Flashback Friday: Double Nickels
2015-07-24
With the dog days of summer upon us, when things like vet minimum signings, deals for second round picks in 2019, scenarios for using the Brendan Haywood Contract and Instagrams from Sweeterman (TT) become the equivalent of cups of water in the long march through the desert of basketball-free summer, I found it refreshing to revisit some of the highlights of the Season of Wow.
And, since I really missed seeing a fully healthy Kyrie in the playoffs, this signature game back in January seemed like a perfect moment to flash back to on a Friday in July. What would become the “Double Nickel Game” started with some unfortunate news, when it was announced that LeBron would have to miss this game against the Trailblazers due to a sprained wrist suffered the night before against the Pistons. Though only precautionary, it would mean that the Cavs (who were 1-8 to this point without LBJ) would have a tall task to extend their season high seven game winning streak to eight.
But, as we soon found out, there was no need to fear, Uncle Drew was here… to get buckets… and lots of them…
Kyrie would wind up not only surpassing his season high (which he had just matched the night before with 38 against Detroit), but also breaking the arena record for points scored with 55 in a dazzling performance that pushed the Cavalier streak to eight wins in a row.
He made a team record 11 three-pointers, and finished 10-of-10 from the free throw line. He scored 24 of the Cavs’ final 28 points, and 16 of their 20 in the fourth quarter. But it was his long jumper with 6.4 seconds left that sent Quicken Loans Arena into a frenzy…
The final shot was an exclamation point on this signature game. Dribbling the ball on the right side as the clock ticked down, Kyrie froze Nic Batum with a move toward the basket before stopping and sinking his 11th triple. After the Trail Blazers called timeout, and as the sellout crowd screamed, LBJ ran onto the floor and greeted his teammate with a chest bump.
According to reports, Batum felt he had done all he could to stop Irving. “He’s so quick you don’t want to get too close,” Batum said. “You have to control the drive. I tried to contest the shot. I was on him, but he made a big shot.”
After a missed Damian Lillard three, Kyrie was fouled, and as many in the crowd loudly chanted “M-V-P!!!” and LeBron danced near the bench, he nailed two free throws to hit the speed limit and seal the win.
Here’s a flashback to David Wood’s awesome recap of the game…Â
Afterwards, Kyrie was humble saying “It was a total team effort.” But, LeBron was having none of that, politely declining to speak to reporters, saying the focus should be only on Irving. “This is his night,” James said.
LBJÂ later weighed in via Twitter…
Just watched live one of if not the one greatest performances by a person and he happen to be my teammate/runningmate/brother @KyrieIrving!!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) January 29, 2015
As crazy good as his performance was, Irving actually missed his first seven shots before engulfing himself in NBA Jam fire…
His point total also was the highest in the league at that point in the season, bettering the 52 scored by Golden State’s Klay Thompson and Minnesota’s Mo Williams. Little did we know at the time, but Kyrie had an even bigger game up his sleeve… but that’s a story for another Friday Flashback…
Good deal all around.
What are the exact rules on how these exceptions can be used?
Can anyone figure out who might fit the bigger trade exception, who is likely to be a candidate to get traded when his team figures out it is going nowhere? Any names?
I assume it will be teams over the luxury tax who have fallen out of playoff contention at the deadline due to injuries. Cavs already dealt their 2016 first round pick so the next one they can deal is 2018. Maybe the Nets would be willing to trade for Kaun’s rights.
I think the players that can be traded have to have salary withing 10% of $13.35M , or something like that. Not really sure.
I was just thinking that someone who likes to play with data and spreadsheets might come up with a list of plausible candidates.
I’m sort of expecting that Nate will write something along these lines, since he loves this stuff. (and I love reading his stuff)
With trade exceptions, the player’s (or multiple players’) entire first year salaries have to fit inside the trade exception, and the two exceptions can’t be combined with each other or with any other players. If we don’t use them in the next 12 months, or if we dip below the salary cap (yeah, right) at any point, we lose the exceptions. As stated above, othe teams may be motivated to shed salary via trading into our exceptions, but we will likely need to attach some kind of asset to compete with potential other offers that may be out there for… Read more »
Trade exceptions can’t be combined so its not one $13.35m exception its two separate exceptions. One for $10.5M and one $2.85M exception. This changes things a little. Works for two separate players I believe?
