2021-2022 Cavaliers General Discussion: Trade Deadline Edition

[Wham with the Right Hand]

The Cavs now have seven players averaging in double figures; eight if you count Sexton. They're doing a great job of sharing the ball.

They have won their last five games when Allen, Markkanen, and Mobley were in the starting lineup. They're 13-10 despite playing one of the toughest, if not THE toughest, schedule so far.

By my count Cavs starters have missed 30 out of a possible 115 games this year (23 X 5). The breakdown is Sexton 12, Markkanen 9, Mobley 4, Garland 2, and Allen 3. In terms of key players off the bench, Love has missed 8 games, Cedi 6, and Okoro 7.

Rubio is the only regular rotation player who has played every game.

When you factor in the injuries plus the difficult schedule it's pretty amazing they're 13-10. This team may be poised to get on a serious roll.

 

[Dr No]

I’m very interested too. There was so much talk during the offseason about not giving much money to a big man but I’m very curious to see how Allen plays against Gobert. I feel like we are a bad matchup when it comes to Jazz or the Bucks but am excited to watch tomorrow.

last year Allen definitely struggled with big strong centers. It doesn't seem there are as many of those guy around as there used to be. Regardless, Allen is just playing better than last year. Gobert is certainly a test. Ought to be fun.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Just to follow up on the strength of schedule thing, I looked at the CBSports power poll for 12/2, the day before they beat Washington. They had the Wizards 8th and the Cavs 9th.

The Cavs have played 15 games against teams ranked in the top half and 8 against the bottom half.

Five of the Cavs' 10 losses were against the top three teams; Phoenix (2), Golden State, and Brooklyn (2). The other losses were against #8 Washington (without Love and Marky), #11 Charlotte (in the second game of the season), #12 Boston, #16 Memphis (in the first game of the year), and #17 Lakers (on the road). They also beat Washington, Charlotte, and Boston in addition to losing to them.

The Cavs are 7-3 against teams ranked 6-15 and 6-0 against teams ranked 18 and below. They have not played the teams ranked 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, and 30.

 

[Dr No]

The Cavs now have seven players averaging in double figures; eight if you count Sexton. They're doing a great job of sharing the ball.

They have won their last five games when Allen, Markkanen, and Mobley were in the starting lineup. They're 13-10 despite playing one of the toughest, if not THE toughest, schedule so far.

By my count Cavs starters have missed 30 out of a possible 115 games this year (23 X 5). The breakdown is Sexton 12, Markkanen 9, Mobley 4, Garland 2, and Allen 3. In terms of key players off the bench, Love has missed 8 games, Cedi 6, and Okoro 7.

Rubio is the only regular rotation player who has played every game.

When you factor in the injuries plus the difficult schedule it's pretty amazing they're 13-10. This team may be poised to get on a serious roll.

I've been saying if we can be around .500 at the middle of December, we are in great shape. Its not that we won't keep playing good teams, there are plenty of tough games ahead, but we haven't seen much of the true bottom feeders yet this year. If we just take care of business against against the bottom 4 from both conferences, who we haven't seen much of yet, we are in great shape.

 

[sailfish]

I love the enthusiasm and I know our play has been great of late, but I would caution the optimism a bit. Our group of guys is young and we have a really small sample of them playing this well. Atl is basically at the same point where they had that really hot run to end the year but have been pretty meh otherwise the last 2 years. I think the Cavs are probably somewhere around the 10-12 mark overall in the league right now and probably 6-8 in the East. Mil, Bkn are clearly better. I think Chi, Phi and Mia (when healthy) are for sure a tier above. So we are in the next group with Wash, NYK and Cha. Probably better than all 3 although Cha does scare me a bit. Either way, the Cavs are playing way above my expectations for this year since I had them as the 12th best team in the east not the 6-8th. Loving this season so far and looking forward to see how things keep going.

Oh, and I think we might be better than the Lakers right now, so thats fun

I hear ya & I was skeptical, at first, too. However, the Cavs have made a believer out of me. They play hard all the time, they believe in one another and have great chemistry, and their defense doesn’t want waver. Ed Davis has been around he he said this ‘team is different.’ As long as Garland, Allen, & Mobley stay healthy, I believe the best is still yet to come.

 

[sailfish]

The Cavs now have seven players averaging in double figures; eight if you count Sexton. They're doing a great job of sharing the ball.

They have won their last five games when Allen, Markkanen, and Mobley were in the starting lineup. They're 13-10 despite playing one of the toughest, if not THE toughest, schedule so far.

By my count Cavs starters have missed 30 out of a possible 115 games this year (23 X 5). The breakdown is Sexton 12, Markkanen 9, Mobley 4, Garland 2, and Allen 3. In terms of key players off the bench, Love has missed 8 games, Cedi 6, and Okoro 7.

Rubio is the only regular rotation player who has played every game.

When you factor in the injuries plus the difficult schedule it's pretty amazing they're 13-10. This team may be poised to get on a serious roll.

