Cavs to Turn Back the Clock on Defense
January 19, 2011Improved Cavs Defense Offers a Sign of Hope in Loss to Suns
January 20, 2011
While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
Taking another look at the Edwards and Sanchez trades- “Okay,” we all thought. Its a win-win for both franchises. The Jets got their quarterback; a good-looking, charismatic kid from USC, perfect for the big city. The Browns needed picks and depth everywhere, and to be able to snag two players who would most likely play right away (Elam and Coleman) as well as an additional second-round pick? Seemed like a good move. Second round picks are like gold in the NFL these days because of the expected instant impact and relatively inexpensive contracts.” [TD/Still WFNY]
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Nowhere to go but up! AMIRITE?- “I’m looking at the Synergy data on the Cavs’ defense, and dear lord it is horrifying. The Cavs are giving up an average of .95 points per possession, which is dead last in the league. They are giving up .97 points per possession in isolation situations, which is dead last in the league. They are giving up .94 points per possession to the ball-handler in pick-and-roll situations, which is dead last in the league. Essentially, if you have the ball, a live dribble, and the intention to score, the Cavaliers have no idea how to stop you.” [Krolik/Cavs The Blog]
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Oh, sure. NOW it’s a problem- “If Dwight Howard ends up pulling a Shaq and leaving after next season for Los Angeles, the City of Orlando should immediately sue the Magic and the NBA for $500 million in damages. That’s how much it cost to build the new arena that we were led to believe would be the Dwight House for years and years to come. Now there are rumblings and rumors and angst and anxiety that Dwight might try to orchestrate an exit a la LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony when his contract is up after next season. If he does then we were sold a half-a-billion-dollars worth of hot air.” [Bianchi/Orlando Sentinel] Hat tip Red Right 88
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Rams ‘guru’ talks about Shurmur- “Shurmur put together game plans to take advantage of what the rookie quarterback could do as he is learning the NFL game,” Balzer said. “The Rams had, at best, an average wide receiving corps and they were able to move the ball. Their thing was to be 40 percent on third downs, keep drives moving and score one to two touchdowns in the red zone each game. If they do that, they’ll have a good chance at winning.” [Delco/The OBR]
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Tweet of the night- “Good news is that Byron Scott has nine players at his disposal tonight. Bad news is, none of the nine would start for the #Suns.” [@WFNYScott]
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(Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images)
9 Comments
I was thinking the other day- what is the difference between Orlando and Cleveland in terms of talent? Why is no one bashing the amount of talent that has been put around Dwight like they did the Cavs’ supporting roster?
Are Turkoglu, Jameer, Vince or Lewis THAT much better than Mo, Shaq, Jamison, Andy, Z?
Where’s the outrage from the media?
“The Rams had, at best, an average wide receiving corps and they were able to move the ball.”
To be fair, the Rams actually had a terrible wide receiving corps. Maybe the only one in the NFL arguably worse than the Browns’.
Scott,
“no QB has ever won 5 road playoff games”
In their whole career? Seriously?!?! Or just in a row? The former would seem to be a pretty amazing stat.
Swig – Whole career, in all of the NFL. A Jets win this weekend would give Sanchez more road playoff wins that Brady and Manning, combined. He already has more than Favre and Marino, combined, through their 37 seasons of play.
while we all hope for the best for shurmur, let’s not attempt to re-cast him as an effective OC victimized by lack of talent.
* rams ranked 5th in pass attempts in spite of the ‘horrible’ WRs and in spite of having stephen jackson in the backfield.
* their 3rd down conversion rate was 33%; 27th in the league. this relates to the ‘net yds per pass attempt’ stat where the rams were 30th. ‘captain checkdown’ or ‘savvy developer of rookie qb?’ you decide.
* that was the 27th worst defense that held the rams to nine punts and zero TDs in their playoff game vs seattle.
* the league ranking of 26th for rams’ offense took place against the weakest schedule in the league.
rams’ offense suck, suck, sucked this year and it aint just because danny amendola was the primary receiving target.
SI’s Peter King named Alex Mack the best center in the NFL this week, so that trade wasn’t completely bad.
@3
That’s kind of surprising I guess, but you also have to factor in that most of the greats probably had home field throughout most of the playoffs and the not-so-greats probably didn’t get many playoff wins in general.
Yeah I guess it makes sense, 5 games just sounds so small (and now that I think about it, 5 in a row would actually be harder than 5 total)
Looking it up there are only 32 QBs who have won 5 playoff games total, so I guess it starts to make more sense. Cool stat though.
Anyone comment yet that Musgrave appears to have spurned the Browns for Minnesota (with no QB to mentor. Yet?) Maybe doesn’t see upside of McCoy or afraid of Shurmur as chief play caller. Either way, ominous.