The Cleveland Cavaliers possess some of the most talented offensive players in the NBA but is the system being put in place by coach Tyronn Lue effective?
The Cavs can score the basketball.
There is no denying or doubting that. They have LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love to carry the bulk of the scoring. Chip in the shooting of J.R. Smith, Matthew Dellavedova and Channing Frye, and it seems as if Cleveland have an ideal offensive team.
On paper, sure they do. But championships aren’t won on paper and scoring doesn’t happen on paper either.
This isn’t the fault of General Manager David Griffin. He has done his job of building a team capable of being an offensive powerhouse. Rather, Lue is the one to question for why this offense sometimes seems incapable of winning basketball games.
Now, let’s get something out of the way first. Since Lue took over, the Cavs are scoring 107.7 points per game, which puts them seventh in the league. That’s a good number and an increase from 101.4 points the Cavaliers were scoring under former coach David Blatt.
However, it goes beyond simply how many points the Cavs are scoring. Now, it’s understandable to just judge an offense from the amount of points they score but it’s also foolish.
It would be a good idea to take a page out of James’ book here, as he is all about the process just as much as the result. It isn’t the amount of points scored; it’s how the points are being scored. And for the Cavaliers, this is slowly becoming a problem.
Lue’s offensive system is predicated on two things- pushing the pace and kick-outs.
The pushing the pace part is a positive. No one can stop the likes of James and Irving running downhill on the fast break. It’s a defenders nightmare. James’ pure brut strength has seen him create 66 and-one opportunities this season, most in the NBA. Irving is one of the most creative finishers at the basket in the league.
This aspect of Lue’s offense is fine. When the Cavs are flying around on defense and forcing turnovers, they should run. But, the problem lies within this philosophy.
As a result of pushing the pace, it creates open shots for shooters. Think about it. You have James and Irving running to the rim and the likes of Love, Smith and Dellavedova are running to the three-point line. The defense needs to make a decision whether to commit more bodies to the drivers or stay attached to the shooters. Most teams go with the former. Subsequently, this leaves the shooters open.
And that’s the problem.
Now, stay with me here. Wide-open shots are good. It’s what every team thrives for. But, if the team can’t actually hits the shot, well what’s the point?
Since Lue took over as head coach, the Cavaliers are generating 24.6 open (when the closest defender is within 4-6 feet of the shooter) shots a game, eighth in the league. That’s a good number and actually is evidence of the Cavs implementing what Lue wants from them.
Despite this though, Cleveland are hitting just 42.9 per cent of those open looks. That ranks them 17th in the NBA, which is simply not good enough. Not with a team full of the shooters they have.
On open three-point looks, the numbers still work against the Cavs.
They shoot 12.1 of them a game, which is sixth in the league. So, once again, Lue is coaching an offense that is creating open looks. That’s great!
Once again though, the Cavaliers simply aren’t converting on the looks they are creating. Cleveland is shooting just 33.5 per cent on open three-point looks since Lue took over. That is good for just 23rd in the league. That, umm, is not good at all.
Okay, so whose fault is all of this?
Of course, the players deserve a lot of the blame. After all, they are paid to play basketball and putting the ball in the basket is the most important skill in the sport.
But, Lue and his coaching staff need to take just as much of the blame. Why keep beating a dead horse? The Cavs have not been a good shooting team, on open looks anyway, all season long. That isn’t going to change overnight. Cleveland no longer have the unusual off shooting nights. Instead, the off-shooting nights have become a worrying trend.
So, why isn’t Lue changing things? Why does he keep insisting that the Cavs run and kick the ball out to shooters, when it is becoming painfully obvious they aren’t going to knock down the shots?
It’s a question that needs to be answered before the playoffs begin.
This isn’t the only troubling aspect of the Cavaliers offensive system since Lue took over.
The James/Love pick and roll still hasn’t been established, but Lue had an explanation for that.
“It hasn’t produced the sort of pick-and-pops that you would think,” Lue said, via Zach Lowe of ESPN. “Because teams switch it.”
Cavaliers assistant coach Jim Boylan went a bit more in-depth, via Lowe. “It sounded good to a lot of people but it’s something we haven’t been able to take advantage of. It’s easy for teams to scheme against. They switch and we’re stuck with an isolation.”
Ah, that word: isolation.
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Okay, so the defense has been able to contain the James/Love pick and roll. Fine, but when they do stop it, the Cavs cannot fall into isolation basketball. It is a recipe for disaster that the team has tasted way too often this season.
9.2 per cent of the Cavs plays this season have been isolation. That is the fourth most frequent isolation heavy offense in the league.
Now, if the Cavs were able to effectively execute isolation plays consistently, there would be no problem. But there is one because Cleveland shot the ball at a 38.6 per cent rate on isolation plays, which is good for just 15th in the league.
For a team that runs isolation plays so often, they need to shoot better than just a middle of the pack team.
Once again, Lue needs to start stressing to his team to start moving the ball more often. Cleveland has averaged 23 assists since Lue took over, 13th in the league. While that isn’t a horrible ranking, for a team that runs so much ineffective isolation, the assist totals need to go up.
The Cavaliers don’t have a world-beating defense to fall back on, like they did in the playoffs last season. The defense is broken at the moment, so they need the offense to be at its best to win playoff games. From the evidence the team has provided us though, little faith can be placed on this Cavalier offense.