Preseason Recap: Pacers 109, Cavs 100
2021-10-08The Cavs fall 109-100 to the Indiana Pacers, but the result is irrelevant since the regular rotation only played three quarters and in that stretch the Cavs were largely competitive. Some notes on what transpired..
1. J.B. Bickerstaff “stumbles” into good offensive lineups
J.B. tried a worthwhile experiment midway through the first quarter, subbing in Ricky Rubio, Kevin Love, and Lauri Markkanen and pairing them with Evan Mobley and Darius Garland. Unsurprisingly, the offense took off and the defensive effort looked competent. Rubio and Love have been, along with Mobley, the best performing players in this preseason. They continued to show why they should be starting for the Cavs, producing elite team offense (Rubio’s ortg 132.7, Love’s ortg 121.7). Yours truly just argued on the last podcast that Rubio and Love should be starting for the Cavs, and the numbers are overwhelming vindication.
The experiment of Lauri Markkanen at the small forward position appeared to be a rousing success, with the big Finn knocking down a ton of threes (3-6 from deep) and becoming an elite defensive rebounder (25.0% defensive rebound rate). His length became an asset defensively against smaller perimeter players and he has functional foot work to stay in front of his man. Love’s playmaking became unlocked with the Rubio/DG/Lauri/Mobley lineup with three assists in very limited action.
J.B. also decided to get an extended look at Dean Wade and Dylan Windler with the core rotation of players, and they seized the opportunity with convincing performances. Wade demonstrated playmaking on both ends of the court (four assists, two steals) and efficient scoring (eight points on only three shots). Windler showed off his ridiculous range, going 4-5 from three and pitching in four rebounds to boot. Both players are playing with the confidence that comes with getting some NBA minutes under their belts last year.
2. Are Sexland and Tower City over?
Isaac Okoro, Collin Sexton, and Jarrett Allen put on a disaster-class of bad basketball. Their net ratings tonight:
Sexton -32.2 in 22 minutes
Allen -41.1 in 17 minutes
Okoro -46.6 in 21 minutes
They simply didn’t belong on the basketball court. Sexton for his ball hogging (36% usage rate, 33.3% TS), Okoro and Allen for their inability to play NBA defense (Allen’s drtg 121.6, Okoro’s drtg 136.6). Sexland and Tower City are cool nicknames, but questionable basketball ideas… sometimes it’s really that easy.
3. Get the ball to Mobley
Mobley was an efficient 3-5 from the field and looked really good attacking the rim. But as good as Mobley looked, the ball didn’t find him as much as it should’ve. Bickerstaff mentioned earlier in the week about a package of plays for Mobley, J.B. probably should consider calling Mobley’s number a lot more. Having Mobley out on the floor and starting with Rubio and Love could be an easy solution to get Mobley’s offense going.
4. Cavs take on the Bulls in a rematch
Cavs host the Chicago Bulls on Sunday evening, 7:00PM ET. J.B. caught a nice flow with his rotations tonight, does he have courage to explore them further? Find out Sunday, Go Cavs!!!
just posted live thread, hop over if you’d like
No Sexland tonight. Starters: Rubio, Okoro, Markkanen, Mobley, Allen.
Rubio and Markkanen starting: good
Allen starting: bad
They made their bed…
cowards, all of them!!! LMFAOOO
Lol. I’m intrigued at least. The whole lineup should benefit from playing with Rubio. Goes without saying I guess.
Definitely, just posted the live thread, said in there that Isaac at the 2 and Mark at the 3 should be another good look.
they should try Love or Wade instead.
