For the last three seasons and for the majority of this season, the Cleveland Cavaliers have had a main third scoring threat. Who is it now?
The Cleveland Cavaliers fanbase has been spoiled for the last three seasons. They’ve had the privilege of seeing three stars play alongside several former stars. While the entirety of the last few seasons hasn’t necessarily gone as planned, they’ve always had a third star to rely upon if the one not named LeBron James is struggling.
However, we are now at a point in which that third scorer is relatively unknown. Could that be hurting the Cavs?
Obviously, LeBron James is still the leader of this team. He’s averaging over 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 9 assists over his last fifteen games, and when many thought James couldn’t reach a new level in his 15th season, he has continued to prove even me wrong with his stellar play.
Secondly, the Cavs recently got back all-star forward Kevin Love. Love, who was dealing with an injured hand, played as if he never left in his first game back. Against the Bucks, Love scored 18 points and drilled four triples. Having Love back is a sigh of relief for James, but that third scoring option will still be critical as we move into the postseason in just a few weeks.
That said, who should get the title as the Cavs third scoring option? Is it George Hill, Rodney Hood, Larry Nance Jr. or Jordan Clarkson? The first way to decipher this group is to split them up into who creates their shot and who needs someone to create their shot.
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As for Nance, he’s out first. Nance has over 70% of his field goals assisted on. The other three, all guards, are hovering at or under 50%. However, due to Hill’s lacking of scoring and offensive efficiency, he’s also kicked out of the running.
While this isn’t a real title, the implications can run much further than many think. Since it boils down to Hood and Clarkson, the real question won’t be who gets the title as the third go-to scorer, but who will Lue trust to play late in games? Who will he trust to get the job done without the other stars on the court?
Both of those players answer one of the two questions. It seems of the two, Hood has earned the most trust with coach Tyronn Lue. When healthy, Hood is supposed to take over the starting shooting guard position. However, Hood is scoring less than 10 points per game for the Cleveland Cavaliers after scoring 16.8 per game through 39 games Utah.
Hood has failed to get it going in Cleveland, and that’s the reason he can’t be trusted as a go-to scorer.
Clarkson, who captains the second unit, is the much better volume scorer. He’s shooting 47.9% from the field, but as we’ve seen, although a player can put up almost 15 points a night doesn’t mean he’s trusted in the games final minutes.
As we saw last night, in what was arguably the Cavs biggest game since bringing in their four trade deadline day additions, Clarkson doesn’t see time in the late, clutch minutes of important games.
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If we’re talking about a go-to scorer for Cleveland, it’s Clarkson, and I’d expect to see him taking more and more shots for Cleveland. However, it’s Hood who will be given the late-game minutes.
If you want to hear about it, we argued the Hood or Clarkson situation in one of our King James Gossip episodes!