David Blatt is a former NBA coach

[go cavs275]

Someone else brought this up a few days ago, but I'd like to see staggered minutes of Lebron and Love. Just to keep someone we can run our offense through at all times. @priceFTW's awesome stats that shows Lebron's impact, to me, not only shows lebron's dominance, but is also a product of a bench that is playing very bad as a whole. Keeping one of Love and Lebron on the floor at almost all times should help to fix that problem. It should also keep Lebron from having to come back into games early and picking up extra minutes.

 

[Zeus69]

The Delly/Shump/LBJ/TT/Moz lineup was the best defensive lineup in the NBA last year and was NET +45 per 100 possessions last year. When this team is healthy, look for the same starting five as last year (Kyrie/JR/LBJ/TT/Moz), with James coming out at at the 4 minutes left mark or so of the first and then coming back with the defensive lineup (5 plus defenders this year) at the beginning of the 2nd in games that matter. If the lead gets big enough, we'll see Mo, Jefferson, JJ, et al., with probably Jeff the first one up, but in games that matter, I don't see an all-bench lineup out there. That's the benefit of having three first option type offensive players. What people forget about last year was that the injuries killed our ability to put both the best offensive and defensive lineups in the NBA out on the court.

Love not in starting lineup?

 

[priceFTW]

Blatt looked frustrated by that shitfest out there--so many lay ups missed, so many FTs missed, so many turnovers thrown away, many of them unforced

1. This team is having a hard time pulling away from teams because it cannot find a lineup that both defends and scores which is how you blow teams out. Last year's starting lineup (Kyrie/JR/LBJ/Love/Moz) did both (Love and Moz were defending better and Kyrie had a stretch of good defense from Jan. 15th for about a month) and that is why it was more than +20 per 100 possessions. Blatt can find lineups that score or defend, but not both and that is a function of the injuries to two key perimeter cogs (Kyrie and Shump) that would give this team lineup flexibility to both defend and score.

As it is, the starting lineup of Mo/JR/LBJ/Love/Moz was +6.2 per 100 possessions coming into this game and that number will drop. Blatt will probably have to move Delly into the starting lineup until Kyrie is ready. He is in 7 of our 8 best lineups and is in our top three duos:

Delly/Love: 236 minutes, +31.1 per 100 possessions
Delly/LBJ: 267 minutes: +27.0 per 100 possessions
Delly/ TT: 310 minutes: + 20.0 per 100 possessions

Obviously Blatt feels that Delly will leave the bench bereft of defense and he's right, but Delly in will most likely prevent these terribly slow starts we're having which inevitably means James will wind up playing higher minutes.

2. Love is 19 for his last 31 from 3.

His true shooting is 71.7% over the last seven games, 64%+ in 7 straight games. He had never been over 60% in more than three straight games before. He will be at 60% TS after tonight's game.

He's also shot over 50% in 5 straight games which ties his career high in 2011.

He wasn't as dominant on the boards tonight (he put in a massive effort yesterday), and there were some defensive breakdowns, but we don't win this horribly played game without Love's offense. He should be getting more shots and JR fewer.

3. We were one pick away from getting Hollis-Jefferson who has already become a plus defender who also rebounds well. He has athleticism, length, energy, and surprising strength, all the traits a plus defender needs. The Nets' eFG% allowed without him on court is 55.8% and 50% with him on court. The Nets are a putrid defensive team which makes tonight's shitfest on offense even more offensive. In any case, if he ever gets a jumper, he will become quite the impact player. He would have looked nice in some small ball lineups.

4. JR did some stupid things out there, but he played with heart and energy. In the last 30 years, 40 guards/point guards have racked up 3 steals and 4 blocks, most of them the cream of defenders.

5. There were about 97 possessions in this game so the DRtg was about 91. That's only the fourth time this team has held an opponent under a 100 DRtg.

 

[2 For The Brew]

Congratulations to Coach Blatt - Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for October / November.

 

[kookoo]

Congratulations to Coach Blatt - Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for October / November.

