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Shaun Livingston Will Soon be a Free Agent

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Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

Not really seeing the point in this. But it's so irrelevant that I do not give a single fuck lol :chuckles:

Agreed. Sloan was useless, so i am not mad at the move, but Livingston Knees are about the same as Brandon Roy's and he never was even close to the play Brandon was, and Brandon couldnt come back either.

Also, those excited for Livingston's vet presence, remember, he has less career starts than Luke Walton and has been about equally productive as Walton for his career too. Just saying this is a meaningless move that will mean nothing by the end of the season.
 
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Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

http://www.fearthesword.com/2012/12/26/3803704/why-shaun-livingston-makes-sense-for-the-cavs

After reading this I'm pretty sure this happened becuase of the part about Livingston killing it on cuts/slashing to the basket. Which is perfect for the offense Scott runs


Why Shaun Livingston Makes Sense for the Cleveland Cavaliers
By Sam Vecenie on Dec 26, 1:42p


Shaun Livingston was just signed by the Cavaliers on Christmas Day. Why does he make sense for the Cavs?

So, if you follow me on Twitter you've probably noticed my love for Shaun Livingston. You're probably wondering why I so badly wanted the Cavaliers to sign a guy that has been cut twice since October 29.

Well part of it is simply a personal thing: I really want Shaun Livingston to succeed. Livingston was committed to Duke University prior to turning to turning professional straight out of high school in 2004, and as a Duke basketball fan I've always considered him part of the family. Why I not only never felt ill will towards him for not playing at Duke, but also embraced him as an NBA player immediately, I'm not entirely sure. It probably had to do with the fact that he was just so damn fun to watch play early on in his career.

Livingston was simply electric with the ball in his hands while playing for the Clippers early in his career. He was lightning fast for a 6'7" player, and just saw the floor differently than others did because of his height and passing acumen. He wasn't the best player yet (hell, with PERs of 10.4, 10.2, and 13.7 it's pretty evident he wasn't even an above average player), but he was clearly starting to turn the corner when "it" happened.

"It" refers to the most gruesome, debilitating knee injury I've ever seen. While driving for a layup on a fast break, (and I'm doing this off of a 5 year old memory because I don't want to watch it again), he went up for a layup and came down on his knee. Yes, I mean he tried to land on his foot, and came down on his knee. Livingston dislocated his kneecap on top of tearing his ACL, PCL and lateral meniscus. This was an injury I honestly never expected him to come back from.
It took a full three years for Livingston to return to being an NBA contributor, which occurred for Washington back in 2010. Since then, he has bounced from Washington, to Charlotte, to Milwaukee, to Houston, back to Washington, and now to Cleveland. Livingston went from being a sure-thing, point-guard of the future to a journeyman NBA point guard in a flash, and it really sucks.

Meaning your second question probably is: what can Shaun Livingston bring to the Cavaliers if he's just a 27-year-old journeyman?

Well, Livingston is an entirely different player than he was early in his career. He has gone from being a flashy point-guard who fed off getting out in transition to becoming something more of a combo-guard. Livingston is still a very capable ball-handler, but he's transformed himself into a smart scorer by using his size and smarts. He now has a pretty solid post game that comprises about 15% of his offensive output. But having him on this roster makes sense first and foremost because of his intelligence when cutting to the hoop.

According to Synergy, last season Livingston shot 26-31 (!!!!) off of cuts, two-thirds of which were dunks or layups. He was the best player in their entire database last year on offense off of cuts. This makes him perfect fit for Byron Scott's Princeton offense, which relies on guys who can make smart, decisive cuts to the basket in order to get easy scores.
Livingston should be able to make a living for the Cavs on offense off of backdoor cuts to the hoop where he can get those easy layups and dunks. While not exactly a Princeton set, here's an example of something that the Bucks did last year that is quite similar to what the Cavs do this year:

(Vidoe on linked page)

Here, the play starts with a high screen by Drew Gooden for Brandon Jennings. Livingston is the corner at the top of your picture.The high screen is something that we see employed pretty often by the Cavaliers with Anderson Varejao as the screener and Kyrie Irving as the ball handler.

(video on linked page)

The Heat defense has collapsed towards Jennings who has now passed the ball to Gooden. Livingston is still sitting the corner. This is because he wants Battier (the only guy on the right side of the floor for Miami) to flash up to Gooden. If he starts his cut too early, Battier will slide down to him, and allow Anthony to either attempt to contest a 20 footer from Gooden (which is a very beneficial for the Heat because Drew Gooden is Drew Gooden), or be able to simply step up and guard him once he receives the ball.

(video on linked page)

Gooden has flashed the jumper here, pretending he's going to shoot. Since Livingston stayed in the corner that extra split second, Battier has rotated up to the elbow now in order to contest Gooden's shot (not the best moment for an intelligent defender like Battier) instead of rotating to the left and letting Anthony, who is right next to him now, try to contest it. Livingston has started his cut now and there is no one in front of him and the hoop.

(video on linked page)

Livingston has now caught the pass where he gets an easy layup as Battier is caught in no man's land on defense.

Knowing when to smartly make a cut is one of the most important things in the Princeton sets that Scott employs. This scenario is easily imaginable with Cavaliers, as Varejao is a much better passer than Gooden and the Cavs have guys in Irving and Dion Waiters that can force a defense to rotate over like Miami did in the first picture. Livingston's backdoor cutting ability will be something the Cavs find useful throughout the season.

