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2021-2022 Cavaliers General Discussion: Trade Deadline Edition

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Who Should the Cavs Trade For?

  • Murray

    Votes: 18 37.5%
  • Lavert

    Votes: 17 35.4%
  • White

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • Seth Curry

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • Schroeder

    Votes: 7 14.6%
  • Tatum

    Votes: 3 6.3%
  • Hart

    Votes: 3 6.3%
  • Ingram

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • Brown

    Votes: 2 4.2%
  • Jim Chones

    Votes: 9 18.8%

  • Total voters
    48
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I love beating the Wizards. Remember when Lebron was drafted and the Wizards looked like they would be a good rivalry. Then we knocked them outa the playoffs 2 or 3 years. Whiny Wizard fans....oh their tears were so sweet.
Yeah, Beal giving off some serious Deshaun Stevenson vibes
 
Please define "have not been playing well lately". I'm curious how you measure the quality of their play; i hope its not by simple box score numbers.

Do you believe the Cavs would have been better without them? Do you believe the cavs won despite, not because of, their contributionns?
No. Quite simply, I mean Mobley is not playing as well as he was before the injury while Rubio has cooled off over the past week or so.
 
Hope the city stops sucking off the Browns and starts filling up the arena.

My feelings about just how good of a sports town this is has faded over the years.

Prove me wrong.
Beats Columbus.
 
No. Quite simply, I mean Mobley is not playing as well as he was before the injury while Rubio has cooled off over the past week or so.
Again, what are you referring to specifically? Are you really only talking about their scoring, and projecting it on their general contribution?

Rubio was +35 or so, mostly because of defense and turnovers caused, and Mobley is a key part of the defensive presence that is the actual identity of this team; not their scoring. He's actually been mentioned in DPOY discussions.

In that regard, i beg to fundamentally differ; thought they played exceptionally well overall and while they both seem to be in a slump, their net contribution to those wins was massive. Remove either of them and those games may have been losses.
 
I decided to pull some 3PT defensive stats from the losing streak in November because the wife is cooking dinner and I can't bear to grade my students' essays right now. Didn't include the Boston loss because they're not a Top 10 3PT shooting team like the Suns, Nets, and Warriors. Pretty clear that in the closest games we forced a lower percentage and fewer shot attempts. Relevant for the upcoming Jazz and Bucks games (both in top 10).

cavs3PTD Nov21 L streak.JPG
Of course, Curry saved the Warrior's asses in that game by going 9-16 from three. Rest of the team was 6-27.

Encouraging that even when we didn't have Mobley and missed Markkanen for the first two of those, those numbers are pretty good overall.

Again, our 3PT OPP% is 32.8% this year. Last year it was 38.3%. That's a huge improvement.
 
Rubio was +35 or so, mostly because of defense and turnovers caused
Hmm. That's quite a conclusion to draw from that stat. You could just as well say that he happened to be part of some hot lineups where other people did the heavy lifting.

Rubio has pretty much sucked for weeks now. He's bringing almost nothing to the table. His defense has been meh and as we all know, he can't hit anything.
 
I like the CBSports.com NBA Power Rankings because they are based on how the team performed the previous week.


The interesting thing I noticed from the Dec. 2 poll is that 10 of the top 13 teams are in the Eastern Conference. For years the West has been the better conference but it appears the worm has turned.

Phoenix and Golden State are 1 and 2. Utah is 5. Otherwise the top 13 is all Eastern teams.

The other theme this year is mediocrity.

Modern dance pioneer Martha Graham famously said, "The only sin is mediocrity." Well, let's hope she's not watching NBA games from the afterlife.

As of this writing, there are 13 NBA teams -- nearly half the league -- within two games of .500. The NBA is swimming in a vile sea of mediocrity, which has allowed teams like the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors to separate themselves in the early going. It also makes doing the Power Rankings extremely difficult when that many teams have similar records.

One part that wasn't difficult was distinguishing the No. 1 team. The Suns took down the Warriors in one of the best games of the year so far to run their winning streak to 17 games and claim the undisputed top spot in this week's rankings. Fortunately for us, those two teams play twice more this month, including a rematch in San Francisco on Friday
(The Dubs won that one by 22 points).

