2022-23 Regular Season

[JujitsuFlip]

Does anyone else remember the time in a playoff game LeBron told his teammates "carpe diem" ... aka "sieze the day" .. and then regretted it a minute later when Andy Varejao got the ball from James and instead of resetting the play like he would usually do, tried to drive and score?

Gotta be committed to this stuff, not just pay lip service.

This reminds me of my younger days in a close-ish game, one of my teammates in the huddle asked if we could start jacking 3s and the coach said no, just stick to the gameplan and get the win. I swear the next possession outta the timeout I get the ball on the wing, cross my defender up (almost got stripped) and just pulled up for 3 and laced it. My team went wild, crowd went wild, the freaking defender even dapped me up. My older brothers AAU coach was at the game and afterwards because I would practice with em sometimes, he told me if they were ever shorthanded he was gonna let me dress for a game.

Anyway, that was my sieze the day basketball moment lol

[JujitsuFlip]

Aren't we discussing the team's lack of big men depth if a starter or two were to go down?

That's where the minutes come from, and who they go to is going to tend to trickle down and vary with the opponent we're facing.

If I Mobley or Diakite has an advantage over a 10-day man or a buy out player, it's that they've been with the team, they've practiced with the team, they're supposed to know something about our plays and systems.

But let's face it, we want to see them in NBA situations so we can see what we do or don't have. Presumably the coaching staff has a better idea and doesn't need to see them getting actual minutes to draw a conclusion as to whether they're ready, but we'd all like to judge that too.

Yea if the premise were 1 or 2 of Allen / Mobley getting injured, I missed that.

In that case, why not cause the season is likely over regardless

It's for short-term injuries which we'll recover from, so that we don't lose a bunch of games while they're out. For instance, Allen and Mobley's injuries last year that dropped us from a firm playoff seed to the play-in where Allen wasn't 100% yet.

Looks like we went with Sam Merrill on a 10-day. Not sure whose minutes he's going to get in those 10 days.

I'm cool with the Merrill signing, he has some expierence with the Bucks and Grizz. He can flat out shoot the rock too, so could be situational.

[JonFromVA]

Yea if the premise were 1 or 2 of Allen / Mobley getting injured, I missed that.

In that case, why not cause the season is likely over regardless

It's for short-term injuries which we'll recover from, so that we don't lose a bunch of games while they're out. For instance, Allen and Mobley's injuries last year that dropped us from a firm playoff seed to the play-in where Allen wasn't 100% yet.

Looks like we went with Sam Merrill on a 10-day. Not sure whose minutes he's going to get in those 10 days.

I'm cool with the Merrill signing, he has some expierence with the Bucks and Grizz. He can flat out shoot the rock too, so could be situational.

Yep, I try not to get my hopes up for a 10-day signing. Sometimes it's little more than a way to get a guy you like some extra money and take a closer look at him.

Sure would be nice to have someone come off the bench knocking down shots, though.

[ijspeelman]

[JonFromVA]

8-)

Today is certainly a milestone (wouldn't think so after needing a pair of missed free-throws and OT to beat the Celtics without 3 starters), but here we are:

#9 in offensive rating at 115.8
#1 in defensive rating at 110.1 (all of 0.1 ahead of the Griz now)
#1 in NET RATING at +5.7 (0.5 ahead of the Celtics) which is what drives simple predictors along with SOS
#30 in pace at 95.6

[ijspeelman]

Per the Athletic, "Following the Cavs’ final game before the All-Star break, on Feb. 15 in Philadelphia, and The Athletic reported that the Cavs and Love were finalizing a contract buyout, Love reached out to Wade. Love encouraged him to continue shooting, and to be the best version of himself. Love knew that Wade was under pressure to not only produce in his minutes, but in a way, validate the decision for the buyout, so he reminded Wade that the Cavs signed him last summer for a reason."

[JonFromVA]

Per the Athletic, "Following the Cavs’ final game before the All-Star break, on Feb. 15 in Philadelphia, and The Athletic reported that the Cavs and Love were finalizing a contract buyout, Love reached out to Wade. Love encouraged him to continue shooting, and to be the best version of himself. Love knew that Wade was under pressure to not only produce in his minutes, but in a way, validate the decision for the buyout, so he reminded Wade that the Cavs signed him last summer for a reason."

