Building the right way?

[Obawan12]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

5 games into the season, the Sagarin computer rankings, which factor in things such as strength of schedule, have us ranked 15th in the league.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/nba1112.htm

The season is early, the sample sizes are small, and lots can change, but this should be a decent measure of how well we've played thus far.

You said it yourself: the sample size is small. The Sagarin rankings are very similar to the Hollinger Power Rankings, and Hollinger makes a point of not releasing his rankings until we are about a quarter of the way into the season because he knows they won't be very accurate right now. Computerized rankings do not take into account flukes, injuries, etc.

Besides, I don't think you need any stats to tell how well we have played up to this point. Just by watching the games I can tell we are a much better team than last season. IMO, one of the biggest reasons for our improvement is that it appears all the players have 100% bought into Coach Scott's system, and everybody is playing well right now. I think this road trip will be able to tell us a lot more about just how much we have improved...

 

[KI4MVP]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

Last year the computers rankings said we weren't as good as our record, this year they say that we are. I acknowledged the sample size is small, but the computer ranking also adjust for things like our soft schedule, thus should be a bit better reflection of where we are than just looking at the standings.

 

[Jon]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

It is what he said, a decent measure of how well we've played so far.

If you could somehow ignore the teams and the rosters and just look at the results, it wouldn't be unreasonable to conclude the Cavs were a promising potentially a bottom 4 playoff team; or maybe even a contender that hit some early bumps in the road.

But taking a look back at the Pacers first 5 games .vs. only "lowly" opponents their record was also 3-2. Their biggest win was 14 pts over the Cavs.

We can do the same thing with the 76ers and they started out 2-3 including a loss to the Cavs and a 26pt blow-out win over the Pacers.

Or we can look at the Wizards and they started out 2-3 with a 15pt win over the Raptors.

Or the Cavs last year started out 3-2 .vs. "lowly" teams, but the biggest win was just 7 points over the Sixers.

Next week the numbers may give a different impression... much will come down to attitude. We can't lose heart like we did last season.

 

[Cavatt]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

The consistency in the guys play is what has surprised me. They have not panicked when they have gotten behind, and have continued to play their game. They haven't gotten caught up in what the other team is doing too much. They have played at their own pace. That is very mature for a young team. They don't seem to play differently when they are ahead either. They are very good at pushing the lead and not resting when they are ahead. Aside from some really basic mistakes, I think the Cavs are looking much more mature than they have any right to be.

 

[BigErieCavsFan]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

The biggest difference I've noticed so far?... We are making shots.
And guess what, that really helps to get wins...

 

[Soda]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

The biggest difference I've noticed so far?... We are making shots.
And guess what, that really helps to get wins...

It helps that you again have a guy who can get the ball to the rim, albeit not a world class physical specimen. I don't think that we'll keep winning unless some of that jump shooting turns into easy baskets in the paint.

 

[ice cream man]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

The biggest difference I've noticed so far?... We are making shots.
And guess what, that really helps to get wins...

We were getting some very good looks. We made shots the last couple of games because we're actually playing together on offense. Something that rarely happened last year. Even Twan isn't chucking as much. It seems like Byron is stressing ball movement a lot more this year, and rightfully so. It's so much easier to attack off of a ball reversal; I'm really pleased with the way we've shared the ball so far. Sessions has changed his ways, and the new guys (rookies and Casspi), and new rotation players (Gee) have been very unselfish as well. First team basketball we've seen in how many years???

 

[Jon]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

The biggest difference I've noticed so far?... We are making shots.
And guess what, that really helps to get wins...

lol, that does work wonders, but we're also playing D. Will we stop doing that when the shooting goes cold?

btw, when do you guys think we'll start seeing some alley oops?

Hopefully they'll have some time to draw some up... and give Kyrie an alternative on his drives.

 

[Soda]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

Sessions has changed his ways

My personal opinion on this is that he finally has realized that his role on a team is not the starter, but the spark-plug off the bench. Sessions excelling in the capacity he is playing in now could make him some good money when his next contract comes around.

 

[Kouki]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

lol, that does work wonders, but we're also playing D. Will we stop doing that when the shooting goes cold?

btw, when do you guys think we'll start seeing some alley oops?

As soon as Kyrie doesn't have to play with a front line of AV/Jamison/Casspi, hah.

 

[MRMsix6]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

That was hilarious when Irving tried to throw an alley oop to Jamison.

 

[KI4MVP]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

Some positives

- after last night's game the computer rankings have us 13th in the league (7th in the east)

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/nba1112.htm

- thus far we have 2 of the top 14 PGs according to PER

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/holl...n.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics?position=pg

- Our offense has improved from 29th last year to 14th this year

http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats

- Our defense has improved from 29th last year to 8th this year

http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats/_/sort/defensiveEff/order/false

It's only been 7 games so the sample size for all of these is still small, but this year 7 games is also more than 10% of the season. The schedule is about to get quite a bit tougher. So far we've only had 1 game against a top 16 team based on the computer rankings - the overtime loss at Indy. Now we face a stretch of games (with current computer rankings - the games in bold are teams currently ranked ahead of us)

@ Portland (#6)
@ Utah (#15)
@ Phoenix (#14)
@ Lakers (#9)
@ Bobcats (#26)
vs Golden State (#19)
vs Bulls (#1)
@ Hawks (#5)
@ Heat (#2)
vs Knicks (#29!!)
vs Nets (#28)
@ Celtics (#25)
vs Celtics (#25)
@ Magic (#12)
vs Dallas (#20)
@ Heat (#2)
vs Clippers (#7)
vs Bucks (#21)
vs Sixers (#3)
vs Pacers (#8)
vs Heat (#2)

That's 21 games, 11 of which are against teams currently ranked ahead of us. 4 more are against teams that are supposed to be clearly better but haven't been thus far - Knicks, Celtics x2, Dallas. 2 more games that are road games against teams just barely behind us in the standings. If we come out of those 21 games close to .500, the schedule then gets a lot easier the rest of the season. Unless something changes for the worse (injuries, trade key players), our winning percentage the 38 games should be significantly better than the first 28 games. If I counted right, only 14 of the last 38 games are against teams currently ranked ahead of us.

 

[wuck]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

Now we face a stretch of games (with current computer rankings - the games in bold are teams currently ranked ahead of us)

When you have rankings that list the Sixers at #3, you know that the sample size is too small. It's going to take awhile longer to get a sense of where things stand as teams, including the Cavs, rise and fall.

 

[KI4MVP]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

When you have rankings that list the Sixers at #3, you know that the sample size is too small. It's going to take awhile longer to get a sense of where things stand as teams, including the Cavs, rise and fall.

I did point out the sample size is still small, and said see if we can sustain our current ranking (or something close to it) through the next 21 games. I also listed the main teams ranked below us that are expected to be better than us and included them in the tougher games we have in this upcoming stretch.

 

[Huber.]

Re: Rooting for our team this year

As a person that has shown interest in wanting the team to tank this year to land a top lotto pick, I have began to wonder at what point do I start rooting for them to make the playoffs if it becomes obvious that they won't get a top 10 pick?..... I'll give myself until the end of February until I start sipping the playoff cool-aid.