Is Mike Longabardi A Hindrance To The Cavs Defense?

The Cleveland Cavaliers, despite sitting first in the Eastern Conference, are marred with issues. The biggest one though is on the defensive end of the floor and defensive coordinator Mike Longabardi should take majority of the blame.

In their Finals-reaching tear through the league last season, the Cavaliers were able to transform into a defensive juggernaut. Sure, the scoring expertise of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were still evident, but once injuries hit, the Cavs played with a sense of defensive toughness that wasn’t seen prior.

Currently, with Cleveland filled with more questions rather than answers, the defense has been on a downward trend. As there is no coincidence that the team made the Finals last season behind one of the leagues stingiest defenses, it is also no accident that the Cavs are stumbling into the playoffs with a failing defense.

Many believe the Cavaliers have a roster that lacks the type of defensive-minded players that’s necessary for a championship. Wrong. The likes of Iman Shumpert, Tristan Thompson and Matthew Dellavedova make a living off that end of the floor, James is one of the NBA’s toughest defenders when he is locked in and even J.R. Smith has made a conscious effort defensively this season.

The problem with Cleveland’s defense doesn’t lie within the make-up of the roster. General Manager David Griffin has done his job of building a roster balanced with both scoring and defense. While the puzzling downfall of the Cavs defense does fall onto the players to an extent, the coaching staff isn’t helping the cause.

On the sideline, one particular member of the Cavs coaching staff has somehow escaped his share of criticism for the numerous defensive breakdowns. Hired on January 27^th, after the firing of former coach David Blatt, Longabardi was brought in to command the defense. Tyronn Lue was the head defensive coordinator when Blatt was coaching, but with him taking over head coaching duties, it left a gap that Longabardi was brought in to fill.

Known around the league as a defensive specialist, Longabardi’s resume is one that fails to live up to the hype. Longabardi has spent the last two and a half seasons with the Phoenix Suns as a top assistant and leader of the defense. Under his watch, the Suns were just ranked 20^th in the league in defensive efficiency this season (until the 28^th of December, when Longabardi was fired). Last season Phoenix were just the 17^th best defense in the NBA and the year prior, Longabardi coached the 13^th ranked defense.

Before Phoenix, Longabardi was the defensive coordinator under Doc Rivers with the Boston Celtics. Sure, those Boston teams were excellent defensively but that was with major input from Rivers, one of the world’s best basketball coaches.

Notice ever since Longabardi took over the defense in Phoenix, their defensive numbers got worse and worse each season. Now, the Suns don’t have a world-beating defensive roster but that doesn’t mean Longabardi should be given a free pass for the two and a half years he spent there. Without the watching eye of Rivers, Longabardi couldn’t coach an adequate defense that improved season by season. Instead, it noticeably regressed.

That same trend is now occurring in Cleveland.

Before Longabardi’s hiring, the Cavs allowed 100.2 points per 100 possessions, the seventh best mark in the league. Since Longabardi took over the defense, the Cavaliers have allowed teams to score 105.4 points per 100 possessions, which, as fate would have it, is good for just 13^th in the league. Remember Longabardi’s best season in Phoenix ended up in the team finishing with the 13^th best defense in the league. If history were to repeat itself, the Cavs defense would decline under Longabardi, something that is definitely worth watching closely.

It must be considered that the one defensive numeric the Cavaliers value the most is defensive field goal percentage. Inside Cleveland’s locker-room is a board with the league leaders in that category, which serves as a constant reminder for the players how important that number is. It makes sense- if teams are shooting a high percentage against you, the defense isn’t up to par and vice versa.

Using the same parameters to judge how the Cavs defense has performed since Longabardi’s hiring, the Cavaliers allowed teams to shoot 44.3% per game, the 12^th best mark in the league. However, since Longabardi took control of the defense, Cleveland has dropped to 18^th in the NBA, as teams are hitting 45.9% of their shots against them.

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Using analytics to gauge a team’s defense is a concept that is despised by many and for a fair reason. After all, defense does come down to intensity and effort, however, good defensive structure and concepts needs to also be in place for it to be a successful one. Since Longabardi took over, the Cavs struggles defending the pick and roll and the transition game are alarming. The players look lost and confused when the other team has the ball, something Longabardi needs to take responsibility for.

“Well, Coach Lue, he wants us to defend but he’s not the voice of our defense,” James said, after the Cavs win over the San Antonio Spurs in late January, via Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “Coach Longo (Longabardi), he’s our defensive coordinator. He gives us the game plan. Coach Lue definitely makes his inputs throughout the course of the game, if he wants to change on a game-to-game basis or throughout the game, but our gameplan comes from our defensive coordinator and whatever he wants to do, we’re able to learn on the fly. He’s very detailed and we’re happy to have him.”

That was after Longabardi’s third game as defensive coordinator with the Cavs. After a prolonged time with them, James may be rethinking his stance as Longabardi’s control of a defense that has regressed ever since he took over.