Rich on D&D

[Steve Buffum]

Here's what struck me:

Damon Jones three point shooting %

’05-’06: 35.3%
’04-’05: 43.2%
’03-’04: 35.9%
’02-’03: 36.4%
’01-’02: 37.1%
’00-’01: 36.4%

Okay, now, how much cogent analysis does it take to predict that in all likelihood Damon Jones is (about) a 36% 3-point shooter? Is anyone truly surprised that he's shooting 35.3% instead of 43.2% this season? You think his looks are MORE open with Z & LeBron than with D-Wade and Shaq? Shit, forget the openness of the looks: just look at common sense regression to the mean.

Note: 35.3% is still not a bad percentage, but it certainly isn't enough to make up for having No Other Elements to your game (cf. Jones, D.).

As for Marshall, this line stuck out:

And he turns 33 years old in a couple months.

Rich spelled out explicitly what I hadn't been able to put my finger on: Yell is standing at the three-point line and accomplishing Virtually Nothing Else. Which, frankly, is all Jones is doing, either.

But you know, I can't saddle Marshall with all the blame here: at some point, Mike Brown has to Actually Coach this team. He has to get Marshall to Do Something Else. He has to motivate both guys. He has to Be The Fucking Coach. Has he done anything tangible except decide which guards play which pointless minutes each night? Maybe someone with actually basketball savvy can set me straight here.

I guess the problem is, at 33, how likely is it that Marshall improves? And how likely is it that Jones isn't just a dog? My uneducated guess is that both numbers are low.

[swerb]

Thanks Buff.

These two have been incredibly one-dimensional this year, and have been terrible at performing that one dimension.

Using the 50/58 games I've likely watched this year as evidence, it appears to me that we overpaid for these two. Ferry likely thought Damon would knock down 40-41% of his threes the next 4 years, and that Donyell would actually do something besides stand behind the 3 pt arc and wait for LeBron double teams/kickouts.

To me, Damon Jones is the classic example of a guy playing balls to the wall in his FA year, and regressing to past form immediately aftter.

Mike Brown deserves blame, yes he does. Especially with Donyell. Marshall has gotten a little bit better on trying to drive to the hole more, and get more involved. Then we see a game like last night where he completely reverted to the style of play mentioned above. He lingers.

Donyell used to kill the Cavs. Even before he morphed into Ricky Pierce. He used to kill us on the blocks! And inside swatting shots away.

While Jones just is flat out limited, I put Marshall on Mike Brown.

Jones should have had a ski mask on and signed his deal pointing a weapon at Ferry/Gilbert. Marshall is not being coached right, or coached at all. The Cavs are far too weak (especially defensively) down low to not have Marshall banging more and lingering less.