damn Obi and Knox balling LMFAOOOO
I know it is still preseason & games don’t count! But I have been fighting my dislike of Garland ever since we picked him. An argument can be made that Rubio is the best guard on the team, right now! I feel Garland is just soft has no fire or competitiveness when he plays. Doesn’t fight on defense, doesn’t attack on offense, if there is anything restricting/physical he sort of just shrugs. Yes, he has great skills (shoots, quick, hesitation, etc, etc) but he is not a lead dog! JB should really consider starting Rubio this season for his veteran presence with so many young… Read more »
Disagree with a few things. DG’s defense is clearly better than Sexton’s… don’t buy the idea DG’s bad on defense. Shake Milton is terrible and a downgrade, DG put up numbers as a lead option vs. Milton who plays with Embiid. Not against trading DG if there’s an upgrade, but that’ll be nearly impossible because of his trade value being low. Not sure why Sexton, Okoro, or Allen are getting a pass here when they’ve been worse than DG. 100% agree Rubio should be starting, but it should be in place of Sexton as it was last night. Okoro and… Read more »
I want to talk myself out of my dislike of DG. I agree totally with you. You can pick anyone of them (DG, Sexton, Allen & especially Okoro) and say they’re worst. I think Okoro has way to many limitations to his game but he gives effort which the other don’t seem to give. Nobody’s going to take Sexton he is a glorified Clarkson and probably should be used as one. I am not saying Shake is any comparison to DG. He is serviceable especially as a bench player. Heck all of those players in return are serviceable. It’s the… Read more »
I’m right there with you re: DG this preseason, it’s been a total flop that’s been salvaged only by last night’s lukewarm but not disastrous performance. But, clearly JB think his skillset complements the better players on the roster and I agree with that conclusion. I actually thought Okoro looked OK as the 2 guard in the first half, and he had some nice defensive plays against ATL, and as I said to Buck, I think at this point he’s getting screwed by the decision makers. I think there’s was a real missed opportunity to trade Sexton for the Knicks… Read more »
I think the primary question of the season will be:
Do we want to focus on development (start Sexton and Okoro)….
Or do we want to focus on winning (start Rubio and Love)?
I would argue that the youngins will learn more by sitting and watching winning basketball than playing more minutes of losing basketball.
We’ll see what JB decides.
precisely my thoughts too.
I’d add that to start, J.B. has obviously decided on the former instead of the latter, and the question is whether they’re (Koby and JB) actually on the hot seat to win.
Glass half full: Garland played like we need him too – aggressive/probing the D, just couldn’t make squat (I believe more often than not, more shots will go down) Rubio for Prince was a steal. If they truly care about development and having a chance at winning he’ll play close to 30 mins Windler and wade May be able to contribute. Mobley looks the part! Glass half empty: We gave $100m to a guy to a rim runner (who can’t catch lobs) and defensive anchor (who is the 2nd best rim protector behind Mobley) Okoro looks more lost than ever… Read more »
Preseason FGs
Okoro: 4/14
Allen: 5/15
Sexton: 14/51
:(
wow, that’s bad
100% accurate!!! LMFAOOO
two more for the glass half full: Lauri at the 3 looks legit, Love’s health looks good!
It will take a lot more from him to shut up the doubters, but I was super happy to see Dylan knocking them down…
WTF is wring with okoro ? put the f&cking ball in the hole.. at least once per game, to be considered a “pro”
and Allen…………..struggling.
a couple of check cashers (not that i blame them).. why i don’t watch.. it’s a joke..if i was getting paid that kind of $$ would i really want to practice the fundamentals of a child’s game. over and over ?
I’d say that it’s more to do with J.B. treating starting spots and roster spots as sacred cows at this point.
Not their fault J.B. wants to start players who clearly aren’t ready.
Hard Rock tonight:
16 points (6-7 shooting), 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks, +15 plus/minus
Miss you big guy!!!
damn! can’t believe they let him go
Rather have him than Tacko Fall!!! LMFAOOOO
I understand that it’s hard to play Rubio and Garland together, but Rubio really needs to be a starter and play big minutes. I love DG, but so far he’s been underwhelming. If he becomes a better contributor than Rubio, than of course you play him.
I actually think they fit together well. DG is willing to defer off ball to Rubio, and DG got more aggressive looking for his shot, which he needed to do. He just missed wide open looks tonight he normally makes.
Rubio is and was the key to unlocking K love. Have said it before. Will say it again. K. Love was a fanstastic player in minny but a major part of that was Rubio’s pg primary handler playmaking.