Live Thread: Cavs @ Pelicans
2024-11-06Good evening, Cavs fans. This is the sandwich game to end all sandwich games. First off, the Cavs play the one-loss Dubs Friday, who along with Cleveland are one of the top five NBA teams right now. Meanwhile, the Pelicans are banged up bad, with Herb Jones, CJ McCollum, Dejounte Murray, and Trey Murphy III with Jordan Haskins, Jose Alvarado, and Zion Williamson “day-to-day.” That Cleveland might be looking past these guys is not outside of the realm of possibility.
For Cleveland, Strus is about four weeks away, Dean Wade is still sick, Jaylon Tyson is questionable with a hip injury, and Caris is day-to-day with that sore knee. Should be interesting to see who Cleveland runs at the end of the rotation. Brandon Ingram and (ostensibly) Zion will still be a handful. But with Trey Jemison, Yves Missi, and Daniel Theis listed at center, Allen and Mobley should be able to help on D. I’d still like to see some J.T. Thor minutes if they get a chance.
Hope the good guys project competence. Go Cavs.
CLF / JASON WE NEED A “ FULL TIME OUT “ WE ARE CTB BROS …………. “ MORE BEER 🍺 PLEASE “ FOR BOTH OF YOU 👍👍
WADE IS QUESTIONABLE/ ILLNESS
CHANDLER HUTCHINSON / CHARGE —FORMER 1st ROUND PICK —FORCED EARLY RETIREMENT/ INJURIES —- VERY IMPRESSIVE SO FAR 6’7” ATHLETIC STUD —— POSSIBLY ANOTHER “ RABBIT “ KOBY “ PULLED OUT OF HIS HAT 👍🏀
Any word on Wade? Gonna need all hands on deck tonight.
According to internal team tracking data, the Cavs have the league’s lowest percentage of fouls called on their drives despite ranking second in drives per game, trailing just the Oklahoma City Thunder in that category. Cleveland is 26th in free throw attempts per game, with Mitchell averaging a career-low 3.6. Only once has he finished under 4.0 — his rookie season in Utah. Garland, who ranks top 15 in total drives, is averaging a miniscule 1.6 freebies.
fantastic stuff Arch, refs clearly fucking us over is a got damn joke, #SILVERFORPRISON
The fact that you think this is some conspiracy makes me think you are an idiot.
The fact you think I’m serious makes me think you’re an idiot.
To Spida’s point about officiating, we are 29th in FT/FGA despite being top 10 in drives to the basket.
Good article from FTS with lineup data & graphs.
https://www.fearthesword.com/2024/11/7/24289852/redundancy-as-a-strength-a-closer-look-at-cavs-rotations-donovan-mitchell-cleveland-cavaliers-nba
I found it after my posts, not before!
Part of the reason the Cavs aren’t offensive rebounding that well is that they’re shooting so well.
Not really, Nate.
I mean, yes, the raw numbers are low, and having less opportunities impacts that.
But we are 27th in ORB%. Percentage, mind you. Number of opportunities is not a factor there. 6th in DRB%.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CLE/2025.html
There are only 2 Mitchell/Allen + 3 lineups in the top 20 used, and they both stink so far (-27 + -51 net ratings).
Likewise, there are 2 Garland/Mobley + 3s, and they are kicking butt (+20 and +35).
Weird, as last year, the Spida + Allen + 3 others were more frequent (DG & Mobes injured more) and broadly effective. Though most of those had Strus in there.
Small sample size?
We have only played 10 games. These lineups have only 10-20 minutes. The net ratings (+/-) are based on 100 possessions. Roughly a full game (less). Say a lineup is +3 in that time. A make or miss on a 3. One shot. That lineup has played 10 minutes/25 possessions. That +3 turns into a +12.0 rating. +6 actual would turn into +24. +9 into +36. A good 3 minute spurt vs the Wiz can give an inflated positive. Just like a bad couple minutes vs Milwaukee when Lillard went nuts. As the lineups get more minutes, this effect is… Read more »
Lineup notes: not a huge fan of lineup data with this small a sample size, but some tidbits.
When splitting up the Core4, Atkinson prefers 1 of DG/DM & 1 of EM/JA + 3 others. He has been most often using DG with Allen and Mitchell with Mobley.
Of our top 10 lineups used (by minutes): 10th is Garbage Time (CPJ, Jerome, Ice, Tyson, TT). 3 are Core4+1 (Wade, Okoro, LeVert). 3 are DG/JA + 3 and 3 are DM/EM +3.
Lineup; Minutes; Net Rating:
1. Core 4 + Wade: 67:04; +0.4
2. Core 4 + Ice: 30:44; +22.6
7. Core 4 + LeVert: 15:28; +28.5
—————–
3. DG/JA + LeVert, Merrill, Niang: 27:37; +17.5
4. DM/EM + LeVert, Merrill, Niang: 27:22; +45.0
——————-
9. DG/JA + Jerome, Okoro, Wade: 12:50; +23.9
8. DM/EM + Jerome, Okoro, Wade: 13:15; -10.0
————-
5. DG/JA + Merrill, LeVert, Wade: 20:54; +15.9
6. DM/EM + Merrill, Okoro, Niang: 16:37; +19.3
I would hope that is what he prefers, because that is the obvious thing to do.
When Strus gets back, we are gonna have 11 guys that are going to deserve to play.
We lead the league in ORtg (BBREF).
