CLEVELAND, I will solve your problems

[Kathoro]

You are mishandling the talents of Kyrie Irving. You need to understand that his instincts are always to blaze to the rim and try to finish if there isn't an easy pass available once he is inside the paint. With the current offense that the Cavaliers are running, this is leading to copious quantities of forced shots in the paint by Irving. You need to engineer a system that allows Irving to play instinctually and harvests the maximum efficiency out of his instinctual play. I want to stress an important point here:

1. KYRIE IRVING DOES NOT NEED A PICK TO GET PAST HIS DEFENDER WITH A HIGH RATE OF SUCCESS. THEREFORE, THE CENTER HOLDS MUCH MORE VALUE TO THE OFFENSE BY HOVERING NEAR THE PAINT AND SETTING UP FOR AN ALLEY HOOP OR EASY FINISH WHEN IRVING IS HANDLING THE BALL ON THE PERIMETER.

Time and time again you are putting Irving in pick and roll with a center, and time and time again it is leading to Irving using the pick, driving into the lane against a big man, and having no passing option because his center cannot roll quickly enough to the paint to set up for an easy finish. I wrote another topic on this board earlier describing an offense featuring Irving isolations, shooters spread along the three point line, Lebron reading Irving's drives and cutting accordingly, and the center hovering around the paint and establishing position for easy alley hoops from Irving drives. This strategy would be much more successful than the one you are currently using. However, I have made a slight change to this offense that would make it even better:

1. Let someone else bring the ball up the floor, put Irving on either baseline, have a wing player set a pick for Irving, and allow Irving to cut to one of the wings and catch the ball on the move while running parallel to the basket. This will give Irving an advantage at blazing to the rim without getting him into pick and roll. It will also allow him the opportunity to shoot wide open threes. The rest of the offense should be run similar to how I explained in the other topic.

I want to make one more important point here:

1. LEBRON IS NOT AS GOOD IN THE POST AS THE BRAINWASHED MAINSTREAM MEDIA THINKS. JIMMY BUTLER IS A GOOD ENOUGH POST DEFENDER TO RENDER THE STRATEGY OF POSTING UP LEBRON AGAINST BUTLER AN INCREDIBLY STUPID STRATEGY. TIME AND TIME AGAIN THIS STRATEGY LED TO A DISASTER IN GAME 3.

I see things that you cannot see Cleveland. Listen to me or lose. It is that simple.

[Kathoro]

I also want to add one more thing that I was already complaining about before the playoffs began.

1. KYRIE IRVING SHOULD BE THE PRIMARY BALL HANDLER IN THE HALF-COURT OFFENSE FOR THE CAVS, NOT LEBRON. KYRIE SHOULD BE THE ONE ISOLATING WITH PROPER SPACING AROUND HIM AND A CENTER HOVERING NEAR THE PAINT, NOT LEBRON.

Let us look at what has happened so far:

1. In seven playoff games, Lebron has isolated 74 possessions and scored at a rate of 0.74 points per play. Absolutely putrid.
2. In seven playoff games, Kyrie Irving has isolated 27 possessions and scored at a rate of 1.19 points per play. Absolutely scorching.

This is the same sort of trend that occurred in the regular season. I UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING AND CAN ENGINEER AN OFFENSE THAT WOULD ABSOLUTELY EMBARRASS THE REST OF THE NBA WITH THIS CAVALIER PERSONNEL. I can see things that others cannot see. I saw this problem before I even conducted statistical analysis, and when I delved into the stats they proved what my eyes told me thoroughly.

I have already scored up to a 156 IQ on the abstract reasoning portion of the Nydegger Intelligence test. I may actually be able to max this section out if I continue trying to crack the remaining two questions I cannot yet solve. The Nydegger is an untimed IQ test for people with IQs too high to be measured with standard IQ tests. You might ask what this has to do with basketball. BASKETBALL IS A GAME OF PATTERNS. IQ TESTS ARE ENGINEERED TO TEST FOR PATTERN RECOGNITION CAPABILITIES. MY PATTERN RECOGNITION CAPABILITIES MIGHT BE NEAR THE BEST IN THE WORLD. Scoring insanely highly on the ABSTRACT REASONING portion of the IQ test for high IQs might very well suggest that I am uniquely equipped to RECOGNIZE PATTERNS AND DEVISE NOVEL SOLUTIONS BASED ON THOSE PATTERNS BETTER THAN MOST PEOPLE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.

