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About the Cavaliers
Tracy Boulian / The Plain DealerThe Cavaliers have gotten plenty of production from their big men rotation of Anderson Varejao, Shaquille O'Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas (not pictured).
1. The Cavs finished December with a 14-3 record, not bad for a team with 10 road games out of those 17, including a four-game West Coast swing. Their average margin of victory was 11.7 points, so they dominated. According to Mike Brown, the reason is on the wall of the Cavs' dressing room -- a chart of defensive field goal percentage. All month, the Cavs moved up in that category until they finished No. 1 in the NBA, meaning their defense forced the lowest success rate in the league.
2. Brown is thrilled with his three big men -- Shaquille O'Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao -- "because they are so different." The massive O'Neal can shut down the driving lanes to the basket. He can stand there, let an opponent such as Kobe Bryant crash into him -- and not flinch. Meanwhile, Bryant crumples to the court. Even if O'Neal is charged with a foul, Bryant earned those two free throws the hard way.
3. "Because of Shaq, we don't have to use Z to go inside and bang around with the big guys," said Brown. "And Z can go outside, hit that jumper, and open up the lane for our guys to drive." Ilgauskas is an entirely different center than O'Neal. At 7-3, he is superb from 15 to 18 feet with his jumper, and entered the weekend 5-of-8 on 3-pointers.
4. When Ilgauskas is on the court, the middle is open for LeBron James to dribble to the rim. Or for Mo Williams to drive and then drop in those beautiful 5-foot, floating one-handers. The Cavs even have plays for Delonte West and Williams to take their man down to the low post -- the "Karl Malone area," according to Brown -- and shoot over them. They also have plays for James to post up inside, which he sometimes does, and sometimes does not.
5. While there have been some games where Ilgauskas and O'Neal have shared the court for a few minutes, they don't generally play together. So you can combine their stats and discover in 45 minutes a game, they are averaging 18.3 points, 12.8 rebounds and 2.2 blocks. That is all-star production. O'Neal and Ilgauskas are playing the fewest minutes of their careers. While Ilgauskas had a dust-up with Brown at the end of November when the coach forgot to use his backup center in the first half of a game, things have quieted down -- and Ilgauskas averaged 8.6 points and shot 53 percent in December, playing 20 minutes a game.
6. But the Cavs' most valuable big man has Varejao, who changes the tone of the game when he comes off the bench. If Varejao is on the court, the Cavs out-score the opposition by a stunning 14.0 points. Next comes James at 9.6, followed by Ilgauskas at 8.4. With a seven-game win streak following Saturday's win in New Jersey, the team has outscored its opponent by an average of 16.7 points with Varejao on the court. Even in the loss at Dallas, Varejao was plus-1 when on the court, while everyone else was negative.
7. Brown said Varejao's mobility helps the Cavs play smaller lineups with James at power forward, West and Williams in the backcourt with Anthony Parker or Jamario Moon at small forward. "We can run up and down with Andy and those guys, or we can win a slow, slugfest with Z and Shaq," said Brown.
8. It is Varejao who is the team's leading rebounder at 7.9 per game in 30 minutes. He also is shooting 52 percent, averaging 8.0 points. It's impossible to put a number on how Varejao annoys opposing big men with his attempts to draw charges, his elbow flying, his flopping and the fact that is he quicker than most of the players being defended.
http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/blog/index.ssf/2010/01/terry_plutos_talkin_about_defe.html
Great article, best one he has written on the Cavs in a month. Love to see the chart Mike Brown had on display. Great to see the post plays that have been added to the ofense. Its wonderful to see the Shaq/Z combined stats to go along with the AV stats.
Its a good time to be a Cavs fan.
1. The Cavs finished December with a 14-3 record, not bad for a team with 10 road games out of those 17, including a four-game West Coast swing. Their average margin of victory was 11.7 points, so they dominated. According to Mike Brown, the reason is on the wall of the Cavs' dressing room -- a chart of defensive field goal percentage. All month, the Cavs moved up in that category until they finished No. 1 in the NBA, meaning their defense forced the lowest success rate in the league.
2. Brown is thrilled with his three big men -- Shaquille O'Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao -- "because they are so different." The massive O'Neal can shut down the driving lanes to the basket. He can stand there, let an opponent such as Kobe Bryant crash into him -- and not flinch. Meanwhile, Bryant crumples to the court. Even if O'Neal is charged with a foul, Bryant earned those two free throws the hard way.
3. "Because of Shaq, we don't have to use Z to go inside and bang around with the big guys," said Brown. "And Z can go outside, hit that jumper, and open up the lane for our guys to drive." Ilgauskas is an entirely different center than O'Neal. At 7-3, he is superb from 15 to 18 feet with his jumper, and entered the weekend 5-of-8 on 3-pointers.
4. When Ilgauskas is on the court, the middle is open for LeBron James to dribble to the rim. Or for Mo Williams to drive and then drop in those beautiful 5-foot, floating one-handers. The Cavs even have plays for Delonte West and Williams to take their man down to the low post -- the "Karl Malone area," according to Brown -- and shoot over them. They also have plays for James to post up inside, which he sometimes does, and sometimes does not.
5. While there have been some games where Ilgauskas and O'Neal have shared the court for a few minutes, they don't generally play together. So you can combine their stats and discover in 45 minutes a game, they are averaging 18.3 points, 12.8 rebounds and 2.2 blocks. That is all-star production. O'Neal and Ilgauskas are playing the fewest minutes of their careers. While Ilgauskas had a dust-up with Brown at the end of November when the coach forgot to use his backup center in the first half of a game, things have quieted down -- and Ilgauskas averaged 8.6 points and shot 53 percent in December, playing 20 minutes a game.
6. But the Cavs' most valuable big man has Varejao, who changes the tone of the game when he comes off the bench. If Varejao is on the court, the Cavs out-score the opposition by a stunning 14.0 points. Next comes James at 9.6, followed by Ilgauskas at 8.4. With a seven-game win streak following Saturday's win in New Jersey, the team has outscored its opponent by an average of 16.7 points with Varejao on the court. Even in the loss at Dallas, Varejao was plus-1 when on the court, while everyone else was negative.
7. Brown said Varejao's mobility helps the Cavs play smaller lineups with James at power forward, West and Williams in the backcourt with Anthony Parker or Jamario Moon at small forward. "We can run up and down with Andy and those guys, or we can win a slow, slugfest with Z and Shaq," said Brown.
8. It is Varejao who is the team's leading rebounder at 7.9 per game in 30 minutes. He also is shooting 52 percent, averaging 8.0 points. It's impossible to put a number on how Varejao annoys opposing big men with his attempts to draw charges, his elbow flying, his flopping and the fact that is he quicker than most of the players being defended.
http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/blog/index.ssf/2010/01/terry_plutos_talkin_about_defe.html
Great article, best one he has written on the Cavs in a month. Love to see the chart Mike Brown had on display. Great to see the post plays that have been added to the ofense. Its wonderful to see the Shaq/Z combined stats to go along with the AV stats.
Its a good time to be a Cavs fan.