There are now a lot of targets for Love to throw his full court TD passes to…
Lakers do not have their pick. 2-5 Boston. Otherwise Philly.
Hey Tom… I think you meant the “Mouth of Sauron” not “Mouth of Mordor” but as a super Tolkien nerd I dug the reference
when did I make this reference???
When (I think it is) Nate mentions Deadspin! (You could have very well meant Mouth of Mordor, but the Mouth of Sauron is a character from the books and makes an appearance in the extended Return of the King).
I loved it. I’m a super big Tolkien fan. And you’re right about Deadspin, lol
haha. Oh, not what I was trying to say is this:
Where I’m playing the part of Elrond and Nate is Gandalf. Only in this version, Nate actually likes Deadspin. Imagine if Gandalf liked Sauron!
HAHAHAHA!!!
I’m still on #TeamTheCavsAreBetterWithKyrieInThePlayoffs. But this team is a lot of fun to watch. And I’m just happy I don’t have to see IT, Rose, and Shump in a Cavs uniform again.
Is that Shaq?
This is awesome. As much as I don’t like how Ky went about it, I still like Uncle Drew.
The commercials are cute. But I have no interest in watching a full film.
LOL… Return of Shaq-fu!
Great pod. But seriously, ya’ll can’t remember 2015 at all. We were up 2-1 & lost 3 in a row. There was no closeout game. All 3 of you? Sheesh.
100% agree on Nance. Reads the game. Screens. Helps. Can dribble. High post passer. Pass off the roll. Put Korver in that corner.
Closeout game is the last game of a series. There is ALWAYS a closeout game in a series, even a sweep.
The Nets need to give him time to figure this out…
It’s only right. I mean, he’s so young, they just need to let him get his feet under him…
The media needs to stop telling BKN all of this Okafor stuff. Really wish we could have shipped IT there to play along side him.
Shhhh
The media needs to say that the Nets can improve this stat by trading RHJ to the Lakers for IT.
Cavs schedule from the first game after All-Star Break to the last game of the season is insane. Literally no time to practice. They will get a couple days to practice next week during this break and then they basically won’t be able to practice until the season is over and in preparation for first round of playoffs. Will be very interesting to see how the young guys handle this and how Lebron is able to help them through this period.
good thing we have more than enough bodies. run 11 deep Ty!
This is actually a good backup plan for when playing them. If I’m not mistaking, Iggy is also shooting like crap this season, they both may need to get some “opened” looks.
22%
kind of a useless relative statment. more likely than what? did we go from 1% chance to 2%? 50% to 75%
Windy gone Windy
Got burned by his one gamble, “sac deal is on the one yard line.” Though he was kind of right with the wrong timeframe and framework.
I am not a salary cap person —but let me throw this out —-LEBRON seems really happy / excited with these new / young players —–what is the chance –LeBron goes out and recruits George to come to Cleveland —-why not —does the money / cap structure allow us to do this ?
I would imagine there be zero chance of that considering LeBron is going to make $35m+. I don’t think the Cavs will have the $$ to pay George $30m+ too.
I could be completely wrong since I don’t know(nor care) one bit about the $$ aspect of things.
No way the Cavs would have the room. That’s why it would have been amazing if the Cavs had gotten PG last summer.
No. Not really. It would have to be a sign and trade which the Cavs can’t do because they’re so far over the he cap.