Shooting splits: FG%/3PT%/FT%/TS%
Mitchell: 48.5/39.4/81.3/59.7
Garland: 52.3/46.9/100/66.3
Mobley: 52.5/37.5/78.6/58.1
Allen: 68.8/n-a/72.2/71.0
———-
LeVert: 59.6/52.0/58.3/70.6
Wade: 41.5/33.3/37.5/53.9
Okoro: 48.5/50.0/63.6/62.1
Merrill: 44.4/40.4/100/63.7
Niang: 42.9/33.3/50.0/55.1
Jerome: 58.5/53.3/80.0/69.6
Jerome and LeVert are ridiculously hot so far. As is DG from 3. Nothing else really unsustainable. Ice won’t drain 50% from deep, but the volume is so low, it isn’t impacting wins & losses.
playing like a team of destiny.. looks like KA found the secret sauce..
The beautiful thing about the offense is the relative balance. We have rarely been reliant on someone going nova to win. Garland’s 39 is a team high this year. Mitchell has scored 30 twice, and DG a 34 game.
10+ points: Mitchell & Mobley (9 of 9 games), DG & JA (8/9), Levert (5/7), Jerome (5/9), Merrill (3/9), Wade (1/7), Okoro & Niang (1/9).
20+ points: Mitchell (7/9), Garland (4/9), Mobley & Allen (2/9).
30+ points: Mitchell & SG (2/9).
I’m not worried about the fouls that much. Hard to get fouls when the rock is moving for wide open threes. Some guys get no whistle, like Okoro, but I’m confident it will even out.
Mitchell correctly bitching about the officials. We’ve gotten a dogshit whistle all week. Especially noticeable when Zion shoots more FTs than the team through the competitive portion of the game.
Team is switching fearlessly, with Merrill and Garland often ending up on guys like Zion and hanging there bravely. Meanwhile the bigs are staying with smaller guys, too.
I’m sure that more emphasis on offensive rebounds and pace is going to make the base defensive stats look worse.
Seems like the current switching defense is easier to do with lots of different line-ups. It does give up some points — I’m not sure we’re going to hold anyone to 70 points this year — but it is very steady and sometimes produces flurries of turnovers.
Plus, it gives us less to think about on that side while we figure out the new offense.
Defensive wrinkles will come later, once staff assesses how the base works with our guys.
agreed, team is switching pretty liberally, and I think it definitely helps with saving energy to play with more pace. Team still stinks at offensive rebounds, so the emphasis might not be working but at least they’re a good defensive rebouding team. Also, lack of o-boards definitely partly due to being the best shooting team in the NBA. Base defensive stats weren’t really worse they were top 5 until last night happened… the hot shooting and lack of turnovers counterbalances the pace and offensive rebounding as a whole. Agree with you generally that we’re willing to sacrifice defense but the… Read more »
Knicks fans are already bitching about Thibs playing the starters 40 minutes per night.
Meanwhile in the Land, everyone is under 30.
I *think* I saw a stat where the Cavs have the most improved TO margin in the league so far this year. Now, part of that is we are forcing more TOs than last year. Our TO% is up to 14.2% on D, which is 4th in the league. Last year? We were 13th at 12.3%.In terms of taking care of it? Last year, our TO% on O was 12.4%, 19th in the league. This year? 11.3%, 6th in the league. Last year, we were middle third in terms of forcing TOs and avoiding them (13th & 19th). This year,… Read more »
This team gets quickly into the offense and has no problem making connecting passes that keep pressure down and lead to open shots. The heroic dimes through a thicket of arms are way down, as is pounding the rock until a perfect opening appears.
I feel like JB wanted an offense like that (at least his assistants did) but Kenny has got through to the squad, seemingly without much trouble.
so very much of it is Garland just firing instead of snaking the pick and roll like four times while arms appear. a missed 3 is 1,000% better than a live ball TO
SO true!
SAM MY MAN AT 44.5% FROM 3s FOR THE SEASON—— CAN LIVE WITH THAT—- ALSO LEADING CAVS TAKING CHARGES
Just wait til he gets hot!
LeVERT 16/6/6 IMPRESSIVE STAT LINE
PELS SHOT 15 MORE FS s …..BS 😡
Yeah the zebras were wearing wings last night.
WATCHING REPLAY. “ GEM “ JEROME IS SUCH A SMART PLAYER…….. GET HEALTHY EMONI ——- THINK HE WILL FLOURISH WITH THIS OFFENSE/ COACHING STAFF 👍🏀👍🏀
Boy, do the Cavs look good. They’re playing a lot of guys, but the offense is flowing. So much better than I can remember. Some of our teams in the past, you get a couple new guys and it’s like, well maybe they’ll have the rotations worked out by the playoffs. Not this team. And Allen, what a block!
Wow, just thinking about it – under the prior regime, things never seemed to fit comfortably between DG and Donovan after two whole seasons! With a lot of injury interruptions, but still. Now here we are after one training camp and preseason with new HC – seamless offensive scheme. And continuing that way, so far, even as a parade of wings are in and out of the lineup due to various pains. This says it all.
Next game will be our first against a team over .500. Excited to see how they look against the Warriors will be a big test!
The Lakers were over .500 when we played them. Also, the Knicks and Magic were at .500 when we played them. The Bucks and Pels will be over .500 at some point.
that will be a BIG game!
Have to say the Warriors are looking good – was watching them versus Celtics. Buddy Hield, though not starting, seems like the perfect replacement for Klay on the offensive end. Steph looks as good as ever. But I think this Cavs team can beat anyone the way they’re playing so far.