Cleveland Cavaliers 2014-15 Season

[kookoo]

I'm scared the team is going to lose 4 straight...

 

[Henry Tuttle]

I've never seen a team struggle so mightily with slip passes off the pick and roll. They are determined to get those babies in there but it is just not happening. Please realize this and develop a strategy that doesn't involve turning the ball over every time a big is barely open for a split second on the roll. Maybe instead try passing to them instead when they have position down low and there is no sign of help defense. Maybe that will make them feel better.

In actual strategy news I don't think I've seen Love work the elbow/high post for eons. I see it happening in my head and it looks good give it a try.

 

[tristan+kyrie=$]

Cavs might lose 4 in a row tomorrow...crazy to think....still positive that they will be fine and all this worrying and freaking out will be forgotten later in the year but still disappointing shit now

 

[Chris]

Most Startling Statistics of Cleveland Cavaliers' Season So Far

Joe Harris Is an Offensive Juggernaut

Startling Stat: Cavs are scoring 145.3 points per 100 possessions with Harris on the floor and 108.8 without him

Instead, it's been Harris who has cracked coach David Blatt's rotation, effectively eliminating Miller and Jones' playing time. While Harris played 27 minutes off the bench in a Nov. 19 game against the San Antonio Spurs, Miller and Jones did not see any action.

Such a move seems puzzling, until one sees the impact Harris is making on the offense.

Although he is averaging just 4.1 points in 14.9 minutes per game, the Cavaliers average 36.5 more points per 100 possessions with Harris on the court, per 82games.com. His excellent outside shooting (40 percent) is leading to open lanes for players like James to drive.

James is averaging 27.1 points, 10.0 rebounds and 7.2 assists and shooting 59.5 percent per 36 minutes while on the court with Harris, per NBA.com/Stats. With Harris on the bench, James' numbers shrink to 23.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 44.5 percent shooting.

Through 10 games, Harris is looking like an excellent second-round steal for the Cavaliers.


Opponents Are Shooting Lights out Against Cavs

Startling Stat: Cavs allowing 48.3 percent shooting from field; onlyLakers and T-Wolves are worse


OK, so a struggling Cavaliers defense isn't really that much of a surprise, but the shooting success of opponents is mind-boggling. We knew Cleveland would struggle in this category, but with LeBron James, Shawn Marion and Anderson Varejao, the team definitely shouldn't be in the bottom three.

How bad has it been?

Cleveland is allowing a higher shooting percentage than thePhiladelphia 76ers (46.7 percent). Yes, the 0-11, Joel Embiid-less, tanktastic Sixers. The main area of concern has come at the rim, where opponents are converting at a 56 percent clip, fifth-worst in the NBA, according to NBA.com/Stats.

Even if the Cavaliers can finish somewhere in the middle of the pack, their offense should be good enough to cover up any defensive issues.

Ranking in the bottom three? That's surprising and definitely not championship material.

Cavs Are Losing the Rebounding Battle

Startling Stat: 23rd in rebounding with Love, Varejao, Thompson and James

For what was supposed to be a dominant glass-cleaning team, the Cavaliers have greatly underperformed.

(The optimist says, "We can't rebound if we don't miss, am I right?")

The cold hard truth is that the Cavaliers rank in the bottom third in the league, despite having three guys on the roster who all averaged more than nine rebounds per game last season.

As Sam The Bullshit Whisperer of Fox Sports Ohioput it, "For a team with Love,Anderson Varejao, Tristan Thompson and James, that is unacceptable. LeBron himself said the Cavs should win the war of the boards every night—and he's right on."

Instead, the Cavs are looking up at the Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando Magic, and Minnesota Timberwolves thus far. Cleveland has all the talent necessary to control the glass; now the team just has to deliver.

Kyrie Irving: Slayer of Turnovers

Startling Stat: 30 assists, four turnovers in six-game stretch

Irving's development as a true point guard is ongoing, as he's made major strides in his ball-handling this season.

From Nov. 4 through Nov. 15, Irving went on quite a tear. For four straight games, he registered just one turnover per night. This was followed up by back-to-back contests where he never coughed up the ball at all.

This streak included 230 minutes, 386 passes and just four total turnovers, which is pretty remarkable for a point guard who is logging heavy playing time. Irving's turnovers per game (1.8) and turnover percentage (9.0 percent) this season are both career lows.


Cleveland's Bench Is, Umm, Struggling

Startling Stat: Cavs bench is last in minutes (14.7), points (23.2) and assists (4.6) per game


The Cavaliers' reserve corps was supposed to be solid this season. With veterans Marion, Miller and Jones, as well as Thompson, Matthew Dellavedova and Harris, Cleveland appeared to have a strong second unit.

So far, that hasn't been the case.

While Harris and Thompson have been bright spots, Marion was moved to the starting five in favor of Dion Waiters. Miller and Jones appear to have fallen out of Blatt's rotation.

The other part of the bench's poor production has been Blatt's over-reliance on his starters, particularly the Big Three. James, Love and Irving all rank in the top eight in minutes played per game. No other team even has two players in the top 10.

Blatt needs to do a better job of utilizing his bench, particularly with vets like Miller and Jones. A more even balance to the units might mean fresher legs come playoff time, after all.

Cavs Offense, Defense Better Without LeBron?


Startling Stat: Cavs are scoring more and giving up less with James on the bench


After a 5-5 start to the season, obviously James is just slowing the Cavaliers down right now. At least, that's what the numbers say.

