Podcast Episode 117: Breaking Ankles and Analytics

In the days following Christmas, I checked in with Ben Werth who was kind enough to talk Cavs while riding a tram in Germany. We talked up the epic Christmas day battle, the Jefferson dunk, some of the crazy calls, the enigma of Kyrie Irving, and the disappointing Pistons loss. Then, Tom Pestak, Mike Schreiner, and I squeezed into the podcast booth stateside, a little fuller after our holiday feasts, and gushed over the Christmas day game too. Should the Dubs be happy that they almost won even though Steph had a bad game? Was Liggins the reason? Should Cleveland be happy knowing that Shumpert and Jefferson can’t shoot that poorly again? Were the calls fair? How is Cleveland competing against the death lineup?

Then, we hit up an in depth discussion on Jeremias Engelmann (father of RAPM), Kyrie Irving, and the problem of analyzing players like him. Do Kyrie’s fourth quarter and playoff contributions outweigh his periodic laziness? How do you quantify a player who is appreciably better in the playoffs? Does lineup based analytics penalize guys like Kyrie and Klay for playing great with “star” lineups and not so great with “bench” lineups? All these topics and more abound on an atypically concise podcast, that didn’t even get long in the tooth.

We’re also trying something different with our hosting this week. This marks our first podcast native to blogtalkradio, and the almighty baller podcast network. Pease check us out above, on Almighty Baller, and iTunes.