I am not saying I have converted my high IQ into anything amazing or profound in my life. IQ tests are not perfect measures of intelligence. I don't even know how this Internet is working right now. There are many things I do not know. BUT THERE IS ONE THING THAT I AM VERY CONFIDENT IN:

I CAN REVOLUTIONIZE THE GAME OF BASKETBALL BASED ON MY INSANELY GOOD ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE PATTERNS AND MY INSANELY GOOD ABILITY TO DEVISE NOVEL SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS BASED ON MY RECOGNITION OF PATTERNS. I AM VERY CONFIDENT IN WHAT IS GOING WRONG WITH THE CAVALIER OFFENSE AND HOW TO USE THIS CAVALIER PERSONNEL TO ENGINEER AN OFFENSE THAT WOULD EMBARRASS THE REST OF THE NBA.

HEY CAVALIERS, LISTEN TO ME OR LOSE. IT IS THAT SIMPLE. GO TAKE THE NYDEGGER INTELLIGENCE TEST AND REALIZE HOW TERRIBLE YOU ARE AT RECOGNIZING PATTERNS COMPARED TO ME. REALIZE HOW RARE MY ABILITIES ARE COMPARED THE REST OF THE WORLD, AND THEN REALIZE THAT I MIGHT BE A MAD GENIUS IN THE DARKNESS THAT HAS THE SOLUTIONS THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE THE BASKETBALL INTELLIGENCE TO DEVISE.

[BasketDork]

Intelligence quotient isn't a measure of what you know, but rather what you're capable of learning. Its measured on a bell curve, because there's no such thing as a lowest or highest IQ, only median (the apex of the curve), so any IQ test given to anyone can't measure if they're the best at any specific aptitude, rather those among the best to have taken the test. Much like many athletes have been called "the world's fastest", I've always believed that to be an inaccurate estimation,as the world's fastest human probably has no knowledge of just how fast they are, and may or may not even participate in athletics, as it could be a 15-year old kid in the jungles of Africa, running down animals in order to hunt for food, rather than for any medal or championship.

[Kathoro]

Please notice my usage of the word "might" in my post about IQ.

[Kathoro]

Hey Cleveland:

1. How many times did you post up Lebron against Jimmy Butler in game 4? How many times did it end in a disaster?
2. How many times did you put Irving in a pick and roll with a center in game 4? How many times did it end in Irving going nowhere or forcing up a stupid shot in the paint?
3. How horrible was your offense in game 4 due to the answers to questions 1 and 2?

I find it hilarious how much more basketball intelligence I have than all those people getting paid so much money in the Cavalier organization.

[Crow]

Have you attempted to communicate with any of them directly? By email might have more chance of a response than posting here or twitter.

Speaking of pattern recognition, I know of no analyst hired by a team with a really strong record of directly criticizing insider performance of that specific team with facts and / or opinion. I am not saying that outsiders turned insider never criticized any NBA decisions from the outside but they don't go after specific decision makers and get hired. I think there could be value to a GM and / or owner to get outside criticism. They probably listen to some, but probably very selectively and probably mostly from other insiders and former insiders. So if you really want to have a voice, you have to get in first. And the ability to help technically probably has to come well before critique or request for control. I have not lived my basketball talk life according to this understanding that much, but it is still how I understand the way the insider world works.

[Kathoro]

I have thought some of the same things you have just described. There are a few reasons I am criticizing them so dramatically:

1. I know what I am seeing. I know how to solve their problems. I know how to make them dramatically better.
2. Criticizing them in dramatic fashion on this board gives me a chance of drawing their attention to my proposed solutions.
3. The Cavaliers are my favorite team.
4. I was thinking about writing a hyper-detailed report on how to maximize the performance of their team and giving it to them, but writing the report would take me much time. Criticizing them dramatically on this board gives me a chance to help them win a title this year without me having to spend the time writing the report. I could still write the report during the offseason.

Maybe I'm way too optimistic about my proposals passing from this board into the organization by word of mouth, but I like the Cavaliers enough to give it a shot.

[Mike G]

I think the all-caps writing style will get their attention, and the multiple appearances of INSANELY will make a positive impression.

[Kathoro]

Precisely.

Van Gundy complained early on in the telecast in Game 4 about Lebron isolating too much against Butler. My dramatic criticisms passing from this board into the mainstream media? Possibly. Me being an egotistical maniac and hoping that my dramatic criticisms are passing into the mainstream media when really they are barely being listened to? Possibly. Either way, I'm here to spread the truth about the Cavs.

