{"id":25577,"date":"2014-05-05T02:55:18","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T10:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/?p=25577"},"modified":"2014-05-05T04:16:49","modified_gmt":"2014-05-05T12:16:49","slug":"the-2014-playoffs-what-does-the-first-round-mean-for-the-cavs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/?p=25577","title":{"rendered":"The 2014 Playoffs – What does the First Round mean for the Cavs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shaun+Livingston+Kyle+Lowry+Brooklyn+Nets+jhbl-YHP5whl\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The first round of the NBA playoffs were bananas<\/em>. \u00a0So much overtime, so many game sevens. \u00a0The critical question lost in all that spectacular basketball though is, “what does it mean for the Cavs”? \u00a0I will briefly look at each series in the Eastern Conference and make one glass half full<\/em> and one glass half empty<\/em> conclusion from each first round playoff series.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Eastern Conference<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(1) Indiana Pacers vs (8) Atlanta Hawks –\u00a0<\/strong>Glass Half Full:\u00a0<\/em>David West came into Indiana and really helped instill \u00a0a winning culture for the young Pacers, as the franchise\u00a0went from being an upstart, 37-win eighth seed to perennial 50+ win contenders in the summer of 2011. \u00a0Certainly Paul George, Roy Hibbert, George Hill, et al would have developed into a fine group without him, but West brought toughness and veteran leadership into a group that sorely needed it. \u00a0 In the fourth quarter of game six of this series, he put the team on his back and would not allow a loss. \u00a0Last summer, the Cavs added Andrew Bynum, which was pretty much the opposite of what I just described. \u00a0This summer, the team has another opportunity to make the sort of culture changing pick-up that can rally their young, sometimes disparate parts.<\/p>\n

Glass half empty: <\/em>Having shooters and reasonable floor spacing is important. \u00a0Justin Willard recently went deep on this topic <\/a>at gotbuckets.com.\u00a0 The Hawks’ top eight players in minutes played, hoisted more than 3 threes per 36 minutes in these seven games, leading them to break the NBA record for attempted threes in a series. \u00a0It frequently caused fits for the Pacers. \u00a0Four of the Pacers top eight players for minutes combined to shoot five total\u00a0<\/em>three pointers; their offense can look unbelievably congested and unable to generate any decent looks. \u00a0In games five and six, the Pacers gave some of Roy Hibbert’s minutes to Chris Copeland. \u00a0The shocking result? \u00a0Offense got easier. \u00a0Removing their center and adding a perimeter player resulted in not only more threes, but more shots close to the basket. \u00a0In Copeland’s minutes, the Pacers outscored the Hawks by 17 points per 100 possessions. \u00a0In addition to increasing their rate of three point attempts by nearly seven per 100 possessions, the Pacers attempted 28 shots per 48 minutes within five feet of the basket, increasing from 26 close shots per 48 minutes when he sat. \u00a0Opening up the paint allowed the Pacers perimeter players to make noise inside.<\/p>\n

Other than free agent Spencer Hawes, none of the Cavalier big men shoot from deep. \u00a0Of the Cavs top nine players in minutes this season, only Kyrie, Dion and Dellavedova shot more than 3.5 threes per 36 minutes. \u00a0Outside that group, CJ Miles attempted nearly eight per 36, but he too is a free agent. \u00a0Not a revelation, but the Cavs badly need to add shooting range from the three, four, and \/ or five.<\/p>\n

(2) Miami Heat vs (7) Charlotte Bobcats –<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>Glass Half Full:\u00a0<\/em>Seeing the relatively young Bobcats leap to 43 wins was somewhat disconcerting. \u00a0 They are young, with some payroll flexibility and three drafts picks in the next two years (including Detroit’s pick, top 8 protected this year, and only top 1 protected next year). \u00a0Against the Heat though, they looked nowhere near making a leap. \u00a0That makes it easier to envision the Cavs leap-frogging them next year.<\/p>\n

Glass Half Empty:\u00a0<\/em>To any “Lebron may come home” people, the Heat appear to be prohibitive favorites for a third straight ring. \u00a0Lebron isn’t leaving that.<\/p>\n

(3) Toronto Raptors vs (6) Brooklyn Nets:\u00a0<\/strong>Glass Half Full:\u00a0<\/em>At age 21, Jonas Valanciunas got some playoff experience, nearly averaging a double-double over seven games. \u00a0For Cavs fans that like to revel in every failure of the-2011-pick-that-wasn’t, JV played like he didn’t belong with the varsity in the critical Game Seven: 3 points, 5 rebounds and -23 in 27 minutes. \u00a0Tristan Thompson remains the favorite of Cavs fans and Canadians.<\/p>\n

Glass Half Empty: <\/em>The top seven players in the Raptor’s rotation are 27 or younger, and all they need to do is re-sign Kyle Lowry to return that group next year. \u00a0A group that finished on a 41 and 21 tear (54 win pace), nearly making the second round of the playoffs. \u00a0That does not aid hopes for a Cavalier ascent up the East.<\/p>\n

(4) Chicago Bulls vs (5) Washington Wizards –\u00a0<\/strong>Glass Half Full: \u00a0<\/em>In his fourth season, paired with a fellow top-five pick, guard running mate, John Wall made the playoffs. \u00a0Next year is Kyrie’s fourth season. \u00a0Certainly, he and Wall, nor Waiters and Beal are entirely similar, but it is encouraging seeing the leaps that a young, offensive minded back-court can make early in their careers. \u00a0In an article earlier this season, I noted that the sweet spot for high volume guard combos was combined 50 – 52% usage. \u00a0Wall and Beal were at the upper end of that range. \u00a0Kyrie & Dion approached 55%. \u00a0If they can both cut out a couple of their dumber shots every night, pass a little more willingly, and Dion continues to show he can hoist four to five threes per night, making those at a 37 – 38% clip, their pairing can really start blossoming next year. \u00a0Also like the Wizards, the team should add an excellent three-and-D wing and some veteran big man defensive presence. \u00a0What a revolutionary idea.<\/p>\n

Glass half empty:\u00a0<\/em>Like with Toronto, the Wizards are built around a few young pieces, and they are already a team making noise in the playoffs. \u00a0Their performances are sort of what was hoped for from the Cavs this year. \u00a0The Wine & Gold are definitely in catch up mode, in both the Eastern Conference and definitely the NBA at large. \u00a0If last summer was critical for the team’s future and essentially a huge mistake, summer of 2014 is super, hyper, mega critical. \u00a0The Cavs front office needs to get some things right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first round of the NBA playoffs were bananas. \u00a0So much overtime, so many game sevens. \u00a0The critical question lost…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-25577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25577"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25753,"href":"https:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25577\/revisions\/25753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25577"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=25577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}