Live Thread: Cavs vs Celtics
2020-03-04We have some news! Congrats @Sirdom1! #ChargeUp https://t.co/y9UF6LHx8e pic.twitter.com/8M7Rbltvz9
— Cleveland Charge (@ChargeCLE) March 4, 2020
Really cool video here on Sir’Dominic Pointer, who’s been grinding in the G League for five years before being called up to the Cavs. If you haven’t followed the Charge, they’ve won seven straight and ten in a row at home after a double OT win this afternoon in Canton. Sir’Dominic is one of the team’s leaders, and even though he’s averaging just 12 points, he’s adding 5.7 rebounds, 2 dimes, and 2 steals in 26 minutes a night.
As for Cleveland, They’re limited to 7 guys tonight (10 if you count the G-Leaguers and Pointer) as they are again without Drummond, McKinnie, Exum, Garland, and Thompson. The Celtics will be without Jaelyn Brown, Javonte Green, Gordon Hayward, Kemba Walker, and Robert Williams III. The Celtics’ scrubs are usually the world beaters, so I don’t have a lot of confidence.
Apparently Dean Wade did not play for Canton today while Matt Mooney did, so maybe we’ll see Wade. Cavs hang close, but lose late 115-108 as Marcus Smart does something dumb yet somehow gets rewarded. Hope I’m wrong. Go Cavs.
There’s a lot of guys that can play defense, there’s not a lot of guys that can create their own shot and score 40 points in an nba game, and a good part of those points were with Smart, a gritty, physical defender, defending him. Sexton is 20 years old playing on a poor team. By all indications he works hard and will likely become as good as a defender as a 6’1” guard can be. I understand the criticism of his current shortfalls, but I don’t understand the negativity of what looks to be a bright future.
am I late to the party but Dion Waiters heading to the Lakers?? https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28845675/dion-waiters-finalizing-deal-join-lakers
that’s right, get your popcorn ready!!!
IT’S DION TIME!!!
As I mentioned before, right now Sexton’s Trae Young without the passing. If Sexton could pass well, he’d be an elite offensive threat. Agree with others, I don’t believe he’ll ever be good on defense. He’s lazy on that end and puts no effort on that end of the court. It’s cool he tries so hard on offense to score, but that’s 50% of the game.
Trae Young is still a far more efficient scorer due to the number of threes he takes and makes. The ultimate TS (and therefore scoring efficiency) trump card is shooting a high volume of threes at a rate around 36% or higher.
true, just trying to be charitable LMFAOOOO and Young still has more blocks and steals than Sexton LMFAOOOOO
I mean Young is the worst defender in the league. So sexton has that on him.
Also great Goldsberry article on how Young may actually negatively impact his team in other areas besides defense.
https://tv5.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28822418/the-problems-trae-young-signature-plays
Sexton is also competing for worst defender in the league. (shoutout to Beal for getting close too LOL)
Young DPIPM: -3.66
Sexton DPIPM: -3.61
What is DPIPM? RPM has Sexton as a much less bad defender. Based on what I have seen of Young that fits. Sexton very occasionally can hold his own individually. Young is a walking traffic cone.
Defensive Player Impact Plus Minus. Here’s the link:
I would disagree with any characterization of Sexton’s defense as “hold his own.” just my opinion.
By hold his own, I mean once in a while in non-p and r situations. He has on very rare occasions been able to fight thru screens. Very rare, but I have seen it. Sometimes he is able to cut off drives, though most of the time he has bad positioning/bad angles.
Didn’t know about that website. Intriguing.
Also, here’s the database, very nice user interface with instant parameter application:
https://www.bball-index.com/current-pipm/
538 RAPTOR model also has Sexton as one of the worst defenders in the league, as well as advanced data from Second Spectrum… as it stand now, ESPN’s DRPM is an outlier on Sexton’s defense from what I’ve seen.
Here’s RAPTOR defense, only player rated worse than Sexton is former Cav great Isaiah Thomas: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-nba-player-ratings/?ex_cid=irpromo
FWIW, team stats at the 3/4 pole:
Cavs
1. ORtg 24th, DRtg 29th
2. FG% 21st, 3Pt% 21st, 3PtA 20th FTA 29th
3. Reb 20th, Ast 25th, Stl 25th, Blk 30th, TO 30th
O 4: eFG% 22nd, TO% 30th, OReb% 4th, FT/FGA 30th
D 4: eFG% 30th, TO% 25th, DReb% 13th, FT/FGA 2nd
Opponents
1. FG% 30th, 3Pt% 26th, 3PTA 20th, FTA 4th
2. Reb 6th, Ast 29th, Stl 30th, Blk 30th, TO 26th
Aside from rebounding & not fouling, we stink. Though some stuff is around 20th, especially the offensive shooting splits.
We won 4 of 5 before our recent 4 game losing skid.
If we get a tad healthier, I do not think 8-11 wins from here (last 20) is out of the question. 25-28 Ws for the season.
