Open Discussion (Cavs + related issues)

[The Human Q-Tip]

What are the odds of a team that struggles to win 50 games and ranks 22nd in defense winning a title? Greater or worse than coming back from 3-1?

Because I'm not seeing it this year.

What you haven't been seeing is the Cavs playing with their best perimeter defender for two-thirds of the season. That has had a ripple effect on the team overall.

The loss of Delly hurts defensively, and we didn't have a backup point guard for much of this season. Give JR a chance to get back into the swing of things, and for the rotations with the new guys to settle in, nd that will be a materially better defensive team than the one we've seen for much of this season.

 

[Kbiz]

Our defense has been frustrating to watch when compared to last year but it still seems like our team isn't all that concerned about it at the moment so that's the thinking i am trying to mimic.

I am not going to dig into the advanced stats but perhaps that stretch last year where Delly was starting in Irving's absence inflated our defensive stats a bit. Losing JR hurt this year as well. Shumpert's defense regressed once he was inserted into the starting lineup for whatever reason this year. It's a focused-effort issue for him. Losing Love hurt us b/c he grabs a lot of defensive boards.

Lastly, we are at the point in the season where we don't regularly hold defensive practices. I am not sure how effective walk-throughs are when we've added / subtracted key rotational pieces the last few months but we've seen some piss-poor execution as of late.

I'd be more concerned if we had lost a key piece this year but we haven't. We've only added depth. These same players defended the "most incredible offense in NBA history, blah blah", frustrating the league MVP to the point where he was almost forgotten in the biggest games of the season.

I do think that if a bigger team comes out of the west, we are going to have to get a bit more creative on the defensive end but until we lose a playoff game due to a poor defensive showing, i will enjoy the ride.

 

[cavsfever]

I think losing those 17 MPG of Mozgov hurt our defense more than people realize too. It's a pretty huge step down in interior defense from Mozgov to Frye, and I don't think Frye makes up for it in perimeter or pick and roll defense. Also, I think TT's defensive effectiveness was somewhat diminished by the extra MPG and having to defend true centers more often.

Going in to the season with TT-Love-Frye-Birdman as our bigs was just as bad as having no backup PG. Birdman was clearly a fossil on his last legs, and none of the other three are true centers (TT comes closest but is undersized). Arguably Frye isn't even really a PF. I realize that's the way the NBA is going and all but it was still a very thin roster. Hopefully Sanders eventually plugs this gap for us.

 

[Green Lantern]

O.k I'm tired of hearing all the yang about the Cavs players sitting..I thought Van Gundy did a disservice harping on it all game long Saturday..
Flip side..Cavs defense takes almost every night off.

 

[inliner311]

The lack of a true 5 man defensive unit has hurt us this year. Last year we knew if they needed stops they could put Delly-Shump-JR-Lebron-TT/Mozgov in. Even with JR back there is a question mark who Lue would go to be the 5th player, is it Richard Jefferson or Derrick Williams? Liggins looked like he could have been the answer early in the season but he became too much of a liability on offense.

 

[ACisKING]

I find it amusing that it's seemingly a national tragedy whenever the Cavs rest players. I was listening to Sirius NBA radio during a long drive and it was hours and hours of people whining about the Cavs resting, about LeBron not being a true legend like Kobe/MJ, about the lazy players of the current NBA, etc. The only saving grace was a phone interview with Tom Haberstroh who laid out the arguments for resting players perfectly with plenty of scientific/medical evidence to back that up. Aside from that it was pretty much unlistenable.

 

[LeShaq]

I find it amusing that it's seemingly a national tragedy whenever the Cavs rest players. I was listening to Sirius NBA radio during a long drive and it was hours and hours of people whining about the Cavs resting, about LeBron not being a true legend like Kobe/MJ, about the lazy players of the current NBA, etc. The only saving grace was a phone interview with Tom Haberstroh who laid out the arguments for resting players perfectly with plenty of scientific/medical evidence to back that up. Aside from that it was pretty much unlistenable.

Hilarious.

