Grantland on the Cavs (2 new pieces on K-Love)

[cavsfever]

Not much new to the folks in this forum, but still interesting (too long to cut and paste, but follow the link)

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nba-windows-the-cavs-have-all-the-makings-of-a-title-contender/

And here also is his latest piece (10/14) where he predicts the Cavs lead the league in points per possession, and could eventually become the greatest offense ever:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/33-crazy-predictions-for-the-nba-season/

1. Cleveland will lead the league in points per possession.

I’m on a two-year run calling the league’s best offense, and I’m going back East for a bet on a revamped team that has to play Indiana and Chicago a combined eight times. Gulp.

Everything you need to know about the coming season.The Cavs need time to learn David Blatt’s system, which will feature loads of movement on both sides of the floor, lots of tricky screening action, selective post-ups, and Princeton-style elements. Expand the picture to include defense, and the Cavs probably need another big man and a wing player with shooting range to reach their championship-level ceiling.
But this team should be a scoring juggernaut immediately. Their core lineups will include four 3-point shooters, including perhaps the league’s most prolific long-range shooting big man in Kevin Love. All four of those players can work off the bounce if they catch a pass with the defense scrambled, initiating drive-and-kick sequences the Cavs can repeat until they get the look they want.

And the Cavs will scramble defenses. Love is the perfect Blatt big man, and LeBron is the perfect high-IQ floor general to get everyone organized. Love and Kyrie Irving will have to make some sacrifices, and Dion Waiters probably still thinks he should get 20 shots per game. But if the ball moves like it should, everyone will get enough chances.

There will be some spacing issues when Anderson Varejao and Tristan Thompson share the floor, but the Cavs will figure it out. Add one more cog and a year of seasoning, and these Cavs will have a shot to trump the Steve Nash–era Phoenix teams and produce the greatest single-season offense in league history.

Threats lurk everywhere, though Durant’s injury takes the Thunder out of the picture. The Spurs are a perennial top-five offense. Houston is potent. Golden State has looked extraordinary in the preseason, but two of its games have come against the Lakers, and it’s starting from a lower baseline.

Portland had the league’s best offense over the first couple of months of last season, and it’s bringing back every key contributor. Dallas had the league’s best offense after the All-Star break and figures to be better.

But the bet here is Cleveland.​

 

[theSTEREO.]

The title of this thread should be changed to "Required Reading: Lowe "The Cavs Have All the Makings of a Title Contender"

Every single person on this board should read that article. I don't smoke... never have, never will, and I felt like I needed a cigarette after reading it.

A few key quotes:

If the Cavs won’t say it, we have to say it for them: These guys are absolutely title contenders, right this very second, and they may enter the season as favorites.

Right away, the Cavs are going to be an offensive colossus. LeBron James is one by himself, and in Love, Blatt has found the perfect big man for a hybrid Princeton system that bends defenses with constant screening on and off the ball.

The Cavaliers, with the league’s premier outlet passer and a rocket-fueled group of ball handlers, should be able to turn defensive rebounds into easy transition points.

Legit size is part of what makes Cleveland so terrifying on offense. Miami had to contort itself uncomfortably to find the ideal floor spacing for LeBron’s inside-out game to breathe. The Heat downsized, with Shane Battier as an undersize shooting power forward, and held it together on defense with frantic rotations and elite speed.

The Cavaliers can functionally play small while remaining big, and that’s because of Love. He’s a real power forward, not a wing bravely masquerading as one, and he has true quick-release 3-point range. Cleveland might not be able to mimic Miami’s “five-out” style in a literal sense, since its centers can’t shoot 3s like Chris Bosh, but that distinction is meaningless...

The Cavs will surround Varejao/Thompson with four good-to-elite shooters, all of whom are able to work off the dribble. That is better than a forced “five-out.”

God help the NBA when Blatt goes ultra-spacey with small-ball lineups like Irving-Waiters–Mike Miller–LeBron-Love. That will be a rare,3defensively challenged look, but it is completely unguardable. Defensive limitations don’t matter when you go on a 15-2 run in 90 seconds.

Blatt is a good enough coach to craft a coherent defensive system around some wacky pieces. That’s part of the intrigue: A bunch of Cleveland’s players have spent recent seasons playing in defensive systems that went against NBA trends....

...Nobody knows yet what Blatt will do, but the variety of experience on the roster offers the promise of stylistic flexibility. “We’re gonna be versatile,” Blatt says. “The fact that we have guys coming from so many different systems will help us.”

By the way, there is a great multi paragraph breakdown of the kind of defense the Cavs will likely run based on personnel and Blatt and Lue's background. Let's just say it should be fantastic if it works right.

But this team isn’t going to be some helpless sieve. The tools of a solid defense are here, and you can win the title with a solid defense and an all-world offense. The Cavs probably won’t be a top-10 defense, but they could sniff that territory, and it’s possible the East won’t burp out a single offense potent enough to worry them.

And, holy crap, is this team going to be great on offense. Blatt’s sets are filled with constant motion, both on the ball and away from it, involving all kinds of screens. A LeBron-Varejao pick-and-roll might be happening on the right side while Love sets a down screen for Irving on the left side, and those dueling actions will flow into two more elements.

Every pick presents a chance to punch a hole through one section of the defense. That innocent Love pick for Irving away from the ball? If Love hits it flush, his guy might have to rush toward the baseline to account for Irving’s basket cut.

And just that little blip can be death. Maybe Love pops out for an open 3-pointer. Maybe LeBron hits Irving on the cut. Maybe the other team switches in desperation, leaving a little guy to deal with Love on the block.

