http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11280288/biggest-team-improvements-declines-offseason-nba Apparently I read it on my phone before they made it an insider article, but they have the Blazers fifth in biggest improvements, after Cleveland, Dallas, Chicago, and Utah (?)...I'm not exactly sure who was fourth. Maybe someone with insider can fill in the blanks. The upshot is that according to the advanced stats, Mo Williams was actually a below-replacement-level player, whereas Blake and Kaman were each worth more than one win each last year.
You were right, it's Cavs, Mavs, Bulls, Jazz, Blazers 5. Portland Trail Blazers | plus-3.0 WARP Key additions: Steve Blake, Chris Kaman Key loss: Mo Williams Surprisingly, both WARP and real plus-minus rated Williams (minus-0.2 WARP) at or below replacement level last season. So the Blazers may have upgraded at backup point guard with Blake (1.1) while also adding Kaman (1.3) to their thin bench.
The Cavs? Really? What did they do? I can't even remember what moves they made, so I'll take Blake and Kaman over whatever it was they did.
Yeah, the Blazers are actually one of the most thorough in the league when it comes to advanced stats tracking/application. It's also not surprising the advanced stats don't love Mo.
The Cavs signed a soon-to-be 30 year-old player to build their franchise around. It's foolish to build a team around a 30ish player. Don't they know that once James signs his new max, he'll be 36 by the end of that contract with a ton of miles on his legs?
It's ok though, as long as you have a young all-star point guard, a hard-nosed Latin center with a fro, another young starting forward that still hasn't quite reached his potential, and a couple recent lotto picks coming off the bench at SG and PF. The parallels are kind of eerie.
I'm so excited to have BLANKEY back. I'm wondering the over/under in terms of games played before he starts to get criticized for not being able to create his own shot when the bench offense is stagnant? 5 games?
