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The Cleveland Cavaliers need to do a better job of boxing out

By Nathan Beighle

BROOKLYN, NY - OCTOBER 25: Kevin Love #0, JR Smith #5 and LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers shake hands during the game against the Brooklyn Nets on October 25, 2017 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE via Getty Images)
BROOKLYN, NY - OCTOBER 25: Kevin Love #0, JR Smith #5 and LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers shake hands during the game against the Brooklyn Nets on October 25, 2017 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The Cleveland Cavaliers are not a great rebounding team, but they could easily be if they made a concerted effort to box out more.

One of many things the Cleveland Cavaliers need to work on is their boxing out. Boxing out is a fundamental part of basketball, and it is essential to being a great rebounding team. The Cavs, who are a mediocre rebounding team at the moment, must be aggressive on the defensive glass in order to rattle off like they need to after a dismal 3-5 start. However, this is just an internal problem; they have the skill and athletism to become a great rebounding team.

As a team, they are led by Kevin Love, who averages 10.8 rebounds per game. As for the others, they brought in Jae Crowder, who was acquired from Boston via the Kyrie Irving trade. He averaged 5.8 rebounds last season but is at just 3.8 per game this season. Along with Crowder, they have LeBron James who has always been a fantastic rebounding guard.

Those two plus Love and many other bigs should be able to anchor down more than 76.7% of the shots that their opponents put up. As a whole, the Cavs secure 41.7 boards per game which rank 23rd in the NBA. The Cavaliers have been outrebounded by more than 10 boards in three of their thirteen games, including one game where they were just obliterated on the glass.

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The Cavaliers, who arguably outplayed the Houston Rockets in their first battle against one of the top Western Conference teams, could attribute the loss to horrific team rebounding. The Cavaliers pulled down 26 rebounds which are already far below their season average, but on top of that, they allowed the Rockets to dominate them, grabbing 45 rebounds. Of those 45, 17 were offensive. Those offensive rebounds were a significant reason why the Rockets were about to hoist up 46 three-point attempts.

It’s clear why the Cavs struggle to rebound. They do not box out. Most of the time, the Cavaliers are eaten alive by a great offensive rebounder because they wait for the ball.

Not all but a decent amount of the Cavaliers rebounds look like this.

Love ends up securing the board, but he does so lackadaisically. If even one of the Mavs came soaring for that board, it wouldn’t have been too difficult for them to sneak by Love.

When looking through several other rebounds from the Cavs recent games, the only one where I noticed a Cavalier actually attempting to box out was this one. Iman Shumpert boxed out Clint Capela in this play, or Capela would have grabbed yet another offensive rebound in a game where every shot mattered.

Capela absolutely killed the Cavaliers when Cleveland traveled to Houston. Almost half of Capela’s boards came on the offensive glass, 6 out of 13 to be exact. Unlucky bounces do happen, and Capela might have gotten some favorable rolls, but the Cavs allow their opponents to grab 23.3% of the rebounds after their shots so Capela dominating the boards does not come as a surprise to anyone especially those that watched the primetime game.

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At some point, the Cavaliers must stop standing around and must start attacking their opponent on the glass. Rebounding is a key point in the game, and the Cavaliers might struggle in that area until Tristan Thompson returns.