Roger Goodell losing discipline power is the best thing for Roger Goodell
March 17, 2016Crew SC Goes Into Road Trip 0-2
March 17, 2016With LeBron James in street clothes and the Cleveland Cavaliers’ record without him rather paltry, it was going to be up to the team’s other stars—specifically, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love—to take on the scoring load if they were going to beat a fully stocked Dallas Mavericks squad. Love poured in a Timberwolves-esque 23 with 18 rebounds. Channing Frye and J.R. Smith combined for 27. Irving led the way with a game-high 33 points, but took 28 shots to get there.
As the game wore on and the Cavaliers lead, which was at 20 points midway through the second half, began to dwindle, Irving continued to shoot. Some he made, some he missed. But with just one assist in 39 minutes of play, several Cavalier teammates were left shaking their heads despite the team pulling out the one-point win at home.
From Chris Haynes:
A game-high 33 points on 12-of-28 shooting along with a late game-saving steal allowed the Cavs to squeak by the Mavericks in a 99–98 victory at The Q. But it was his unwillingness to get others involved that left onlookers and his teammates scratching their heads.
After the game, a few players were puzzled to how their point guard managed to register just one measly assist while playing 39 minutes. They were frustrated, but the win and Irving’s huge defensive play lessened the anger.
The notion within the locker room is that the situation is tolerable, because it isn’t permanent. If the Cavaliers were dealt the misfortune of playing without James for an extended period of time, this locker room would be boiling over. Players are growing tired of Irving’s inability to not only register a proper amount of assists at the lead guard position, but also to just move the ball.
The lack of ball movement may be a bit of a misnomer as Irving passed the ball 62 times on the night—the seventh-highest total among 191 active players on the evening. The difference, obviously, is that his passes were not entirely in the play-making capacity. While he was unstoppable at times, Irving did fall into his old habit of dribbling out the majority of the shot clock, with either forced shots or last-second efforts to get teammates involved leading to wasted possessions.
Worth noting: There were several instances throughout the game where the Cavs ran with Matthew Dellavedova at the point with Irving playing off of the ball. Delly’s seven assits led the team; J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert combined for nine. Were there instances of Irving dominating the ball for entire possessions? Yes. Undoubtedly. But Cavs players not named Irving shot a combined 0-for-6 from the floor over the game’s final nine minutes.1 The NBA tracks potential assits, of which Irving had eight, meaning that teammates only converted on 12.5 percent of their opportunities. If Irving was deciding to take matters in to his own hands to secure a much-needed win given the no-LeBron narrative, who can blame him?2
There is little doubt that there were players inside the Cavs locker room who were upset about Irving’s assist total. After a few rough stories last season, Haynes has proven to be a reliable reporter who reports out stories well beyond the box score and scrum quotes. The devil, however, is in the details. The question that will remain is how Irving will respond. He was blasted for a lack of assists early last season and went on to average over five per game. While he has just four assists in the last two games, Irving totaled 14 in the two games prior. it’s tough to judge without knowing the game plan, but knowing Ty Lue, LeBron James and the Cavs, another pass-focused game may not be in the too distant future.
12 Comments
I love the stat about potential assists. Without James on the floor, Irving is the man, and he knows it.
When his teammates are dropping the ball (not through the hoop, apparently), who else is he supposed to turn to to try to win the game?
I’m not trying to be some big Kyrie defender, here. But, as you’ve pointed out here, the OMG ONE ASSIST!!!111!1 criticisms do not encapsulate the entire issue.
That said, I would like him to pass more, but that has never been his game. Ever. Why do we think it will magically change?
The Cavs have lacked movement on the offensive end all season. One guy holds the ball, while the other 4 stand and watch. Passing accomplishes nothing without movement.
“After the game, a few players were puzzled to how their point guard managed to register just one measly assist while playing 39 minutes. They were frustrated, but the win and Irving’s huge defensive play lessened the anger.”
I love this journalism where these garbo reporters just project their feelings without factual support. You…I mean, the players were “puzzled” and “frustrated” and had “anger” eh?
Look, one assist is bad, and there are legit gripes about Kyrie, no doubt, but dear lord, stop talking through fake puppet players.
Yeah, Kyrie needs to get better at distributing, but this is ridiculous. What exactly were the players saying – “Sure, we won, Kyrie made a couple huge defensive plays at the end, and when he passed to us we missed our shots almost 90% of the time, but WE WANT THE BALL!”
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Nope. Haynes hasn’t sufficiently redeemed himself for me to trust him. I call shenanigans. He’s the kind of reporter that asks some guy “How do you feel about Kyrie only having one assist” and the guy responds with “Man, I don’t know. I guess it would be good for him to do better with that, but hey, at least we won,” and then writes a story about players being angry. He’s been called out by players multiple times and I don’t think they trust him enough to say things like that off the record.
This is just silly.
Yep, Brian Windhorst said in a podcast that shooters were 1-8 on would-be assists from Irving that night. Although he also pointed out that Kyrie’s assists or lack thereof is a red herring. The Cavs led by 20 twice, and gave up another 30pt 4th quarter. Defense is the issue.
Totally agree on the defense. I have discussions with coworkers who swear that slow to rotate bigs are the issue. I think its more that the guards (kyrie in particular) are allowing people a free pass into the paint.
It’s a little bit of both, I think. When it looks like somebody just goes right by Kyrie or Delly, (unless they were obviously just faked out of their shoes) they were probably forcing the guy to the side they wanted with the assumption there was help coming. Our bigs sometimes have trouble prioritizing assignments and either focus so hard on rebounding position that they get trapped away from a play or fail to recognize a switch and rotate in time for it to matter. On the other hand, our guards also have a little trouble deciding how to deal with a screen and when to switch, which confuses the bigs and leads to late rotations. It’s the kinds of things that young players usually struggle with, frankly, but even when Kyrie is trying hard, he isn’t showing the strongest instincts ever. (sort of like his passing, where he’s willing but not super effective as of yet)
One question, “Who won the game?”. nuff said.
I am getting a salary of 6800 dollars each week. Over a year ago I was in a horrible condition ,,,yjl jobless and no bank credit . Thanks to one of my friends who showed me a way where I was able to gather myself and making average of 57 d/h. So it can change your life as it has changed mine.
Look here for details
ki…