Game 80: Grizzlies @ Cavs 4/10/2024

[JonFromVA]

The fun thing with most of the units that worked really well is that Dean Wade was a prominent part of most of them. Can't really go with what works if you don't have it.

Tristan Thompson should get Morris's opportunities, though. I'm fully out on him. I'm doubling down on two bigs rather than running from it like JBB has been doing lately at the end of games.

It shouldn't be that hard to look at why a unit worked and find a substitute for one guy in that unit. Maybe you take the new guy aside and explain what he needs to provide that the guy he's replacing was giving?

But while statisticians need to worry about sample sizes before drawing conclusions, a head coach doesn't; he should try to see if he can find minutes for those groups in situations they can try to continue to succeed in or build upon it.

fwiw, here's 4 groups that have played really well without Dean:
(off rtg - def rtg from 82games)

Garland-Okoro-LeVert-Niang-E.Mobley (+14)
Mitchell-Okoro-LeVert-Niang-Allen (+36)
PorterJr.-Merrill-LeVert-Niang-Thompson (+53)
Mitchell-Strus-LeVert-Niang-Allen (+14)

Interestingly, Caris and George are in all of them inspite of their 2-man group being only +0.6.

If there's a silver lining, at least JBB used that first lineup as his bench rotation .vs. Memphis.

How many minutes are we even talking about with the +53 five-man group?

Coincidentally, nearly the same 41 minutes they had back when the team was on an 8 game winning streak when TT got busted.

[jbk1234]

It shouldn't be that hard to look at why a unit worked and find a substitute for one guy in that unit. Maybe you take the new guy aside and explain what he needs to provide that the guy he's replacing was giving?

But while statisticians need to worry about sample sizes before drawing conclusions, a head coach doesn't; he should try to see if he can find minutes for those groups in situations they can try to continue to succeed in or build upon it.

fwiw, here's 4 groups that have played really well without Dean:
(off rtg - def rtg from 82games)

Garland-Okoro-LeVert-Niang-E.Mobley (+14)
Mitchell-Okoro-LeVert-Niang-Allen (+36)
PorterJr.-Merrill-LeVert-Niang-Thompson (+53)
Mitchell-Strus-LeVert-Niang-Allen (+14)

Interestingly, Caris and George are in all of them inspite of their 2-man group being only +0.6.

If there's a silver lining, at least JBB used that first lineup as his bench rotation .vs. Memphis.

How many minutes are we even talking about with the +53 five-man group?

Coincidentally, nearly the same 41 minutes they had back when the team was on an 8 game winning streak when TT got busted.

So a single game sample size. At least 4 of the 5 of those guys have gotten run together since then and I'm skeptical that TT, even after eating his spinach, was the missing piece that unlocked that group.

[JonFromVA]

The fun thing with most of the units that worked really well is that Dean Wade was a prominent part of most of them. Can't really go with what works if you don't have it.

Tristan Thompson should get Morris's opportunities, though. I'm fully out on him. I'm doubling down on two bigs rather than running from it like JBB has been doing lately at the end of games.

It shouldn't be that hard to look at why a unit worked and find a substitute for one guy in that unit. Maybe you take the new guy aside and explain what he needs to provide that the guy he's replacing was giving?

But while statisticians need to worry about sample sizes before drawing conclusions, a head coach doesn't; he should try to see if he can find minutes for those groups in situations they can try to continue to succeed in or build upon it.

fwiw, here's 4 groups that have played really well without Dean:
(off rtg - def rtg from 82games)

Garland-Okoro-LeVert-Niang-E.Mobley (+14)
Mitchell-Okoro-LeVert-Niang-Allen (+36)
PorterJr.-Merrill-LeVert-Niang-Thompson (+53)
Mitchell-Strus-LeVert-Niang-Allen (+14)

Interestingly, Caris and George are in all of them inspite of their 2-man group being only +0.6.

If there's a silver lining, at least JBB used that first lineup as his bench rotation .vs. Memphis.

I mean last night you saw the playoff rotation. I think with chances of it going less minutes for 1 of the 3 bench guys, situationally.

Of course, Isaac picked up a couple of quick fouls, Caris had one of his good games, and JBB trashed his playoff rotation in game 2 last year.

[JujitsuFlip]

It shouldn't be that hard to look at why a unit worked and find a substitute for one guy in that unit. Maybe you take the new guy aside and explain what he needs to provide that the guy he's replacing was giving?

But while statisticians need to worry about sample sizes before drawing conclusions, a head coach doesn't; he should try to see if he can find minutes for those groups in situations they can try to continue to succeed in or build upon it.

fwiw, here's 4 groups that have played really well without Dean:
(off rtg - def rtg from 82games)

Garland-Okoro-LeVert-Niang-E.Mobley (+14)
Mitchell-Okoro-LeVert-Niang-Allen (+36)
PorterJr.-Merrill-LeVert-Niang-Thompson (+53)
Mitchell-Strus-LeVert-Niang-Allen (+14)

Interestingly, Caris and George are in all of them inspite of their 2-man group being only +0.6.

If there's a silver lining, at least JBB used that first lineup as his bench rotation .vs. Memphis.

I mean last night you saw the playoff rotation. I think with chances of it going less minutes for 1 of the 3 bench guys, situationally.

Of course, Isaac picked up a couple of quick fouls, Caris had one of his good games, and JBB trashed his playoff rotation in game 2 last year.

Aw, I'm not saying it's a good thing lol

I'm just saying outside of those core 4 and 1 or 2 MAYBE 3 other guys, no one else will see significant minutes (assuming the Cavs can clinch a top 6 seed).

[JonFromVA]

I mean last night you saw the playoff rotation. I think with chances of it going less minutes for 1 of the 3 bench guys, situationally.

Of course, Isaac picked up a couple of quick fouls, Caris had one of his good games, and JBB trashed his playoff rotation in game 2 last year.

Aw, I'm not saying it's a good thing lol

I'm just saying outside of those core 4 and 1 or 2 MAYBE 3 other guys, no one else will see significant minutes (assuming the Cavs can clinch a top 6 seed).

There's a lot worse things he can do than use the Garland-Okoro-LeVert-Niang-E.Mobley when Mitchell is off the floor. Using Mitchell-Okoro-LeVert-Niang-Allen when Garland and Mobley also looks very good.

So, while Dean is part of a lot of our effective rotations, JBB may have stumbled on a couple of really good options just in time, but we'll have to see. In the past he's made seemingly arbitrary changes to his rotations including major ones like swapping Allen and Mobley which may make some sense in theory because LeVert and Allen have good chemistry, but it hasn't worked out that way.

Can he go from good lineup to good lineup? And if he decides to go against the data and go with his intuition can he get it right? These are the kinds of things that annoy me about his coaching.