Win in Denver

 A win for Bickerstaff!  This one was a coaching win, the Cavs on short rest and more travel went into the largest home court advantage in the league and out worked and out hustled a playoff team.  Lots of teams talk about being in better shape than their opponents during the offseason, the Cavs looked it.  Jarrett Allen especially had a high effort night and was still running the floor late in the 4th. 


Player of the game- The aforementioned Jarrett Allen.  You are going to be the primary defender on the reigning MVP and also post 21/16/2 with zero turnovers and 1 foul on 91% TS? Yeah, thanks for keeping us in the game JA (also thanks Denver’s missed 3 pointers).  


Notes:  Markkanen continues to look a ton better (except for not yet hitting his shots) as a 3 than a 4.  His steal rate is up, his assists up, his TO rate near zero, and while his rebounding rate is down it is down to a solid level for a SF instead of being a point of weakness for a PF.  Everything is small sample and a couple of games could expose these stats as a lie but his peripheral stats are just better for him as a SF, even his Oreb rate and Block rates are better, which is likely just noise but could be an artifact of him being able to slide into good positions far better than he can battle for positions.  That would fit his playing style, but holy crap the shooting has been awful from everywhere.  Career low shooting percentage at the rim coming in?  60%.  Through 4 games?  38%.  Short mid 30%, this year 25%, all 3s 35%, this year 28%.  When these revert he will look great- his % of shots at the rim are right at his career average of 30%, mid range and from 3 pretty much career averages as well.  Higher positional value, plus better defense with his previous offensive output would be a bargain at $17 million a year.  


Love looks good in this role, even while hitting 2/12 from 3 he has averaged 18/11/4.5 per 36 against 3 total TOs (1.3 per 36).  If he was shooting his typical 36% from 3 he would be averaging 21.5/11/4.6 per 36.  His 2pt % will come down though, and his TO rate will move up some as well.  Still he’s a clear contributor again even with limited defensive skills.  

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