Cleveland is scoring more points (116.3 to 112.6) with James on the bench per 100 possessions. The defense is actually a tick better, allowing 110.9 points compared to 111.6 with James in the game, per 82games.com.

Clearly, the Cavs just need to give James' minutes to Harris if they want their offense to improve.

Aren't numbers fun?

Probably one of the premier examples of "Stats don't tell the full story" that I'd give to people who think numbers are end all.

 

[MH32246]

Blatt should give the Kyrie,Marion,Miller,Lebron and Love line up a go I have a feeling it might be a productive one and would create match up problems.

 

[Simmy]

Here's a little something to refresh your day.

 

[Jordan]

Thought y'all would enjoy this article - http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/lebron-may-know-best-about-when-the-new-look-cavs-have-gelled/

LeBron James predicted the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers, featuring himself and new Cav Kevin Love, would take a while to hit their stride. (“A couple of months and maybe a few,” as he put it last month.) He appears to have been correct: After starting 19-20 — with enough ups and downs that at times some commentatorsprematurely declared the Cavs to have gelled — Cleveland has won eight straight games, including impressive victories against the Clippers, Bulls, Thunder and Trail Blazers.

We’re pretty sure that when James made that prediction, he wasn’t running regressions on historical NBA data. That’s because we tried, and we couldn’t find much evidence to back up the conventional wisdom.

It makes sense that teams with lots of new players in major roles would get better during the season, as the new teammates get used to playing with one another. There just isn’t much statistical evidence to back up that theory — partly because it’s unusual for a team as good as Cleveland to rely so heavily on new arrivals.

To study whether teams like Cleveland gel later in the season than more stable clubs like San Antonio, we looked at the fate of 939 older teams — those that played 82-game seasons back to 1978. To estimate how much of their contribution they were getting from newbies, we divided the total wins above replacement (WAR) of new players by the team total, omitting players who were below replacement value. Then we divided up the first 80 games of each season into 10 eight-game buckets — omitting the last two games because some teams rest starters — and checked how each team did, in each bucket, based on their opponent-adjusted point differential.

There wasn’t a meaningful pattern. For instance, teams that peaked earliest, in the first eight games of the season, got an average of 20 percent of their WAR from new players. Teams that peaked in the middle of the season got an average of a little over 25 percent of WAR. But then teams that peaked between Game 49 and Game 80 averaged a contribution of about 21 percent of WAR from newbies.

Part of the problem we had is that there haven’t been many teams that relied on new players as much as the Cavs do. They’ve gotten 63 percent of their WAR from new guys. That’s more than all but 48 teams in our data set — a group that doesn’t include James’s first Miami team, which got 57 percent of WAR from new players (the Heat peaked between Games 17 and 24). And most of those teams were lousy clubs, presumably rebuilding with rookies and cheap castoffs. Their average Pythagorean winning percentage was 36.3 percent.

We nonetheless zoomed in on teams similar to Cleveland and found there is a small pattern of playing worse early and better at midseason, which fits the conventional wisdom. But it’s likely just noise. The only statistically significant difference was for the final 10-game chunk we studied, in which teams like the Cavs did a lot worse than average — which runs counter to the conventional wisdom of gelling and improving with time playing together.

The lesson seems to be that a team starring James, Love and Kyrie Irving playing together for the first time might really need some time to gel, but there aren’t enough teams like the 2014-15 Cavaliers to say that their experience is typical. (One other possible reason it’s hard to detect much of a relationship: Some teams — like the Cavs — get new contributors at the start of the season, while others start playing rookies and midseason trade acquisitions late in seasons that are lost causes.)

As is often the case in sports analysis, we have to trade off precision for sample size, and in this case the sample of teams like the Cavs is too small for the stats to beat the intuitive prediction of James.

 

[David.]

Man that is the longest article that literally says nothing that I have ever read

 

[fat_jed]

Now that our team is finally set (minus one roster spot) I had to commemorate our team's streak with a Cavs wallpaper. Not sure where to put this... but I just want to share it.

 

[LeShaq]

Here's how we look in our last 12 games (11-1) since the trades happened and LeBron came back.

#01 in the NBA in Offensive Rating (ORTG)
#16 in the NBA in Defensive Rating (DRTG)
#02 in the NBA in Net Rating (ORTG - DRTG)

#03 in the NBA in REB%
#02 in the NBA in OREB%
#03 in the NBA in eFG%
#03 in the NBA in TS%


All of this is fantastic news, including the improved DRTG. But still, the DRTG is the thing that has been holding us back all year and hopefully we can continue to get it up because it may be the only thing that can hold us back from going to the finals if we are healthy.

Getting Shumpert healthier will certainly help our DRTG. A defense-oriented backup point guard or center could also help us on defense, both by giving us more defensive firepower and by allowing guys to rest more. At least during the regular season.

We are clearly an elite team now, with the trades and MVP level LeBron.

I just hope we can take those next two or three steps on defense so we can be top caliber in all facets of the game. We may have to wait until next year to (hopefully) field a truly elite defense, but if we can just get it to around #10 or so then I think we can have a great shot at the finals and maybe even a title this year if everything falls our way.

I'm sure Griffin is keeping his eyes open for possible point guard and center additions, as well as potentially dealing Haywood.

Overall, I'm thrilled. After how this season started, it's great to actually be an elite team rather than an overhyped squad that the rest of the league and league fans were enjoying having as the butt of their jokes.

 

[Ohio]