Making the biggest jump this week were the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have gotten a lot of their roster back after being devastated by injuries and protocols. They picked up three impressive wins to move all the way to No. 9 after checking in at No. 22 last week. Another team moving up, for a change, is the Los Angeles Lakers, after going 2-1 this week despite losing LeBron James to health and safety protocols.

On the other side of the coin lie the Toronto Raptors, who fell seven spots to No. 25 after a winless week. Hopefully the coming weeks help clear the logjam of mediocre teams stuck in the middle of the standings.


This poll came out the day before the Cavs (#9) crushed Washington (#8) so I expect the Cavs will move up even more in the next one. They should definitely move ahead of Atlanta (#6) who lost to the Knicks and Sixers at home while beating Indy by 3. The Knicks and Sixers are .500 teams while Indy is 9-16.

By the way, the Bulls beat the Nets in Brooklyn by 4 Friday night. The Bulls are now 16-8; the Nets are 16-7.
 
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These next three games will tell us a lot. Three games in four nights with a road trip tomorrow.

Sunday they're home against 15-8 Utah, ranked #5. Monday they're at Milwaukee, ranked #4, on the second night of a back-to-back. Wednesday they're home against 16-8 Chicago, ranked #7, who just beat #3 Brooklyn on the road.

The Bucks have won 9 of 10 and will be playing at home after a day off. That is a schedule loss for the Cavs. The Bulls are 16-8 and have won 4 of 5.

Getting one win out of the next three will be very tough. Utah might be their best chance.
 
The fact that the West is clearly the weaker conference (they also have six of the ten worst teams) means we shouldn't get too excited about having beaten Denver, Portland, Dallas, and the Clippers. Those teams are all between 15-21 in the CBS poll.

The good news is we have 12 games remaining against Western Conference teams currently ranked 20-30 and 12 other games against the Eastern teams ranked 24 and lower.
 
The other theme this year is mediocrity.

Modern dance pioneer Martha Graham famously said, "The only sin is mediocrity." Well, let's hope she's not watching NBA games from the afterlife.

As of this writing, there are 13 NBA teams -- nearly half the league -- within two games of .500. The NBA is swimming in a vile sea of mediocrity, which has allowed teams like the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors to separate themselves in the early going. It also makes doing the Power Rankings extremely difficult when that many teams have similar records.
That is one way to look at it. On the other hand, I would argue that a lot of those teams (Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Charlotte, New York, Clippers, Denver, etc.) around the .500 mark are pretty good. They are just all playing each other, and someone has to lose each game.

I guess one could argue they are mediocre relative to that sea of NBA teams, by definition. But there are some very talented players on those teams, and I think that some of those teams would have much better records if they were competing against teams from 2016. The talent level in the NBA is really high right now.
 
With all the trade talk, I think the only move I would think of making is finding an upgrade to Kevin Pangos. If I'm not mistaken, he's the only player on the roster who has not seen any meaningful minutes. Even Tacko was used a time or two in crunch time. If JBB doesn't trust him to play when needed, he's gotta go. An injury to Garland or Rubio could really hurt the team at this point. Is Kyle Guy a better option than whoever is available via free agency?
 
The fact that the West is clearly the weaker conference (they also have six of the ten worst teams) means we shouldn't get too excited about having beaten Denver, Portland, Dallas, and the Clippers. Those teams are all between 15-21 in the CBS poll.

The Cleveland Cavaliers were one of the worst teams in the NBA just a few months ago. Any win is a good win. Good teams beat the teams they should, and steal a few from those they shouldn't.
 
Hmm. That's quite a conclusion to draw from that stat. You could just as well say that he happened to be part of some hot lineups where other people did the heavy lifting.

Rubio has pretty much sucked for weeks now. He's bringing almost nothing to the table. His defense has been meh and as we all know, he can't hit anything.
You could say that, but then how do you explain that he is close 2nd in +-throughout the whole season? On the other hand, if your take is that his defense is "meh" and he "brings nothing to the table" i guess we'll have to agree to disagree because our definitions of meaningful contribution seem to fundamentally differ.
 
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