The Cleveland Cavaliers have decided to go with Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose to start the year, which is a curious move.
This is not the worst thing in the world, but it’s still puzzling. To cut to the chase, Wade and Rose aren’t legitimate three-point shooters. Obviously, this has been well-documented as the key issue with the two potentially playing big minutes together in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ backcourt. With these two starting games, the spacing is clearly the elephant in the room, as KJG’s own Jackson Flickinger illustrated.
Wade had his second-best year from three last season for the Chicago Bulls, but he hit only 31 percent (per Basketball Reference). Meanwhile, Rose is fresh off his worst year from deep, converting on just 21.7 percent of his threes for the New York Knicks. The kinda-sorta silver lining here? Both guys should have more looks from the corners this season.
That’s the shortest distance from three-point range on the floor, so it’s often a “sweet spot” for shooters. Not that there has ever been a huge sample size from either Wade or Rose from the corner, but they were much better last season at hitting those looks. “Flash” knocked down 47.6 percent of his corner treys in 2016-17, and D-Rose hit 45.5 percent, per Basketball Reference.
Now I understand that one season is not a be-all and end-all, but it is encouraging. With one of the best passers in the history of the league in LeBron James, the Cavs offense has feasted from the corners since his return in the 2014-2015 season.
They’ve been at or near the top of the league in threes made from both corners in the three years since the second James stint with Cleveland, per nba.com. Last year, the Cavs were on a different level in that money area, too, as nba.com’s John Schuhmann demonstrated in a recent piece:
"The Cavs made 353 corner 3-pointers last season, 76 more than any other team and more than any team in the 21 years for which we have shot location data (since 1996-1997)."
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Nonetheless, the Cavs did lose a big-time spot-up shooter in Kyrie Irving, and Rose/Wade need to be willing and able to shoot from the short three area. In years past for both Wade and Rose, they needed to score in more unassisted ways, but with their current roster, they will have more wide-open looks.
It’s not like either needs to suddenly jack up ten threes per game to be effective, because both Rose and Wade will take turns running the Cavs offense, and other three-point specialists like Jae Crowder, Kyle Korver and others will handle more of the three shooting duties. So if Wade and Rose just keep defenses a bit more honest in regards to just taking corner threes, it will really help both their own driving efficiency and the rest of the team.
Both new backcourt pieces are not getting any younger, and defenses know their tendencies in going to the rim (which is physically taxing) and the pull-up game, so they need to adapt a bit. Defenses are not going to be spread out enough to allow players like Korver, J.R. Smith, and occasionally Channing Frye to thrive if Wade and Rose aren’t taking enough perimeter shots.
The counterargument to Wade and Rose taking those unassisted corner triples is also a defensive problem, though, and that makes sense. When teams are way off the mark on their corner triples, it creates many advantage opportunities for opponents. The Cavs were blitzkrieged last season at times by the Golden State Warriors and others capable in transition when they missed their corner threes.
However, if Rose and Wade don’t even take those open three-point looks, particularly from the left corner, it will greatly negate the cutting ability of Kevin Love, James, Jeff Green and others in the long run. That said, hopefully, Rose and Wade are not playing huge minutes together over a long period of the season, because both can playmake at a high level running the offense with their quality basketball IQ.
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We’ll see if the LeBron effect can help their shooting a bit; I think it can in some ways.