Agreed. Osman has been out and Rubio & Mobley have not been playing as well lately, but that hasn’t stopped the Cavs from rolling to 3 easy wins on the road. Garland & Allen have been phenomenal and Markkanen & Love are playing well too. If Mobley gets rolling again, look out! This team has the makings of one that could make a deep playoff run.

 

[Jscc]

Cavs being in tier 4 is totally fine for now… I’m enjoying the ride but I still wanna see more…

Gotta crawl before you can walk….

That's fine, but to rank the Hornets and 11-12 Knicks in a tier above the Cavs and a 13-10 Cavs with the #2 defense in a tier below them containing sub .500 teams is just being very bad at one's job.

 

[bigfoot5415]

Why are all of these strength pf schedule ratings coming out differently?

 

[FrontPageNews]

Why are all of these strength pf schedule ratings coming out differently?

Probably because it changes with every game played

 

[Derek]

I think the Cavs match up REALLY well with the Jazz, especially our starting lineups.

Conley-Garland
Mitchell-Okoro
O’Neal-Markkanen
Bogdanovic-Mobley
Gobert-Allen

Nothing crazy in the guard or center match ups, although I’m interested (in a good way) to see how Okoro does against a smaller guard like Mitchell.

The forward match ups though, are extremely in our favor, in my opinion.

They’ll not only be at extreme height disadvantages with undersized guys at each spot, but O’Neal doesn’t have the off the bounce game and Bogdanovic doesn’t have the physicality to really even attempt to exploit any potential weaknesses of Markkannen/Mobley.

 

[Cavatt]

Agree with all this.

As for the Cavs being in the second tier of East teams behind Brooklyn and Milwaukee, over the last two weeks the Cavs have a +10.8 point differential, good for 5th in the NBA behind Milwaukee, Golden State, Utah, and Atlanta. Brooklyn is 7th.

The reason you can't call them a first tier is nothing they did wrong. They have no experience and the first tier is for guys who do.

 

[bleedwineandgold03]

I like being the underdog they can put us last all I care. Results is what matters

 

[LesGrossman]

Agreed. Osman has been out and Rubio & Mobley have not been playing as well lately, but that hasn’t stopped the Cavs from rolling to 3 easy wins on the road. Garland & Allen have been phenomenal and Markkanen & Love are playing well too. If Mobley gets rolling again, look out! This team has the makings of one that could make a deep playoff run.

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?

 

[Coyote]

I think the Cavs match up REALLY well with the Jazz, especially our starting lineups.

Conley-Garland
Mitchell-Okoro
O’Neal-Markkanen
Bogdanovic-Mobley
Gobert-Allen

Nothing crazy in the guard or center match ups, although I’m interested (in a good way) to see how Okoro does against a smaller guard like Mitchell.

The forward match ups though, are extremely in our favor, in my opinion.

They’ll not only be at extreme height disadvantages with undersized guys at each spot, but O’Neal doesn’t have the off the bounce game and Bogdanovic doesn’t have the physicality to really even attempt to exploit any potential weaknesses of Markkannen/Mobley.

They're a 3 point shooting team. They took 51 against the Celtics the other night. They're #7 in 3PT% (36.6%) and basically tied for first in 3PA (41).

We have to contain Conley and Mitchell. They've got Rudy Gay back, too. Bogdanovic and Ingles, I'm less worried about because both should be bothered by Mobley and Markkanen.

We hold teams to 32.8% 3PT% on average. Opponents average 32.4 3PT attempts (league average this year is 35).

So the challenge will be to not only defend the 3PT well but to chase them off the line, which we're pretty good at doing. You can't make what you don't take. Okoro definitely has his work cut out for him, but if he can pester Mitchell, who takes 9 3PTs/game, into fewer shots, that's a good thing. It'll be interesting to see/if how we switch onto Mitchell.

It's pretty insane to be typing all that. 3PT defense is a big reason why we've turned our D around.

 

[Derek]

They're a 3 point shooting team. They took 51 against the Celtics the other night. They're #7 in 3PT% (36.6%) and basically tied for first in 3PA (41).

We have to contain Conley and Mitchell. They've got Rudy Gay back, too. Bogdanovic and Ingles, I'm less worried about because both should be bothered by Mobley and Markkanen.

We hold teams to 32.8% 3PT% on average. Opponents average 32.4 3PT attempts (league average this year is 35).

So the challenge will be to not only defend the 3PT well but to chase them off the line, which we're pretty good at doing. You can't make what you don't take. Okoro definitely has his work cut out for him, but if he can pester Mitchell, who takes 9 3PTs/game, into fewer shots, that's a good thing. It'll be interesting to see/if how we switch onto Mitchell.

It's pretty insane to be typing all that. 3PT defense is a big reason why we've turned our D around.

Yep, we match up really well with them, and what they like to do.

I think their forwards will really struggle with our length.