Windhorst Radio Show & Updates

[LuNcHBoX]

In the end none of this S.O.S talk matters. It's one of those stats that is nice but is deceptive at the same time because like others mention it doesn't take into account current streaks.

If we played a team like New York that say hypothetically lost 20 in a row but now hypothetically won 10 in a row and sit at 10-20 the S.O.S would say its an easy win but that team is on a 10 game win streak so which is it? Are they tough because of the 10 game win streak or are they easy because they first lost 20? Chicken and egg argument being applied to how you interpret these trivial things.

 

[Chris]

Fuck. Everyone play the same teams. I'm tired of hearing about strength of schedule. I feel like nobody ever talks about this when it comes to the NBA but suddenly this year I keep getting people arguing strength of schedule with me.

 

[Sebastian]

The Hornets were playing really well when we met up with them, though. Hadn't they won eight of nine or something like that before we destroyed them? I'd say they were another team that was, at least at that point, better than their record.

Of course, as @Marcus said, playing the Lakers, Wolves, and Sixers in any stretch is going to really drag down your SOS rating.

8-2 in their last ten at that point.

 

[LeShaq]

Hey Windy --- 2.6.15


01. Clippers victory was much different than last time Cavs beat the Clippers.

02. Cavs defense against Clippers was strong last night. Defense key for the winning streak.

03. Cavs win over the Clippers was "complete domination".

04. In the last 10 games, Cavs giving up like 98 points per 100 possessions (DRTG).

05. In all 2014-15 regular season games before these last 10 games, Cavs were giving up about 108 points per 100 possessions.

06. This (difference in level of defense) is the difference between being a decent team and a great team.

07. Win streak has been built upon defense.

08. Clippers win was "a complete evisceration."

09. Clippers win was an "arrival" game. Cavs are now contenders.

10. Time has arrived to look at the standings, discuss positioning and see where things go now.

11. Host: Cavs are not fouling the opponents much.

12. Cavs are 100% healthy right now.

13. Some of what Cavs are doing should be able to be sustained.

14. We will hear about Chris Paul calling out female referee today.

15. Clippers were a bit ridiculous in the game last night, with technicals.

16. Clippers have a reputation of being a complaining, whining team.

17. Doc Rivers team in Boston was also a complaining, whining team.

18. LeBron team in Miami also complained about calls a lot.

19. Chris Paul comments about the female referee were "ridiculous".

20. Clippers tough to watch because they consistently complain and whine to referees.

21. LeBron has played strong in the winning streak.

22. Cavs playing with energy and togetherness during the win streak.

23. Kyrie/LeBron play on the break was shades of Wade/LeBron on the break.

24. Kyrie and LeBron now enjoying playing together, and that was not the case at start of the season.

25. Wade and LeBron fast break was known as "The Flying Death Machine".

26. Kyrie/Love play on the fast break shows Kyrie's growth in being selfless.

27. Remember, Kyrie went 70 straight minutes in one stretch this season without an assist. Kyrie's growth is clear (as a teammate, as being unselfish).

28. The team plays together and cooperates with each other now. That is the big difference between now and the start of the season.

29. Seeing how the team is playing now is more of an indictment on how poorly they played earlier in the season. Should never have been under .500.

30. Cavs won't overtake Hawks in standings.

31. I would not have paid attention to standings even a week ago.

32. Time for the Cavs to take a look at the standings.

33. Bulls and Wizards have gone into the tank.

34. Cavs have made up 5 games on the Raptors. Raptors are catchable.

35. Getting the #2 seed could be important.

36. I think Toronto will get the #3 seed.

37. Playing on the road in Atlanta is not difficult. This is good for the Cavs if they face the Hawks in the playoffs.

38. Toronto IS a difficult place to play on the road. So good if Cavs get home court over Raptors.

39. I don't think Atlanta is as good as everyone thinks.

40. Tiebreakers: Cavs are 2-1 against Toronto so far. 1 more game to play this season.

41. Cavs are 1-1 against the Wizards. Play them again after All Star break. 2 more games against them.

42. Cavs are 2-0 against the Bulls.

43. Cavs in good shape with the tiebreakers.

44. Road to Cavs winning the East in the playoffs is getting easier.

45. Host: Why is no one worried about Hawks?

46. Hawks style of play, people question if this will work in the postseason.

47. As of today, I'm thinking it will be Cavs-Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals.

48. I'm not sure if the Bulls will be able to get their act together to make Conference Finals now.

49. Teams Cavs should fear: Golden State, Memphis, Portland, San Antonio, Houston (if Howard is healthy).

50. Thunder could be hard to beat. Still have not mentioned Hawks. So I'm more concerned with other teams than the Hawks.