Shocked LeBron approved this! Happy he did though. I’ll never forget Mike Miller’s best moment as a Cavalier. I was at the game, I think it was Friday, December 21st, 2015. Kyrie was introducing his new shoe. Santa was yelling drunk obscenities at Mason Plumlee and I was locked into MILLER TIME! He drained several 3’s (it had to be 6 or 7) to help the CAVS barely beat a crappy Nets team. This was before all the trades and when Saint Weirdo lurked the Q — “AND ONE!!!!”
So no picks for the CAVS, just trade exceptions.
@WojYahooNBA: The Blazers receive 2019 and 2020 second-round picks in the deal, league sources tell Yahoo Sports. Blazers send cash to Cavaliers.
@WojYahooNBA: Cleveland sends two future second-round picks to Portland to take on the Miller contract. Portland doesn’t send picks to Cavs.
@WindhorstESPN: Cavs trade to Portland creates $10.5M & a $2.85M trade exceptions good for one year. Cavs also receive cash in deal but no picks or players
@WojYahooNBA: To be accurate on trade exceptions, they cannot be combined. Cleveland will have two exceptions — $10.5M and $2.85M.
@WojYahooNBA: Cleveland gains a $13.35M trade exception in the deal. The Cavs will have one year to use it.
Very surprised Miller got dealt, but it has to help the Cavs. Dumping a salary that is hardly seeing the floor. Hope Miller does well in Portland.
If this is all true. I like it. Receiving 2 second round picks and a substantial trade exception for two players who will hardly play seems like a good move. This may open the door for Smokin’ Joe, if he stays on the roster, to replace Miller’s spot on the depth chart, which makes them a lot younger at that spot. Glad that LBJ is on board with the move… it indicates to me that he’s looking at the roster situation objectively. He knows Miller wasn’t able to produce. So even though he’s a good friend, the move has to… Read more »
@JasonLloydABJ: LeBron OK with Mike Miller trade, per source, who said Miller wanted out and a chance to play again. #Cavs receive trade exceptions for both
CAVS are locked and loaded with 2nd round picks.
Never thought they’d trade Mike Miller. Wonder how LeBron feels about this?
@WojYahooNBA: Portland will send two second-round picks to Cleveland, league sources tells Yahoo Sports.
The way I read the report, the Cavs send the two picks, not get them.
@WojYahooNBA: Cleveland has traded Brendan Haywood and Mike Miller to Portland, league source tells Yahoo Sports.
Wow!?!?
YANKEE IN TEXAS / WELCOME TO CTB —–EVIL SHOULD BE PROUD —THAT MAKES AT LEAST 2 PEOPLE THAT GRADUATED FROM AKRON—GO ZIPS !!1——THE TRIBE ARE NOW TOAST !!!—-SELLERS AT TRADE DEADLINE —BRING ON OHIO STATE FOOTBALL AND CAVS CAN’T COME SOON ENOUGH
Who they going to sell? Maybe Carlos and a couple of the right fielders? Any prayer of Bourn and Swisher?
The amount of potential in Minnesota is incredible. They have had a nice beginning to the post-Kevin era. Towns and Wiggins could potentially be like a Shaq-Kobe duo with a little less talent and a heck of a lot less ego.
If I had to choose between having Kyrie Irving or Steph Curry – I’d take Kyrie “Double Nickles” Irving. How about you?
Woo hoo! Kyrie back to the court soon! http://www.thescore.com/nba/news/799576
Back to Kyrie … Have I missed any discussion about who should have took the final shot in Game 1 of the Finals? Kyrie is Mr. 4th Quarter and has ice in his veins. I was seriously hoping that Kyrie would have taken the last shot. Think about Toronto a coulple of years back … This Portland shot … The Spurs when he scored 57. Kyrie is clutch and I personally wish he would not have defaulted to LeBron who took a contested baseline shot vs. Iguodala. Just sayin’… BTW … This is my first post. I’m an Akron U.… Read more »
Welcome to C:tB. I, too, wish KI would have gotten that last shot. But its just too hard to say no to LBJ when he’s got something set in his head. I think in the coaches round-table that was on NBATV earlier in the week, the coaches discussed what it was like to make decisions like that in the final seconds of the game. You should look that up, Blatt has a lot to say.
Consdiering he hit the game winner vs Chicago I had no problem with the play.
As far as going to the hoop, it owuld’ve been suicide. Refs never call the foul.
Awesome article. I’m looking forward to the one flashing back to the Spurs performance.
