The Cavs defeated the Suns 101 to 90 in a game that, after the first half, never really felt winnable for Phoenix.
–Kyrie Irving put on a vintage Spectacular Rookie Performance. “Spectacular” because he rattled off 26 points on 11-17 shooting, and took the game over for a five-minute stretch during the second quarter, using every weapon in his offensive repertoire: a pair of threes, a crafty 18-foot pull-up, a baseline jumper off the dribble, and a slick spin move toward the rim. “Rookie” because he turned the ball over 6 times and couldn’t stay in front of his opposite number, Steve Nash, who posted 16 points and 15 assists. “Performance” because he is a thespian at heart.
–I’ve seen enough of Irving that I’m no longer worried whether or not he’s going to be good. I’m now preparing to spend the next three years figuring out if his ceiling is Borderline All-Star or Slightly Less Wealthy Man’s Chris Paul. Either way, he’s going to be a lot of fun to watch. His offensive game—especially in terms of putting points on the board—is surprisingly polished for a guy who doesn’t turn 20 until March. I think he’s having trouble adjusting to the superior athleticism of the NBA, which is why he sometimes throws a pass a half-second too late into a clogged lane or allows his counterpart to blow by him on the defensive end, but once he adapts to playing against NBA-caliber athletes every night, look out.
–Andy Varejao pulled down 15 boards tonight, and drew a couple of offensive fouls on D. Sadly, in an upset, he was out Horrible Hair-ed by Robin Lopez.
–I would say I’m concerned about Omri Casspi, but I’m not sure I care? I just look at Casspi’s box score every night, go “Oh, he sucked again,” and move on to Antawn Jamison’s J.R. Smithian shot totals. Casspi wasn’t a disaster tonight (6 points on 3-7 shooting), but I assume Alonzo Gee’s going to replace him in the starting lineup pretty soon, since Gee’s been as blandly effective as Casspi has been ineffective.
–TT tried hard. He hit a really tough shot in the lane early in the fourth quarter. I don’t remember anything else, but apparently he grabbed 6 boards in 15 minutes. Also, he’s not allowed to take another one of those step-back 15-footers he tried in the second period before he practices it another 5,000 times in the gym.
–Ramon Sessions was awful (1-7 and 3 TOs), but he was due for a bad game. I still think he’s an excellent backup point guard, and the only guy on the second unit who can dependably create his own shot (no, I’m not counting Gee). If he’s content with his role as a change-of-pace scorer off the bench, I would like to see the Cavs keep him going forward.
–The Suns are depressing. They were the most fun team in the league from 2003-09, and now they’re just Nash, Jared Dudley, Markieff Morris (who looked good), and a bunch of overpaid role players. Can we get Nash and JMZ onto a contender, please? Preferably together? It’s breaking my heart.
The Cavs are now 5-5, and they travel to the Staples Center to take on the Lakers tomorrow night. $20 says Semih Erden fouls out in 10 minutes or fewer in that game.
Borderline All-Star? Definitely a future All-Star. Could be better than John Wall due to his maturity and overall dependency on skill instead of pure athleticism. Coach Scott will turn Irving into a spectacular PG and he is the 3rd number 1 pick from Duke. Third time is a charm.
Thx for the quick recap!
Really nice win, now call up Eyenga und let him dunk on Gasol again to win the Lakers game ;-)
Lon Babby has killed that team. They wouldn’t pay Stoudemire, then decided to give Josh Childress, Hakeem Warrick, and Channing Frye a combined 17 Million a year. Those contracts are an absolute boat anchor. Morris looks good though. I think a Morris, Redd, Nash, Gortat, Dudley lineup could score some points.
Anyway, Kyrie was off the chart good tonight: 26 points, 6 assists in 28 minutes. He has no ceiling.
Scott didn’t even put him in till 3 minutes left in the 4th! It’s like he knew he could win the game with Kyrie any time he wanted…
If you could balance out Alanzo Gee and Antawn Jamison you’d have a player with perfect shot selection.