The next question is where does Livingston fit on defense. That is the place I most thought that Livingston would be a perfect fit. Livingston now allows the undersized Daniel Gibson to slide over to defend point guards instead of being forced to defend guys 5 inches taller than he is. Gibson is a fine defender that simply just isn't big enough to guard shooting guards when the Cavs went small with both he and one of Jeremy Pargo or Donald Sloan in the back court. Livingston is not the best defender (the knee injury did sap some of his quickness and movement) but with his length he's at least able to close out on shooters more effectively than Gibson can. Livingston has also been one of the better isolation defenders in the NBA since returning from his knee injury (this can probably be attributed to his length as he also has a near 7'0" wingspan), where until this season he has always posted above-average points-per-possession marks according to Synergy.

After watching a lot of his possessions this year, the place where Livingston struggles most defensively is fighting through screens. He seems to get either caught up in the screen and unable to recover, or he goes under the screen (in order to make up for his sapped quickness) and isn't quick enough to contest the pull-up jumper off of the screen. That may be the biggest problem for Livingston, but if the Cavs keep him as an off-ball defender, that may be mitigated as he won't have to fight through as many on-ball screens.

Okay, so signing Shaun Livingston yesterday is not necessarily a Christmas miracle. He's still a 27-year-old journeyman point guard at this point in his career. I miss that 6'7", 175 pound kid that was able to make behind the back passes in transition. I would be excited if he's able to give the Cavaliers a solid 15 minutes a night off the bench, which is a sad indictment of where his career ended up because of the injury. But he does seem to be a guy that can pay dividends for the Cavs if they utilize him properly. Livingston is a smart player that I wish nothing but the best in the future, and hopefully he has finally found a place he can call home in Cleveland.
 
Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

I'm not expecting much from Livingston. He's probably just this year's Leon Powe. A formerly good player who will never recover from his injury.
 
Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

Sad. He was very fun to watch. Not quite Pistol fun, but pretty Rubio fun. I just hope he at least sees the floor instead of Pargo sometime...
 
Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

Livingston's backdoor cutting ability will be something the Cavs find useful throughout the season.
lol @ "backdoor cutting ability."
You cut back door when your defender is coming at you or pressuring, and also if your teammate dribbles the ball toward you. There's no "ability" involved there. It's the same thing as people saying "oh he is so good at moving about the basketball." No, it's not that he is good at it, he just takes the physical (and sure a little mental) effort to do it.
 
Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

lol @ "backdoor cutting ability."
You cut back door when your defender is coming at you or pressuring, and also if your teammate dribbles the ball toward you. There's no "ability" involved there. It's the same thing as people saying "oh he is so good at moving about the basketball." No, it's not that he is good at it, he just takes the physical (and sure a little mental) effort to do it.

I completely disagree with this. There is ability when it comes to being a good backdoor cutter, whether it is through being able to quickly read the defense or being physically faster than the defender. Some seem to have a better ability at this more than others.
 
Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

I completely disagree with this. There is ability when it comes to being a good backdoor cutter, whether it is through being able to quickly read the defense or being physically faster than the defender. Some seem to have a better ability at this more than others.

Cutting in the a Princeton style offense is similar to reading coverage in football imo..Have to be able to anticiapte how the d is going to rotate
 
Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

Kind of says something about where the Cavs are now when claiming a player off waivers from the Wizards is considered a roster upgrade.
Livingston could bring a little help. Needed size in the backcourt and might help bring some semblance of running an offense when on the court compared to what we see a lot of the time.
 
Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

Looks like the Donald has been picked up.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Hornets To Sign Donald Sloan <a href="http://t.co/MHj7LO3u" title="http://dlvr.it/2lgS7R">dlvr.it/2lgS7R</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23nba">#nba</a></p>&mdash; Hoops Rumors (@HoopsRumors) <a href="https://twitter.com/HoopsRumors/status/287928075008741377" data-datetime="2013-01-06T14:26:17+00:00">January 6, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

Who else has been impressed with Livingston lately? His knees are looking healthy and he's looking more and more like a viable NBA player as every game goes by.
 
Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

Livingston has been fantastic. Seems to be the ideal backup PG for this team.
 
Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

Looks like the Donald has been picked up.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Hornets To Sign Donald Sloan <a href="http://t.co/MHj7LO3u" title="http://dlvr.it/2lgS7R">dlvr.it/2lgS7R</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23nba">#nba</a></p>— Hoops Rumors (@HoopsRumors) <a href="https://twitter.com/HoopsRumors/status/287928075008741377" data-datetime="2013-01-06T14:26:17+00:00">January 6, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Must suck to be the 10th overall pick and lose your rotation spot to Donald Sloan.
 
Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

Who else has been impressed with Livingston lately? His knees are looking healthy and he's looking more and more like a viable NBA player as every game goes by.

He's shooting 41.5% from the floor since joining the Cavs, which given that he never makes 3's is on the cusp of liability territory. And given that he shot 27% in December with the Wizards, I'm a little skeptical that he'll even keep it that high. He can't shoot 3's, he can't get to the rim, and he can't get to the line...so I'm worried he's just doomed to be an inefficient scorer. He's no one's idea of a great distributer either, so I feel like he just doesn't put enough pressure on the defense as a point guard.

Also, I'm skeptical about his supposedly excellent defense. His opponent PER numbers are average; his Synergy numbers are average, and he has an average steals rate as well. I'll admit he looks good enveloping opposing point guards with those long arms, but he'll have to be a very good defender to make up for his poor offense, and I'm not sure he is.
 
Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

Livingston is a guy to cheer for. That's about it. He's real smart, and the coaches like him, but when it comes down to it you gotta put up some stats or you are Ryan Hollins. I appreciate him for his tutelage, but he's a deep bench guy. I don't want to lose him as the cavaliers don't have many smart players, but I don't consider him a part of the rotation in the future.
 
Re: Cavs sign Shaun Livingston, waived Sloan

He is more evidence of how truly horrific the bench was at the start of the season. If you replace an extremely bad bench player with a little below average player the net effect is better results.
 

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