March 2010
45 posts
3 tags
Average Point Differential of Last 30 NBA Champs:... →
I don’t want to keep harping on this, but more evidence to support the fact that point differential matters. It leads to more wins and a higher seed. And like I always say, #1 and #2 seeds win championships, other teams don’t.
Now, if someone can explain to me why there’s a discrepancy between point differential and efficiency differential, I will be thoroughly happy.
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Why Is There So Much Pessimism About the Indians?
Don’t tell me that all of the pessimism about the Cleveland Indians’ 2010 season has anything to do with the archaic and racist Chief Wahoo logo - that would at least make sense. Unfortunately, from what I can gather, the “no hope” chants surrounding the team have a little to do with the players currently on the roster, a little to do with negative attitudes, and a lot to...
The Wizards Finally Beat the Cavs in the Playoffs →
Of course, it’s only the Wizards’ dance team beating the Cavs’ dance team, which is basically a D-League quality dance team, but - I guess - it still counts for something.
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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Cavs / Magic...
With eight games to go in the regular season, the Cavs are on the verge of locking up the #1 seed in the league for the second straight season. This, of course, means that playoff predictions are beginning to start up in earnest.
I’m not going to start looking at first round opponents just yet because the playoff seeding is still liable to shift too much her in the final two weeks....
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Cavs / Kings Bazooka Point
Z plays his first game in Cleveland after re-signing with the Cavaliers. Cavs beat the Kings by 7.
Whatever.
We’ve seen this movie before. What’s more important at this stage of the season is that Coldstone figure out his rotations.
They are a disaster.
Now, tonight is not a perfect game to examine because Anderson Varejao was injured, which threw things further out of whack than...
College Games Affected by Pro Potential
I know we don’t typically write about college sports, However, I’m taking some liberties here because of my latest theory about the outcome of a couple of these elite eight games. I’m talking Kansas St/Butler and more specifically Kentucky/West Virgina.
My theory is that the outcomes of these games were affected by the pro possibilities of the key players - to win the game was...
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Cavs / Spurs Bazooka Point
Mike, my dad, and I got into an email exchange earlier this week about potential first-round playoff opponents for the Cavs. The conversation eventually expanded to include our individual points of concern about the team heading into the post-season. Here’s what I wrote at one point in that exchange:
“I think what makes me the most nervous is that it seems like Coldstone is going to...
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The Jamison Report
I’ve had a couple of different conversations with Mike and my dad over the course of the past few days about Antawn Jamison’s overall performance as a Cavalier. I did not see the trade as a definite problem-solving upgrade when it happened, and I’ve only rarely been impressed with him since. Of course, I also feel like practically every time I check the box score, he shot 50%...
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Mauer Signing Makes Indians Look Bad? →
I’ve been waiting for someone to write this article. Colin Wilson of the Lorain Morning Journal argues that the Twins’ signing of Joe Mauer to a huge $184M deal is indicative of how cheap the Indians are.
I would remind Colin that the Twins are opening a new stadium this year.
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Cavs-Hornets Bazooka Point
It would be impossible, I think, to write about tonight’s game against the Hornets without talking about the triumphant return of Big Z, Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
So here goes.
Let’s talk about the contract Z signed on Tuesday.
As has been reported elsewhere, Z took the Cavs’ biannual exception for the rest of this season, and the rest of this season only. He was offered a...
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Lying: Holmie Don't Play That
On Monday, National Football Post’s Michael Lombardi dedicated part of his column to Mike Holmgren’s open statement that the Browns would not be picking Jimmy Clausen with the #7 overall draft choice. In case you missed it, here’s the quote:
“I wish I liked him more. You know how you have a type of player that you like? It’s not scientific. People like him a lot....
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Pace + Defensive Efficiency
I’m sick, so chances of this post being as in depth and stellar as one that would appear on Waiting For Next Year seems unlikely. Having said that, one thing I’ve been very curious about lately is the relationship between pace and defensive efficiency - if there is one.
I say this because of how much talk there always is, year in and year out, surrounding the Cavs and how slowly...
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Sloan Analytics Conference: Keynote Panel →
Here’s a video of the keynote panel from MIT’s Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, featuring Michael Lewis, Bill Simmons, Jonathan Kraft, Bill Polian, Mark Cuban, and Daryl Morey.
Tim and I have discussed trying to write about numbers here in the way that Simmons mentions at the very beginning, i.e. with the utmost accessibility. If you have any thoughts about this, please let us...
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Cavs / Pistons Bazooka Point
I’m not going to try to reinvent the wheel with this post. The reality is that the Cavs continue to roll, and it’s increasingly difficult to find defining elements in any of their beat-downs of sub-.500 teams.
However, one number I’ll point to is this: +3.
No, I’m not trying to ignite a debate about +/-…raw, adjusted, regularized-adjusted, or otherwise. Tonight,...
This Team Is Awesome -- Did I Ever Tell You That...