I want to see the ball in Casspi’s hands a little. I think he’s got some Hedu in him. He always looks competent pushing the break. Like to see them run some pick and roll with him and Andy/’Tawn with Kyrie on the weak wing, and Parker in the corner.
Normally Austin Carr is an tower of inane babble, but his thoughts on TT shooting Free Throws right handed might be worth considering.
Semih Erden is making Ryan Hollins look competent.
If the playoffs started today Cleveland would be the 8th seed in the east. Milwaukee needs to make a run, or Miami needs to get the #1 seed.
Kyrie was off the chart good tonight: 26 points, 6 assists in 28 minutes. He has no ceiling.
Scott didn’t even put him in till 3 minutes left in the 4th! It’s like he knew he could win the game with Kyrie any time he wanted…
If you could balance out Alanzo Gee and Antawn Jamison you’d have a player with perfect shot selection.
I want to see the ball in Casspi’s hands a little. I think he’s got some Hedu in him. He always looks competent pushing the break. Like to see them run some pick and roll with him and Andy/’Tawn with Kyrie on the weak wing, and Parker in the corner.
Normally Austin Carr is an tower of inane babble, but his thoughts on TT shooting Free Throws right handed might be worth considering.
Semih Erden is making Ryan Hollins look competent.
If the playoffs started today Cleveland would be the 8th seed in the east. Milwaukee needs to make a run, or Miami needs to get the #1 seed.
Why did Scott wait until 3 minutes left in the 4th to put Kyrie back in there? Put him in at the TV timeout and we win by 20! WTF?!?
I think you’re severely underestimating Kyrie’s potential.
Agreed – Irving is a definite All-Star, perhaps MVP ceiling. No reason why he can’t be. I did like the thought on how he is not used to the NBA athleticism, that does make some sense. I worry about about my thought “someone has to score on a bad team, so it is their least worst scorer”-thought. Anthony Morrow and Zach Randolph of a few years ago come to mind… Although I have changed my mind on Randolph a bit recently. I worry that the Cavs are so bad offensively, that it makes Irving look good and we’re all being fleeced.
Why does TT continue to get less than 20 minutes? I’m not saying he deserves it via his production, but more for his development. And, I never understood why an NBA player who has been playing basketball since they were 5 cannot hit more than 70% of their free throws. I know dozens of out of shape 50 yr pickup players who never played organized ball who can hit 70%. TT needs to improve the foul shooting – not even sure if he had any last night, as I barely remember him playing.
Irving might be a borderline all-star now. After Rose and Rondo, who else is better than him in the Eastern Conference at PG?
Also, did anyone see that Golden State sent Dwight Howard to the free throw line 39 times last night? They were fouling him while he was running up the court, giving him bear hugs, etc.
Howard hit 21 of them and the Magic won, but it made me keep thinking that Tristan Thompson needs to become a better free throw shooter.
Great win by the Cavs last night. But an even better ‘victory’ was Steve Nash missing a couple of free throws. With those misses, Mark Prices pulls ahead in the highest all time NBA free throw percentage.
Price 90.38950 (2135-2362)
Nash 90.36918 (2815-3115)
I have no idea why I keep track of this record :)
DWill easily and Calderon (at least in their H2H so far). He could surpass Jennings but right now Jennings is putting up similar numbers on O and better on D (IMO). But yes, if that is the list, then he could be right up there next year.
DWill could be out of the East next year. Rose and Rondo would still be tough to surpass for All-Star status. It wouldn’t kill me to have the 3rd best PG in the East by next year.
In a big picture sense, obviously DWill is better. This year though, he’s shooting 35% on a 2 – 9 team. Obviously that can turn around at any time, but right now he wouldn’t be more deserving than Irving.
Nice recap. Varejao had 17 boards, not 15 – btw.
