Two Cavs who need to be more aggressive

There are two players for the Cleveland Cavaliers that need to be more aggressive, Kevin Love and Jae Crowder.

According to Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue, there’s a problem with the players choosing to defer to LeBron James rather than be aggressive.

Quote transcribed by cleveland.com‘s Joe Vardon:

"“Guys have got to understand that LeBron, he’s a giving person, he’s a giving player,” Lue said. “You’ve got to come in and play your game and we’ll adjust. I think a lot of times we defer to LeBron or guys are scared to be aggressive because of that. He’s not that type of player at all, so we’ve got to talk about that on Tuesday, guys being who you are, being aggressive and playing your game.”"

Part of this is natural, as James is the best player on the team and a transcendent passer for a forward whose basketball IQ makes him the player most capable of orchestrating the offense and providing direction for his teammates. However, there have certainly been instances where the Cavs just wait around for James to make a move.

I have no way of knowing for sure but I don’t believe that James’ go-to move on this possession was a step-back 27-foot three-point shot over Anthony Davis, an athletic player with a 9-foot standing reach. Here, Wade decides not to set himself in the post against Jrue Holiday and Jae Crowder chooses to stand in the corner instead of setting a screen for James and probably getting the ball on a roll to the rim. Two new players showing a lack of aggressiveness and a deference to James.

While Dwyane Wade has been aggressive within the second unit, Crowder is averaging less field goal attempts, three-point attempts and free-throw attempts than he was last season while in a similar role. His offensive workload shouldn’t seem like it has to be as much as it was with the Boston Celtics but the truth is that the Cavs are trying to replace Kyrie Irving’s production from last year.

Certainly, Isaiah Thomas is the type of scorer that can do that by himself, he’s currently out for an indefinite period as he rehabs a torn labrum.

In the meantime, Derrick Rose and Crowder will have to make up for Irving’s workload (Wade is essentially Deron Williams’ replacement while Jeff Green replaced Richard Jefferson). This is in part because both should be starting, to be frank.

However, it’s also because Crowder helps make up for some the three-point threat that Rose can’t replace.

This season, James has stepped up to replace Irving as a knockdown three-point threat, so Crowder simply has to shoot around 36.3 percent from three-point range like James did last season. So far this season, Crowder is shooting 33.3 percent from three-point range and 62.5 percent from the corners. He shot 39.8 percent from three last season and 47.8 percent from the corners.

Crowder has continued to be one the Cavs’ best cutters but doesn’t only attack the rim in the halfcourt but in the open court as he consistently leaks out in transition.

However, he often pulls back on making plays off-the-dribble and passes the ball. His ability to take opponents off-the-dribble from either forward position opens up the amount of assists and secondary assists the Cavs can have if Crowder decides to pass on the drive. Rose is likely to go all the way to the rim if he takes his man off-the-dribble so Crowder can afford to be a bit more of a facilitator.

Crowder is being assisted on 12.8 percent more of his two-point attempts this season compared to last year and while easy points aren’t a negative, it shows how much more Crowder is relying on players to set him up for shots rather than getting his own by being aggressive.

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Kevin Love also needs to be more assertive, although his problem isn’t on the offensive end.

Love, who is being aggressive on offense this season, averaging less field goal attempts but more free-throw attempts per game. His assertiveness (and the amount of free-throws he’s taken) is certainly buoyed by the fact that LeBron James looks for Love frequently and is responsible for in the halfcourt. For the first time in a while, the Cavs don’t have to worry about Love’s offense, although he needs to make more of those shots from 10-16 feet in the paint (30.8 percent from the field).

The problem with Love is on the defensive end, as Love is often seen looking around and trying to decide his next move (it’s as if you can literally see he’s thinking, “who’s my man” or “should I step closer to defend this shot”). It’s the reason a player like Chicago Bulls rookie Lauri Markannen could hit 5 threes against the Cavs, how the Orlando Magic’s Nikola Vucevic could hang 23 points on the Cavs, how the Cavs give up 17 three-pointers in three-point games, allow opponents to shoot 46.2 percent from the field (23rd in the NBA) and 40.2 percent from three-point range (28th in the NBA).

No, this isn’t the same clip embedded three times. These are three clips of Love being fooled by the same play and giving up wide open threes to Markannen. Strangely, his defense on the play got worse every time they ran it.

Of course Love isn’t the only one at fault, as James himself is often a culprit of pulling up short on defensive closeouts himself. It’s just that with Love it looks like there’s always confusion about what he should do and rarely the aggressiveness you’d expect from a 6-foot-10, 250 pound man. A man who used to be known as a bruiser.

By the time Love makes a decision on where to run out to or if he should get closer to his man, the other team has already put up a shot. Again, some of this is James’ fault as James and Love’s lack of coordination on the defensive end, which is somewhat startling given that they’ve played beside each other in the starting lineup for the last three seasons, has been poor thus far.

Nonetheless, Love has to be willing to actually put his body on the opposing player and actually make it hard for them to make a move off-the-dribble. He’s better when defending straight-up in the post but he’s often in No Man’s Land in the lane, making the his offensive contributions pointless since the opposing team know he’s not one of the players running out to contest shots. By no means am I saying this wouldn’t come without Love exerting a great deal of energy. He’ll have to improve his conditioning to play with the same defensive tenacity he displayed towards the end of the 2017 NBA Finals, when he was routinely jumping driving lanes to make a defensive play.

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