The title of this post should have some significance to M & T, but it should also be significant for many others. Why - because I said it and I don’t use those specific words unless I am really, really serious. The Cavs this year are truly awesome!
This revelation came to me last night when I found out that Miami just beat Charlotte and the old Celtic men went down to Texas and beat...
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Where Them Dollars At? →
As you may remember, David Stern came out during All-Star Weekend to declare that the league was on pace to lose $400MM in 2009-10. He used this figure to support the idea that the financial structure of the NBA (specifically, player salaries) needs to be dramatically altered in the new collective bargaining agreement so the NBA can continue to exist.
The link above leads to an...
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Cavs-Bulls Bazooka Point
Another pedestrian Cavs victory tonight, this time over the Deng-less, Noah-less, Rose-less Bulls.
I’ll be honest - I’m as bored of the regular season as the Cavs are. But I did notice something during this game that I want to make a point about.
Earlier this week, the website Hardwood Paroxysm posted an article about the value of assists. The basic argument of the story is that not...
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A Review of "Stumbling On Wins" →
Henry Abbott writes intelligently about the new book from David Berri and Martin Schmidt of the Wages of Wins Journal aka the WP48 system.
As I’ve written, or at least said before, Berri and Schmidt don’t help their case by acting like know-it-alls and almost never writing about what goes on in an actual basketball game, outside of the box score, but their point of view is still worth...
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Guest Post: No Man Is A Holland
Frequent JMID reader Holland sent Mike and me an email earlier today about a particular aspect of Mike Brown’s rotation that has been driving him insane. We decided to put it up as a Guest Post to spark debate among readers.
For those who may not have picked up on it, Holland is a staunch advocate of the Wages of Wins Journal and their Wins Per 48 (WP48) system of performance evaluation....
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Twitter List: Basketball
Just thought of this … if you guys want to stay up on the latest basketball-related Tweets, I created a basketball specific list that anyone can access. You can find it here. If you’re on Twitter, you can follow it, or if you’re not, you can bookmark the page and stay up to date.
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Cavs-Pacers Bazooka Point
Who here wishes you were super good at your job?
Okay, I know, a lot of you are. I’d like to say the same about myself, but I don’t want to lie on the internet.
Second question. Who here wishes you were so good at your job that you could be the best employee in the world and only had to work insanely hard for no more than 2/15 of the day?
Sounds great, right? But also not very...
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Cavs / Pistons Bazooka Point
The Cavs clawed their way to a 113-101 road victory over the Pistons tonight. Much as the team had to endure the persistent attack and scrappiness of the Pistons themselves, I found myself struggling to endure the persistent idiocy and homer-ism of Detroit’s local announce team. (Among other tics, their play-by-play announcer loves to refer to, say, 6:45 left in the quarter as “6 and...
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Debating The Champion
On Twitter today, the NBA held a debate about which teams were going to be playing in the finals in June.
While this can be fun to argue about in a bar, I guess, although I don’t particularly find arguments fun, let’s be honest:
There is no debate.
I’m not saying this because I think the teams that will play for the title are a foregone conclusion. No. I’m saying it for...
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The Accuracy of a Passer
In the fallout of the Body By Quinn trade, many, many people have referenced completion percentages when discussing Quinn’s accuracy - or lack thereof.
I wanted to amend these stats by saying that accuracy goes beyond completion percentage - sometimes a completed pass can still be inaccurate if the receiver makes a great, good, or even average catch. One thing to keep in mind is yards after...
Bogus Assists in NO →
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Sunday Round-Up
Eventful day in Cleveland sports. Three different items deserve some attention, so I’ll try to address them all briefly.
PART 1: Cavs / Celtics Bazooka Point
In the words of PTI’s Mike Wilbon, Father Time is undefeated. Every day that seems to be more apparent to people watching the 2009-10 Celtics.
It wasn’t long ago that I heard pundits still talking about Boston winning...
Minnesota ... You Are In Trouble →
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Cavs-Sixers Bazooka Point
It is not fun to watch the Cavs when they don’t have a player who can protect the rim on defense. It is even less fun when almost no one on the perimeter is shutting down driving lanes (yes, that was Thaddeus Young straight blowing by LeBron in crunch time).
The Cavs are developing a quality that I’ve seen other great teams have in the past - something I’ll call “the...
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Here's An Idiotic Thing
Not much of note happening in the Cleveland sports world right now, so I figured I’d just briefly touch on the continued stupidity of the Clippers’ organization. Consider it a kind of postscript to my Cap Reality series entry on them.
Yesterday, the Clippers suddenly decided to fire Mike Dunleavy from his reduced role of GM. As many people have speculated, this is supposedly a move...
Mike Lombardi Goes In on Body By Quinn →
An incredibly telling and insightful portrait of Body By Quinn and his inexplicable legion of fans.
Tebow Signs Shit, Gets 120 Grand →
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Goodbye DA, You Were Great For One Season (Or a...