Great podcast guys, had some really good laughs with you all. Well sh!t, things are so much different than a week ago. I’m baffled by the Lakers wanting to trade these two young guys – makes absolutely no sense to me. If you can’t find a place for them in your future plans, you’re not really planning properly. I’m absolutely glad that Magic is thinking he’ll have a shot at Lebron and PG13, and needed to to move Clarkson and Nance in order to get them. The amount of options these two give the Cavs is insane. The ceiling for… Read more »
wow reading how those trades went down made my head spin —–again a BIG THANK YOU TO “MR ” KOLBY AND DAN GILBERT for making watching the cavs fun again !!!
keep starting T.T. but allocate more minutes for “L-JR “—man his stat line was impressive / and that doesn’t really indicate how well he played / how valuable he is —-glad to see ” no DRAINO”S ” in this locker room crying about not playing —–that is a good sign / these guys just want to win / and also they realize “PAPA LEBRON ” will not tolerate that B.S.—aka see I.T. in L.A. —-CEDI is going to struggle against players like George until he gets stronger / good decision by ty to give other minutes to NANCE / GREEN… Read more »
Get tt out of lineup aaap!! Trying to compete for championships is not the time to stroke egos like it’s 1st grade . U play the best players as much as possible and the worser ones as least as possible
I’m so glad we didn’t get DeAndre Jordan (referring to the Woj article) – this team is so much better off with these four switchy and versatile players.
Trade backstory from Woj: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/Woj22432626/how-cleveland-cavaliers-changed-their-season-flurry-trades-adrian-wojnarowski
Saw that. The kings dysfunction is incredible, but when you learn how their FO operates you understand why. No wonder they don’t have their first round pick next year.
Wonder how Woj gets his info. That seems to be from Koby.
That’s a good article. Three teamers are always tough, but must be terribly frustrating when you’re dealing with a mess of a FO like the Kings…
Pretty telling quote from Lue last night:
“The biggest thing is Clarkson finished the game. George Hill during the timeout was talking to him and happy. Tristan [Thompson] is happy for Larry Nance. That’s what we’ve got to have. If you want to win you’ve got to sacrifice. With our team that we have, whoever’s playing well is going to finish the game. They understand that and it’s all about winning with this group.”
He’s of course referring to Isaiah Thomas pouting over a DEFENSE FOR OFFENSE SUBSTITUTION in the Minnesota game.
So glad that guy is gone.
+1000
Never agreed with you more than that last line.
i agree with Toms point that fans can be excited even for short stints like this…yes one may be accused of ‘prisoner of moment’ but the team is playing hard and executing at a great level. its amazing to see Lebron just turn it on another level now that things are good. its incredibly difficult for a lot of athletes to turn it on and off like that, but he can just do it effortlessly. I would say by beginning of March should be good barometer of where this team is at, it would be over handful of games and… Read more »
I am not convinced having a system or set plays doesn’t help in the playoffs. Horns rub obliterated Toronto for like 15 straight possession. The Spurs obliterated Miami with their standard loop actions with modifications and additions in 2014. The warriors blitzed the cavs d with a fair amount of their standard actions last year.
Horns rub did. It was unstoppable.
You are correct.
The Cavs run stuff too, they just aren’t that disciplined about it. They go freelance really quickly.
They do run stuff. I do hope they continue to do so. The one thing Kyrie brought was the capacity to not have to run plays yet still get quality shots (for himself). That has not been replaced, but it might not have to be if the cavs don’t freelance as much. Better d will also help.
Larry Hughes is my least favorite Cav ever. At least Thomas never had the opportunity to let us down in the playoffs. All Hughes did was help us lose.
If JR and Dwyane Wade had a love child, it would be Jordan Clarkson.
Seriously. the jury may still be out on consistency, but so much about Clarkson’s physicality— his springiness, smooth attack, strong cuts — remind me of pre-Big3-era Wade. LBJ is going to have a lot of fun playing with him.
My fantasy basketball team name is World B Frye. I’m keeping it in memory of what Channing Frye was to this team.
Yeah, Clarkson has some jets. And others may stand around on offense, but not him.
Pelton clearly hadn’t watched or looked at any stats for IT this year or his defense last year if he thinks IT was a loss or that his career isn’t basically ashes.
It’s early on in the pod, but I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. I will take a strong bench over a “big 3”
Believe the cavs were up 2-1 in 2015 and then never won another game. Not sure they were winning that series even if they go up 3-1.