Cleveland Cavaliers: The real Big Three this season may shock you

Many have said the Cleveland Cavaliers are old and can’t play defense.

Both statements are true. The Cavs have the oldest team in the league and they are the worst statistical defensive team in the league. Both of these are undisputed. But the old guys aren’t necessarily the ones that are responsible for Cleveland Cavaliers’ poor defense.

The Cavs’ Big Three so far this year has been LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Kyle Korver. All three players are from the famed 2003 draft class and in their fifteenth year in the league.

James has had an outstanding year by any statistical numbers. He’s averaging 28.9 points, 8.6 assists and 7.8 rebounds a game.

The other two players don’t have traditional numbers that jump off the page. Wade is averaging a career-low 9.8 points per game and is a bench player for the first time this year. That’s much lower than the 23.1 points per game we’ve grown accustomed to from Wade.

Korver also isn’t putting up numbers that jump off the page. His 10.8 points is nothing to get too excited about.

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However, while Wade and Korver’s individual numbers are nothing to get excited about, the results are undeniable when those two share the court with James.

The Cavs play their best basketball when all three are on the floor. Cleveland has the best offensive rating, defensive rating, and net rating when all three are on the floor (for lineups that are on the floor for more than 60 minutes). They have produced an offensive rating of 127.1 and a defensive rating of 99.5. To put that in perspective, that defensive rating would rank fourth best among all team defenses in the league. As a result, the Cavs are outscoring opponents by 27.6 points per 100 possessions when James, Wade, and Korver share the floor.

This season hasn’t gone as planned for the Cavs with the injuries and early struggles. However, you can’t put any of that on these three. They have played great basketball together and have clearly been the Cavs’ Big Three so far.

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That said, it will interesting to see if Lue incorporates this three-man unit more often moving forward.