Podcap: Cavs 81, Knicks 102 (or, That Escalated Quickley…)
2021-01-30Well, that wasn’t much fun… The Cavs rolled into Madison Square Garden Friday, clearly thinking they could just flip the switch on the Knicks, yet they found themselves outworked, outplayed and outhustled on defense for one of the few times this season. Not to mention, they had real issues hitting shots both in and out of transition. It’s hard to win games where you log a 33 point half of basketball, or shoot 35% from the field. Yet, the Cavs had a chance to turn this game around following a monster run to start the second half… that is, until poor offensive execution and Immanuel Quickley caught up to them.
All in all, it was a very forgettable outing for this young Cavs team, who still have some growing pains to go through on their way to regaining relevance in the NBA… but Nate and EG hopped in the podcast booth to remember the good and the bad of tonight’s game and the previous game against the Pistons. We also delved into the upcoming brutal stretch of February games, what the Cavs should do with Andre Drummond leading up to the trade deadline, and how things are different in this Covid-impacted season. Hang out to the end for some solid documentary and musical pitches, and insight into the joys of international travel!
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JB definitely has a lot to learn as a coach. Thankfully he has the guys playing hard, but the offensive struggles are frustrating to watch. I put it on him to hold Drummond accountable. None of the other players really have the gravitas to call him other than Love (not really his personality). It’s literally game after game that Drummond has multiple inexcusable turnovers – I’m sure it’s glaring on tape, right?
ANYBODY ELSE DIGGING OUT FROM ORLENA SNOWFALL—–GRANDKIDS WORE PAPA OUT —PLAYING IN THE SNOW —TOWING THEM AROUND IN A SLED WITH OUR GATOR —SNOWBALL FIGHTS / ETC —-MAN KIDS DON’T GET COLD OR TIRED —I MAY ‘STRUGGLE ‘ TO GET THRU THE 1ST QTR –GO CAVS !!
NEED TO STRIVE FOR THAT MAGICAL”‘ 26 ” ASSISTS
Nets v Wizards is amusing. 31-13 late in the first. Did Westbrook envision this for his career I wonder.
his knees are shot
Heh, then Nets cancel their defence. Switching off.
QUICKLEY FOLLOWS UP CAVS GAME WITH 24 PT EFFORT VS CLIPS TODAY——KNICKS MAY HAVE ‘MISSED ” ON TOPIN BUT ‘HIT ” ON QUICKLEY / WHO ALOT OF TEAMS MISSED ON
Quickley is a phenomenon!!! and RJ’s finally looking like an NBA player.
Collin Sexton was interviewed on the latest Lowe Post podcast – some great nuggets/stories from Collin.
Another big thing about the offense is we’re playing a crap ton of minutes with 2 and 3 and even 4 non-shooters on the court.
Okoro, Cedi, Drummond, McGee, Dotson, Wade, Stevens…. they’re all 50% TS scorers playing at least over 100 minutes, some over 500 minutes. We are playing a lot of minutes to guys that simply can’t space the floor.
any time Okoro’s on the floor plus one big, that’s 2 non-shooters…. any two big man lineups, 2 non-shooters, Okoro and Cedi plus a big, 3 non-shooters except for Cedi’s recent hot streak.
Our offense doesn’t generate a lot of consistently makeable (non-pullups) three point shots anyway. Shrugs.
I think it does (36% on the year, that includes a lot of minutes with our two best shooters out), our execution and personnel are lacking…. a ton of young players on the perimeter and wing.
I think a lot of our threes are in transition or off oboards or broke plays. We also attempt the second fewest at only 27 a game. I think we generally take them in the few scenarios where guys find themselves wide wide open. Our half court generation of decent three point shots needs some work either from guards finding guys more or by actually scheming shooters open for catches. Or I suppose guys could start pulling up a ton more. I am wary of how the efficiency might drop in that scenario.
