5 Ways Tyronn Lue Has Improved The Cleveland Cavaliers
The “Solar” System
The Cleveland Cavaliers now have a system designed to maximize the team’s offensive system. At this time last year, the Cavaliers were running Blatt’s motion offense which wasn’t necessarily a system that he adapted to the skillet’s of his players. Consequentially, a player like Love was misused while James and Irving would be incredibly predictable in their offensive attack. The Cavs won a lot of games based on the sheer talent they had on the team, not the system Blatt put in place.
A system, as teams like the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors have shown, clarifies the roles of the players while making it easier to see what the team needs to continue their success when a player goes down.
The attack starts with James, who will have the ball in his hands as the nominal point guard in most of the Cavs plays. James’ role is almost too simple. Offensively, he needs to attack the rim without relent and intermittently set up shooters while he gets himself easy shots.
Irving is there to attack as well. As a matter of fact, his first job on offense is to attack and to pass second. When he does open up passing lanes it’ll with consistent penetration into the lane.
Love is there to shoot, and to shoot a lot. However, he’s also there to attack the rim as James and Irving stay outside to shoot more three-point attempts than they had last season.
Those three are like the suns of a solar system that other stars (a sun is a star) simply move around.
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All the while, the shooting guards are there to provide space with efficient shooting and play great on the perimeter. Smith, DeAndre Liggins and Iman Shumpert all provide the Cleveland Cavaliers with both defense and efficient shooting from three-point range. However, Liggins may be a better defender than Smith is a shooter and Smith lets it fly from three-point range while Liggins would rather move the ball around. Shumpert has the best offensive and defensive balance of the two.
Tristan Thompson provides the Cavs with the exact opposite of what Channing Frye provides.
Thompson is a mobile center that’s thriving as both a defender and low-post scorer 32 games into the season. He’s often available on drop-passes as James or Irving attack the lane after he sets the screen. The Cavs even feed him in the post on occasion, where he gets to go one-on-one against the defender and go to his go-to hook shot in the paint. Frye is a center with below-average quickness but is a tremendously efficient catch-and-shoot player and gives James, Irving and others the chance to attack a free rim.
At the forward spots, the Cleveland Cavaliers can be spotted sending out Richard Jefferson or Mike Dunleavy Jr. as a small-ball power forward than can both space the floor with three-point shooting but attack the rim in straight-line drives. Currently, the team has Kay Felder and Jordan McRae behind Irving at point guard. Both players are able to attack the rim consistently, are volume shooters and can score from all three levels.
There are of course, other pieces to the system such as James’ play from the post, but nonetheless Lue has created a system that’s based on his player personnel. It’s one of the major reasons the Cavs are 27-5 after 32 games, the Big Three are all scoring 20 or more points per game and why they’re more formidable as a team now than they were at any point last year.
There are a lot of threes, a fast pace and roles suited for their Big Three to perform at an optimal level in Lue’s system.