Cup of Cavs: An ode to inefficient volume scorers

Cavs news and links for Wednesday, July 31.

Let’s shift the topic from Isaac Okoro and how the Cleveland Cavaliers will handle his restricted free agency to something the game has left behind: The bygone era of the inefficient bucket-getter.

The first sip

Basketball has always been about scoring more than the other team. High-volume scorers are one means to do that even if it isn’t the preferred option.

This archetype typically don’t show up on good teams and most certainly aren’t great players. But they are skilled enough to fill a role they probably aren’t qualified for. There’s a no-man’s land between good and mediocre that these players occupy which gives them the freedom to do this.

For example, Antawn Jamison was good enough to fill this role in 2011 on a terrible Cavs’ team. Anthony Parker wasn’t. You could picture Parker contributing to winning much more on a functional team, but Jamison could create offense out of nothing much easier. The latter is the more challenging thing to do even though it’s not going to lead to winning if it isn’t done at a high level.

This role has been mostly phased out even though bad teams still exist. Efficiency is the goal even on rebuilding/tanking teams. You’re hard-pressed to find guys who just put up isolation jumpers because no one else can generate them. Players don’t get paid for raw point production like they used to.

Offenses have become more optimized, but there’s a variety and randomness lost in the process. Whether or not the homogenization of playing styles makes the viewing experience better is debatable. Because even though it’s bad nearly every night, you never know when that player is going to have it going. You don’t get Jamison putting up 35 to end a historic losing streak if you don’t also go through the 5-18 night you got far more often.

The second sip - Cavs’ most inefficient bucket-getters

There have been nine Cavaliers who’ve finished their tenure with the team averaging 14 or more points per game with an effective field goal percentage worse than 47%. These are who I’d, as objectively as possible, call the franchise’s all-time inefficient volume scorers. These are ranked from worst to best effective field goal percentage.

It feels a little unfair to put people who played before the three-point line on this list, but I’m committed to this exercise.

• Isaiah Thomas (2018) - 14.7 points, .361/.253/.868 shooting splits, 41.8 EFG%
• John Johnson (1970-73) - 15.9 points, .429/NA/.777, 42.9 EFG%
• Walt Wesley (1970-72) - 14.3 points, .432/NA/.682, 43.2 EFG%
• Larry Hughes (2005-08) - 14.3 points, .396/.342/.726, 43.4 EFG%
• Shawn Kemp (1997-2000) - 16.2 points, .441/.313/.762, 44.2 EFG%
• Ricky Davis (2001-03) - 16 points, .434/.355/.755, 45.4 EFG%
• Luol Deng (2014) - 14.3 points, .417/.315/.771, 45.7 EFG%
• Andre Miller (1999-2002) - 14.5 points, .452/.245/.812, 46.1 EFG%
• Dion Waiters (2012-15) - 14.3 points, .420/.328/.722, 46.2 EFG%

Random Cavalier of the Day - Ricky Davis

It was a memorable two and a half seasons in Cleveland for Davis. He was the recipient of LeBron James’s first assist, infamously attempted a shot on the wrong basket to try and get a triple-double, and allegedly said he thought LeBron was another addition to help him score.

Those antics and his inefficient scoring are part of the reason why he was out of the league at age 30. After a few years overseas, he attempted to make his way back through the D-League at 34. He told Howard Beck for a feature in 2015 that he did things “the wrong way sometimes.”

From Beck’s feature for Bleacher Report:

Still, Davis’ odds of securing another NBA contract seem slim. He was not the best player in Reno this week, nor even the best player on his own team. Executives sitting courtside said Davis no longer had the explosiveness that made him such an effective scorer.

Then there are the ancillary issues—the lingering memories of the immaturity and insolence that made Davis such a tough bargain. This is, after all, the player who earned the moniker “Wrong-Rim Ricky” in Cleveland, for shooting at his own basket in an attempt to manufacture a triple-double in 2003.

Ask Davis his regrets, and he lists that one first. It branded him a knucklehead, a label that became hard to kick.

“I got drafted when I was 17,” Davis said. “I never really learned the good ways and the bad ways. … It’s bad that it’s still on me, but it’s OK,” he said, before adding with a chuckle, “I’m glad to be remembered for a triple-double. That’s OK. A triple-double’s good.”

Davis never made it back to the NBA, but trying to do so through the D-League is admirable. He finished with 2,921 points for the Cavs which puts him 46th in franchise history.

Cavs news and links

Collin Sexton was on The Pat Bev Podcast with Rone and talked about Darius Garland some. Here’s a snippet of that.

Olympic men’s basketball on today

• Puerto Rico vs. Servia, 11:15 AM
• USA vs. South Sudan, 3 PM, USA Network

Links of the day

• Dereck Lively II’s hard-won gravity
• Olympics men’s basketball scores, schedule, and standings for 2024 Paris Games
• Chase Budinger wins 2024 Olympic beach volleyball debut
• Way too early 2025 mock draft