51. I respect the Hawks, just don't fear them for the Cavs.

52. Host: Why is West so much better than East?

53. Silver has mentioned possibly abolishing the conferences and changing playoff structure.

54. The NBA is a bit worried about the conference imbalance (West being better).

55. West has better run and more stable organizations at this time.

56. I'm not sure if the owners will vote to change anything in conference, playoff format.

57. It may not be in NBA business interest to, for example, help Utah and hurt Philadelphia or New York (in terms of who makes playoffs).

58. Host: Next week "Hey Windy" is on Thursday, special day (instead of Friday), because of All Star break.

59. David Blatt is very intelligent, but his arrogance is annoying at times (Kevin Love talk).

60. ESPN puts together stats and information packs for their workers; we get them each morning.

61. ESPN stats and info people gave us stats about how much Cavs rely on isolation offense.

62. Teams that rely on isolation offense heavily don't win the title, historically.

63. (All this stats talk leading up to Kevin Love, David Blatt discussion).

64. McMenamin (ESPN) told LeBron the isolation data and LeBron said it bothered him all day.

65. LeBron changed how he played in the game last night because of the isolation data.

66. Blatt dismissed the ESPN isolation data.

67. So, Blatt did a similar thing with Love (this brings all stats/Blatt info around). Blatt dismissed all the "Love struggling" talk.

68. Blatt's arrogance about dismissing Love's struggles is annoying.

69. Cavs did "take care of" Love in the game yesterday, despite Blatt blowing off the ESPN data.

70. Blatt, Cavs need to involve Love more. This must be paid attention to, regardless of what Blatt has said.

71. Love does need to be aggressive, needs to be "an active participant in his own rescue."

72. Love's talent will win out in the end. He will come around. He's too good not to.

73. Love does tend to pout a bit when he's out of the mix on offense.

74. Host: Tweets are asking us if we should get a point guard backup or center backup.

75. Cavs do have a huge drop off at point guard when Kyrie leaves the game.

76. For title team, you don't want Delly as your backup point guard. Period.

77. Cavs think players will be available in buyout season (and from China?).

78. Haywood is available to be dealt. Cavs making him available.

79. Cavs would like a backup point guard AND a backup center.

80. Jameer Nelson is being looked at by the Cavs. He is with Denver right now.

81. Stoudemire of the Knicks could be looked at. He has relationship with Griffin from Phoenix.

82. Backup point guard market much better (easier to get) than backup center/big man market.

83. Cavs have had interest in Raymond Felton also, but now Rondo hurt for Mavs (so Mavs may need Felton more at this time).

84. Salary Cap 101. Cavs with player options (LeBron, Love, Miller, JR Smith). Other contract talk.

85. Non Bold Prediction. Cavs have not lost in 23 days. I predict Cavs non losing streak will reach at least 38 days, so I think win streak goes on at least until All Star break.

86. Cavs need a backup to Irving.

87. Watch the Hawks-Warriors game tonight, if you can.

 

[ssopata]

68. Blatt's arrogance about dismissing Love's struggles is annoying.

just curious as to what Windhorst heard from Blatt that suggested arrogance. Lloyd wrote in his notes that Blatt mentioned the Love struggles in a sort of joking manner

“I just got a little tired of everybody talking about Kevin Love,” Blatt sort of joked. “There’s nothing wrong with Kevin Love. … For the mean time everybody can calm down a little bit

it seems as if Windhorst has found himself on the outer edge of the Cavs "inner workings" and he makes snide comments like this periodically. Same for when he keeps bringing up LeBron and Kyrie not liking one another or not enjoying playing together until recently. He's entering Skip Bayless airspace in that regards.

 

[mrbeaks]

I don't think Blatt's arrogant. He's just got a deadpan sense of humor, and he's not a fan of coming out and stating the obvious. I find it endearing.

 

[gratefuldead]

Blatt doesn't take shit from the media and that's going to always rub people in the media the wrong way. Remeber that clip from Israel where blatt admonishes the reporter then refuses to answer his questions?

 

[LeShaq]

just curious as to what Windhorst heard from Blatt that suggested arrogance. Lloyd wrote in his notes that Blatt mentioned the Love struggles in a sort of joking manner



it seems as if Windhorst has found himself on the outer edge of the Cavs "inner workings" and he makes snide comments like this periodically. Same for when he keeps bringing up LeBron and Kyrie not liking one another or not enjoying playing together until recently. He's entering Skip Bayless airspace in that regards.

My take on these two things.

- Windy seemed to be saying that Blatt feels he knows best, no matter what. So despite the ESPN data showing the Cavs playing a lot of iso ball and that not being title worthy as a style, Blatt dismissed it. And similarly Blatt dismissed the "Love struggling" stuff. So this, to Windy, is arrogance by Blatt. Just Blatt feeling he knows better than anyone else. Not saying this is correct or not, but I think this is Windy's take.

