| Cavaliers Pre Trades | Cavaliers Post Trades | |
| Record | 19-16 | 7-4 |
| Winning % | 54% | 64% |
| FG% | 45.1% | 45.9 |
| 3P made per game | 8 | 10.3 |
| 3P% | 34.5% | 36.1% |
| FT made per game | 19 | 17.9 |
| FT% | 76.2% | 74.3% |
| REB | 41.2 | 45.4 |
| AST | 22.5 | 19 |
| TO | 13.7 | 13.7 |
| STL | 7.1 | 7.6 |
| BLK | 4.1 | 3.9 |
| PPG | 100.6 | 105.5 |
| +/- | +1.3 | +3.7 |
Wednesday, January 28th
By: Sam Abood
CLEVELAND – On January 5th, the Cleveland Cavaliers sent Dion Waiters to the Oklahoma City Thunder as part of a three-team blockbuster trade which netted the Cavaliers shooting guards J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert from the New York City Knicks, as well as a protected first round pick from Oklahoma City. New York received Alex Kirk, Lou Amundson, and a second round pick from Cleveland as well as Lance Thomas from the Thunder.
Two days later the Cavaliers received coveted center Timofey Mozgov from the Denver Nuggets in exchange for two first round draft picks which they acquired previously from Memphis and Oklahoma City.
As of January 28th, Cavaliers have played 11 games since their first new addition, J.R. Smith, made his debut on January 7th. They have posted a record of 7-4 since the trades as opposed to going 19-16 to open the season. Statistical trends begin to emerge after contrasting the team’s numbers before and after the trades.
In this article I will highlight those trends as well as providing the differences in production from the team’s previous starting shooting guard (Dion Waiters) and center (Anderson Varejao) compared to their replacements. Since Shumpert has only played 3 games with the team and has seen limited minutes since his return from injury, he will be excluded from player analysis.
Findings
+/- Rating
The Cavaliers have improved their points scored per game numbers verse their points allowed by 2.4 points per game during their 11 games since the trades. The Golden State Warriors currently sit atop the NBA with a +11.1 rating. Cleveland’s rating of +3.7 since the trades would place them at tenth in the league if they maintained those numbers all season.
The Cavaliers have posted a +2.5 rating when J.R. Smith has been on the court during his first 11 games with the team versus a -1.8 rating when shooting guard Dion Waiters played during his 33 games this season. The team has also enjoyed a +3.2 rating when center Timofey Mozgov has played in his first 10 games compared to a +.2 rating during center Anderson Varejao’s 26 games played.
Current starting shooting guard, J.R. Smith, represents a +4.3 rating over previous starter Dion Waiters and starting center, Timofey Mozgov, represents a +3 rating over Anderson Varejao. The two replacements combine for a +7.3 differential over the two players that they replaced.
Rebounds
Cleveland has averaged 4.2 more rebounds per game since the trades. The team began the season by averaging 41.2 per game compared to 45.4 per game since the trades.
Current starting center Timofey Mozgov has averaged 8.8 rebounds per game during his time with the team compared to Varejao’s 6.5 per game before his injury. Starting shooting guard, J.R. Smith, has averaged 3.2 rebounds per game compared to Dion Waiter’s 1.7 rebounds per game.
Mozgov represents a 2.3 rebounds per game increase over Varejao, and Smith has averaged 1.5 more than Waiters. The two new additions have combined for 3.8 more rebounds per game than the players who they replaced.
3 Pointers
The Cavaliers have made 2.3 more 3 pointers per game since their trades and have improved their 3 point shooting percentage by 1.6%.
A large part of the team’s current success in this department stems from replacing Waiter’s 25.6% shooting with Smith’s 37.4%. Smith’s 3 point percentage represents an 11.8% increase over Waiters. Smith is also averaging 3.1 3 pointers made per game as opposed to Waiter’s average of .7 made during his time with the Cavaliers this season.
Coincidentally, Smith’s 2.3 more 3 pointers made per game than previous starter Dion Waiters represents the same increased number as the entire team since the trades.
Assists
Cleveland’s relapse in assisting since the trades represents one of the few, and most significant decreases in statistics since February 7th. The Cavaliers began the season assisting at a rate of 22.5 per game versus 19 per game since the trades.
Smith and Mozgov have combined for -1.2 assists per game fewer than former starters Varejao and Waiters.
Varejao averaged 1.3 assists per game before his injury compared to Mozgov’s .4 assists per game during his time with the team. Waiters averaged 2.2 assists per game as opposed to Smith’s 1.9 per game.
Points scored per game
The Cavaliers have boasted a 4.9 points scored per game increase since their new players took the court. The team averaged 100.6 points per game before the trades, and 105.5 points after.
The Warriors currently lead the NBA with 110.9 points scored per game and Cleveland sits tenth in the league with an average of 101.7 points scored per game. If the Cavaliers maintained their 105.5 points per game average since the trades occurred, they would rank sixth in the NBA.
J.R. Smith is currently averaging 32.7 minutes per game and has contributed 14.3 points per game. Previous starter Dion Waiters averaged 23.8 minutes per game and scored 10.5 points per game during his time in Cleveland this year. Mozgov has played an average of 26.7 minutes per game and has posted an average of 9.4 points per game. Previous starting center, Anderson Varejao, averaged 24.4 minutes per game and 9.8 points scored per game.
Smith has averaged 3.8 more points per game than Waiters during his 8.9 more minutes per game and Mozgov has averaged -.4 points per game during his 2.3 more minutes per game than Varejao.
| Dion Waiters | J.R. Smith | |
| Games played | 33 | 11 |
| MPG | 23.8 | 32.7 |
| FG made per game | 4.2 | 5.2 |
| FG% | 40.4% | 39.9% |
| FT made per game | 1.4 | .8 |
| FT% | 78.3% | 81.8% |
| 3P made per game | .7 | 3.1 |
| 3P% | 25.6% | 37.4% |
| REB | 1.7 | 3.2 |
| AST | 2.2 | 1.9 |
| TO | 1.5 | 1.3 |
| STL | 1.3 | 1.5 |
| PPG | 10.5 | 14.3 |
| +/- | -1.8 | +2.5 |
| Anderson Varejao | Timofey Mozgov | |
| Games played | 26 | 10 |
| MPG | 24.4 | 26.7 |
| FG made per game | 4.3 | 3.8 |
| FG% | 55.5% | 54.3% |
| FT made per game | 1.3 | 1.8 |
| FT% | 73.3% | 72% |
| OREB | 2.2 | 3.4 |
| REB | 6.5 | 8.8 |
| AST | 1.3 | .4 |
| TO | 1.3 | 1.2 |
| STL | .7 | .5 |
| BLK | .6 | 1.2 |
| PPG | 9.8 | 9.4 |
| +/- | +.2 | +3.2 |
All statistics courtesy of NBA.com
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