Cavatt
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What was the bet?
What was the bet?
That the Cavs would finish in the bottom 10 in team offensive rating this year. IBWT and IWD both said they would not. I said they would.
They finished 26th of 30th in offense.
Oh I'm surprised by this too. I thought they did ok on offense. I saw numbers earlier in the years that had them in the late teens
edit: Oh I was thinking of numbers just for the JB portion of the year. You guys hsould make the same bet again. Would you do just repeat the bet? What do you think about the coming year?
In the 11 games the Cavs played under Bickerstaff they were 19th in ORTG, so just barely above the line.
I would likely not make the bet again this upcoming year.
It would be a good goal to get above 20 in both offense and defense. I think it is likely. JB said he has been working on figuring out a workable defense for the lineups. I think he is specifically thinking about Collin, Darius and Love together and how to make that work.
What side of the ball you think will take a leap next season?
I am not worried about the offense. I think if they put the guards in more pick and rolls like they did once JB takes over that will largely fix itself. Especially, if Darius has grown there. Windler is not an assist guy, but he is a ball mover. He said he thinks the team needs him to help them move the ball because they get stagnant. I hope Collin improves on playmakimg.
Any of those games where they had 20 assists were great offensively. Lots of guys are offensively talented.
Defense is a bigger weakness and JB identified this as the area they need to grow the most. When they played better D once JB took over of course it gave them more opportunities to score, so that will help the offense too. I think it is fair to say the team is more offensively talented than defensively.
I hope Garland and Windler can stretch the defense,so Sexton can go to the paint easily...I won't be surprised, if Sexton shoot 40% behind the arc. You're right,I do hope the offense move alot better.
Do you think Bickerstaff have alot to work to do for the defense....
I think a group of "bad" defender can be pretty good. Denver was terrible in the playoffs in losses and good in wins. I think Nance is a genuinely good defender. Cedi is better than advertised. Porter has potential and it is supposed to be a focus of Collin who showed he could play strong D in crunch time last year.
There are a lot of questions that literally come down to Drummond buying in. Will he buy in, will he be focused. It sucks to have him be your stopgap between historically bad defense or not. I have seen him play good D, but not consistently. He has the ability and he can help make up for some of Kevins deficiencies there, but if we aren't seeing the effort or focus on that end, I want him gone by the deadline because we can't deal with a guy his size whose focus isn't on D. That's why he is here.
I think a group of "bad" defender can be pretty good. Denver was terrible in the playoffs in losses and good in wins. I think Nance is a genuinely good defender. Cedi is better than advertised. Porter has potential and it is supposed to be a focus of Collin who showed he could play strong D in crunch time last year.
There are a lot of questions that literally come down to Drummond buying in. Will he buy in, will he be focused. It sucks to have him be your stopgap between historically bad defense or not. I have seen him play good D, but not consistently. He has the ability and he can help make up for some of Kevins deficiencies there, but if we aren't seeing the effort or focus on that end, I want him gone by the deadline because we can't deal with a guy his size whose focus isn't on D. That's why he is here.
I think culture/mindset can have a major impact on defense, and I think drafting one of the guys in this draft who have a solid work ethic and actually enjoy playing defense can help build that kind of culture for the entire team.
It's why I lean towards a guy like Okoro (especially) or Okongwu. Maybe they can transmit some of that love of defense to someone like Sexton, and really help show him how it is supposed to be done.
Florida State basketball guard Devin Vassell becoming a more all-around player
Florida State guard Devin Vassell is set for a break-out season in his second year with the Seminoles.www.tallahassee.com
But he's not only stepped up his play on the court. He's become one of the leaders of the locker room despite being one of the youngest players on the roster.
"We expect him to continue the improvement that he showed us from the beginning of the season last year until now," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said.
"The difference that I expect to see from Devin is his maturity, his confidence. He is a lot more vocal. He's becoming a guy who is the voice in the background who's consistently vocal enough to help guys remember exactly what he's supposed to do. He's been outspoken, as much as any sophomore that I've seen."
[\QUOTE]
It's one thing to be a hardworking defender individually, but if you want a culture guy, I would argue that Vassell and Haliburton are the top candidates defensively. They don't just play hard individually, they're also great vocal leaders on the court and in the locker room. E.g. consider the following snippet about Vassell, which could just as well apply to Haliburton. It's also the same kind of thing people wrote about Grant Williams, who I liked a lot in last year's draft. Players like that can have an impact that goes far beyond their tough individual defense.
That's good to know - I was trying to promote the concept of intangibles more so than attaching them to any one player.