Okay, so we all know how Cols feels about Delly (based on the above comment), but let’s say the wildest rumors about the supposed Portland offer are true and they’re willing to shell out $23 for four years to the Wombat. If you’re Griffin, do you match a deal of nearly $6M per year for Delly, or do you let him go to the Blazers? As much as I like Delly for what he can do (especially when he isn’t asked to do too much) I just can’t see paying him more than around $3M per, maybe $4M but even… Read more »
If the Blazers are willing to pay that much, I believe you should Delly go. The biggest mistake teams always make is overvaluing a player i.e. Joe Johnson. I feel the exact same way about TT, in terms of not overpaying. That’s why I like how the Cavs are handling the situation. Now, there’s always the risk that LBJ will be frustrated by Gilbert’s lack of willingness to pay, however to me, it wouldn’t be based on logic. The logic is thus: Is Delly, whose main talents are hustle and IQ, worth 4 million? Is TT, who’s main talent is… Read more »
If they want to give him a crazy contract like that, I’d say congrats, Delly, seeya in Portland. I like Delly, but let’s be serious. Even if it means Nate switches to BtB.
It would be really funny if Nate goes Blazing becaue the worst player on the court in the Finals last year left his favorite team. I don’t think that would say anything good about what kind of person Nate is.
Well, it’s all in jest, anyway. I hope you don’t seriously think that Nate might follow Delly to some other blog.
Do I need to paste his awful stats in every thread? He was soooo freaking bad in the Finals.
I wouldn’t go over 1.5 M per/.
I think we’ve been through this before Cols. Delly is not a starting PG, and if you play him 40 minutes a night his stats will look bad. When you play him 10-15 minutes a night he proves to be invaluable, shooting 40% from 3 and defending fairly well. You need glue guys like Delly on a championship roster. You also need your 2nd and 3rd options to stay healthy in the finals or you won’t win.
No doubt. But if we had Mo Buckets as backup PG last year and could use Delly as needed instea of a starter we probably win it all even though Love and Irving were injured.
With Irving we win in 5
With Love and Irving we sweep
With Mo Buckets we win in 6
I doubt it. Mo would’ve been exposed too, especially defensively.
I just want to post this here because delly gets much to much love for sucking so badly in the Finals. For the series, he was a 28.3% FG shooter and 23.1% from 3. He totaled 16 assists, 16 rebounds, 7 steals, but also had 15 turnovers and 19 fouls. He totaled 45 points for the series…which means he scored 25 points (total) in 5 of those games. His TS% was an absolutely atrocious 38.9. In the two wins, he was a +2 and a +5. that brought his overall +/- up to a -43 (yes, he was a -50… Read more »
Were those the games where the Warriors were held below their scoring average? You know, the team that outscored everyone? I don’t remember. Did Delly sit out the defensive possessions? Yea, he was the reason they lost the finals.
BORING!! Stop the bitchin. He wasn’t the reason Cavs lost. We know his stats too for all the series, all the playoff games, for the entire season. Too bad you didn’t include every player in Finals series +/- . We are just too stupid to ask I guess.
So I just finished watching the Pan-Am basketball game USA vs. Canada to advance to the gold medal game. Two former Cavs were a part of the game. Anthony Bennett played for team Canada, and Mike Brown was an assistant coach for team USA. It was interesting watching Bennett because he was receiving a lot of minutes. It’s clear he has a nice offensive game. He made several 3s, posted up, finished nicely on dives to the rim off the PnR action. I think the reason why he’s not had success is the fact he is TERRIBLE on the defensive… Read more »
Bennett is terrible and won’t be in the NBA in a few years.
A few years? How about he won’t be in the NBA by the end of this coming year. Seems like a prime candidate for Euro League or China…
Yeah, I’d be shocked if he’s in the NBA after this coming season. Who knows, though, maybe the Blazers will throw a 6 mill a year contract at him.
The Pan-Am Games confuse me. How did they put that team together? Were they deliberately trying to see how they could field the worst possible lineup, or were they just restricted on who they could use since FIBA has the market cornered? I don’t get it…
Me neither, EG… what I saw were NBA bench players and various college stars that were either super young (Jamal Murray) or seniors (Valentine of MSU and Baker of Wichita St.) For team USA, the college stars were the best players… Valentine and Baker both look like they should make an NBA roster. But they would, at best, be role players in the NBA. USAB was the organization who brought the team together…. my guess is that the only one who qualified were ones that were not on the first team, and not the U-19, U-18, etc. But, the same… Read more »
I was at the double nickle game. I was very disappointed when they announced Lebron wasn’t playing. KI missed his first seven shots. Aside from being a great player and getting super hot, KI scored 55 points because nobody else could hit the broad side of a barn and they had to keep going to him.