The NBA season is nearly 1/3 of the way to the all-star break. Hypothetically speaking, let’s say D-Rose decides not to play in the all-star game, because of his toe. Behind Rondo, the East’s PG’s are:
Deron Williams – 17.2 ppg, 8.4 apg, 47% true shooting
Brandon Jennings – 18.7 ppg, 5.7 apg, 52% true shooting
Kyrie Irving – 16.6 ppg, 5.2 apg, 56% true shooting
J. Calderon – 12.2 ppg, 9 apg, 60% true shooting
The Cavs’ record is better than all of these teams. Irving at least reasonably matches up with each of these players for the season. Doesn’t this make Kyrie a “borderline all-star”?
Maybe I’m just being a homer
Kyrie is averaging ~10 less minutes per game than all those guys, too. He’s really good.
You’re crazy if you think Kyrie’s ceiling is anything close to “borderline all-star”. It’s easily arguable that he already is a borderline all-star, especially if he were getting as many minutes as other guys.
I get that we want to temper our expectations and not anoint him too early, but come on.
You guys are splitting hairs. The Cavs are set at pg. That’s all that matters.
Otherwise:
I think TT will be really good. He needs to work on his short jumper, FTs, and passing out of the post after grabbing an offensive rebound.
If Andy is traded, I’m not sure who replaces him. I think Erden is a backup at best. I’m still hoping the Cavs go after JaVale McGee in FA. He may not score a lot, but he’s a good defender, shot blocker and reounder. He’s restricted, but can be had from Wash.
I like the way Gee plays. He may not a starter, but he seems to be generally solid. He doesn’t makes many mistakes or take bad shots.
I think Sessions, Jamison, and Varejao will all be on different teams sometime this season. It will be sad to see them go. They have all played well so far. But it should bring in some draft picks or young players. That, and all the cap room they will have after the season, the future looks bright.
TT needs to learn how to shoot, period. He’s shooting what – 40% from the free throw line? If you can’t hit a free throw, you’re never going to be able to do anything but dunk. I find this concerning. Though, if he could be like Rodman or Wallace, only with a much better attitude, I’d be pretty happy with that. We still need a small forward who can shoot/ create, and a shooting guard who can shoot / create to take the place of parker. Plus, Jamison is a HUGE part of the cavs’ offense right now. and so we need to figure out how to replace him effectively, eventually.
I don’t think the cavs will trade varejao. He’s the #1 draw to the Q right now, and he’s an incredibly efficient player. Our team is significantly different that last year’s lottery team in 2 ways: 1) Kyrie, though his offensive output isn’t that much better than Baron Davis’ yet. and 2) Varejao isn’t injured. I think Varejao is just as responsible for the Cavs looking like a playoff team as Kyrie. That, and the rest of the team has started to figure out how to play Byron Scott’s offense.
After 10 games Kyrie is scoring at the highest rate of all PGs in the league. This is unlikely to hold throughout the season, but its pretty incredible. The dude scored 12 points in 3 minutes yesterday. How is he not getting more national attention? His ceiling is best PG in the league. His realistic outcome is elite (top 5) PG for the next 5-10 years:
http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/scoring-per-48-minutes/sort/avg48Points/position/point-guards
I appreciate your measured analysis of Irving. Let’s keep things in perspective, the Cavs haven’t beaten anyone with a winning record not to mention the fact that his defense is lagging pretty far behind his offense in terms of development. To me, the most encouraging thing about Kyrie is the fact that he’s got a good mid-range game. It’s bizarre how few players in the NBA can hit a 15 foot jump-shot (where is Horrace Grant?). Irving seems to be comfortable in his mid-range game and I think it takes advantage of zone defenses designed to press the three-point line or the lane.
I agree, Caspi’s days on the starting list are measured. I think he’d be decent but-for the fact that he seems to be a head case. He needs to settle down, play within himself, and not act like the basketball is on fire. I’m not sure Gee is much of an improvement. He too seems a little out of control. I may be naive but i’d like to see Thompson on the floor with the starting 5 a little more. I agree with the initial post that Sessions is the only player on the bench that can consistently create his own shot. I feel like Thompson feels the pressure to do so when he’s in and I’d like to see him play if he doesn’t have to worry about being a point-scorer. I think he may benefit more from the defense focusing on Irving, Jamison, and Parker (and Varejao on the pick and rolls).