Anytime something good happens to this team, something bad happens almost instantly.

I can see all teams in the league going small ball against us. We seem to be too slow and not good enough on the defensive end without Shumpert controlling the guard penetration.

 

[roozy]

Is this guy incapable of resting Lebron during blowouts?

 

[All4One1ForAll]

To be honest I think Frank Vogel deserved the Eastern Conference COTM award. Blatt hasn't necessarily done a bad job, but he hasn't wowed me either. Rarely do I watch Cavs games, and say to myself, "What an amazing play drawn up by Blatt," or "Excellent substitution. That truly changed the game." Vogel has gotten more out of a clearly inferior team (the Pacers are 11-5 while the Cavs are 13-5).

Don't try to pin this as me saying Blatt sucks. I just think Blatt has been very average coaching wise thus far, while Vogel has done a great job getting the Pacers to play above their talent level.

 

[AmirT0]

Is this guy incapable of resting Lebron during blowouts?

This time I can't defend Blatt. This is where you need to have a feel for the game and the season. Washington came desperate for a win, it is 20 points game with 6+ minutes left. Just pull the fucking plug. You play catch up the entire game, can't make shots, can't get any momentum. Just shut it the fuck down. I honestly don't get Blatt this time.


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[6kiss]

Cant wait to hear Blatt make up excuses about this game and get lippy with the media when they question his teams effort.

Andy 9 minutes? Why?

 

[priceFTW]

I felt that this game was a long time coming. We have played poorly before this season, but were difficult to put away like this. Coming into this game, we had led in the 4th quarter of every game, even the ones that we lost. All of the bad habits that we have seen caught up with the team and culminated in this epic shitfest. Blatt knows it and I am sure he's doing what he can to rectify things as much as possible without a healthy roster. I was also glad to see him show some emotion about the garbage we saw concerning refereeing as Gortat was planted in the lane all night and nothing was called. The sad thing was that this was a crappy Wizards team that has lost 4 in a row by an average of 18 points per game.

1. Delly must start games until Kyrie is ready to go. Enough is enough with playing Mo at the start which leads to a layup line which leads to deficits. Delly was the second best player out there tonight behind Wall and has been this team's third best player all year. We cannot afford these shitty starts every game and expect to come back all the time, so we should have Delly out there from the get go. I said this during the off-season and I think it is coming to fruition:

Hmm...he would be a roster upgrade in that we'd get another ball-handler, and a sort of creator. I don't think he'll stay ahead of Delly in the rotation, though as the season progresses.

I assume we'll once again take LBJ out after 6 or 7 minutes in the first and then bring him back with the defensive unit to start second quarters that was so good this year. Will Mo play then? The defensive unit was so effective because it had 4 plus defenders and TT who played well defensively in those lineups. Where does Mo fit in? If we do bring him in, he can be an insurance piece but I doubt he'll play consistent minutes since his defense is terrible. The defensive units were so successful last year that I doubt we'll go away from.

When a team trails 10-0 at the 9:22 mark, it has only a 34.8% win probability when taking homecourt advantage out of the equatioon. We chased those 10 points all night long and could never get over the hump. 9-12, 14-14, 16-18, 36-37, never got the lead. Then they broke it open. As the season has progressed, this team looks less and less sure of itself Look at the dominance this team showed after the trades last year:

We led for 87.9% of all minutes played home: on average, the Cavs led for 42 minutes, trailed for 4 minutes, and were tied for 2 minutes at home. In other words, on average, the Cavs were beating every team at home from beginning to end, with the starters, with the backups, with every lineup. The longest they trailed at home was for 13 minutes against the Nets. The next highest total was the Pacers' 9 minutes.

The Cavs were MORE dominant at home after the trades than the GSW were last year. Bolded teams represent home games.

I haven't broken it down completely for this year, but look at where this team is at after first quarters: 24-27 tonight, 17-24 against BKN, up 23-22 against CHA, tied with Toronto 25-25, up 29-27 on Orlando...we're just not playing with leads in games and all the games are close.

