The Cleveland Cavaliers shouldn’t trade Iman Shumpert. Not unless it becomes absolutely necessary.
Iman Shumpert has plenty of detractors who believe the Cleveland Cavaliers should trade him. Even I used to be a ranking member of the “Trade Iman Shumpert” fan club.
However, Shumpert provides a defensive dynamic in the backcourt that the Cavs are missing in the second unit. Whether Jose Calderon or Dwyane Wade mans the point guard position in the second unit, the Cavs will have a player like Kyle Korver joining them in the backcourt. When Isaiah Thomas returns from injury, Derrick Rose will be the backup point guard while Wade or Korver joins him in the backcourt.
As a result, there’s an element that the Cavs will be missing on the perimeter. A stout individual defender.
Rose, Wade and Korver are better defenders than given credit, especially from the standpoint of playing team defense. However, none of them are as capable of playing suffocating defense along the perimeter as Shumpert is. They don’t have Shumpert’s combination of size, athleticism, tenacity, physicality and natural defensive aptitude.
With Rose, Wade, Korver and Thomas’ troubles in containing perimeter penetration, Shumpert will be a welcome addition to the backcourt as he slows down the quick, shifty and explosive ball-handlers that Rose, Wade, Korver and Thomas would have trouble guarding.
The Cavs, who are lacking on backcourt players that can fit the three-and-D mold that’s en vogue in today’s NBA, also need Shumpert because he’s one of their outside threats. Rose and Wade shouldn’t be expected to suddenly transform into premier three-point shooters. They’re slashers that open up the floor for shooters to thrive.
Players like Shumpert, Korver, Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, Jae Crowder, Jose Calderon and Richard Jefferson. Looking at the Cavs’ outside threats, there are a few wings who operate spot-up shooters available in the second unit but there fewer three-point threats that excel as on-ball defenders. In fact, outside of Shumpert, Crowder, Smith, Jefferson and James, no Cav is considered to be an above-average individual defender.
That may seem like quite a few players, until you look at how many of those players are capable of guarding opposing point guards.
In terms of just covering the league’s explosive lead guards, only Shumpert and James can be expected to slow down the opposing ball-handler on a consistent basis. Smith and Crowder are capable of guarding opposing point guards too but their job is to cover the best wing and best forward so that James can be the quarterback in the backline of the defense.
As a result, Shumpert is be the only three-and-D guard the Cavs have in their second unit and the only one that’s been consistently trusted to matchup with the league’s best point guards.
Last season, Shumpert shot 36.0 percent from three-point range and was on fire before the All-Star Break, knocking in 40.3 percent of his three-point shots.
In isolation, Shumpert held his man to 26.2 percent shooting from the field, 0.63 points per possession and caused them to turn over the ball 12.3 percent of the time, numbers that helped place him in the 90th percentile as an iso defender.
In a long and grueling 82-game season, players will go down to injury at some point. With that said, losing just one three-point threat or viable perimeter defender could alter the Cavs’ gameplan.
Perhaps even more important is what the Cleveland Cavaliers will do when they find themselves facing off against an opponent with a Tazmanian Devil at point guard, like the Oklahoma City Thunder or Washington Wizards. Even playing against herky-jerky point guards like Golden State Warriors’ shining star Stephen Curry, who pours in buckets like he gets paid for it (he does), they’ll need a physical and athletic defender like Shumpert to step in and slow them down.
It’s an unpopular opinion but unless the Cavs can secure a high-profile player like DeMarcus Cousins by using Shumpert’s contract (and Channing Frye’s), they should keep him on the team.
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*Unless otherwise referenced, stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com