May 23, 2013

NBA News: Luke Walton and CJ Miles stay home due to injury

April 8, 2013 by 1 Comment

Though the Cleveland Cavaliers will travel to Indiana to play the Pacers on Tuesday evening, they will be without veteran swingmen Luke Walton and CJ Miles who have stayed home due to injury.

Walton left Friday’s contest against the Boston Celtics in the first quarter due to a sprained ankle, an injury that also kept him out in the Cavaliers’ win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday evening. Miles, who had already been dealing with a tender foot, received six stitches after a wayward Nikola Vucevic elbow caught him in the forehead; he was later diagnosed with a concussion.

Tristan Thompson will continue to get the bulk of the minutes at power forward while Wayne Ellington and Omri Casspi will likely split time behind Alonzo Gee at small forward. Daniel “Boobie” Gibson could figure into playing time at shooting guard, but he is listed as day-to-day with right elbow issues.

Following their contest in Indiana, the Cavaliers finish up the season against the Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat and Charlotte Bobcats.

[Related: Cavs late season woes could have big offseason impact]

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Cavalier Film Room: Blowing a 27-Point Lead Three At A Time

March 22, 2013 by 1 Comment

WFNY Cavaliers Film RoomLast time in the film room, I gave the bench a standing ovation for their assist work. This week, I have the much less enjoyable task of breaking down just how the Cavaliers blew a 27-point lead against the Miami Heat on Wednesday night, allowing the Heat to extend their win streak to 24 games. Not surprisingly, the three point shot played a huge role in that comeback. In less than eleven minutes of game action, Miami hit TEN three point shots to go from down 23 to up 7. As you’ll see in the film breakdown, however, it wasn’t just Miami getting hot. It was a systematical breakdown in the Cavaliers’ defense and a poor decision in personnel by Byron Scott that exacerbated the problem. Let’s dive in. [Read more...]

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Cavalier Film Room: Team Defense Fueling An Improbable Win

March 8, 2013 by 3 Comments

WFNY Cavaliers Film RoomWhen we last were together in the film room, we took a closer look at Kyrie Irving dotting I’s with the help of Double T. It’s been a while and there’s been plenty to talk about during this recent strong play from the Cavaliers. I’m going to keep it current this week, however, and break down some moments from the Cavs’ improbable comeback against the Jazz on Wednesday night. I could go into C.J. Miles’s 12-point fourth, Kyrie Irving’s late offensive surge, or Wayne Ellington’s strong performance. Instead, I’m going to credit the Cavaliers’ defense for getting the key stops and forcing some turnovers to give themselves a shot at the W. Without these critical stops, the offensive surge is just a comeback effort that would’ve come up short. Surprisingly enough too, Kyrie Irving played a starring role in the defensive lockdown. Let’s go to the film. [Read more...]

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Cool, calm and collected, Luke Walton leads Cavaliers’ crafty reserves

February 28, 2013 by 50 Comments

Luke Walton CavaliersThe court-side seat was vacant, waiting to be used. During the waning seconds of a hard-fought game on the road against the Chicago Bulls, Luke Walton deflected an in-bound pass into the corner where he and Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich would each fight to obtain the loose ball. Walton dove out of bounds, coralled the ball where he would swing it around his body and deflect it off of Hinrich’s leg, and promptly rotating his body clockwise where he would fall perfectly in to a chair placed between two Bulls fans. Walton quickly sprung up with his right arm stretched toward the Cavaliers’ basket, signaling posession. The baseline referree agreed. The Cavaliers bench errupted.

Kyrie Irving, who executed a similar play in a recent win over Boston, had an ear-to-ear smile. Anderson Varejao, who has made a living off of these hustle-based plays, drew a scowl and pumped his fist in Walton’s direction, excitedly approving of the sequence. Walton, after all, had just sealed a victory — one wherein his presence was integral well beyond the box score. It was not just the key assists to Dion Waiters or Wayne Ellington (both leading to no-doubt three-pointers) or the jumper that would put the Cavs up by five, it was the timing and flawless execution of such activities, the cerebral contributions that are often overlooked. Back-of-the-hand high-fives for all.

[Read more...]

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WFNY Stats & Info: Luke Walton’s passing excellence

January 29, 2013 by 21 Comments

Here’s your mind-blowing stat of the day: Among all non-guards in the NBA with at least 75+ minutes played this season, Luke Walton ranks 2nd in assist percentage at 21.8%. He’s only trailing LeBron James, while outpacing Kevin Durant and Paul Pierce.

According to Basketball-Reference.com, the definition of assist percentage is “an estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted while he was on the floor.”

Walton, who missed Saturday’s game against the Toronto Raptors with foot/ankle soreness, actually has quite the reputable career mark for his passing expertise.

Canceling out guards again — who usually are more well known for their assists — and Walton has a 19.5% mark, ranking No. 32 all-time among players with at least 7,500 minutes played. Obvious names like Magic Johnson LeBron James, Nate McMillan and Oscar Robertson dominate the leaderboard, while his father Bill Walton also ranks No. 58.