2. What a waste of James's effort and energy which of course is also his fault. He turned it over 9 times which is horrific and reminiscent of last year, but he was out there playing hard for long stretches.. The sure fire way of knowing how hard he's going is by how he rebounds. In the playoffs, his offensive rebounding always goes up. He took the ball to the basket quite a bit but didn't get too many calls and his jumper looks broken again.

3. TT played much better defensively than did Moz did and was actually the high + man at +8. He did a very good job getting ORebs (his offensive rebounding has improved since the beginning of the year), but instead of finding open shooters right off the OReb, he put up his ugly 8 footer and it cost the team. Get that rebound, TT, and kick out for an open look.

Then there's Moz. He's fallen off of a cliff since this injury and it has become worrisome. The defense and energy picked up when Andy came in. I wonder how unready Kaun is if he can't get any minutes at all. The Cavs were 10.9 points per 100 possessions better with Moz on court last year and are 8 points per 100 possessions worse with him on court this year.

4. KLove had made 19-31 threes coming into this one and regression to the mean was inevitable. I thought, however, that we should have gone to him in the beginning to see if he could get hot and get us a lead. When Love had 5 shots attempted, JR had 7 or 8 and Mo had 10. That's terrible even though he was awful tonight.

5. JR is competing, but he's taking stupid shots again and he's not making his open threes as he always has. It's still early, but alarming.

6. The defense was terrible for two 7 minute stretches, but that's all it takes to win a game for the opposition. There were about 97 possessions in this game, so the defense grades out decently (DRtg of 100) while the offense was pure trash (ORtg of 87-88).

7. Getting two key cogs back will certainly help, but there are other problems with the defense that might prevent this team from reaching its full potential and that that includes Moz's health.

8. Dudley would be so damn good on this team. I posted about him this summer. The Bucks were 4.5 points per 100 possessions better with him on court and the Wizards this year are nearly 23 points per 100 possessions better with him on court.

 

[AmirT0]

I felt that this game was a long time coming. We have played poorly before this season, but were difficult to put away like this. Coming into this game, we had led in the 4th quarter of every game, even the ones that we lost. All of the bad habits that we have seen caught up with the team and culminated in this epic shitfest. Blatt knows it and I am sure he's doing what he can to rectify things as much as possible without a healthy roster. I was also glad to see him show some emotion about the garbage we saw concerning refereeing as Gortat was planted in the lane all night and nothing was called. The sad thing was that this was a crappy Wizards team that has lost 4 in a row by an average of 18 points per game.

1. Delly must start games until Kyrie is ready to go. Enough is enough with playing Mo at the start which leads to a layup line which leads to deficits. Delly was the second best player out there tonight behind Wall and has been this team's third best player all year. We cannot afford these shitty starts every game and expect to come back all the time, so we should have Delly out there from the get go. I said this during the off-season and I think it is coming to fruition:



When a team trails 10-0 at the 9:22 mark, it has only a 34.8% win probability when taking homecourt advantage out of the equatioon. We chased those 10 points all night long and could never get over the hump. 9-12, 14-14, 16-18, 36-37, never got the lead. Then they broke it open. As the season has progressed, this team looks less and less sure of itself Look at the dominance this team showed after the trades last year:

We led for 87.9% of all minutes played home: on average, the Cavs led for 42 minutes, trailed for 4 minutes, and were tied for 2 minutes at home. In other words, on average, the Cavs were beating every team at home from beginning to end, with the starters, with the backups, with every lineup. The longest they trailed at home was for 13 minutes against the Nets. The next highest total was the Pacers' 9 minutes.

The Cavs were MORE dominant at home after the trades than the GSW were last year. Bolded teams represent home games.

2. What a waste of James's effort and energy which of course is also his fault. He turned it over 9 times which is horrific and reminiscent of last year, but he was out there playing hard for long stretches.. The sure fire way of knowing how hard he's going is by how he rebounds. In the playoffs, his offensive rebounding always goes up. He took the ball to the basket quite a bit but didn't get too many calls and his jumper looks broken again.

