I Ask You Once Again How Are the Cavs Like This

LeBron James has adult a fondness for reliable veterans such as Channing Frye, left, and Richard Jefferson, eye. Nathaniel Due south. Butler/Getty Images

Kyle Korver will bring together Richard Jefferson and James Jones as Cleveland'south resident 35-and-upwards players this week. Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

The twenty-four hour period before the Cleveland Cavaliers traded for ace shooter Kyle Korver, general manager David Griffin reminded an inquiring reporter about how the defending champs approach team-edifice. Information technology could have foreshadowed the following day's transaction, but it sounded similar a subtweet directed at the Golden Land Warriors, his team'due south opponent in the by ii NBA Finals.

"We don't set up to be a superteam that's gonna win 70 regular-season games," Griffin says. "Nosotros look at information technology as playing for the playoffs. We're trying to line everything upward to be the freshest and all-time nosotros tin can be when the playoffs start."

But Griffin has assembled a team built for more than than the postseason. The Cavaliers (28-eight) take the all-time record in the Eastern Conference, after all.

There is a key difference between the regular flavour and the playoffs that Cleveland is positioned to exploit. The Cavaliers did information technology last year on the fashion to the championship and are poised to do it again.

Cleveland is one of the few teams that view age not equally a debilitator but as a strength. With an average mark of 29 years erstwhile, the Cavaliers have the third-oldest roster in the NBA, younger than only the Clippers and Spurs. It feels surprising when you consider that the starting five boasts a fair amount a youth, with Kyrie Irving at 24, Tristan Thompson at 25 and Kevin Honey at 28.

The recently acquired Korver is 35, and in March he'll join Richard Jefferson and James Jones every bit the team's 36-and-over trio. Channing Frye, at 33, is a babe by the standards of Cleveland's bench.

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Cleveland's demote features older players for multiple reasons.

For one, Cleveland's veterans tin can shoot: Frye is a heart who'due south averaging ii.2 three-pointers on 45.3 percent shooting in nineteen minutes per night. James Jones has hit 16 of 26 threes during limited action. Korver is a career 42.9 percent iii-point marksman from deep.

So there's the LeBron James factor.

"Information technology's stability," James says. "When y'all've got professionals who know what their role is and they've been doing it for years and years, it just makes your task that much easier. It'south e'er slap-up to look on the bench and see those guys. They're always ready to go. It'south adept for our squad."

"We're limited in the sense that if you want to come and be office of what we're doing here—and San Antonio'due south been the same for years—if you want to be part of what we're doing, you really can only come up on our terms," Griffin told Bleacher Study prior to the Korver deal.

"That's been helpful, in terms of weeding out the incorrect veterans from the guys who are going to be the right fit," Griffin continued.

"They make a conscious conclusion to want to come here, which makes information technology easier to detect the right fit. … We're gonna requite yous a bang-up culture, a bang-up environment, a great team, a adventure to play for a title, and we're gonna give you lot LeBron James. But I can't requite you $5 million."

That is exactly how it went for Jefferson, who signed with Cleveland in the summer of 2015 for the veteran minimum and and so re-upped final summertime for a piece of the taxpayer mid-level exception. Having played for the Nets, Bucks, Spurs, Warriors, Jazz and Mavericks since he entered the NBA in 2001, Jefferson not merely knew what he was getting into but also understood that the hope of more coin and minutes elsewhere might have drawbacks beyond existence out of the championship mix.

"I had options," Jefferson says. "I've been in Utah, and they wanted me back. Dallas, I near went back to. Yes, I've been around this league, but it's more than past pick. This, to me, was the best option for me, and I'm just glad it's worked out.

"With a bottom team? I couldn't do that job. Mentally, I couldn't do that job, so this is the only chore I could do, from a mental standpoint. If y'all were to ask me to go to a really young team and effort to play more, mentally, information technology would take a lot more. Physically, it would have a lot out of you. This is the best position that I could maybe exist in, and that's function of the reason I enjoy it so much, and I'grand happy to be hither."

You can question whether the operation of veteran players is helped more than by playing fewer minutes and having a less demanding role, or whether information technology has more to practice with being happy in a situation. The Cavaliers offer both, and there's no questioning the results.

Jefferson posted a nine.vii player efficiency rating during the 2015-sixteen flavor and then a 12.v in the playoffs. Frye's PER was 11.viii in 44 games with Orlando before he was traded to Cleveland last February, then information technology jumped to 14.9 during 26 regular-season games for the Cavs and 20.v in the postseason.

"Richard Jefferson is still jumping like he'southward 24," says Celtics forward Gerald Green. "Channing Frye is a stretch big who's very valuable in this day and age of basketball game in the league.