J.B. Bickerstaff’s postgame comments were really worth listening to. He was kind of on fire on the team concept — the Cavs should (and do) play basketball for each other, otherwise they would be “playing tennis or golf.” More importantly, and I am not sure what prompted him to disclose this, but Bickerstaff explained that Kevin Love was playing hard without complaining in spite of being banged up, and that he (Love) can see a brighter future for the franchise “toward winning”. In other words it sounded like a statement that Love would be around next season. Since Kevin Love… Read more »
Good post. I think there is. Despite our weaknesses. PF/C = good to very good. Between Love, Drummond, Nance, & TT (with Zz as the #5), this is a very good group. Not a lot of shooting outside of Love. But 2 rebounding champs (Dre, Love) + a guy who has lead in offensive boards. Assuming Drummond or TT back, this group is solid. Sexton & Porter’s improvement + Cedi shooting better from deep gives us seven solid guys. Garland needs to take a leap. Windler will be back next year. Plus a high first. Plus whatever we get from… Read more »
Individual talent in the front court is good, just don’t know if the “sum is greater than the parts”. Love and Drummond aren’t good enough defensively to make up for Sexland. Also not a huge believer in their leadership as the main guys on a team.
I’m just glad KPJ has shown some promise. excited for Windler as well. At some point, I think Koby is going to have to decide between Sexton and Garland and cut bait if he wants the team to be a serious playoff contender.
the vibe was weird in JB’s press conference… journalists questions were embarrassing quite frankly. they were acting like this was a win. It wasn’t, and it’s continually the same problem, trash defense. But no one cares about that end of the court.
I don’t know who gets access or why, but it’s a problem with the Plain Dealer’s coverage of the Cleveland Orchestra as well. The orchestra is not a perfect parallel to the Cavs since I think the orchestra has a board of directors with actual power instead of a slightly insane tyrant-capitalist at the helm; and they perform and punch at a much higher level of consistency, but is a very expensive prestige/entertainment thing for a city of Cleveland’s size. However, Google ‘Donald Rosenberg music critic retirement’ sometime and then see the fluff the paper has been putting out ever… Read more »
WOW… you nailed LOL… that’s exactly the vibe, and it was totally because they were getting access.
Oh yeah, that was one of my favorite LeBron Cavs memories, was in the bar when he went off…. the crowd at the bar went wild because me and my friends were going wild LMFAOOOO
One last thing on Sexton: IF his play-making/decision making improves, and IF the defense improves, we have a potentially very good player.
Really nice to see Pointer with a stint in the association. Bravo to him.
At least we have been competitive vs Indy & Boston. Psuedo-competitive vs NO & Utah. If we get TT, Dre, Garland, & Porter back soon (Exum/Fonzie), I still think there is some fun to be had the last 19 games.
My earlier post a bit too harsh on Collin. He IS getting better. But a SG in a PG body is always trouble. And I cannot stand the Garland/Sexton pairing.
If we score a tall guy who can actually act as a PG (Ball) it might work. Or if Porter becomes that guy. Garland haw shown better PG instincts. Collin is a much better player now, but I fear one of them has to go to the bench.
A lot of the discussion around Sexton by fans is exhausting. He’s been a really good offensive player the last few weeks. He stinks on defense, but he’s far from alone in that on this team. I think he can improve on D, since he looks like he’s overplaying his man most of the time, not sure why. I doubt he’s ever a good defensive player. Right now he’s looking like almost a best case for an 8th pick. Not too many of those guys become exceptional players. He was a weird player going into the draft, he’s a weird… Read more »
One thing on Sexton, he is becoming a more efficient and more prolific chucker. He works hard. He appears durable.
Still, he is a sieve on D and has no clue how to run an offense. He reminds of a hitter in baseball who kills bad pitching but always strikes out vs good pitching.
Hard to put the ball in his hands come crunch time.
Still young. But GREAT guards (Doncic, Morant, Paul) have a much better game sense, even early. Tony Parker took a couple years. Billups.
SORRY BUCKAROO ABOUT THE “YAWNS ” AGREE WITH ALL YOU POSTED
110 ORTG tonight, massive improvement over the season average, but only average for the NBA this year.
117 DRTG tonight, worse than the season average, and frankly embarrassing.
even worse, the Cavs’ two best defensive players this year (LNJ, Delly) got heavy minutes tonight.
think it was John B on the money tonight about the defense… it was a G-League performance.
It’s difficult to really judge this game with so many out. Sexton with some nice numbers tonight. Glad they were competitive.
Hey CtBers! I rarely post–should do that more–but anyway, I wanted to shoot some praise to Sexton (though, as was noted, things fell apart a bit in the 4th)-he does seem, like last year, to be taking a step forward as a player after the AS break (small sample size, blah blah), and I feel recently that I may have under-valued him earlier on bc he seems to be improving in sort of small but concrete ways. He’s a little smarter about when to score than he was at the beginning of the season, and, at least recently, seems better… Read more »
No he definitely has improved. Just unsure he ever becomes more than a liability on d or that he ever becomes a guy who makes his teammates better on o.
He fits the profile of a sixth man of the year candidate. Electric scoring in a unit where he doesn’t need to worry about doing much other than scoring at a reasonably efficient rate.
yeah yup- he will probably always be a defensive disaster-I just would cringe at times this season when he would dribble around and then like get swatted by the trees, so at least there’s less of that. I could see him utilized exactly as you say: scoring punch off the bench (for a better team)-a Clarkson-type dude. Based on his trajectory, at least it seems like he’s a worker, though, and willing to improve. That’s not nothing.
“swatted by the trees” – well thank you Mark, coffee just came out my nose.
Nice find with that interview Mark! I’ve been extremely impressed with Lindsay Gottlieb… she’s a future NBA head coach no doubt in my mind. Always on point with her communication, knows the game.
I agree- just an excellent hire, knows the stuff, and definitely should be a HC somewhere down the line.
I guess these Mike Bloomberg commercials will run their course throughout March.
Didn’t notice that. Ha, guess he already paid for them.
Shoot it Boobie! Shoot it!