3. TT played much better defensively than did Moz did and was actually the high + man at +8. He did a very good job getting ORebs (his offensive rebounding has improved since the beginning of the year), but instead of finding open shooters right off the OReb, he put up his ugly 8 footer and it cost the team. Get that rebound, TT, and kick out for an open look.

Then there's Moz. He's fallen off of a cliff since this injury and it has become worrisome. The defense and energy picked up when Andy came in. I wonder how unready Kaun is if he can't get any minutes at all.

4. KLove had made 19-31 threes coming into this one and regression to the mean was inevitable. I thought, however, that we should have gone to him in the beginning to see if he could get hot and get us a lead. When Love had 5 shots attempted, JR had 7 or 8 and Mo had 10. That's terrible even though he was awful tonight.

5. JR is competing, but he's taking stupid shots again and he's not making his open threes as he always has. It's still early, but alarming.

6. The defense was terrible for two 7 minute stretches, but that's all it takes to win a game for the opposition. There were about 97 possessions in this game, so the defense grades out decently (DRtg of 100) while the offense was pure trash (ORtg of 87-88).

7. Getting two key cogs back will certainly help, but there are other problems with the defense that might prevent this team from reaching its full potential and that that includes Moz's health.

While I appreciate your analytic effort a game like that was bound to happen.
I don't think there is much to be concerned with. The Wizards won't eliminate us in the playoff. This was a throwaway game. And while it was nice to see Blatt showing the emotion and getting the tech, I feel like we lost twice because of Blatt. I don't see Pop with the make up of this team and the importance of Bron let him run there and miss back to back layups with 3 minutes left down 12-14, in December, with the team missing key guys. This is a game where Blatt should have cut the team's losses and let this game go. Not exhaust Lebron and risk him in a meaningless game. That's the most annoying aspect of this game for me.


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[mhi]

Once again, we've got to spot hedging the ball handler on screens.

ESPECIALLY when Kevin Love's man is the screener. Basically, all our bigs should drop back with the exception of TT who has the option of sometimes switching.

On offense, we need to play less two big men lineups. I know it's hard to do without Shump and Irving but WHY NOT....LET IT FLY.

 

[letgocavs]

LeBron knows his body. I'm far from a Blatt fan, but I liked that our starters wanted to play and wanted to compete until the end. The game isn't over until it's over. I get tired of this conserving minutes shit.

 

[Paul]

I felt that this game was a long time coming. We have played poorly before this season, but were difficult to put away like this. Coming into this game, we had led in the 4th quarter of every game, even the ones that we lost. All of the bad habits that we have seen caught up with the team and culminated in this epic shitfest. Blatt knows it and I am sure he's doing what he can to rectify things as much as possible without a healthy roster. I was also glad to see him show some emotion about the garbage we saw concerning refereeing as Gortat was planted in the lane all night and nothing was called. The sad thing was that this was a crappy Wizards team that has lost 4 in a row by an average of 18 points per game.

1. Delly must start games until Kyrie is ready to go. Enough is enough with playing Mo at the start which leads to a layup line which leads to deficits. Delly was the second best player out there tonight behind Wall and has been this team's third best player all year. We cannot afford these shitty starts every game and expect to come back all the time, so we should have Delly out there from the get go. I said this during the off-season and I think it is coming to fruition:



When a team trails 10-0 at the 9:22 mark, it has only a 34.8% win probability when taking homecourt advantage out of the equatioon. We chased those 10 points all night long and could never get over the hump. 9-12, 14-14, 16-18, 36-37, never got the lead. Then they broke it open. As the season has progressed, this team looks less and less sure of itself Look at the dominance this team showed after the trades last year:

We led for 87.9% of all minutes played home: on average, the Cavs led for 42 minutes, trailed for 4 minutes, and were tied for 2 minutes at home. In other words, on average, the Cavs were beating every team at home from beginning to end, with the starters, with the backups, with every lineup. The longest they trailed at home was for 13 minutes against the Nets. The next highest total was the Pacers' 9 minutes.