Much has been made about whether Irving can adjust to an off-ball role, but Blatt’s offense will be democratic. The ball will fly around until someone gets it with a gap to attack, and everyone will have the green light to shoot through those gaps. Irving struggled on spot-up shots last season, but he’s a good shooter suddenly plopped onto a killer roster. He’ll be fine.

Toss in offensive rebounding, an area that many of the league’s better scoring teams punt in favor of transition defense, and the Cavs should chase the top spot in the points per possession rankings in Year 1.

So yeah, go read it.

 

[cavsfever]

Thanks much, Stereo, for doing the article breakdown. You're right about how good a piece it is -- IMO Zach Lowe is pretty much the best NBA journalist out there in terms of breaking down the Xs and Os.

 

[priceFTW]

Thank goodness we get pieces like this from Lowe and a few others as opposed to the tripe we get from most other sources.

 

[roozy]

Lowe is one the best, great piece and thanks for sharing.

 

[CosmoKramer]

Glad to see Lowe getting some love around here, he's been churning out great work since he was at Sports Illustrated. Lowe and Charley Rosen use to write circles around everyone for SI, if anyone's interested in another great basketball writer Rosen writes for Hoopshype now.

 

[chuck0609]

Lowe is one the best, great piece and thanks for sharing.

He's pretty damn excited to see this team play. I was reading today that Blatt thrrw out they may go zone on defense too.

 

[Bnobli]

I really love Lowe pieces. His comments on Cavs players playing in defensive schemes that went against NBA trends really makes me think about the impact of Mike Brown. I would love to see him or another intelligent sports writer give a detailed analysis of how badly Mike Brown utilized the Cavs' talent last year. In all of the criticism of the individual players, locker room issues and bad fit, I think we forget how much bad coaching can lead to or even trump all of those things. WE COULDN'T EVEN INBOUND THE BALL. Can we really assess any player from last year considering MB was coaching them? From top to bottom every player regressed. From rookies (Bennett) to all-star veterans (Deng), not one player looked comfortable or was put in a position to succeed. There's a reason why Kyrie's shooting numbers dropped so much and he became more of a ball hog. There's a reason why the locker room was a mess and a guy like Dion, who needs leadership, may have been a bit of a headcase at times. Let's not even get into the Bynum debacle. They should actually commend our player for pulling off 33 wins in that system. I'm so glad we hired the polar opposite of a coach in Blatt. Our talented youngsters are going to shine on a national stage under him

 

[gratefuldead]

Fantastic article,best I've read on the cavs so far this year.

 

[castor777]

I really love Lowe pieces. His comments on Cavs players playing in defensive schemes that went against NBA trends really makes me think about the impact of Mike Brown. I would love to see him or another intelligent sports writer give a detailed analysis of how badly Mike Brown utilized the Cavs' talent last year. In all of the criticism of the individual players, locker room issues and bad fit, I think we forget how much bad coaching can lead to or even trump all of those things. WE COULDN'T EVEN INBOUND THE BALL. Can we really assess any player from last year considering MB was coaching them? From top to bottom every player regressed. From rookies (Bennett) to all-star veterans (Deng), not one player looked comfortable or was put in a position to succeed. There's a reason why Kyrie's shooting numbers dropped so much and he became more of a ball hog. There's a reason why the locker room was a mess and a guy like Dion, who needs leadership, may have been a bit of a headcase at times. Let's not even get into the Bynum debacle. They should actually commend our player for pulling off 33 wins in that system. I'm so glad we hired the polar opposite of a coach in Blatt. Our talented youngsters are going to shine on a national stage under him

In one of The Bullshit Whisperer's Wednesday chats, he talked about a time at practice early on. Dion Waiters was just unstoppable on offense, hit a few contested jumpers and then had a great drive to the hoop. Dion then looked over at Mike Brown with a grin, and Brown yelled back "you know I don't care about any of that!" Obviously just a little thing, but I wonder how many times Brown had moments like that with our players that just completely drained them.

 

[shoes22]

We all know Zach Lowe provides excellent, relatively unbiased basketball analysis...as long as he's not commenting on uniform & court designs.

 

[Cavsengland]

Not much new to the folks in this forum, but still interesting (too long to cut and paste, but follow the link)

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nba-windows-the-cavs-have-all-the-makings-of-a-title-contender/

Great arcticle.

 

[Bnobli]

In one of The Bullshit Whisperer's Wednesday chats, he talked about a time at practice early on. Dion Waiters was just unstoppable on offense, hit a few contested jumpers and then had a great drive to the hoop. Dion then looked over at Mike Brown with a grin, and Brown yelled back "you know I don't care about any of that!" Obviously just a little thing, but I wonder how many times Brown had moments like that with our players that just completely drained them.

Wow hadn't heard that one before. I'm sure that's just a microcosm of how MB ran the team. He's the worst with young guys, which is what most of the roster was last year.

Whenever I see these player rankings or conversations on who the best backcourt in the NBA is, I can't help but feel like Cavs players deserve an asterisk for time spent under MB. The difference under a coach like Blatt and the on court leadership of Lebron will be significant. I can't wait for these guys to prove every critic wrong.

 

[Pioneer10]

An injury to Cleveland’s best big-man defender (Varejao) would be catastrophic to its title hopes.

Hmmm, in all the positives the fragile nature of our dominance still sticks out like a sore thumb

 

[Pioneer10]

Glad to see Lowe getting some love around here, he's been churning out great work since he was at Sports Illustrated. Lowe and Charley Rosen use to write circles around everyone for SI, if anyone's interested in another great basketball writer Rosen writes for Hoopshype now.

Rosen lol. The guy used to be punching bag for so long on RCF after predicting that the best Lebron could hope to be was an average NBA player. After Lebron left, I think people forgot about him.