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March 19, 2013A bizarre thing occurred through the duration of Monday night’s telecast of the Cleveland Cavaliers and their home contest against the Indiana Pacers: The wonderful individuals at FOX Sports Ohio began tabulating how many dunks had been executed by each team. Dunks have become the go-to highlight for NBA fans; above-the-rim play is the reason why driveway-ready basketball hoops come with adjustable heights. But in the same, said shot type is worth two points. Kyrie Irving’s 416 field goals this season carry no less individual weight than any converted by Blake Griffin or LeBron James simply because Irving has only been credited with two dunks on the season.
Yet every time the Clippers come to town, someone — obviously fascinated by “Lob City” — inquires as to who on the Cavaliers could replicate such a feat. And each time, Byron Scott is forced to say that outside of Alonzo Gee, his team is comprised of face-up players who thrive on ball movement and positioning rather than mid-air theatrics and exclamation point conversions. Nevertheless, as the Pacers recorded dunk after dunk — transition slams, a posterization of Tyler Zeller by All-Star forward Paul George — the ticker kept inching upward as if signaling that one team is better than the other simply because they had made physical contact with the rim more often than their opponent.
Yes, this statistic may be indicative of one team’s aggression on offense or another team’s weaknesses on the defensive end — a dunk, after all, is the hightest of percentages in terms of conversion rate. But when one would have to scroll all the way down to No. 43 to find a member of the San Antonio Spurs — Tim Duncan — on the list of the NBA’s dunk leaders, all of the overlays in the statistical world would have trouble finding any sort of correlation between success above the rim versus success in the win column. The Spurs, after all, are the most talented team in the league.
Over the course of time, fans have begun to mysteriously equate dunks as means of figurative possession — the would-be defender on the other end of the poster gets “owned,” and should subsequently be ridiculed and embarrassed. Top plays are often ones where a giant human being utilizes said size to put the ball through the orange cyllinder from point blank range — this opposed to the pin-point accuracy of a well-contested three-point shot or stout wing defense. Masculinity abound. The most recent high profile account of this would be when Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (your NBA leader in dunks!) converted one on the significantly smaller Brandon Knight. On Monday night, Paul George threw down an otherwise emphatic right handed slam on as Cavaliers center Tyler Zeller stood with both arms extended upward.
The final tally: Indiana 5, Cleveland 1. Following the contest, the operative word “embarrassed” was thrown around in the post-game press conference with Scott — a reference the head coach quickly shot down.
“I’m not embarrassed,” said Scott of the 111-90 loss to the Pacers. “We played a very good team that’s obviously playing for something special. They came out and took it to us right from the get go, and I told our guys that we’re going to face that again in the next 10 games probably eight more times. It’s more of how we react to it.”
Scott added that the Pacers — like the Jazz a few weeks ago — provide an exponentially more physical style of play as compared to his younger (and thinner) Cavaliers. At one point in the contest, a cutting Tyler Hansbrough displaced a veteran Luke Walton with a mere flick of his elbow. While Walton would claim that this was a blatant push-off, the foul went uncalled and the Pacers recorded two more points. Zeller would later find himself planted on the floor underneath the Cavaliers’ hoop after Pacers center Roy Hibbert took once step backward. Hibbert, in transition, received a pass from his teammate and converted one of the many Indiana dunks with nary an impediment.
This is not to say that the Cavaliers’ interior defense has not been anything short of atrocious after losing Anderson Varejao for the season. Zeller has a defensive rating of 1101. The newly-added Marreese Speights is not much of an upgrade, slotting in at 109. Varejao, however, continues to lead the team in this category with 104.
As Scott intimated, the Cavaliers were on their heels from the onset. Once the Pacers were able to build a comfortable lead, they were able to dictate the way the game was played. The Cavaliers managed to get to the foul line 21 times, but were forced to take a significant amount of jumpshots due to the large-bodied defenders2. Tristan Thompson played one of his better games of his still-young career, notching 20 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots. CJ Miles played well off of the bench, logging 21 points on what was his 27th birthday. But this would not be enough to counter the lack of production from the rest of the shell-shocked team — the off-guard triumvirate of Daniel Gibson, Wayne Ellington, and Dion Waiters combined to shoot 4-for- 26.
“We have to come out and throw the first punch; be men about it,” said Thompson. “We have to come out and play hard.”
Being “men,” per Thompson, equates to playing hard. Not letting the other team dictate pace or style of play — pushing back when pushed, throwing the first (assumed to be figurative) punch. If this leads to a slam dunk or two, so be it. Defending the opponent and keeping their total down is an added bonus. In the meantime, a two-or-three-foot floater over an outstretched arm does just the trick. Just ask Kyrie.
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(AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
14 Comments
Now almost 3 full seasons in, still trying to figure out the characteristics of a Byron Scott team. What does he emphasize that shows up on the court, regardless of personnel? Not consistent effort, not defense, not transition offense, not ball movement, not discipline … what then? When he finally made a dramatic move last week to get the team going by pulling his starters for lack of effort 2 minutes in, notice who was out with an injury – the player who could get him fired with a word
I wanted to like Byron. But to me he’s like a stuffed lion. Looks like a coach, dresses and stands and quotes like one. But seems like there’s just no there there. Whatever he’s selling, if anything, doesn’t look to me like the players are buying.
Dodging that Bynum bullet helps too.
No doubt and to think I really wanted him last offseason too. One word, phew!