The Cavs do NOT yet look like a playoff team. We’ll know a lot more in three weeks after we have the opportunity to play some playoff teams. If they can pull out a win against LA, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, the Magic, or even the Celtics, I may get on board with them being a playoff team. Until then, they’re nothing more than an opportunistic team that has beaten New Jersey (2-9), Detroit (2-9), Minnesota (3-7ish), Phoenix (4-6), and Charlotte (2-9ish). For a “playoff team,” those are all games that the Cavs SHOULD have won.
There aren’t a lot of people in the NBA that I would trade Varejao for. Why trade him? He’s not overpaid, he’s a good team player, he’s a good basketball player, and he seems to motivate the team. I think that people that expected the Cavs would trade him for a draft pick were not anticipating that the Cavs would seem to make such an improvement from last year to this year.
We need to keep rooting for whoever plays Sacramento. Remember, we have their number one pick next year (JJ Hickson) and the NBA draft in 2012 should be strong (although the 2011 draft was supposed to be weak and I think we’re seeing that probably wasn’t true). A Top 5 or 10 pick from Sacramento would be very, very nice!
I’m just a little bit concerned with Tristan Thompson’s progression. He was playing controlled basketball the first few games but he’s sort of lost that control recently. Also, for a guy his size, he gets blocked a lot with point-blank shots. He needs to learn that everyone can jump in the NBA and even if you’ve got 6 inches on your defender, you’ve got to do a pump-fake or some other move to get people off their feet to free you for the dunk. Until he learns that, he needs to power for the rebounds and kick the ball back out.
I’ve been impressed with Jamison. The only problem I see is that if he’s having an “off” night, he tends to keep throwing up shots which doesn’t help anyone. Also, he can’t compensate for bad shooting with good defense or anything else.
The most impressive thing about the Cavs 5-5 start (other than Irving) is most certainly that they are 5-5 while playing 7 of those games on the road. That’s pretty impressive for such a young team. I am impressed with how the Team has adopted Coach Scott’s even-keeled pace about the game. During last night’s game when Phoenix cut the 14 point game to 5 with 3 or 4 minutes left and the crowd was cheering, I thought it was a good opportunity for us to fall apart. I was very impressed with Irving’s running jumper in the lane and Boobie’s three-point shot. Last year’s team would have folded.
I can’t wait for Irving to have a year to work out with the team and no off season lock-out. He is basically just out of high school. Definitely fun to watch though.
True, but you could argue that the Cavs have had the easiest schedule of any NBA team this year. The only legitamate playoff contender they have played are the Blazers.
Who can guard him on the lakers? I am predicting another big game!
Kyrie is starting to really impress me – just starting too. He made a few really nice plays last night, his spin move (which he’s done a couple of time now) is becoming a signature move for him. He also has a much better shooters touch than I though he would. Really it seems like he’s doing pretty much the same thing now as he was in college, doesn’t seem like he’s had to make much of an adjustment. Besides his turnovers. I know he’s being asked to score, but I’d really like to see him increase his apg by at leat 2-3 and lower his to’s the same. He just doesn’t seem to be getting his teammates involved enough. It may be an unfair comparison for this stage in his career, but when you look at guys like Nash or CP3 or D-will, even Chauncy or Barron or Rondo, these guys all get their shots but still are pass first PG’s who make the team better by thier pass first and then think about scoring mentality. J. Kidd was/is this kind of guy too, so maybe this is something that Kyrie will learn in time. I don’t think Kyrie is athletic or quick enough to thrive as a score first PG (e.g. Rose, Westbrook) nor will this be good for the Cavs long-term.
