Links to the Present: Still No Dan Edition
2014-04-25
Dan Gilbert still hasn’t been talking, and the media hasn’t been writing any news about the Cavs, just hardcore analysis. It’s always a good idea to start your day on a positive note, so check out an article by Ryan Mourton at Fear The Sword praising some aspects of the Cavs defense.
The Cavaliers allowed a 4th best 1,969 attempts in the restricted area. How important is that number? Well, the league’s three best teams in terms of defensive rating are also the leagues three best teams in terms of number of made field goals allowed in the restricted area.
Ryan points out that the Cavs are one of the worst teams in terms of stopping threes from being taken and made, but I prefer to focus on the positives to start my day.
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After starting your day so positive, you should add to that feeling by thinking about the future. The future is looking good for the Cavs because the draft is stacked. Chris Manning and Trevor Magnotti of Right Down Euclid have Cavs centric rankings of all the players in this years’ draft. I don’t follow college basketball, so I appreciate these rankings for bringing me up to speed.
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Now that your day is going so great, you need to get your daily dose of politics because keeping up with politics makes you an adult. Andrew J. Tobias of the Northeast Ohio Media Group informs the world about the pro-sin tax contributions of Cleveland’s professional sport franchises.
The Browns, Cavs and Indians contributed about $333,000 each to Keep Cleveland Strong between Jan. 1 and March 15, according to a campaign finance report (PDF) filed Thursday.
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Now that you have fulfilled your daily politics requirement, you should check out something to make you reminiscence. Nate Silver has a piece up about NBA (and other professional sport leagues) players’ win shares early and late in their careers. It’s praising Tim Duncan, which is always as fundamentally sound as the big man himself.
Duncan generated 47.8 win shares through his age 24 season. That’s very good, especially considering that he stayed all four years at Wake Forest University before entering the league. But it’s still just the
17th-highest figure in NBA history. He’s also generated 40.2 win shares, and counting, since his age 33 season. That’s the 15th-highest figure in league history.
It’s having accomplished both of these things in the same career that makes Duncan so extraordinary. The harmonic mean between his early-career and late-career win share totals is 43.7. That’s the third-highest figure ever in the NBA.
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You should finish your day amazed. This year the NBA playoffs can do that for you. Jeff Teague, who could be called Dirk Teague, Michael Teague, or Ray Teague, but definitely not Marcus Teague, made an insane off balance three last night against the Pacers during the Atlanta win. Kendrick Perkins sat on Mike Miller without a foul being called, and Russell Westbrook made a four point play to send the Thunder into an overtime loss against the Grizzlies.
hiring karl is BIG STEP in the right direction for the cavs franchise—do not believe that karl would get caught up in the ” ego game/ power struggle “—-he welcomes the challenge of helping build a competitive team—-at this juncture of his career I believe he would best suited for this position—one of mentoring/ advising—-he has a very astute eye for evaluating talent—-hiring him before someone else does
@kj-
I don’t at all object to a grind-it-out defensive team. Defense wins championships.
So…lets go find a coach who can instill such a system. Mike Brown’s defense does not qualify. A defense that allows the most three pointers in NBA history can hardly be termed as “grind-it-out”
Underdog, I can see why you are a bit worried. There is never a plan that is sure to work. But, …, the Mike Holmgren disaster should have been foreseen. Coming in, he had some cred due to a couple good years, but it rapidly became clear that he was a doofus when he got here. I don’t think he even moved to Cleveland. Didn’t he ride in from Seattle on a Harley now and then? Compare that to George Karl. Did you ever hear him as a guest on ESPN? He is totally sharp and no BS. For example,… Read more »
But Houston won 54 games–in a super tough conference– with Harden playing awful defense. It’s no surprise that they could lose a series to another 54-win team. Regarding OKC, Brooks is probably the WORST coach in the NBA. I feel bad for Thunder fans. Brown is a genius compared to Brooks.
I hope people are watching how teams like Hou, with a talented ball dominant scorer who plays no defense (sound familiar) are faring so far. Or how a grind it out, defensive team like Memphis is doing (hi Grover13!).
I am being a bit facetious here but I DO notice that wayyyy more experienced teams have trouble moving the ball on offense consistently in these playoffs. In other words, despite all the bitching about Brown’s offense, EVERY team’s offense sucks when they don’t move the ball and trust each other (OKC, hello!). Just sayin…
If Griffin stays….then Brown HAS to go. Griffin is vocally building his team towards the philosophy that he came from (push the ball up the court, move the ball around, play smart). That’s not a system that Brown can coach. If they both stay, we’ll be faced with the Browns during the Savage/Crennel years (Savage acquiring players that didn’t fit the coaches system).
So far I really like Griffin. I share concerns about bringing in Karl, though for a job like president its seems impossible for a fan to judge. I can see how Gilbert would want to try and follow the Miami model and find a Pat Riley type. I have no idea how NBA teams work (is there a book on the NBA comparable to “Collision Low Crossers”?) but if I were Griffin, I would want some convincing insight from Mike Brown on “how we’re going to get better next year”. If Brown can show commitment to his own growth and… Read more »
On another note, if anybody wants to express their displeasure to the Browns organization about firing Bernie Kosar, you can do so here –
http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/fans-and-kids/fan-squad.html
Cleveland.com rumor today that George Karl would like to be on the “short list” for a Cavs front office position. Two weeks ago I would’ve been excited about that, but Griffin is growing on me, and I’m having flashbacks of Mike Holmgren’s tenure. There’s no question he’s a great basketball mind and a winner, but could he be so overbearing that nobody else could function?
Why not tax the 99% to fund your private million dollar organizations
That counts as “keeping up with politics”? That’s as rudimentary as it gets, and it doesn’t even discuss anything actually that important.