Bonus Links To The Present: December 22nd, 2009
2009-12-22
-Chris Broussard with an ESPN the Magazine Article (insider required to view online) on how Shaq and LeBron have been working together in Cleveland. I’m not really on board with Broussard’s overall thesis, but some of the points are solid. Read and decide for yourself, but my two cents would be that Shaq’s ineffectiveness in his own scoring game has been a bigger issue than his play clogging up the lane for LeBron. Also, the Cavs play worse than their opponents when Shaq is on the floor; the only other player in the Cavs rotation who that’s true for is JJ Hickson.
-In fact, both of the Cavs’ two most-played lineups, Mo/Parker/James/Hickson/Shaq and Mo/Parker/James/Varejao/Shaq, have been outplayed by their opponents overall, logging a -12 mark in 265.5 minutes so far.
Here are the overall combined +/- scores for the two most-played lineups of every other team in the top five of their conference right now (data courtesy of 82games.com, and last updated December 12th):
Boston: +195 in 582.8 minutes
LA Lakers: +95 in 421.1 minutes
Atlanta: +179 in 456.2 minutes
Dallas: +127 in 203.1 minutes
Denver: +81 in 368.2 minutes
Phoenix: +72 in 496.5 minutes
Orlando: +84 in 259.6 minutes
San Antonio: +33 in 178.8 minutes
The bottom line: of all the teams that could conceivably be called contenders, the Cavs are the only team winning in spite of their most-played lineups, including their starting lineup. They are much less dependent on their starting five than most other contenders, by matter of necessity, which could be seen as them having more depth and versatility come playoff time, I suppose.
Meanwhile, last year’s playoff starting lineup has the best +/- mark of any five-man unit on the team with a +24 mark, and has played together for all of 27 minutes. It’s a small sample size, and they’re playing against bench players more often than not, but that unit’s had success, and it’s not like playing them together would be the most radical idea on the planet.
-Via numbersdont.com, here are some nifty pie charts on who LeBron James’ assists have gone to this season and who’s assisted LeBron the most.
What stands out to me is that LeBron’s most frequent assist target has been Anthony Parker, who’s scored off a LeBron feed 45 times this season; a good reason for him to stay in the starting lineup, perhaps.
Shaq’s also been the target of very few LeBron assists; the only rotation players who have converted less LeBron feeds are Boobie, Delonte, and Darnell Jackson.
On the other end of things, Mo has nearly half of the assists to LeBron, with Anthony Parker and Delonte being the only other players to feed LeBron 1o times or more. Shaq has five assists to LeBron so far this season.
Finally, via Peter Vecsey in the New York Post, Wade sees himself as a future teammate of LeBron’s. Be interesting to see if one of them takes the pay cut to actually go through with the move; I’ll believe it when it happens, personally.
also, plus/minus is an over-used stat but for some reason perhaps he’d care to explain, it seems to be the *only* stat john uses in his articles. curious, to say the least…
Hey read this: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/091223&sportCat=nba
A couple of questions: is the Christmas game the biggest regular season event in the NBA (if not for the fans, then at least for advertising)? I imagine puppet lovers across the country will be in their full glory. Is this our most important litmus test of the season? I know Boston, ATL, and ORL are important, but I have full confidence we can beat them (It doesn’t mean we will, just that we do have enough talent to pull it off). The Lakers are so stacked that I do not know if it’s possible. Would Antawn Jamison be an… Read more »
Gotta agree with Rusty. The last time we beat Orlando in Orlando before this year, Larry Hughes had to drop 41 points. We do not beat them in November without Shaq occupying Howard and getting him in early foul trouble.
That said, there is no need for Shaq to play in every game. I do not see the benefit of playing him against the Memphis Grizzlies, for instance. I can only take so much of him missing from 0 feet.
The issue with this analysis is that the Cavs haven’t really been running “lineups.” They’re a team in the truest sense of the word; that is, they can swap out any single player and have the rest of the floor adapt to the change. Or at least they’re getting there.
I heard Troy Murphy talk from the ever reliable Celtics color guys. Is this really a dude we’re looking into getting? It’s intriguing, I like him, but I wonder who would we trade. Anyone know anything about this?
Rusty, we’ll see how Christmas goes, then we can talk.
Krolick, You are on record many times for saying the Cavs are better without Shaq on the floor. You have even said trading Shaq would be better for the Cavs than trading Z. If the Cavs were to take your advice and move Shaq, who would cover Dwight Howard and the Lakers frontcourt in the playoffs? I think most people still look at Shaq as a great player and expect 20/10’s from him. Fact is, on this team, Shaq has a simpler role: score from the post and defend the post. The Cavs could not do this last year. Wallace… Read more »