LeMarcus Aldridge was in a zone as well.
I might have missed this if it was already on the blog somewhere, but speaking of Kyrie, a new endorsement from him:
“I’m in the underwear business… Trust me with your junk.”
http://www.psdunderwear.com/media
I’m just going to leave this here:
http://uproxx.com/dimemag/2015/07/josh-smith-clippers-contract-hard-for-family/
What a moron. He’s still getting $5M+ from Detroit too.
Poor guy. His family might starve if not for the millions the Pistons are paying him to not play at all.
Last thread topic
@ C6H12O6 – If it’s not too late.
While the pizza may not be the very best, it is good. But you should go for the french fries cooked in duck fat at Bar Centos on West 25th street. There are no fries anywhere as good!
http://barcento.com/
Afterwards you can take the boys to Mitchells Ice Cream Shop and factory.
http://mitchellshomemade.com/
What was crazy about that last shot was that it was so totally unexpected. He lulled Batum to sleep by appearing to want to grind the clock further down. Also, the lane was completely open for him to drive, which, in a vacuum, was the right play. Instead, he made a slight move to the lane while everyone was asleep, and before Batum knew what was happening, the shot was up. No one there for the O-board, no drawing the foul. Sometimes, a guy just feels it and you live with the outcome. The force is strong with that one.
Also, cool to see Delly, JR and Moz all run in to potentially crash the boards on the video. The only guy who didn’t was KLove (maybe his back was hurting him, since he also had a miserable game shooting that night).
Maybe he was awaiting the Moz rebound and kick back to him for 3. FIT OUT!
Kev knew it was going in.
I like that reasoning…
I like JR watching it going in and starting to skip back up court as if to say “Yeah, that’s my teammate. Suck it, Portland”
Here’s the link on Blazers and Delly. I don’t think this was posted before…
Blazers preparing to sign restricted free agent Matthew Dellavadova?
http://www.csnnw.com/blazers/blazers-preparing-sign-restricted-free-agent-matthew-dellavedova
Interesting. I get the sense that Portland is currying favor with a couple agents by signing guys to offer sheets that they know other teams will match. I mean Portland knew OKC was matching on Kanter, and signed him anyway. I don’t know how much I buy the story, but Portland would appear to need another guard. And as they’re pretty much in development mode, Delly is a good culture setter. Hope he doesn’t leave, but I’d have to become a Portland fan if he does.
Haha. Have fun writing for PtB and telling people how great they will be if they sign more D-Leaguers.
Meanwhile we will be winning the title next year. Strange year to turn into a Portland fan.
Wouldn’t it be BtB?
Yes. Blaze the Bkog.
I suck
Cols renders the peanut gallery into stunned silence.
I miss that Irving. Come back healthy please!
The good thing is the Mo Buckets should mean he will get more rest this year and we aren’t completely screwed when he is out.
Yes – I hope he comes back healthy. Anyone know how his Knee is progressing?? My son is going to the Kyrie Irving summer basketball camp this weekend – so I guess I will find out soon enough.
This was the most recent report on his knee rehab I’ve seen (from about two weeks ago)
http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasybasketball/update/25240090/cavs-expect-kyrie-irving-back-for-training-camp
thanks for the info EG!
Anytime! Hope your son has a great time at KI’s summer basketball camp!
Kyrie is supposed to be at the camp in person. My son who is 9 told me he is going to tell Kyrie (if he has the chance) “I hope you don’t ever get hurt again” which I can agree with.
38 points against Detroit the night before was definitely not his previous career high. He scored 40+ at least once before in his career. 44 points in 2014 against Charlotte, iirc.
And 41 in MSG when he wore the black mask in a previous season.
Thanks for the catch Ross G… meant to say season high… fixed now…
The only thing better than an Ohio summer is an Ohio fall. Seriously can’t wait for the season to start.
Lemme have my summer first. I mean it didn’t start till July 1st this year.
That’s the bummer of it. It was basically sprong up until then and we’re gonna launch into miserably hot summer now.
I hate the hot humid summers.