The Cavs and Anthony Davis
2014-11-10
Brian Windhorst posted a video previewing the Cavs matchup against the Pelicans for ESPN. He touches on the obvious stuff about the Wine & Gold needing to pass the ball and play defense. However, he brings up a very interesting point about covering Anthony Davis. Who on the Cavs can do it? Will LeBron James be forced to cover the Brow if the game is close in the fourth quarter?
Tristan Thompson is toast if AD drags him out of the paint and makes one pump fake, and Anderson Varejao will get really tired if he is forced to cover the blocking machine the entire game on pick and rolls and regular possessions. And, Kevin Love would need some of AD’s love in order to avoid being posterized. The Pelican’s Omer Asik is also a handful to boxout. No matter what, the Cavs bigs will have a tough night to keep Davis from tiring out the box score writer’s hand.
The video post is titled “Cavaliers Building Chemistry.” Chemistry wasn’t really talked about, but after watching the video, I can conclude that chemistry for the Cavs is going to be all about James covering the opposition’s best guy or any effective guy Love has to cover. Makes sense, who doesn’t want to be around a guy that does the dirty/hard part of their job?
The possible Davis and LeBron matchup is more than a basketball activity. It’s a study of the human mind and body. Kevin Pelton discussed the gradual arch players’ careers take as they age in his insider column. Basically, the more athletic a player is the less skills he will have. However, at some point, a developing player’s athleticism and skills match up to vault them into the prime of their career. LeBron is now thirty; that isn’t good news because according to Pelton players peak at age 27. Check out the graph below:
The graph shows that athleticism-based stats (blue) generally peak at the start of a player’s career and trend downward over time. Meanwhile, players continue to improve their skills and experience (red) until very late in their careers. The green line approximates the overall aging curve. Before age 27, players gain more skills and experience than they lose athleticism. After this point, the athleticism drain causes them to decline.
Tonight may very well be the first of many attempts by Davis to dethrone the Chosen One. It may be a block on, maybe a steal from, or a dunk above the King, but the Brow is sure to show some signs that he is ready to take James’ top dog spot.
His hair is almost touching his eyebrows. I mean eyebrow.
It’s interesting to note that the possible new face of the league seems to have a proceeding hairline, while the current face of the league has a receding hairline. Is that a coincidence? Is that ironic? I’m not sure. You decide.
No explanation needed.
Dion Waiters has made a splash this week. Cavs: The Blog blogger Tom Pestak examined Mr. Waiters’ career and wacky national anthem absence here. Will Gibson of Waiting For Next Year also did a Dion piece. Waitiers might not be dominating on the court yet this year, but he is already the favorite to dominate non basketball related news on Cavs blogs this season.
LeBron has apologized for something that really matters to basketball fans. It’s almost the biggest mistake in his career to date. He has only dunked three times this season. To quote Stephanie Tanner:
“I apologize I haven’t been above the rim, but I’m in the lineup,” James said with a grin, responding to a reporter’s question after the Cleveland Cavaliers’ morning shootaround.[Joe Vardon, Northeast Ohio Media Group]
The Cavs will be missing Matty D for a little while.
The Cavs announce Matthew Dellavedova has a MCL sprain in his L knee. Will be out 4-6 weeks.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 9, 2014
The Brow is already in Kevin’s head.
Love: “I’d be lying to you if everybody in the league, when a shot goes up, they’re not worried about Anthony Davis coming in & blocking it”
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 10, 2014
We’re in trouble if our chemistry depends on LeBron’s defense. It’s been about two years since he tried on that end. Even Kevin Love had a better defensive RAPM than LeBront last season.
I give it four more months before Cleveland media catches onto the fact that Love is at least an average PF defender.
I’d love (pun intended, I guess) to understand why. My untrained eyes see somebody who’s adequate defending the post 1 on 1, but on P&R just ignores open shooters and gets in position to rebound. The problem being most open NBA players from 10-15 feet don’t give you that many chances to rebound, and I have to assume that’s part of the rather ostentatious Opp FG% numbers we’ve had.
(None of that should be construed as a claim that LeBron’s doing any better, he’s been atrocious on D.)
New fact I noticed today. The Spurs are 2-3!! I wonder if their bloggers are as neurotic as we all are in obsessing over it?
That 2004, 2012, 2016 pic of Lebron’s hairline is hilarious. I’m sure its made its way around the internet but its the first time I saw it and started laughing out loud at work. Of course that got people staring in my direction but it was worth it. Thanks for the laugh.
Still confounds me that LBJ has chosen the Larry Nance approach to his hairline, instead of just going full MJ and shaving it all off. I think he’d look tougher with the shaved head.
CtB alum, Kevin Hetrick did some pretty advanced work on aging curves, which, IMO, surpasses Pelton’s.
http://www.gotbuckets.com/category/aging-curves-for-2-year-apm/
The gist, in reading across the series is that while Pelton’s theory about the age of 27 (being the optimal combination of athleticism and “skills”) tends to hold true for guards and wings, big men develop differently.