Most notably on this list of 80 non-guards with at least an assist rate of 16%, Walton has the fourth-lowest usage rate (although usage is dependent on turnovers, which only have been tracked since 1977). Usage estimates a player’s overall involvement in the offense by all available statistics, so it show how Luke has been quite effective as an unselfish ball-passer, as The Basketball Jones pointed out last week too.

The NBA’s famous son might be the butt of many basketball-related jokes, but Walton has provided quite the niche for the suddenly hot Cavaliers. He had 7 assists in just about 18 minutes of play in both wins last week over Boston and Milwaukee. Obviously, that’d adds up to an incredible 14 total assists over the often discussed 36-minute barrier.

[Related: Finally some fun for Cavalier fans]

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Luke Walton won’t travel with Cavs Friday

October 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Cavs Luke Walton will not travel with the team to Champaign, IL for their game against Chicago on Friday due to a left hamstring strain. For those who were looking to see what Walton can do for this re-building, up-start Cavaliers team will just have to wait a bit longer to see how the veteran fits in.

All of this is tongue-in-cheek of course. Everyone knows Walton is here because his salary helped match the deal and the Cavaliers’ real compensation for Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga was the 2012 first round pick from the Lakers. That turned out to be Tyler Zeller after spinning that pick with the Dallas Mavericks.

[Related:Obama: Kyrie Irving, Cavs are Going to be Fun to Watch]

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Kyrie Irving: ‘Our No. 1 Goal is to Make the Playoffs This Year’

October 3, 2012 by 2 Comments

With NBA training camp officially underway this week, we’ll have plenty of quotes via the Interwebs from Cavaliers players. Today’s hottest quote comes from reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Kyrie Irving, who obviously feels confident in the team’s ability for 2012-13:

“I have high hopes for us. Obviously our No. 1 goal is to make the playoffs this year and we’re definitely going to attain that as long as we continue to get better and as long as we compete every single night. Last year, like I said, we had a few limitations but when we were playing those good teams, especially in the second half of the season not having the pieces we needed to compete every single night with the best, it definitely hurt us but this season we added some new pieces and I feel like everybody is definitely taking that next step and getting better as a pro. I’m really excited to get the thing started. I’m healthy, Andy is healthy, Dion (Waiters) is healthy so I’m just happy to see where this thing can go.”

This quote comes from his interview today on WKNR and was transcribed by our weekend buddy Ben Cox over at Fear The Sword. Congrats to Ben on the new gig over the there, and check out the rest of his post for a ridiculous continued quote from Kyrie on Luke Walton’s impact.

[Related: Hollinger: I Shudder to Think What Kyrie Irving will be at 25]

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Byron Scott: Only Varejao and Irving are Guaranteed Starters

August 11, 2012 by 2 Comments

“If you look at our team, Kyrie (Irving) and Andy (Varejao) are the only starters,” he said. “Tristan (Thompson), C.J. (Miles) and Dion (Waiters) will have to earn it.”

That’s the latest on the starting lineup thinking process from Cavs head coach Byron Scott, via Bob Finnan’s report for the News-Herald. Scott shared his excitement about the Miles signing with Finnan, even though the young small forward won’t be a shoe-in for the starting position just yet.

Possible candidates also could include Alonzo Gee and Tyler Zeller, depending upon the size and shape of the eventual starting five. Regardless, these two would figure to be the first two guys off the bench if the first five names end up beginning games. Other remaining bench contributors would also be Omri Casspi, Samardo Samuels, Daniel Gibson, Jeremy Pargo and Luke Walton.

[Related: Random Cavaliers Off-Season Thoughts]

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NBA Free Agency: Cavs to waive Jason Kapono

March 16, 2012 by 3 Comments

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! reports via his twitter that the Cavaliers won’t have to worry about what number Jason Kapono might wear.

Now that that’s solved, all that remains is to figure out what the Cavs will be able to get out of Luke Walton. It seemed like the Cavs weren’t treating Walton like just a body in a trade.

Then again, I might have thought the Cavs could use a three point specialist like Kapono on a very tiny salary (by NBA terms) of $1.2 million.

[Related: Sessions trade the latest exercise in Chris Grant's regiment]

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Trading Ramon Sessions was the right move

March 15, 2012 by 38 Comments

The Cavaliers today moved Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga to the Los Angeles Lakers for Luke Walton, Jason Kapono and LA’s first round draft pick.

We’ve discussed trading Sessions before, and while everyone agrees that Sessions is the ideal back-up point guard, the fact remains he likely would have opted out of his contract at the end of the year. He can start for a lot of teams, including the Lakers. It is hard to imagine Sessions sitting behind Kyrie for another season.

The Cavaliers will now have two first round picks, their own and wherever the Lakers finish. Currently, those two picks would be #8 and #25 just based on standings- obviously the lottery pick could end up being in the top 3. They also have two second round picks, their own and the Hornets’ second rounder. Those picks would be #33 and #38 right now.

That’s 4 picks in the top 38. And let’s be honest, the Cavs pick will likely improve by moving Sessions. The Cavaliers are a slightly weaker team on the court today than yesterday. [Read more...]

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