2021-2022 Cavaliers General Discussion: Trade Deadline Edition

[buzzdog]

Off topic, but I wan't to mention that in the past, I was always a huge believer in small-ball basketball. I always thought small-ball gave an advantage against traditional line-ups, thanks to the added quickness.

Never in a million years did I think doing the complete opposite would work. The crazy thing is that my favorite team is the one doing it. My beliefs about small-ball have been completely shattered.

If you told me @ the start of the year that we'd be a playoff team with Lauri Markkanen as our starting small forward, I would've laughed hard.

The Cavs are doing something never before seen. Nobody in the past had the guts to even tinker with something like that. It could actually revolutionize the NBA & other teams could start copying us. That's crazy.

I made an anti small ball post a long time ago when it was becoming dogma that every team needed to copy Golden State to succeed. I advocated thinking outside the box. I'm extremely pleased to see the Cavs doing exactly that, and even more pleased to see it working.

 

[macbdog]

Report: Rivals teams showing interest in package centered around Ricky Rubio and draft picks

Other teams in the NBA appear to have shown interest in deals involving Cleveland Cavaliers guard Ricky Rubio as the Cavs look to improve their depleted backcourt.

cavaliersnation.com

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Other teams are interested in getting draft picks and cap relief from the Cavs for players they don't want anymore? I'm shocked by this.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

The turnovers are driving me crazy. On the current regular roster, the biggest culprits by far are Garland and Rondo, who average 8 turnovers per 36 between them. Frankly, that's awful. Way too many unforced errors – sloppy passes, painting themselves into a corner, too slow to get rid of the ball.

I can understand Garland racking up some TO's as a result of trying to make plays, but Rondo has to take much better care of the ball. He's a veteran on his last legs and his main job is to hold the fort while DG rests. We don't need him to be 2011 Rondo.

Rondo has been a turnover machine for years. Starting with the '14-15 season his turnover percentages have been 18.8%, 19.0%, 18.5%, 18.1%, 16.8%, 17.1%, 17.0%, 20.5%, and this year 24.2% in LA and 18.4% in three games with the Cavs. All of these numbers except the 16.8% put him in the lowest 10% among point guards and most years he's in the lowest 5%.

He's consistently in the top 5% in assists per usage rate, so he's at opposite extremes in terms of assists and turnovers.

In 65 minutes with the Cavs his on/off is a +5.1, which is the first time that number has been in the positive in ten years. But it's only three games.

 

[buzzdog]

Bit of a ball stopper tho right?

Yeah, the ball tends to stop when it goes into the basket.

 

[FrontPageNews]

Goat is back

 

[cabs]

The post match interviews just wouldnt be the same without the reporter from Greece

 

[bigfoot5415]

Unless I miscounted, we only have 11 games left vs the western conference.

Top 4 are out of the way (Suns, Grizzlies, Warriors & Jazz). While we only earned 1 win in 8 games, I feel pretty confident that we at least compete with all of them.

Only 3 of which are on the road. San Antonio & OKC on this trip. Then a stop in Houston.

Only 7 total B2B as well. Schedule is looking good if we can continue to do well on this road trip.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Pluto had this:

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff said he challenged Garland and his team’s other guards to help on the boards. Utah loves the 3-point shot, takes 40 a game – second most in the NBA. When the Jazz miss, that creates long rebounds. Earlier in the trip, Golden State hurt that Cavs by grabbing those long rebounds and loose balls. That irritated Bickerstaff. He warned against a repeat in Salt Lake.

5. So Garland ran down 10 rebounds. Fellow guard Lamar Stevens had seven boards. The Cavs owned the boards, 50-32.

One good thing that came out of the loss to the Warriors was the wake-up call those 22 offensive rebounds put on the Cavs. With our tall front line I feel our guards think there's no need for them to help out on the defensive glass, but they really need to, especially against teams that jack up a lot of 3's.