*Photo is of DA’s wife’s friend, Sara Jean Underwood. Maybe this will make you like him more.
I knew the day was coming when DA would be released. I knew his time was probably up in Cleveland, even when I wrote my ode to the man from Oregon in October of last year.
And I’m okay with it.
This post won’t be about DA’s play during the regular season. Aside from a...
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Against Sportsmanship
HBO aired a much hyped documentary about the career-long rivalry between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson this past Saturday night. I watched it tonight, but I’ve also seen a host of basketball writers comment about it since this weekend. All of the commentary is in basically the same glowing terms. Though they all applaud the doc itself, the bigger cheers seem to come from the memories it...
Is There a More Useless "Award"
…than NBA scoring champion?
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Cavs-Spurs Bazooka Point
Tonight’s question has to do with streak shooting, specifically how to value a hypothetical player who - over the course of 82 games - shot something like 80% in 41 of the games and 20% in the others, resulting in an overall shooting percentage of 50%, which I think we all would agree, is very good, especially if he is playing the 1 or the 2 (for reference 43.6% is average this season for...
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2010 Cap Reality Serie: LA Clippers
Continuing my series on the threats to the Cavs this upcoming off-season, tonight I want to sift through the wreckage that is the LA Clippers. I’m not going to spend any more time on the “big market” argument or the “attractive locale” argument because I’ve covered both in my analyses of the Knicks and Heat previously. So let’s keep moving.
Before the...
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Cavs-Bucks Bazooka Point
The above image is a Tweet from @MoGotti2 aka Mo Williams, with a very fair assessment of his 3-17 shooting performance, in a game that we could look at as a nightmare vision of the 2010-11 season, if the doomsday scenario takes place, i.e. LeBron walks.
Do you think Bron thought, “Huh, maybe this team isn’t a whole lot better than the Knicks are without me” while watching...
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Cavs / Pistons: Bazooka Point
Another win for the Cavs—the sixth straight—despite a very shaky first half. Another spectacular night for LeBron: 40 points on 16-27 FG, 13 reb, 6 ast, 2 blk, 3 stl, 4 turnovers, in 42 minutes.
But unfortunately, another discouraging performance from the Cavs’ starting back court.
Mo vs DET: 9 points on 3-9 FG, 2 reb, 4 ast, 1 blk, 0 stl, 2 turnovers in 33 min
Parker vs...
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Dean Oliver on Basketball Analytics →
Henry Abbott of True Hoop has posted an interview with Dean Oliver, one of the founders of the stats movement in basketball. You’ll notice one very important statement in the interview:
“It’s an interesting time. Just a couple of weeks ago, I looked at teams that have stats people integrated into the decision process. (Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Oklahoma City,...
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Browns Talk: Kill That Noise
Tonight is arguably one of my least favorite sports nights of the year. Why? Because 45 minutes before I started writing this post, NFL free agency began.
This is not in itself a bad thing. On one level, it’s an improvement. Instead of idle speculation, I get actual information from the NFL sources I follow about roster moves and trades. The Browns could, in theory, start to make some...
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Cavs-Nets Bazooka Point
The game tonight was pretty fun to watch at times, which is all you can hope for as a fan of the Cavaliers (or of the Nets, for that matter). LeBron appeared to be in a bad mood, but that didn’t stop him from shooting 10-18 from the field, grabbing 7 rebounds, dishing out 14 assists (compared to only 3 turnovers), while adding 3 steals and a block.
The only real point I wanted to make about...
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2010 Cap Reality Series: New Jersey Nets
With the Cavs set to square off against New Jersey Wednesday night, it seemed like an appropriate time to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of that franchise’s case for LeBron.
New Jersey’s biggest advantage—and I say this with complete seriousness—is part owner Jay-Z. Without a doubt, Jay is one of LeBron’s heroes (see: substitute father figures). For proof,...
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Woj on LeBron's Number Change →
Woj at Yahoo Sports writes that Bron is changing his number for the sake of commerce. I’m sure that has a part in it, but as Windhorst wrote yesterday, there’s no real direct impact on a player’s salary with increased jersey sales. Of course, Bron’s Nike logo will have to be redone to accommodate the new number, so that could lead to more sales.
But, for anyone who’s...
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Cavs-Knicks Bazooka Point
The Cavaliers trounced the Knicks tonight. They were up by 49 at one point, and I even thought for a minute that the NBA record for margin of victory (68 points, set by the Cavs, against the Miami Heat in December of 1991, during a game that me and DAD attended) might be in jeopardy. It wasn’t - DDR, Jawad Williams, and Darnell Jackson made sure of that - but, suffice it to say, the...
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Fool's (Purple and) Gold
Earlier today, something happened that convinced me that I had to temporarily suspend my 2010 cap reality series. Considering that I thoroughly enjoy attacking the myths involved in those free agency rumors, you might guess that what threw me off course involves an equal level of absurdity.
If so, you’d be absolutely correct. Because this afternoon, Hoops Hype’s Roland Lazenby...