The NBA season is right around the corner and the Cleveland Cavaliers 2013 NBA Championship Odds are currently at 275-1 ($100 bet pays $27700). They are 150-1 to win the Eastern Conference and their over/under season win total projection is 30,5. Below is the overall season preview by Pregame Pro André Gomes.
2011-12 Regular Season Numbers:
|
Advanced Numbers
|
|
4 Factors
|
|
Overall
|
#'s
|
Rank
|
|
Offense
|
#'s
|
Rank
|
Defense
|
#'s
|
Rank
|
|
Pace
|
90.18
|
13
|
|
eFG% Off
|
46.4%
|
29
|
eFG% Def
|
51.0%
|
27
|
|
Offense
|
102.21
|
27
|
|
TO% Off
|
14.34
|
22
|
TO% Def
|
13.12
|
22
|
|
Defense
|
110.60
|
27
|
|
Reb% Off
|
28.73
|
8
|
Reb% Def
|
27.61
|
23
|
|
Rebound
|
50.56
|
14
|
|
FT% Off
|
22.26
|
9
|
FT% Def
|
20.32
|
13
|
Cleveland Cavaliers month-by-month Record:
|
Months
|
W
|
L
|
PACE
|
Off. H
|
Off. A
|
Reb%
|
|
January
|
8
|
12
|
91.2
|
102.2
|
106.2
|
52.3
|
|
February
|
5
|
8
|
90.2
|
103.9
|
108.0
|
51.3
|
|
March
|
4
|
13
|
89.9
|
101.7
|
113.5
|
49.0
|
|
April
|
4
|
12
|
89.2
|
101.5
|
115.1
|
49.4
|
The start of a new era in Cleveland
The end of the Lebron James era was very tough for Cleveland, who ended up with a roster full of veteran players, already past their prime. After a terrible season, the Cavaliers had the “luck” of getting the first pick in the draft in the following season and they picked Kyrie Irving in a unanimous decision plus they later chose Tristan Thompson in the draft as well.
The expectations for the previous season weren’t very high because the roster was very unbalanced, but the organization had a lot of hope on Irving’s potential and they weren’t certainly disappointed, because Irving was brilliant on his rookie season, while winning the rookie of the year award very easily.
Irving showed excellent offensive skills on his debut season by scoring 18.5 points per game, while shooting 46.9% FG, 40% 3pts and even 87% FT! According to mysenergy numbers, he was the 10th most efficient player in Isolation plays with 1.01 PPP and his discernment was decisive in the clutch moments of the games, a rare attribute to see in a rookie in such a young age.
Unlike most rookies, Irving had a second half of the season even more efficient than in the first half, therefore Cleveland will build their team in the following seasons around Irving that has showed that he can be a franchise player already on his rookie season.
Tristan Thompson didn’t have the same impact that Irving had on his rookie season. By being an undersized player for his position, Thompson struggled in facing players stronger physical than him and Byron Scott wanted to protect him at the start of the season, as Thompson didn’t even play 20 minutes per game on his first 20 games on the league. Already at the end of the season, Thompson had more opportunities and managed to get 9.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 0.5 blocks per game on the last five games of the season.
Cleveland’s main problem throughout the whole season was the most basic problem a team can have in a basketball game: they shot terribly by being the second worst team in the league in terms of eFG% and allowed their opponents to have an easy task on their shots by being the 4th worst team in the league by allowing eFG% to their opponents. With Cleveland being a terrible team on these two areas, it was very hard for the Cavaliers to be competitive independently from what they were able to do on the other areas of the game.
Offseason moves 2012-13:
Just like last season, the Cavaliers decided to invest on the draft to improve their roster for the following season. They had the 4th pick in the draft and they chose the guard Dion Waiters, while later they made a trade with Dallas to draft the Center Tyler Zeller.
Antawn Jamison and Anthony Parker were free agents and Cleveland didn’t have any interest in resigning them and so, only Anderson Varejao and Daniel Gibson remain on the roster from the Lebron James era in Cleveland.
Cleveland also signed C.J. Miles on the free agency, while Jeremy Pargo and Kelenna Azubuike went to the Cavaliers in the result of trades. The Cavaliers have been faithful to their plan since Lebron James left the team: build a team via the draft and that hasn’t changed on this offseason.
Cleveland Cavaliers in the Year 3 ALB (after Lebron James)
The Cavaliers aren’t ready to be competitive this season because the team is still too young and they won’t solve the problems they had last season. This rebuilding process via draft takes time, as we witnessed with Oklahoma City that could only started being competitive on the third season and after drafting the right players.
There are no doubts that Irving is a player that fits this group of players, but I have doubts that the same can be said about Tristan Thompson. Cleveland is taking a chance this season on Dion Waiters, as Byron Scott has already compared him to Dwayne Wade. On his college career, Waiters didn’t impress a lot in Syracuse in the role of the 6th player coming off the bench with 12.6 points and 2.5 assists per game. However, his playing style fits in theory better on the NBA and the Cavaliers wait that Waiters will be the right complement to Irving for the following seasons.
The Cavaliers have only Daniel Gibson, Daniel Sloan and Jeremy Pargo as alternatives for the backcourt and these aren’t good news for Cleveland.
The SF position seems to be the weakest position of the team, with Alonzo Gee, Omri Casspi and C.J. Miles. None of these three players have a long term contract with the team, so it won’t be a surprise if the Cavs enter the next draft trying to find a player to play on this position.
On the frontcourt, Varejao continues on the team and he is unfortunately coming from a struggling season with a lot of injuries. He played just 25 games, but his production was never poor when he played: 10.8 points while shooting 51.4% FG, 11.5 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game make him a valuable player that the Cavaliers may use him in the future as a trade asset this season or simply keep him and hope the injury problems are in the past.
Varejao will be the leader of a unit too inexperienced for what a team needs on the NBA: Zeller will make his debut on the league, Thompson will be on his sophomore season, the same happening with Jon Leuer.
Final Thoughts
Byron Scott has already stated that he wants his team to play at a faster pace this season and he has the right players to do that, especially in comparison with the last two seasons where Cleveland had a bunch of veteran players with no explosiveness. The roster this season has a lot of young blood, so Scott will have an easier task in implementing this new style.
However, Cleveland still has a lot of problems for them to be competitive already on this season. If that happens, then the organization will have more problems in putting in practice their project of rebuilding the team via draft. The most likely to happen this season is too see Cleveland being once again one of the worst teams in the league, while this should give them another good draft pick in the following draft.
Follow Andre Gomes on Twitter @GomesCapper
-$25 of picks FREE! No Obligation - No Credit Card Required - Becoming a member is Fast and Free!