The Warriors opened the door with an unusually bad shooting night from deep, but the Cavs were unable to prevent them from getting 22 extra possessions after missed shots. Lots of shots banged off the rim and it seemed the W's came up with every long rebound while Looney grabbed most of the short ones.

I'm hoping the Cavs continue to stress giving the bigs some help on the defensive glass. I think preventing second chance scoring opportunities is more important than having guards leaking out for two-man fast breaks.

 

[Peacedog]

Could the Cavs actually go 5-1 on this road trip? I was really hoping they would go 4-2. Caught a break last night with the Jazz missing 3 bigs. Still, if they can head home at 26-18 I may need to revise my 45 win prediction. Starting to feel like 48-34 to me.

 

[Vipra]

Could the Cavs actually go 5-1 on this road trip? I was really hoping they would go 4-2. Caught a break last night with the Jazz missing 3 bigs. Still, if they can head home at 26-18 I may need to revise my 45 win prediction. Starting to feel like 48-34 to me.

48 to 50 wins seems reasonable expectation if we don't lose multiple key players in the winnable games.
If we win only against the teams below us in the standing, we will be 36-22 by ASG.

@ Spurs W
@ Thunder W

Nets L

@ Bulls L


Thunder W

Knicks W

Bucks L



@ Pistons W
Pelicans W

@ Rockets W

@ Hawks W

Pacers W


Spurs W

@Pacers W
@ Sixers L


@ Hawks W

It should be 16-8 after the ASG with the same expectation. That would make the season 52-30.
However, there are still seven back-to-back games remaining. Also, there is a stretch when we play 4 games on 5 nights (Mavs, @Hawks, , @knicks, Sixers) sandwiched between two games vs Magic.
On the positive side, the last two games are @Nets and vsBucks. If those teams rest their key players, we might win.

 

[red.]

 

[Larry hughes]

Per Woj, guess we can scratch Cam off the list.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Bickerstaff after hearing of Koby Altman's contract extension:

“The relationship that Koby and I have, and the front office as a whole and coaching staff is like we’re all together,” Bickerstaff said. “And leadership starts at the top, so if we show that unity and that sacrifice, it’s hard for players to not. And vice versa. So I think that’s the way the best teams in this league, in my mind, are the best organizations. There’s not just talent on the floor. The PA announcer is great, the community relations director is great. It trickles down throughout the whole organization. It’s not just a one-sided thing. And so, that’s what we’re building here, I believe. And I really believe we’re on our way.”

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Could the Cavs actually go 5-1 on this road trip? I was really hoping they would go 4-2. Caught a break last night with the Jazz missing 3 bigs. Still, if they can head home at 26-18 I may need to revise my 45 win prediction. Starting to feel like 48-34 to me.

One website has the Cavs playing the toughest schedule in the league so far. I think that was teamrankings.com. The other has them playing the third toughest so far and the easiest the rest of the way.

Considering they're 24-18 against one of the three toughest schedules, they're over the COVID (everybody had it already), and they're done with all their west coast games, their winning percentage should increase substantially.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Looking at the strength of schedules on teamrankings.com, we can see which teams may be better than their record suggests or worse depending on the difficulty of schedule played so far. I'm just doing the Eastern Conference contenders for playoff seeding.

NBA Strength of Schedule Rankings & Ratings

NBA Strength of Schedule Rankings & Ratings from TeamRankings.com, your source for pro basketball computer power rankings.

www.teamrankings.com

Better than their record suggests:

Cleveland (24-18). Hardest schedule so far.
Charlotte (23-19). 2nd hardest.
Miami (26-15). 4th hardest.
Boston (21-21). 6th.
Philly (23-17). 10th.

Worst than their record suggests:

Knicks (21-21). 5th easiest so far.
Milwaukee (26-17), 6th easiest.
Brooklyn (26-14). 9th easiest.
Chicago (27-12). 10th.