A Quick Look at the Cavs' Early Dominance
The Cleveland Cavaliers has surpassed everyone's expectations - except possibly their own - so far this season.
With a 26-4 record, the Cavaliers have already won 12 more games than they had at this point last season. This success can be seen in many areas, most of which revolve around the addition of Mo Williams and his successful integration into Mike Brown's rotation.
Mike Brown has had great success in his four years with the Cavaliers, notching a 171-105 record at the helm. However, with all of this success, his team has not yet been able to take their game to the next level.
One of the biggest flaws with Mike Brown's system as it integrates with the Cavaliers roster was his reliance on a strict rotation. Without great depth at the guard position, the Cavaliers had much difficultly remaining in games with scorers like Z and LeBron on the bench.
The addition of Mo Williams, combined with the mid-season trade for Delonte West and the development of Boobie Gibson, has given Mike Brown three solid ball-handlers to mix into his rotation. This was an enormous upgrade over Damon Jones and Larry Hughes alongside Daniel Gibson. Now the Cavaliers have three guards that are all able to both handle and score the ball.
Beyond the gains in depth, the roster changes over the last year have also taken away a great deal of the offensive burden away from Mike Brown. The main criticism of Brown's coaching, as we all know, is his deficiency at the offensive end. Williams has taken over the role of a floor general, making most of the calls on the offensive end. In fact, he has even been seen at times to tell LeBron himself where to go mid-play.
Another huge advantage of the addition of Mo Williams is his ability to take over games and control the offense. While this has not yet been developed completely with the starters on the floor, it is an amazing asset with the second unit.
Mike Brown relies on big stretches in regular season games with his starters on the bench. This pays dividends come playoff time, as the Cavs are able to play suffocating defense all the way to the wire. However, without a legitimate creator on the offensive end outside of LeBron, the Cavs second unit had much difficulty maintaining the offense.
This lack of secondary offense forced Brown to keep LeBron and the other starters on the floor more than he probably would have liked. It also caused the Cavs to lose games when going completely stagnant for the six or so minutes when LeBron was off of the floor.
That is precisely why the Cavs are able to leg out the games where they lay an egg, like the last two, for instance. The use of Williams as the captain of the second unit at the start of the second and fourth quarters allows the Cavs to even extend their advantage while the starters sit and watch.
Mike Brown's rotation, however, is only as effective as it is stable. While there is no doubt that Brown will stick to his guns, sometimes foul trouble can derail a game plan. Watching the Heat take on the Bulls the other night, I watched Dwayne Wade commit his second foul halfway through the first quarter. After seeing him head to the bench, I got to thinking about the last time the Cavs rotation was disrupted by foul trouble.
To be honest, not much came to mind. Other than the occasional late trouble foul trouble with Z or the other bigs, the Cavs rarely have to worry about who has how many fouls. In fact, the Cavs rank 21st in personal fouls committed this season and have averaged this ranking over the last four years. This allows Brown to stick to his rotation, which is now deeper and more balanced than ever before.
Even though there are many subtle areas, such as depth and scoring in the second unit, where Williams adds value, there is a much more obvious area. Williams is the first effective point guard the Cavaliers have had in the Mike Brown era. When looking at efficiency from point guards, the Cavaliers have had numbers of 12.9, 14.5, and 16.9 over the last three years.
These are all good enough to earn them 30th place in the NBA. That's right, as if you couldn't have guessed it, the Cavaliers have had the absolute lowest production from their point guards in each of the last three years. This season, however, Cleveland has improved to an efficiency of 21.5, which ranks 11th in the league.
Many in the mass media have begged the question whether Mo Williams is the missing piece for the Cavaliers. Well, while no one is in a position to answer this question definitely at this point, we certainly have seen the enormous positive impact of his addition.
If the Cavs are able to make another deadline move and to step up their play come playoff time as they have in years past, one can only guess the potential of this team that currently has the best defense and second best offense in the NBA.
Read more | 4 Comments | Tags: Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Damon Jones, Dwyane Wade, Eric Snow, Larry Hughes, LeBron James, Miami Heat, Mike Brown, Mo Williams
Comment
At The End of the Day, We Are Who We Are
10:26 PM December 14, 2008
Again I understand what you are saying, but you are missing the point. He had an amazing 4th quarter and I am not picking on him for that at all. What I am saying is that that was the turning...