[mystic]

Well, so great at pattern recognition, but not recognizing that Irving was hobbling around due to a foot injury ... Also, there is one thing to design a play which in theory would be highly efficient, but it is another thing to have that executed well on the court, because the latter is influenced by the defense and the Bulls are one of the best teams at taking the spot-up option as well as the cutting option away. If you are as good at pattern recognition as you believe you are, you should notice that the Bulls are defending the passing angles especially to shooters as well as cutters exceptional well. Thus, it is only natural for the offensive team to look for other options in general while recognizing mistakes in the Bulls defensive rotation in order to get a few highly efficient opportunities at the rim or via spot-up shooting. Using James in post-ups is not based on the assumption that he will score efficiently out of that position, but to generate a situation, in which the Bulls defense needs to rotate differently and thereby may have to give up passing angles to spotup shooters or cutters. It worked quite well in terms of spotup shooting, given that the Cavs get that opportunity more often than the Bulls usually allow, not so good for cutting, where the Cavs aren't converting those opportunities at a typical high rate.

TL;TR: It is James' superior playmaking ability in combination with Irving's foot injury as well as the Bulls defense which dictates the plays more than a failed pattern recognition by the Cavs staff, imho.

[Crow]

The Cavs Director of Analytics was / is a member here. Last login about 2.5 months ago. He might see your posts eventually.

A number of insiders who never or almost never post here anymore are still visiting the site for some purpose. Reading or private message. Others stopped official logins a year or two ago.

[Kathoro]

Mystic

I did recognize Irving hobbling around on a foot injury. He did not appear to be injured too badly to be effective on the court if the offense had been engineered better. He is already a player who struggles as a ball handler in pick and roll because his instincts are to use the screen if he can, blaze to the rim, and force up a shot in the paint if there is not an easy passing option available. The center rolling to the rim after setting the pick takes time, which would mean Irving would have to slow his drive and measure the defense after accepting the screen to set up an easy pass for the rolling center. This is not a strength of Irving, and something you don't need to worry about teaching him to be effective at anyway. The pick and roll also negates his athleticism sometimes because he enjoys using multiple change of direction moves, and if there is a large cluster of players directly in front of him, he does not have sufficient space to use his multiple change of direction moves. Combine these factors with his injured foot, and you have seen the results of the 1-5 pick and roll with Irving in games 3 and 4.

I am pretty confident Irving could have still been very effective in games 3 and 4 with the condition of his foot if the offense was engineered better. I understand that a well-designed play does not always work, especially against the defense of Chicago. But constantly running well-designed plays will lead to better results than what the Cavaliers are currently obtaining with the current strategy they are implementing. The simple fact remains that there is a massive sample size of data from the regular season that strongly supports what I am saying.

[Statman]

Precisely.

Van Gundy complained early on in the telecast in Game 4 about Lebron isolating too much against Butler. My dramatic criticisms passing from this board into the mainstream media? Possibly. Me being an egotistical maniac and hoping that my dramatic criticisms are passing into the mainstream media when really they are barely being listened to? Possibly. Either way, I'm here to spread the truth about the Cavs.

You have less going against you than Isiah Thomas - assuming you haven't cost your employer over $11 mill in sexual harassment lawsuits. He's getting a look.

[Kathoro]

The Internet provides me with anonymity anyway.

I could literally be a golden retriever right now.

[Kathoro]

I want to say a few things about the screen for Irving I talked about to start possessions in the half court. I saw the Cavs run something similar to this play against the Bulls a few times in the last two games of the series. The Bulls defended it well due to the defender of Irving going substantially under the poorly set screens. Some adjustments:

1. The wing player setting the screen for Irving must read the defender of Irving and try to set the pick such to force the defender of Irving to go over the screen or such to give Irving a good chance at getting an open catch and shoot three if the defender goes under the screen. After Irving uses the screen, the screening player must roll to the corner to optimize the offensive spacing.
2. Even if the initial screen for Irving does not work, the ball handler should still pass the ball to Irving. Irving can then initiate an isolation from the wing from a standstill. The initial screen should be looked at as a bonus-type play. If the screen for Irving gives Irving an open three or driving lane, excellent. However, if the screen does not work, things are still fine. Just give the ball to Irving anyway and let him initiate the isolation offense from a standstill on the wing.