As far as the kind of talent Kyrie has right now and how far it can take him – hard to say. If I define ‘borderline all-star’ as being 1-2 spots out of all-star selection, then I’d say he’s just below that level now and can get there as early as next year. He’s not in the same league as Rondo or Rose or D. Will. or Jennings. I also think Wall and Rubio will get the nod before him. Because the all-star selections are popularity contest based on fan votes on how good they think you are, It’s hard for me to think he’ll be an all star in the next few years. But I do think it’s very reasonable to think that he can be the third best PG in the east within the next few years. I don[‘t think he’ll overtake Rose anytime soon. However I think D. Will is already showing some decline based on this season and we don’t really know how Rondo will look without the ‘big 3′ around him. Jennings and Wall don’t have very ‘fan friendly’ images nor are the just clearly superior players so I can see Kyrie overtaking them for votes. The wildcard IMO is Rubio, he’s a flashy guy from Spain that’s already a media darling (and favorite for ROY), as well as he’s starting to get more endorsements – which means more publicity and fan recognition. If he continues to improve and play the way he has so far this year, it could be really difficult for Kyrie to surpass him for the all-star vote. So top 5 in the east is very doable in the next few years, and all star is possible, just not as likely.
1st time poster, but big fan of the blog. Can anyone justify playing Erden/Hollins over Samardo Samuels? I know Samuels has his limitations, but at least he throws his body around better than the other two and can finish at the rim. Is this still the residual affect of showing up to camp out of shape? Or are Erden/Hollins far superior on defensive end with their 7ft+ bodies?
Thanks.
Kepbabes,
Erden is young and a legitimate 7 footer that’s athletic…he was a serviceable backup with Boston last year…it’s not a bad idea to give him a shot as the back-up center.
Obviously in his first two games he hasn’t looked very good. So far his points+rebounds+assists+blocks+steals = 10 and his fouls = 11. I wonder how long he can keep that up. If he doesn’t start showing something more soon, Samuels should start getting those minutes again.
Kepbabes: Welcome to the Blog!
Like Keving said, Erden is a legit 7 footer. He hasn’t gotten to much playing time this year because of his thumb and last year he was nursing a shoulder injury. Similarly to Casspi, he showed some solid talent last year so now that he’s healthy again, we need to give him a shot. So far, (like Casspi again) he hasn’t looked too good, actually he’s looked quite bad. Hopefully he’ll get back into basketball shape and show why we wanted him.
Hollins, IMO doesn’t really deserve a chance over Samardo. Yes he has length and athleticism, but hasn’t proved to be a viable option (and he’s had his fair share of chances). Tonight against the Lakers, I look for all of our bigs to get some time. Going up against Bynum and Gasol is no small task and it will be interesting to see how they do. Between Andy, Erden, Samardo we have a lot of fouls to give at C. I’m looking forward to see how TT will respond against a truly elite front-court as well. Whille TT doesn’t have the size or strength, he is arguably the most talented (definitely the most raw) of our front-court defenders. His crazy hops and wingspan will really be put to the test.
Joel, good thoughts.
One note: You have the Sacramento thing exactly backwards. We only get their pick this year if they make the playoffs (its protected). As such, we need to root FOR Sacramento, not against them.
FTR: I love this blog!!!
I’ve been thinking a lot about the Sacramento thing lately…and while I have no idea if this is possible…if we trade anyone of substance (Andy, Sessions, etc.), I’m eyeing the Kings in hopes that we could do so to decrease the protection on that pick.
Would it be worth it to Sacramento to have Andy mentor DeMarcus in exchange for dropping the protection to, say, top-8 or 10? Because A) that’s the only way we’re getting that pick this year (maybe not even then), and B) that’s the only reasonable value I see for Andy across the entire league.
I think this team gets good again with Andy on it. I’m pipe-dreaming a bit, but the opportunity to put together a Kyrie/Brad Beal/Kidd-Gilchrist 1-3 would be about the only thing that could change my mind. Even then…I’m not sure a shooting guard is more valuable than Andy…
Ryan,
That’s a good question. I have no idea what the answer is.
Did you know that Sacremento has the lowest % of their baskets assisted. They were 4th worst in the NBA last year. Maybe they could use Sessions. If it’s legal to include as part of a trade that lottery protection is reduced on a previously traded pick, that’s something to consider.
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Wheres Krolik? this McGowan guy isnt very good….at all.