Hah, I'm not sure Dean should be listening to advice from the guy who became unplayable when he couldn't make a shot due to injury.

If Kevin understood anything about JBB, he'd be advising Dean to play hard, do the little things, hit the boards, make a difference on D, and trust that his shot will eventually come back around.

[JujitsuFlip]

Allen going down with an eye injury is a huge blow. Like last season with his finger, it's just a freak accident. Hopefully it doesn't sideline him as long as his late season injury did last season.

[ijspeelman]

Allen going down with an eye injury is a huge blow. Like last season with his finger, it's just a freak accident. Hopefully it doesn't sideline him as long as his late season injury did last season.

Supposedly it was better than Garland’s injury at the beginning of the season. I think he’s currently Day to Day.

[JonFromVA]

Allen going down with an eye injury is a huge blow. Like last season with his finger, it's just a freak accident. Hopefully it doesn't sideline him as long as his late season injury did last season.

Supposedly it was better than Garland’s injury at the beginning of the season. I think he’s currently Day to Day.

I wonder if DG's injury ever really healed given how he reacts whenever he gets smacked in the face - and yet he won't wear a mask.

[JonFromVA]

Another stat worth noting is that while Mitchell is widely regarded as the star of the team (and with good reason given his scoring outbursts), it's Garland who's been separating himself in terms of impact and leads the team with a +7.7 on-court and a +5.3 on-off (BBR). Allen is currently second at +7.4/+4.4, and Mitchell is +5.6/-0.2.

Reminiscent of the sort of +/- numbers Conley, Gobert, and Mitchell put up in Utah; and worth noting as a team we actually shoot the 3-ball a little better than the Jazz did last year; we just shoot it a lot less and our % is primarily being driven up by Mitchell and Garland.

[toooskies]

Allen going down with an eye injury is a huge blow. Like last season with his finger, it's just a freak accident. Hopefully it doesn't sideline him as long as his late season injury did last season.

Supposedly it was better than Garland’s injury at the beginning of the season. I think he’s currently Day to Day.

I wonder if DG's injury ever really healed given how he reacts whenever he gets smacked in the face - and yet he won't wear a mask.

DG reacts like that because getting hit in the face is worth taking the time to react and get yourself right before you jump back into action. Might get some sympathy from the refs and possibly the other team as well.

Allen was in the LeVert junkyard dog group photo without the patch, it didn't look nearly as bad as Garland's did a week after his injury. I would guess he'll play on Wednesday.

Another stat worth noting is that while Mitchell is widely regarded as the star of the team (and with good reason given his scoring outbursts), it's Garland who's been separating himself in terms of impact and leads the team with a +7.7 on-court and a +5.3 on-off (BBR). Allen is currently second at +7.4/+4.4, and Mitchell is +5.6/-0.2.

Reminiscent of the sort of +/- numbers Conley, Gobert, and Mitchell put up in Utah; and worth noting as a team we actually shoot the 3-ball a little better than the Jazz did last year; we just shoot it a lot less and our % is primarily being driven up by Mitchell and Garland.

It's always important to consider context for on/off. Mitchell can play PG but isn't an orchestrator of the offense the way that Garland is. So when Mitchell's out there without Garland, the offense stops moving the ball and finding defensive weaknesses as well. Rubio is still not pre-ACL Rubio, and he's only +0.7 on the year-- every sub-par minute Rubio plays is probably impacting Mitchell's on-off too.

[JonFromVA]

Supposedly it was better than Garland’s injury at the beginning of the season. I think he’s currently Day to Day.

I wonder if DG's injury ever really healed given how he reacts whenever he gets smacked in the face - and yet he won't wear a mask.

DG reacts like that because getting hit in the face is worth taking the time to react and get yourself right before you jump back into action. Might get some sympathy from the refs and possibly the other team as well.

Allen was in the LeVert junkyard dog group photo without the patch, it didn't look nearly as bad as Garland's did a week after his injury. I would guess he'll play on Wednesday.

