Tristan Thompson working on his three-point shot could unlock Cavs’ potential

Cleveland Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson is working on his shooting range.

On the first day of training camp, Cleveland Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson took the court and showed a willingness to take his game to the next level. Working with Cavs assistant coach James Posey, Thompson worked on taking three-point shots from the corner.

Corner threes are the shortest three-point attempts Thompson can take as they’re 22 feet away from the rim rather than 23.75 feet away the rim like all other threes. So even when players aren’t great three-point shooters, they may be capable of making corner threes. For example. Jeff Green has converted 33.3 percent of his three-point attempts in his career. He’s converted 39.0 percent of his corner threes.

In the clip above, provided by Basketball Insiders’ Spencer Davies, Thompson made three out of his five corner three attempts. His shooting mechanics were sound and consistent so even if he was to go 0-2 from three in a game it’s unlikely those would have been “bad” shots. In time, defenders will learn to respect him from behind-the-line and that will open up a world of possibilities for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

With both Thompson and Kevin Love (who made 37.3 percent of 6.5 three-point attempts per game last season) able to force bigs out onto the perimeter, the Cleveland Cavaliers will completely open up driving lanes for LeBron James, Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade and, when he returns, Isaiah Thomas. As the team plans to use Love more at center next season and big man Channing Frye is an excellent three-point shooter should Love ever find himself out of the lineup, there will never be a lineup that’s missing two big men capable of nailing a three-point shot.

That should be scary for opposing defenses, who’ll have to figure out how to stop James, Rose, Wade and Thomas from attacking the rim. The quartet scored a combined 21.2 points per game on drives last season, with only Wade (47.1 percent) failing to hit less than fifty percent of his shots on drives.

Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue says that Thompson will need to make 20 threes in practice before he’s allowed to shoot them in a game.

While Lue hasn’t given Thompson to shoot threes in-game yet, Thompson is willing to whatever the team needs. That includes stretching his shooting range beyond the arc.

In his career, Thompson has only taken nine three-point attempts (and made none). However, as Lue said, Thompson is a hard worker and his dedication to doing whatever it takes to make the team better is an intangible that boosts his value past his statistical contributions.

Cavs fans should hope that Thompson is able to knock down those threes consistently because it removes the issue of spacing that the Cavs could have with Rose and Wade starting in the backcourt until Thomas returns. Although Rose (45.5 percent) and Wade (47.6 percent) were excellent from the corner last season, they’ve struggled from three-point range their whole career.

However, both excel at getting to the rim and they’ll be allowed to focus on playing to their strengths if Thompson can evolve his offensive repertoire. Already a player who has developed a nifty push shot and his court vision as a pick-and-roll roll man, Thompson makes it a lot easier to justify why he should stay on the court with an ability to knock down threes.

With his defensive versatility, offensive rebounding, screen assists and (hopefully) an extended shooting range, Thompson will be one of the most valuable Cavs on the roster.

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*Unless otherwise referenced, all stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com