It Is What It Is: LeBron Needs To Play Big Minutes For The Cavaliers
By Dan Gilinsky
As long as the Earth is round, LeBron James will be playing big minutes for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers are amidst their annual “Return” pre-All-Star break funk. The Wine-and-Golders have dropped five of their last seven, and are fresh off a 102-88 wire-to-wire beatdown handed to them by the East-leading Boston Celtics. The Cavs looked checked out in that one after halftime, and that game just wasn’t their night. Maybe Kyrie Irving’s flat Earth shoes were the reason for LeBron and company to be under-inspired. Oh well. On to the next one.
The bottom line is this: 23 is going to be Cleveland’s most important player every single night. The Cavs go as Bron goes, for better or worse. He’s right near the top of the NBA in total minutes played this season (per Basketball Reference), and he’ll remain near there all year long.
Despite the Cavs having one of the best benches in the Association, and Isaiah Thomas working his back, Mr. James is still going to control whether or not Cleveland wins or loses. I can live with that, and I’m sure his teammates can, too. It’s proven to be a pretty effective formula.
He currently leads the league in total field goals made, and is second in total assists, per Basketball Reference. His percentages have dipped a bit in the Cavs recent slide, but he’s still the bread and butter of this Cleveland offense. James makes life so much easier for everybody from Kevin Love, Kyle Korver, Jeff Green, to Jose Calderon and the whole way down to Cedi Osman.
It’s easy to see the payoff of James’ precision passing, really. Korver is having a heck of a season but that’s mostly due to LeBron getting him the ball in the precise place where he can quickly release his shots. Korver has made 2.5 catch-and-shoot attempts per game, and has a 69.4 percent effective field goal percentage on those plays, per nba.com.
Not that it’s surprising, but 96.9 percent of Korver’s made field goals have been assisted. In Love’s case, that’d be a considerable 75.3 percent. They can thank the King for most of that efficiency, especially Love. James has assisted on 97 of Love’s made field goals. The next-closest player in terms of assisting him is J.R. Smith, who has only done so 27 times, per nba.com. Nobody can replace James’ impact, both as an all-around scorer and a facilitator.
With James off the floor, the Cavs are shooting their lowest percentage from three, per nba.com. Considering the Cavs are second in made three-pointers per game, that’s a telling statistic. The Cavs’ ball movement is definitely not bad without James but there are not nearly as many open looks for the role players and the primary motive is to get Green and others getting to the free throw line.
Matchups from scrambling defense with the pick-and-roll is favorable at times but against more multi-dimensional defenses like the Celtics, who can switch everything, the easy opportunities aren’t there as often without James on the floor.
Dwyane Wade and IT are very good secondary playmakers, but they cannot be asked to handle that sort of load all the time like James can. It’s easy to question why James plays so many minutes, but the fact still remains. Without his presence on the floor, the Cavs do not strike close to as much fear in all NBA teams.
I still believe the Cavs do need to rest James for four or five regular games, but when he is slated to play, he needs to be playing big minutes. He’s arguably the best conditioned athlete in the history of the NBA, so he can handle it.
In the playoffs, what he brings to the table is simply unmatched with all he does for his teammates. Love, Korver and now IT have it so much easier with Bron on the floor. Don’t put this bad stretch of games on James
because he’s the main reason for them being where want to be come June. He has to play his usual minutes for them to be successful.
So shush, “Minute Police.” 23 will be fine.