- Windy is defending the "LeBron and Kyrie were not happy with each other early in the season" stuff because Windy wrote some of the stuff. So he has to defend his own work. And to be honest, Windy likely would have some inside information about that being the case, at least from LeBron's side.

Right now, I don't care if LeBron and Kyrie got along earlier in the year. They're getting along now, so all is good.

 

[LeShaq]

I don't think Blatt's arrogant. He's just got a deadpan sense of humor, and he's not a fan of coming out and stating the obvious. I find it endearing.

As gratefuldead said, Blatt doesn't care what the media thinks (in my opinion) and he knows he's smarter than the media, so it's easy for him to blow the media off.

One thing Windy said about Blatt that I did not write down is he said he knows that Blatt is much smarter than him (Windy). That's probably true, and I'm sure Blatt knows it as well.

Like Popovich, Blatt can get tired of the media. As can all coaches. I see it both ways, from both Blatt's side and Windy's side. And as a fan, I don't care if Blatt likes the media.

But really Windy's point in the whole "Blatt arrogant" thing was to say that Blatt should work to help Love out more, not blow off the suggestions that Love is struggling.

 

[wuck]

just curious as to what Windhorst heard from Blatt that suggested arrogance.

I think it's that Blatt dismissed media critiques of the Cavs lack of proper use of Love (as well as not listening to the isolation talk).

Now, both media critiques are true -- there has been a lot of isolation and the Cavs aren't consistently using Love properly. But I think that Windhorst is making the story more about the media/Blatt, when some of the story is about Blatt and his players.

Blatt has consistently dismissed the Love chatter. You can say it's because he's arrogant and won't listen to media criticism. I think Blatt appreciates what Love has been doing (even if his shot has been off). He has been protecting Love for weeks and saying things, including tonight, that seem intended for Love to hear. But he also said recently that it was unacceptable (as a team) for Love to get 7 shots at the start of the game and not shoot again. I don't think Windhorst was at that presser - not a big game. The team is also on a 12-game streak. It's not the time to criticize his players through the press. It's a good time to keep encouraging Love through the press. Same goes for him calling JR Smith a joy to coach. I mean maybe that's true, maybe it's exaggerated but either way I'm sure JR and David Griffin didn't mind hearing it.

I found the ISO talk interesting, especially about how LeBron in particular took that heart during the day. It would be great for Blatt if the media would ask those sorts of questions more often to the players (they often don't). Not a bad thing to get criticized by the media but not by your coach for doing the things that fans notice as well. It seems like Blatt is taking a half-full approach and he has already said how the offense is a mix of sets and ISOs because he has players who are fantastic at ISOs. But if the media is going to bring up advanced stats to LeBron and point out the ISO percentage, and if the team is going to have a bunch of assists versus the Clippers, I have to believe that Blatt is not going to complain.

I am not saying that Blatt is right about everything. Not at all. But Windhorst is also wrong to imply that Blatt never admits errors - he took individual responsibility for the crappy 3rd-quarter rotations against Philadelphia, but I doubt the national reporters heard about that...

Personally, I enjoy Blatt's pressers even if he doesn't always tell the whole truth. He has made some missteps this year (things players have responded to badly) but he's pretty careful with his words when it comes to a lot of things. If he wants to get some digs in at the media and say "I told you so" a bit during a 12-game winning streak, and if the media thinks that's arrogant, I am willing to excuse a little swagger when things are going well. What message he's putting out there, and what players think about his comments, matter more to me than what the media thinks, I guess.

 

[catfish]

As somoeone who went to a competitor Princetononians often come across as arrogant.

 

[LeShaq]

Well said, Wuck. Thanks.

 

[wuck]

As somoeone who went to a competitor Princetononians often come across as arrogant.

Sorry you couldn't get into Princeton.

 

[LeShaq]

As others have said regarding giving Jason Lloyd some clicks, I would encourage people to give the "Hey Windy" show some clicks as well, just so the radio station knows that people appreciate the show. When I do these write ups I try to include the link to the show, but when I post them right after the show ends (like today), there is no podcast link available yet.

Here's the link to today's show.

http://stationcaster.com/stations/w..._Brian_Windhorst___Jason_Gibbs-1423233122.mp3

Windy is by far my favorite guy on the Cavs beat. Him and Lloyd. I know a lot of people get down on Windy but I value his work and I particularly value the access he gets with LeBron. So I want to support his stuff so that he keeps doing it and we keep getting the information.

 

[Peachtree]

Sorry you couldn't get into Princeton.

You mean DeVry isn't a quality competitor?