Alright, let’s dive into my deep dive on the 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers season. Man, what a year!
So, it all started with me just being a regular fan, you know? Watching the games, yelling at the TV, the usual. But something about that season just grabbed me. Maybe it was LeBron back home, maybe it was the hunger after the previous year’s Finals loss. Whatever it was, I decided I wanted to REALLY understand that season.
First thing I did was go back and watch EVERY SINGLE GAME. I know, I know, that’s insane. But I did it. I used League Pass – thankfully they have archives. I started from the pre-season, just to get a feel for the team coming together. Took notes like crazy during each game – player rotations, offensive sets, defensive schemes, everything I could see.
Then I moved on to the stats. I wasn’t just looking at the basic box scores. Oh no. I was digging DEEP. Advanced stats, like usage rate, true shooting percentage, win shares… all that stuff. I went to Basketball-Reference and just started downloading data. I even learned some basic Excel stuff to help me sort and analyze it all. Seriously, never thought I’d be using Excel for basketball, but there I was.
After that, I started reading everything I could find. Every article, every blog post, every tweet. I followed all the beat writers, the national guys, everyone who was covering the team. I even found some old forums where fans were dissecting the games in real-time. It was like going down a rabbit hole. I also watched a lot of documentaries and interviews about the team and players, trying to get a sense of the personalities involved.
Next step was putting it all together. I started writing my own summaries of each game, drawing on my notes, the stats, and what I’d read. I tried to figure out the turning points in each game, the key plays, the decisions that mattered. It was a lot of work, but it was also incredibly rewarding. I mean, I felt like I was actually inside the game, understanding what was going on at a deeper level.
Then came the playoffs. That’s when things got REALLY intense. The pressure was on, every game felt like life or death. I remember being on the edge of my seat during every possession of the Finals, especially that Game 7. Whew!
After the season, I compiled all my notes and analysis into a sort of “season review.” It was basically a huge document, breaking down everything that happened, from the highs to the lows. I even included some of my own theories about why certain things happened the way they did.
Finally, I presented all of this to… well, nobody, really. It was mostly for my own satisfaction. I shared some of my findings with friends who were also Cavs fans, and they were impressed with how much detail I’d gone into. But mostly, it was just a personal project, a way for me to really immerse myself in the 2015-16 Cavaliers season.
What did I learn?
- The importance of chemistry and leadership on a team.
- How much data is actually used in modern basketball.
- That LeBron James is really, really good at basketball.
So, yeah, that was my deep dive into the 2015-16 Cavs season. A lot of work, but totally worth it. It definitely changed the way I watch basketball. And hey, it’s always fun to relive that championship run, right?
