C-Cap Recap: Tribe Sweeps Reds, Wins Sixth Straight
May 25, 2015Next Up: Indians vs. Rangers in Cleveland
May 25, 2015The hardest thing about being involved in high profile games like the playoffs is trying to look objectively at your team. In all honesty, I’m not usually trying to look at the Cavs in an objective fashion at all, except on the rare occasion when an issue arises. Now that there’s a controversy surrounding Cavaliers backup point guard (turned starting point guard) Matthew Dellavedova, it seems reasonable to try and take an unbiased look at the situation. Matthew Dellavedova scissored Taj Gibson and Gibson was ejected. Dellavedova then knocked Kyle Korver out of the playoffs on a hustle play where he rolled over Korver’s ankles. Lastly, Dellavedova drew a flagrant-2 against Al Horford on a play where Horford seemed to be retaliating for Delly again rolling near his knee and ankles. With all that evidence, is Delly dirty?
In my heart I don’t think Matthew Dellavedova is a dirty player, but I get how the accumulation of coincidences could lead someone down the dirty-road label with Delly. I don’t want to start with a conclusion and just look to buttress a defense or bury a guy. I defended Kelly Olynyk and his arm-yanking accident that pulled Kevin Love’s arm out of its socket. Is it possible that Delly’s transgressions are all just accidents too or is he playing in such a way that makes injuries more likely? Let’s take them one at a time.
Matthew Dellavedova vs. Taj Gibson
Watch the complete clip of Delly vs. Gibson. There’s a lot of action that precipitates the final leg lock and kick.
Now that we’ve gotten some time with this clip, I think both players were at fault. I think Taj Gibson was really hitting Delly hard from the high screen all the way as he powered through Delly’s attempted box outs. Matthew Dellavedova was definitely wrong to clutch Gibson’s legs and I really feel that Gibson got a raw deal getting kicked out of the game. Delly should have been given a technical during the game, but didn’t receive it until after Game 5. By then it was too late. It was a dirty play by Delly and it seems even worse because it led to Gibson’s ejection.
Matthew Dellavedova vs. Kyle Korver
This is the event that presumably precipitated the Al Horford incident. After trying to look at it objectively, I think it’s closer to the Kelly Olynyk thing than Cavs fans might want to admit. First, check out the clip.
Matthew Dellavedova is making a basketball play, going for a loose ball and then trying to shield that ball from the other guy going for it. I don’t think it’s really that dirty, but with the impact, I can understand why everyone’s upset and suspicious. Let’s just say that I’m sure Kyle Korver isn’t taking Delly’s phone calls just like Kevin Love wasn’t interested in Kelly Olynyk’s. I liken it to a dangerous play in soccer. Diving for loose balls is legal just like slide-tackling in soccer. But if you’re a player who slide tackles a lot – even legally – and players tend to get hurt around you, you start to earn a rep. All that said, this one dangerous play isn’t really part of the same portfolio as what happened with Taj Gibson or Al Horford, I don’t think.
Which brings us to the last clip.
Matthew Dellavedova vs. Al Horford
It’s impossible to look at this in a vacuum because you know the Hawks were stung with the loss of Kyle Korver for the playoffs. You know they were upset with the way that video clip looked. Even after the game, the Hawks, when asked about the Horford ejection, spoke of Delly’s “track record,” which sounded like an organizationally fed term.
Regardless of that “track record” it’s hard to look at Horford’s reaction to the play and justify it. Where Taj Gibson’s ejection felt like a shame, Horford’s seemed pretty obvious. I can understand him being upset in the moment as Delly was falling backward into his knee and ankle. In the heat of the moment, I’m sure he was just looking at Delly and thinking, “This guy again?” And he reacted, probably regrettably, because when you look at this clip by itself, Delly and Horford were both tripped up by a downed DeMarre Carroll.
So is Matthew Dellavedova a dirty player?
I still don’t think so in many of the same ways that I don’t think Kelly Olynyk is dirty either. Dellavedova doesn’t belong in the NBA by pure talent standards the way a player like Al Horford does, having been selected number three overall in 2007. That said, Delly outworks a lot of guys and does things that other players of his stature wouldn’t try to do like working to box out much larger players. That’s what was at the heart of the scraps with Taj Gibson and Al Horford.
Those bigger, more physical guys didn’t appreciate the much smaller Delly trying to hold position and Delly ends up getting tossed around and in both cases was on the floor. The dirtiest thing that Delly has done is the scissor lock on Taj Gibson, but that didn’t have any kind of injury impact. It did result in an ejection, and that seemed pretty unfair to me.
In the end, the only thing that I think I agreed with Reggie Miller on last night is that Delly is an irritant. I don’t think he’s dirty, but you’ll never convince Al Horford’s sister Anna, I guess.
Dellavedova is going to continue to hurt players if he keeps getting away with it. The replays don't lie. Unacceptable @NBA #HawksVsCavs
— Anna Horford (@AnnaHorford) May 25, 2015
But as I said, I’m trying to look at this objectively without the conclusion pre-determined. I can’t necessarily blame Anna Horford for being a little hot under the collar.
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