Jordan played a total of around 48,500 total minutes in his career (playoffs and regular season).

LeBron is already at 49,227 total minutes. So much for that legend comparison.

Kobe played 57,278 minutes. That's really good. But LeBron is well on pace to eclipse that mark. Also, Kobe broke down three years before his career ended because he was playing too many minutes, possibly. So there goes that legend comparison.

In short, LeBron has already played more in 14 seasons than Jordan did in 15 seasons. And LeBron would like to avoid breaking down like Kobe did, even though LeBron (14 seasons) is well on pace to break the total minutes played by Kobe (20 seasons).

People just hate LeBron and are trying to find reasons to whine about him.

 

[Scholar]

I don't get these scheduled losses AT all. Celts 1.5 back.

The NBA seems to love them with how they schedule the season. Things like 3 days off for the home team and their opponent playing on a back-to-back, or worse.

 

[gaitano]

Don't schedule big TV games on back-to-backs, it's really that simple. Fools.

 

[Jordan]

I find it amusing that it's seemingly a national tragedy whenever the Cavs rest players. I was listening to Sirius NBA radio during a long drive and it was hours and hours of people whining about the Cavs resting, about LeBron not being a true legend like Kobe/MJ, about the lazy players of the current NBA, etc. The only saving grace was a phone interview with Tom Haberstroh who laid out the arguments for resting players perfectly with plenty of scientific/medical evidence to back that up. Aside from that it was pretty much unlistenable.

They've been going at it all day. Brian Geltzeiler - who, by the way, hates LeBron and blames Lue for Blatt being fired - was saying that the Spurs did this in 2014 on a TNT game against Miami and got fined $250,000. Moreover, he elaborated, they have never done it on a national TV game since. A caller mentioned the national TV game two weeks ago, Geltzeiler basically said "oh, so it has only happened once, I'm so sorry" and moved on.

Sirius XM NBA channel could be great, but outside of a few of their hosts, the channel is a bunch of hacks.

 

[Rich]

Interesting on the Spurs. Have they done it since getting fined? Two weeks ago aldridge had a heart thing and Leonard was in concussion protocol, right?

 

[Jordan]

Interesting on the Spurs. Have they done it since getting fined? Two weeks ago aldridge had a heart thing and Leonard was in concussion protocol, right?

They did it last year on TNT Thursday night against the Warriors and against OKC on ESPN. I can't think of another time this year, but I remember those two vividly last year.

 

[ACisKING]

Interesting on the Spurs. Have they done it since getting fined? Two weeks ago aldridge had a heart thing and Leonard was in concussion protocol, right?

If you mean a national tv game, I can't recall one where they sat players off the top of my head though I'm sure they do. But they definitely rest players all the time in other games. In fact, just a few days before the game you mention, Pop rested Leonard and Aldridge out of nowhere and the Spurs made a dramatic comeback against the Kings to win. Leonard is in his physical prime and has been rested multiple times this season.

 

[Jordan]

If you mean a national tv game, I can't recall one where they sat players off the top of my head though I'm sure they do. But they definitely rest players all the time in other games. In fact, just a few days before the game you mention, Pop rested Leonard and Aldridge out of nowhere and the Spurs made a dramatic comeback against the Kings to win. Leonard is in his physical prime and has been rested multiple times this season.

I think the better argument to make is about resting a player of LeBron's caliber. Guys like Russ, LeBron, Harden, Kawhi, etc. attract viewers. The debate coach in me thinks that is the argument the league should be going for, not just the idea of resting players on a national TV game.

 

[buzzdog]

The whole point was that if the Cavs are going to rest Lebron, they're going to do it on nights when other starters are also not available so when they do play the team can start developing their player combinations and rotations. As a team the Cavs have yet to get opportunities to play entire games with all their rotation players available, and they most definitely haven't had any chances since adding the 2 DWills.

Time is getting short and Lue needs to get some player combinations time together on the floor so they can get themselves on film, and work out some kinks.

Van Gundy and company can suck it. None of them have acknowledged what Griff laid out as a franchise strategy in choosing how and when to rest Lebron.