"Having those two guys on their team, plus, you've got a guy like James Jones who knows his office—arguably one of the best shooters in the league today, even if he doesn't get a lot of minutes—their bench is really deep. I think everybody knows their role on that team, they play their roles well, they've been together for years, and that's why they're probably the best squad in the Due east."

One of the things that may have helped Jefferson print Greenish and so much? He played a manageable 19 minutes and 23 seconds in a game the Cavaliers  played after 2 days of rest.

Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images

As good as Jefferson can notwithstanding look at times—he scored xi points in Cleveland's win over the Celtics at the end of December—his PER this season has slipped to 7.three. Some of that probably has to practice with an increased workload equally a result of J.R. Smith's injury. Jefferson has been pressed to play 21.ix minutes per game, compared to 17.9 during nights Smith has played.

For a role player in his 16th professional season, those actress four minutes per game tin can make a deviation.

Jefferson's best performances of last year's playoffs also came in games with at least 2 day's rest. He had nine points and 11 rebounds in Game i of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Raptors on May 17, when the Cavs hadn't played since May 8. Jefferson's ix-point, eight-rebound effort during Game 3 of the NBA Finals came on June 8, 3 days after Cleveland fell backside two-0 in the series.

"There was a lot said about how well I played in the playoffs, and a lot of it had to do with no back-to-dorsum games," Jefferson says.

"We had swept our opponents in our get-go two rounds, so we had eight-day layoffs. When you accept 8-day layoffs in between games, you're going to feel really, actually fresh. Aye, at that place might be a little rust, but I'll take rust with rest whatsoever twenty-four hours. I'll take that rest. That was function of the reason we played so well. The older guys were able to recover a fiddling bit more, get actress workout, extra shots."

Having a heavy veteran presence on the bench is non a new concept. Griffin points to the PhoenixSuns teams congenital around Steve Nash and Amar'due east Stoudemire when he was an upwardly-and-comer in that organisation, as well every bit the recent-vintage BostonCeltics, MiamiOestrus and particularly the Spurs. Just you can also think back further to the 1986 Celtics with Nib Walton and Scott Wedman providing a boost to the NBA champs.

Tyronn Lue, now the head coach of the Cavaliers, experienced it every bit a player. He was 24 when the Lakers won the NBA title in 2001, part of a 2nd unit that included veterans Robert Horry and Brian Shaw, with Ron Harper also getting occasional minutes.

"It's dandy to accept RJ, Channing, JJ and too Mike [Dunleavy]," Lue said in December. "Having those guys, just being professional, showing immature guys how to do information technology, it'south great for your team and information technology makes my job a lot easier."

Information technology's notable that Lue is quick to mention Jones, because as the last role player on Cleveland'south bench, one who doesn't get into every game, it would be easy to leave him out of the chat.

But Jones is an important office of the culture that Griffin views equally such a key selling point. Jones puts equally much effort into fostering a positive locker room as he does into making sure he's ready to make the one shot per game that he might exist called upon to brand.

"There are a lot of young teams that desire to get better that would love to accept a veteran presence, and there are teams that are right at that place on the cusp that want a piddling bit extra in the locker room to allow them to get over the hump," Jones says.

"For me, I've developed a human relationship with LeBron. I've developed a human relationship with Tristan, with Kevin. Guys who are continuing to improve. To be able to be a part of that, to be able to take an impact in the game, abroad from the game, is gratifying. At this phase, winning is everything, and I desire to accept that feel. … As a kid, I wanted to be an NBA role player. Every bit a kid, I wanted to be an NBA champion. Here I stand with three NBA titles."

Jones is a 3-time champion because, in addition to concluding year with the Cavaliers, he won a pair alongside James in Miami. And Griffin puts information technology quite simply, "Let's face it, these guys want to play with LeBron."

Having James serves every bit a powerful recruiting tool for veteran free agents who desire to chase a ring as their careers current of air down. It also makes information technology easier for a thespian caused in a tradeto handle the thought of a demote role. Korver spent a lot of his early career equally a reserve merely had been a starter since joining the Hawks in 2012. Frye had started 420 of 701 games earlier he came to Cleveland.

"It'due south super rare that all of us simply embrace information technology," Frye says. "For all of us, nosotros embrace the opportunity, and the younger guys, nosotros're here to help develop them while we're winning, and we're going to stick with information technology."

That they are. The Cavaliers' merchandise for Korver not only puts one of the game'due south best iii-point shooters on 1 of the NBA's tiptop three-point shooting teams; He's likewise some other veteran who knows what his office is and figures to benefit from the less taxing schedule in the playoffs, where Cleveland hopes that its lions in winter can in one case over again roar in the spring.

Advanced stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com. All quotes were obtained firsthand.

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Source: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2686012-how-lebron-james-cleveland-cavaliers-fell-in-love-with-the-nbas-old-dudes

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