After starting the week poorly with a road loss to a hapless Dallas Mavericks club, the Cavaliers came back home to beat up on Minnesota, and then back on the road to Madison Square Garden to thump the New York Knicks in prime time. Let’s take a look at how things shook out last week, and what to expect from this week’s opponents.
We’re changing the format here a little bit, and hope you like it. Feel free to let me know on Twitter (@GoodBallHunting) or in the comments below.
Thoughts From Week 15
- The Cavaliers continue to allow the game to be dictated by runs. It has been a while since we have seen a sustained 48 minute effort from The Wine And Gold. We saw it in the slow start in Dallas coupled with a handful of runs each time things got a bit close. Even in the mostly dominant New York drubbing, the Cavaliers led by nearly 30 before a furious Knicks run on the strength of Brandon Jennings (yes, really. I know) cut the lead by more than half, needed big shots down the stretch. The Cavaliers are good. They’re not great. Great teams can afford to have things be a bit bumpy from time to time, good ones cannot. The Cavaliers feel a little like going through a revolving door. Sometimes, I have a hard time telling who is chasing who during these games, and the cyclical nature of the NBA’s ebb and flow doesn’t lend itself to relying solely on spurts. Great teams hammer bad ones, finish games, and stomp on guys once they’re down. They don’t allow the grease fire Mavericks to steal a game.
- Coach Tyron Lue is mostly tremendous in his rotations and how he handles the complexities of minutes played, juggling lineups, and putting guys in position to win. However, I have to question how many minutes Kay Felder gets playing off the ball. Felder is not a guy that is going to stretch the floor, opting instead to hunt down and seek out mid-range opportunities to do his scoring, occasionally using his quickness to duck inside and draw a foul. All of that is great, but it means that he doesn’t stretch the floor. If he isn’t stretching the floor, and he isn’t the primary ball handler, I’m not sure what the purpose is. Developmental minutes are important, but not if they’re helping him develop in a role that he doesn’t fit now, and won’t fit in the future.
- Things aren’t all bad, however, in Cavalier Land. Winners of two in a row, even against sub-500 team, helps get things moving in the right direction. Kevin Love looks like he’s recovered nicely from the latest bout of back issues, and having a week that wasn’t loaded with juggernaut opponents allowed the Cavs to rest Kyrie for the night after bumping his quad the game before. Yes, I do think there is some cause for concern here, but I don’t think that full out panic is the answer. If they finish around .500 for the month of February, and 23 is still leading the world in minutes, then I’ll push the button for you.
Until then, let’s take a look at the teams coming down the pike this week.
Week 16 Opponents (Combined Record: 91-64)
- Washington Wizards – They’re on fire, they’re terrifying, and they haven’t lost a home game in what feels like a hundred years (or 17 chances). Winners of seven in a row, John Wall and Bradley Beal continue to laugh off any lingering notion that they weren’t getting along. John Wall is feasting on guys in the open court opportunities provided in transition, and the Cavs are last in the league in transition defense. Marcin Gortat sets a ton of screens, and Beal is a flat out sniper coming off of them. Cavalier wings will have their hands full, and I expect Shumpert to get a ton of fourth quarter run to finish off what should be a great game.
- Indiana Pacers – They’re playing so well of late, that I’m starting to feel better about my lofty expectations before the season, where I theorized that these Pacers would host a home playoff series in the first round. They are also on a tear lately, winning six games in a row. The recent run has them just two games out of the third seed in the East, currently possessed by the Wizards. Heck of a week for the Cavs. PG Jeff Teague is starting to figure things out a bit more, and has a full command of the offense as we crest the midway point. Myles Turner is awesome. He’s developing so quickly, and every aspect of his game is improving. So often with young bigs, its one piece at a time, one year at a time, but Turner is doing it all, and he’s doing it now. Reminds me of a young Amare Stoudemire.
- Oklahoma City Thunder – Russell Westbrook continues to leap tall buildings in a single bound…and then turn around, crush the building, save everyone in it, and do it all while dribbling between defenders. Victor Oladipo is off to a hot start this month, and Steven Adams might be the most versatile defensive big east of Salt Lake City. Still, though, it starts and ends with Russ. You beat OKC by beating Russ. Cavalier guards haven’t excelled against his type of hyperactive brand of basketball so far, so it will be a challenge.
- Denver Nuggets – Every year, there are a few teams that are Fun-Bad. They’re not a good team, they’re closer to being terrible than they are legitimate, but they’re a ton of fun. Denver is the best example of this. Yes, they’re in the eighth spot in the West right now, but they’re 6.5 games back of the seven spot, and 3.5 away from dropping down to 13th. Rookie Jamal Murray is a blur and a true momentum shooter. Once he gets rolling, it is difficult to stop him. The best bet is to start off defending him with size. He gets uncomfortable quickly.
Shoot Around
- The trade deadline is near, and the rumors don’t go away. I’ve gone in depth on Twitter about all the ways that Carmelo doesn’t help the Cavs, so I won’t do that here. I don’t think that Melo goes anywhere by the deadline, due to his commitment to not waiving the no trade clause unless something perfect where he can compete…with all the good players materializes. He’s getting a free pass here from…certain analysts, and the general basketball public as well.
- I don’t think that Denver would seriously think about moving Mudiay, but stranger things have happen. I do think that Wilson Chandler stands a great chance to be moved in a couple weeks. Frankly, he can do a lot of the things that teams want Carmelo to do for them. He can, however, do them cheaper both in terms of salary but also Denver’s asking price in return. Is he as good as Carmelo? Absolutely not. But a team like Boston, LAC, Atlanta, or Charlotte doesn’t need him to be that good. They just need him to do those things.
- My favorite stat this week was that DeAndre Jordan entered Sunday’s game against Boston with over 1,500 career dunks in 642 games. That works out to roughly 2.3 dunks per game. He averages 3.6 made shots per game. This means that roughly 63% of all of the freakishly athletic Clipper’s made shots are dunks. We live in an NBA world where coaches are obsessed with making guys great at things they do poorly, rather than accentuating the parts of the games that they already do well, and making them dominant. DeAndre got lucky to have coaches like Doc Rivers who embrace who is he as a player, play to that strength, and allow him to be DeAndre. Cool stuff.
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