I can’t think of (m)any other head coaching options Harv. I guess if you want the one time coach of the year back in Mike Brown to lead this group that’s one possibility. It’d make me laugh then probably cry but you get my point.
Not sure why Byron Scott gets so much of the benefit of the doubt in a city that loves to tar and feather it’s head coaches. Perhaps people feel the way that I do in that unless there is a better option why remove Scott especially now. On top of that the Cavaliers roster isn’t exactly Grade A material and that’s when two of their best players, Irving and Varejao, actually are healthy enough to play.
Team defense is of course a concern but frankly I’d prefer to score then defend as opposed to the Mike Brown years when the opposite was true. That and the team is still very young. Young players never play defense. I don’t know.
think about Houston right now. they almost get Bynum. instead, they hold out and end up with Harden and one of the most entertaining teams in the NBA.
Dunks became portrayed somewhat like HRs where they are considered a “true outcome” by alot of fans. There is more gray area in them (you can still be blocked — Tristan! — or you can flatout miss the dunk), but overall it’s close enough to be correct for a casual fan.
At the same time, mid-range jumpers are being downplayed and attacked as bad by some of the best coaches (Popovich!). So, the casual fan sees “dunk=good, jumper=bad.” And, that’s pretty close. The issue is that an aggressive layup can be nearly as efficient as a dunk and 3pt shots can be even more efficient (see Miami’s current run and how often they rotate for open-3’s).
As for being “posterized,” this is also part of the side effect of the media’s fascination with villifying “floppers.” Alot of those guys just stand their ground in the lane as the only means of defending some of these quick high-fliers, but it gets lambasted because it’s not as fun to stop that action.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9068903/the-toronto-raptors-sportvu-cameras-nba-analytical-revolution
we are one of the teams utilizing this data. hopefully, we are ahead of the curve here.
well, it’s not up to me or you to know better options and, failing that, decide Byron’s the best of the bad choices. Every good coach now was a relatively unknown assistant or a player previously, and it’s Chris Grant’s job to have a who’s who of candidates.
I know what I miss about Mike Brown – the list is short but there are legit items he infused his teams with. Yes, the talent for Byron has been lean but when you focus on what a coach can do with that (effort, attitude, improvement in some area of play) I see nothing. Offense? No one runs it when Kyrie and Dion are on the floor. Transition offense he said they’d do? Please, and there is talent now for that. Defense? About league worst and holding. Gee played better defense a year and two years ago, and other than Varajao (who would even play defense for D’Antoni) who plays any defense? My position has reluctantly become: no talent, young talent, mixed vets and young talent … after 3 years we’ve seen Byron work with his teams, and to me it looks like no team strengths or emphasis have appeared at all. Play word association with Byron – “nice suits, good sideline demeanor”? Randy Wittman or any mediocre could do this. Don’t see what Cavs have to lose looking elsewhere, and I’m sad to say that.
I can sort of understand the frustration if you expected to see something out of this team this year. Frankly I didn’t have a high standard set to start and the bar only lowered once Varejao sustained what has become his customary season ending injury. When I look at the young talent on this team (Irving, Waiters, Thompson, Ellington and Zeller) plus journeyman (Miles, Speights, Livingston and Walton) I believe you have to be patient especially now that Irving is all but done for the season. The Cavaliers were showing improvement signs for a couple of weeks but then Irving went down. It’s kind of difficult to be consistent when your best player cannot play a full year. Add in that Ellington, Livingston and Speights all came in after the season had been well underway and you have reasons/excuses as to why this team has the record it currently possesses.
All that aside it’s time for the Cavaliers to follow what the Indians and Browns have done and that is use some of that $$$ they have saved. This next draft as well as round of free agency will be make or break for everyone. They don’t have to spend crazily but they do have to spend not to mention add another piece, significant one in that, via the draft.
Nah, you’re missing my point, I’ll try to make it once more and then leave this thread. I don’t expect any amount of wins (and I don’t agree they were improving with Kyrie or had an adjustment with the influx of Ellington, et al.; in fact Kyrie is part of the developmental problem despite his individual heroics, and the new guys brought their own competence here).
My issue is I don’t see a specific Byron Quality anywhere, except effort breakdowns. What is his special coaching talent, what does he impart well? Not consistent effort, not cohesion as a unit, not defense, not the Princeton offense or the fast break. In this way his role may be similar to Paul Silas here: a respected ex-baller/babysitter who can show the kids how to act like a professional and carry themselves a certain way on the court, then get out of the way for the next guy. Obviously, we all hope the next guy is better than Mike Brown. (I’d take Stan van Gundy in a heartbeat, btw).
not sure the Cavs have been saving money. we have the 14th highest payroll this year and that is actually down from recent years.
Baron’s contract may not count against the cap, but it counts against Gilbert’s wallet.
+1 on SVG
Pop’s (by a large margin from everyone else), Carlisle, Karl, Adelman and SVG are the best current coaches in the NBA IMO. Only one of them is currently available to offer the job.
I know Adelman is a coach’s coach but he’s never done it for me – knows well how to coach up a team into a well-functioning winning unit but won’t out-game plan anyone or x and o anyone at end game, like a roundball Marty Schottenheimer. Maybe that’s just me … Really respect how Spoelstra has harnessed the horses into a system, especially after being dogged by the media and his so badly 2 years ago.
Adelman has consistently made the sum of the parts greater than the individual components. He is much like Carlisle except Rick got his ring.
Spoelstra’s system of drive and kick 3’s and swarming defense would only work with the wing guys he has, but he has those wing guys and it’s a great system. He’s definitely debateable.