A lower assist rate is nothing to worry about for the Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers have LeBron James, and that makes the other weapons around him much lethal. His presence on the floor is the reason their assist percentage is not the be-all and end-all statistic.

LeBron James is going to have the ball in his hands often and that’s not a terrible thing.

His combination of herculean strength, unprecedented athleticism and otherworldly basketball intelligence make defending him a sick form of cruel and unusual punishment for opponents. I’m going to lay off on the numbers he’s posted recently here, and break down how James’ wizardry on the hardwood is the key reason that Cleveland doesn’t need a number of high-assist percentage players around number 23 for them to be one of the most diverse offenses in the Association (even when not fully healthy).

Before the trade deadline, the Cavaliers did not have many players who were able to create for others, and score off-the-bounce themselves to counter how defenses were playing them. Cleveland was reliant on James and Dwyane Wade (who was a surprising efficient playmaker for a guy likely on his last ride) to make things happen for the other role pieces, such as Jae Crowder, Channing Frye, Tristan Thompson and Kyle Korver.

The results were spotty in that pre-deadline offense, as the Cavs’ season high for assist percentage rose to 63.6 percent in December, and then went down slightly to 60.0 percent in January, per nba.com. In those months, Cleveland was inconsistent, as they combined to go 15-13 in those two months, per nba.com. That also featured Cleveland’s having its worst shooting stretch, with a below average effective field goal percentage of 51.6. To contextualize, that would have tied with the tanking Dallas Mavericks at 17th in the league this season (as of March 23), which is far from outstanding.

What’s the takeaway from that?

Not all passes are created equal and just passing the ball to pass it, and not moving it around the horn productively, doesn’t make an opponent’s defensive job harder. Now, I’m not someone who believes isolation basketball is making a comeback (other than the Houston Rockets, it’s not),but when a team has LeBron, to go along with Jordan Clarkson and J.R. Smith for the second unit, that’s an okay security blanket at times.

Cleveland will have the most success in the postseason when they are combining ball movement, player movement, and some isolation mixed in throughout the course of highly-contested games. When the Cavs have hit their ruts this season, they have not been moving productively, and have not been making winning passes. Recently, they’ve displayed some better signs with their passing, and action on and off-ball.

Before the deadline, Cleveland was forced into taking inefficient shots that were contested pull-ups from Wade, Derrick Rose, and at times Thomas. The flow of the offense took a nose dive several times in-game, and the Cavs had too many players glued to the corners who were not hitting (such as Crowder and Smith), and ball-screens were often telegraphed, causing turnovers and errant shots.

Thomas’ usage and inefficiency did not allow Kevin Love to get to his spots, and that team was overly reliant on bench explosions from Frye and Korver, and the cutting of Jeff Green into the lane. It’s not surprising that Thomas’ two

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man lineups with Crowder and James have the two worst plus-minus’ on the Cavaliers this year, per nba.com.

Now, things are much, much different, even since the beginning of the post-deadline experience. Roles are more defined now around James, and with Love now back and mixed in with Clarkson’s penetration and mid-range accuracy, Green’s straight-line drives, and James’ vision, the diversity of Cleveland’s offense is just beginning to show. The last two games against fellow Eastern Conference playoff teams are a clear example of that.

In these contests, James has been the guy pulling most of the strings, as he had a usage rate of 41.3 and an assist rate of 50.4 percent, per Basketball Reference. In the comeback against the Toronto Raptors, James followed that up with a ridiculous assist rate of 61.6 percent, and he was shredding Toronto in taking advantage of well-timed cuts and off-ball screens near the baseline and above the break.

The guard contributions have been more predicated on knocking down three-point looks from a combination of spot-ups from penetration, buckets off isolations, and mixed in drives from spacing created with Love at the 5 drawing out shot blockers from the paint. So to summarize, with LeBron and Love on the floor, their attention alone is basically an assist by itself. The other side effect of their two-man game is the gravity of Korver, as KJG’s Jackson Flickinger pointed out, out on the floor for players such as Nance near the rim for rolling layups or lob jams.

ESPN’s Zach Lowe recently broke down just how difficult it is for teams to guard Cleveland when Love is at the 5 position, even with James being the only high-assist total player they have on the perimeter.

"“With Kevin Love back, the Cleveland Cavaliers can play more with LeBron James and four shooters. There is no defense for that. The Cavs don’t have to run anything as complicated as a ball screen to get a dunk or an open 3-pointer.”"

He also acknowledged how Korver and Love’s off-ball screen tandem, paired with the vision of James is so hard to defend. As Lowe illustrated, this play against the Raptors, said it all in that regard.

In conclusion, Lowe emphasized the only way they (the Cavs) can be stopped with Love at the 5 is offense being defense.

"“The only way to beat them is to outscore them. Only one team — last season’s Warriors — has managed that in the playoffs.”"

I would not imagine opponents would love playing against Love at the 4 and Nance at the 5 as a screener, either. The key to all of these actions is that player movement, and the IQ of James to know what all 10 players are doing makes the Cavaliers so difficult to beat four times in a week. If the Cavaliers had more ball-dominant players (as was the case earlier this season), these off-ball actions would not be as prevalent, and there would be harder decisions for players to make, leading to bad shots and turnovers.

So, yes, the Cavs’ assist rate in the last 15 games being in bottom ten of the league is misleading. The way their rotation is shaking out, it is more off-ball and James driven, which is perfectly fine. In the playoffs the last few seasons, Kyrie Irving and James were occasionally playing too much one-on-one, and the supporting cast would be standing around without much off-ball action.

This lower assist-rated squad is anything but stagnant, on the other hand.

What it all boils down to this postseason, is LeBron is better at decision-making than other people, and Cleveland’s shooting will be there more often than not. Hence, the 17 assist games.