Yes, but the low attempts, that’s more a function of Drummond’s insane shot volume for such a poor shooter, same with McGee… that’s not something that can be schemed other than by benching… they just take stupid shots. That’s a personnel issue. Sexland not finding open shooters on the perimter is an execution and personnel issue, not a scheme issue. They’re 21 and 22 years old, perimeter players that young just suck, and unfortunately Garland’s clearly the better passer, but a much worse overall player than Sexton. Thirdly, out of all the perimeter spot up shooters, the only ones I… Read more »
Cedi is a perfectly fine 3 pt shooter. His low TS% is due to poor 2PT% and FT%. But the overall point is well taken. Our Cs are not shooters. Okoro is not. Wade is supposed to be but has no gravity. And teams do not respect LNJ enough not to cheat off him. Getting Love healthy. More minutes for Windler. Both things will help. But DG & Sexton need to learn how to operate vs sagging D. It is what teams do vs elite opponent offensive players. It is one thing to score effectively in blowouts. It is another… Read more »
agreed… Cedi’s 3pt % was pretty bad though until his last 5 games or so.
also agree, defenses are sagging and Sexland are jacking up too many shots that way instead of just kicking out and trusting teammates to attack the closeout and leverage the numbers advantage.
one possible Drummond trade, to the Clippers for Zubac??? I’d take Zubac, he’s playing really well, and Drummond could thrive in an environment where PG and Kawhi will never let him play point center LMFAOOOO
nevermind numbers dont work without a 3rd team
agree with EG, Garland’s vision was lacking, but I think his problem is deeper than that…. he just hasn’t figured out when to pass and when to score. His assist ratio this year has been amazing, it’s his shot profile that is lacking efficiency. Only 13.5 FGAs a game, with only 4.5 3pt FGAs per game. He’s shooting too many bad shots and not enough good ones. 44% from 3 this year, 43% FGs overall. I think the problem specifically last night for him was he was trying to force passes and not didn’t take ENOUGH shots. he was 4-6… Read more »
Agree with you here. DG needs to find a better balance of facilitating and looking for his shot. As a whole, the Cavs need to be taking more 3s, for sure. They have guys who can shoot it. One wonders how much of this is game planning by the coaches. They know they can ride Drummond for a double double a lot of nights. One big bonus of getting Love back is that he won’t be shy about taking 3s.
yeah, they’re clearly living with Drummond’s shots solely because he’s playing at a All-NBA defense level. Same went with McGee to a lesser degree, but now he’s benched.
Yup, we need Love’s shooting and defensive rebounding back…. he’s going to plug holes that we have now.
They have to get one of the two against minny. Preferably both. My fear is they start losing and then the effort goes….
post game EPM check, 3 of our 4 wings were awful… Prince, Windler, Cedi, all bad.
Dre got robbed of playing time.
status quo for the rest.
I’ve learned a new phrase: “chin diaper”.
Thanks EG.
Anytime Simmo! Happy to oblige ;)
Also think dre was one of the least of the issues on offense. Half of his misses came of missed o board opps which are bonuses anyway. Think he missed two on one possession where he probably shouldn’t have boarded it anyway and one on another and then got fouled. We suck in half court. Our offensive plan is really limited even when dre is out. Meaning the problem isn’t just trying to force the ball to him when he is in. JB needs to find some creativity on that end.
Two bigs didn’t come in til Dre came back in the fourth I believe at 7:39. Already garbage time. Nance needs passing lanes when he gets the ball in the middle. Not just on cutters, but on perimeter plays. We don’t really run much off ball oriented shooting stuff.
Started listening. Going to hammer it again. Cavs have to get more creative and have more set actions to help the guards in half court. Doesn’t have to be super complicated, but they need to add some set actions to free up shooters off ball. Standing in the corner and relying on playmaking just isn’t going to cut it. Just running Windler, Cedi, Prince, and Garland around a steady diet of some off ball screens might free up some spacing or at least prevent good defenses from just keying in on the cavs simple high/side p and r or isos.… Read more »
Yeah we got into that. Hard to know how much is on JB and how much is on team, but the lack of off ball screening is killing them. But yeah. Run a damned offense.
Could be both. They are young and obviously haven’t had much time. But just a few more wrinkles. Can’t be that hard to teach some off ball shooting screens.
watching Utah right now, 79 FGAs, 45 3pt FGAs, 19 made 3s.
Cleveland tonight, 84 FGAs, 26 3pt FGAs, 8 made 3s.
Yeeeeesh….
I know right??? LMFAOOO
The Drummond effect…at least largely…
Generally yes, but biggest culprits were Sexton and Prince last night.