While We’re Waiting… What does Andrew Bynum bring to the table?

While We’re Waiting is the daily morning link roundup that WFNY has been serving up for breakfast for the last several years. We hope you enjoy the following recent collection of yummy and nutritious Cleveland sports-related articles. Anything else to add? Email us at tips@waitingfornextyear.com. “But it’s also the primary reason that Bynum is such an efficient and devastating offensive player. When people think about Bynum, it seems that people tend to think of a traditional, back to the basket kind of big man. And he can be that — over 54% of his offensive plays were post-ups in 2011-12 and he scored .89 points per possession (PPP) on those plays. That’s a very efficient post player. But in general, straight post-ups are not the most efficient plays. Much of what made Andrew Bynum such a monster was he unbelievable efficiency on cuts, not his great post game. His 1.53 PPP on cuts was 5th in the entire NBA and, as Sam noted in his article, he scored on nearly 78% of those plays. That’s incredible.” [Kacmarek/Fear the Sword] —- “Epstein, similarly, argues that studies show that it takes only four thousand hours to reach “international levels” in basketball. The study in question was of a sample of players from the Australian men’s basketball team. I have nothing against either Australia or Australian basketball. But I’d be a bit more impressed if someone could find a starting point guard in the N.B.A. with fewer than ten years of basketball under his belt. Arguments about what it takes to be an elite performer are less persuasive if the performers being studied aren’t actually elite.” [Gladwell/The New Yorker] —- An interview with Urban Meyer’s wife Shelley. “It was definitely worth it,” Shelley said, flashing her 12-0 ring. “But, at the same time, at the end of the last game, I said, ‘Really, you really had to go undefeated the first year?’ Because where do you go from there? Look what’s happening. Everyone thinks we’re going to go undefeated again. It wasn’t that easy last year, and it’s not that easy.” [Rowland/Eleven Warriors] —- “Traditional stats paint Perez as one of the best closers currently in baseball. I cannot count the number of times I have heard a variation of the “I put a Chris Perez poster on my door and now it won’t close” joke, but in all actuality, Perez closes out opposing teams more often than not. With an 84.6 save percentage in his career and an 82.6 percent mark in 2013, there are certainly worse pitchers to have at the back-end of a bullpen. That, plus the fact that the only closers to hold that job with the same team since the start of 2011 are Perez, Mariano Rivera, and Craig Kimbrel, indicates that Perez is much better than he is given credit for.” [Piascik/Indians Baseball Insider] —- Video: Joe Banner gives a tour of the $5 million dollar renovations at Berea. [Browns.com]