Another stat worth noting is that while Mitchell is widely regarded as the star of the team (and with good reason given his scoring outbursts), it's Garland who's been separating himself in terms of impact and leads the team with a +7.7 on-court and a +5.3 on-off (BBR). Allen is currently second at +7.4/+4.4, and Mitchell is +5.6/-0.2.

Reminiscent of the sort of +/- numbers Conley, Gobert, and Mitchell put up in Utah; and worth noting as a team we actually shoot the 3-ball a little better than the Jazz did last year; we just shoot it a lot less and our % is primarily being driven up by Mitchell and Garland.

It's always important to consider context for on/off. Mitchell can play PG but isn't an orchestrator of the offense the way that Garland is. So when Mitchell's out there without Garland, the offense stops moving the ball and finding defensive weaknesses as well. Rubio is still not pre-ACL Rubio, and he's only +0.7 on the year-- every sub-par minute Rubio plays is probably impacting Mitchell's on-off too.

I didn't meant to imply that the team being +5.6 with Mitchell on the floor and +5.8 when he's off the floor was a problem.

We have some problematic lineups that include Mitchell, but they don't have a lot of minutes, and the main difference between them and the successful ones may be more about shooting than playmaking.

Rubio has been pairing better with Garland (+30.1) .vs. (-4.7) when paired with Mitchell ... which is interesting.

Another promising stat heading in to the playoffs is that Caris has been pairing well with everybody (except Love).

[JujitsuFlip]

Cavs signed Merrill to a multi year contract, idk the details yet.

JB doesn't play him (or Green) but kudos to him for securing a deal.

[toooskies]

Cavs signed Merrill to a multi year contract, idk the details yet.

JB doesn't play him (or Green) but kudos to him for securing a deal.

Most likely only partial guarantees, but I guess he could hang well enough in practice that we decided he was at least as good a bet going forward as Windler.

[JonFromVA]

Cavs signed Merrill to a multi year contract, idk the details yet.

JB doesn't play him (or Green) but kudos to him for securing a deal.

Most likely only partial guarantees, but I guess he could hang well enough in practice that we decided he was at least as good a bet going forward as Windler.

Yeah, without the details, we don't know if it's anything more than the Cavs feeling like throwing some extra money at a player and having a contract that can be used to absorb salary if/when they need it.

As for Windler, he's not doing much even in Canton. He hasn't seemed to have recovered his 3pt shot and he's not dominating like you'd expect even a fringe NBA prospect (IMobley, Diakate, Cooper, Merrill, etc) to dominate. Very disappointing, but at least even if this is the end of the line for him - he'll have $10M in the bank to show for it.

[jbk1234]

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[ijspeelman]

I know I've been very critical of Stevens in general (I think we all have), his last 6 games (where he has gotten this influx of minutes) have been very impressive. He's really shown he can be a serviceable big man back-up especially as the 4 with Allen or Mobley slotting in at center. He has also shot an impressive (for him) 36.4% on threes on Okoro volume.

He's definitely not a main stay in our starting line-up, but I have opened up to him getting real minutes in the playoffs as a big man. Especially if Wade is falling out of the rotation as our normal bench big with his shooting woes (since his return from his bigger injury on 1/21/23, he is shooting 28.3% which is still 3% points better than Love in that stretch).

[JonFromVA]

I know I've been very critical of Stevens in general (I think we all have), his last 6 games (where he has gotten this influx of minutes) have been very impressive. He's really shown he can be a serviceable big man back-up especially as the 4 with Allen or Mobley slotting in at center. He has also shot an impressive (for him) 36.4% on threes on Okoro volume.

He's definitely not a main stay in our starting line-up, but I have opened up to him getting real minutes in the playoffs as a big man. Especially if Wade is falling out of the rotation as our normal bench big with his shooting woes (since his return from his bigger injury on 1/21/23, he is shooting 28.3% which is still 3% points better than Love in that stretch).

It helps that Kevin set such a really low bar before we benched him, but yeah every now and then our bench guys make me wonder if we've already got what we need to fill in around our core-4 ... it's just there's a tendency to think a player like Stevens going on 26 is what he is, and that's not necessarily the case.

If he was a player on another team, we'd never accept that idea, but he's ours and we're allowed to dream.

[JujitsuFlip]

Chris Fedor reporting Allen could be back this upcoming week.