The Cavs were MORE dominant at home after the trades than the GSW were last year. Bolded teams represent home games.

I haven't broken it down completely for this year, but look at where this team is at after first quarters: 24-27 tonight, 17-24 against BKN, up 23-22 against CHA, tied with Toronto 25-25, up 29-27 on Orlando...we're just not playing with leads in games and all the games are close.

2. What a waste of James's effort and energy which of course is also his fault. He turned it over 9 times which is horrific and reminiscent of last year, but he was out there playing hard for long stretches.. The sure fire way of knowing how hard he's going is by how he rebounds. In the playoffs, his offensive rebounding always goes up. He took the ball to the basket quite a bit but didn't get too many calls and his jumper looks broken again.

3. TT played much better defensively than did Moz did and was actually the high + man at +8. He did a very good job getting ORebs (his offensive rebounding has improved since the beginning of the year), but instead of finding open shooters right off the OReb, he put up his ugly 8 footer and it cost the team. Get that rebound, TT, and kick out for an open look.

Then there's Moz. He's fallen off of a cliff since this injury and it has become worrisome. The defense and energy picked up when Andy came in. I wonder how unready Kaun is if he can't get any minutes at all. The Cavs were 10.9 points per 100 possessions better with Moz on court last year and are 8 points per 100 possessions worse with him on court this year.

4. KLove had made 19-31 threes coming into this one and regression to the mean was inevitable. I thought, however, that we should have gone to him in the beginning to see if he could get hot and get us a lead. When Love had 5 shots attempted, JR had 7 or 8 and Mo had 10. That's terrible even though he was awful tonight.

5. JR is competing, but he's taking stupid shots again and he's not making his open threes as he always has. It's still early, but alarming.

6. The defense was terrible for two 7 minute stretches, but that's all it takes to win a game for the opposition. There were about 97 possessions in this game, so the defense grades out decently (DRtg of 100) while the offense was pure trash (ORtg of 87-88).

7. Getting two key cogs back will certainly help, but there are other problems with the defense that might prevent this team from reaching its full potential and that that includes Moz's health.

8. Dudley would be so damn good on this team. I posted about him this summer. The Bucks were 4.5 points per 100 possessions better with him on court and the Wizards this year are nearly 23 points per 100 possessions better with him on court.

I'd like to see us start TT and Delly. Having JR and Mo as your perimeter defense is just a recipe for disaster. JR is feast or famine and Mo is just bad. At least with TT we know he's healthy and durable and I think Moz is just destroying our morale and momentum at the start of games. I can see some logic in trying to sort of jump start Moz but it feels like we've tried it a while now and it's just not happening. Maybe it's better at this point to take the pressure off of Moz and let him come off the bench and regroup. Blatt could also maybe dabble with more minutes for Andy and Kaun and see if anything emerges there.

It might be time to go with a more out of the box solution to our woes and do one of those yoga or bowling days. I'm not sure a tongue lashing from LeBron and James Jones does much at this point. The players are probably about numb to it and I'd hate to see LeBron be a second coming of Kobe in that regard.

It's disheartening to see us struggling on so many fronts.

 

[Chris Parker]

"It's disheartening to see us struggling on so many fronts."

Was accused of overreacting to loss for saying if this is the fight theyr'e going to show, make other plans for this summer.

Sometimes it seems fans are as entitled as the team, like because this team overachieved last year, it will necessarily over achieve this year once everyone's back. Wish I shared that assurance. There are a lot of issues with this team, most of all, the fact that they don't seem to focus or really compete hard for much of the games.

I hate to say this because I don't feel it's 100% true, but these guys are looking a lot like frontrunners (outside LeBron) - only capable of succeeding when things are going well. When they're not, team doesn't quite collapse, but their muddle is pretty disheartening.