How the Cleveland Cavaliers can replace the postseason production of Kyrie Irving

The Cleveland Cavaliers face a tall task in replacing the postseason production of the fearless Kyrie Irving.

Speaking to reporters following Friday’s practice, Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love said that the most difficult part of the upcoming postseason run will be the loss of Kyrie Irving, who was traded to the Boston Celtics in the offseason.

"“Losing Ky’…  a number of us are going to have to pick it up offensively whether it be ‘Bron or myself. Everybody… everybody really.”"

The Boston Celtics, who lost Irving to season-ending knee surgery, surely sympathize with the Cavaliers. They played their last 15 games of the regular season without Irving, going 9-6 in that time but losing four out of their last six games to close out the season.

The difference between the Celtics and the Cavaliers, however, is that they have offensive-minded depth at point guard in Terry Rozier, Shane Larkin and Jonathan Gibson.

The Cavaliers initially attempted to do the same at the start of the season, replacing Irving’s output with former Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas, Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade — players whose offense is more reputable than their defense.

However, at the trade deadline, they traded each of those players away. George Hill, Jose Calderon and Cedi Osman now appear to be their point guard depth, with Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue preferring that Jordan Clarkson — once viewed as the team’s backup point guard — plays off-ball.

Per cleveland.com‘s Joe Vardon:

"“We need Jordan to score the basketball, so we need someone to run the plays to get him the ball on the side we want to get him to, and then run pick and roll, or whatever we want to run for him,” Lue said. “He plays a lot better when he has a point guard beside him.”"

Hill and Osman — who is a point-forward archetype rather than a true point guard — are two defensive-minded players. Calderon is a low-volume, high-efficiency floor general.

None are equipped to single-handedly replace Irving’s production on offense.

Not just the 25.5 points per game (on 47.2 percent shooting from the field and 40.6 percent shooting from three) that Irving averaged in his final two postseasons with the Cavaliers but the efficiency in isolation, the attention he drew with breath-taking displays of ball-handling and circus shots around the rim.

His shot-making and shot-creating weren’t just at an elite level but an all-time great level.

Honestly, even if you combined Hill, Calderon and Osman’s abilities, you still wouldn’t get a player who could threaten a defense like Irving could. No disrespect to any of the current Cavs. It’s not often you find a scorer — nay, a playmaker — as talented as Irving.

Seriously… add up their averages for the Cavaliers this season. 18.8 points per game, five point less than what Irving’s averaged in the postseason these last two seasons.

The Cavs current stable of point guards specialize in outside shooting (each is shooting above 36.0 percent from three this season), heady playmaking (no player averages above 1.2 turnovers per game) and have ability to affect the game beyond the box score are going to be beneficial for the Cavs. Nonetheless, outside of Hill (who averaged 16.9 points per game last season), no player in this group can be relied on as a volume scorer in any way.

As for Hill, who averaged 13.4 points per game between the 2012-2013 and 2016-2017 seasons, his aggressiveness as a player seems to be tied into whether or not he’s sharing the floor with not just another point guard but a player who isn’t looking to score.

Interestingly enough, in Hill’s five games scoring at least 15 points for the Cavs, either Calderon (twice) or Osman (three times) was in the starting lineup.

Hill will seemingly be aggressive if he’s placed in a position to be. It’s just that for the Cavs that’s not his role. Especially after seeing how The IT Experiment worked out.

That said, let’s circle back to when the Cavaliers did have a player who, in theory, was capable of replacing Irving’s output though.

Thomas, while a superb offensive player when fully healthy (he averaged 22.2 points per game between the 2013-2014 and 2016-2017 season), was playing at three-quarters strength and rusty after missing seven months while rehabilitating a torn labrum in his hip.

Yet, pressing for a lucrative new contract in his upcoming free agency and seeking to show his detractors that he hadn’t lost “it,” he tried to barge to the top of the Cavs pecking order with brash shot-selection. As a result of these factors, he shot just 36.1 percent from the field and 25.3 percent from three-point range while taking 12.9 field goal attempts per game, more than every Cav except the King.

Love’s field goal attempts were drastically affected, as he took just 8.5 field goal attempts per game in the final six games he played before Thomas was traded and he fractured his hand, making (not including the game in which he broke his hand, as he left with just 4 minutes played).  He took 13.9 field goal attempts per game prior to Thomas’ Cavs debut.

With that said, in terms of Love’s position that the team will miss Irving (a player that pushed him to third in the pecking order), he’s likely speaking more to not having a player who could pressure an opposing team’s defense like Irving rather than their scoring output without him.

After all, they did average more points per game this season (110.9) than they did last season (110.3).

Unlike Hill, Irving’s scoring abilities made the duo of he and James one of the most dangerous duos of all-time. To that point, having a player whose game is the polar opposite of James’ is also missing.

The lightning to the thunder. The jump shooter to the slasher. The effortless finesse to the brute force.

Outside of James, the Cleveland Cavaliers best perimeter playmakers — players who can create their own shot and consistently get theirs in isolation — seem to be Clarkson and Rodney Hood. In a lot of ways, and not just by combining their scoring averages for the Cavaliers this season (23.4 points per game), if you were to combine the playmaking abilities of these two you’d get the type of production you’d need in replacing the void left by Irving.

Clarkson averaged 12.6 points per game and Hood averaged 10.8 points per game for the Cavaliers, which represent the third-highest and fourth-highest scoring averages on the team respectively.

Clarkson averages 20.1 points per 36 minutes, third-highest on the team. Hood averaged 15.4 points per 36 minutes, tied with Kyle Korver for the seventh-highest amount on the team.

Given that Clarkson shot 45.6 percent from the field (40.7 percent from three) and Hood shot 44.2 percent from the field (35.2 percent from three), as you might have guessed from these scoring averages the more high-octane scorer is Clarkson.

Clarkson, is a player who plays fast, seeking to get into the lane and finish around the rim. If he can’t get all the way to it, he’s comfortable pulling up from the midrange (66.2 percent shooting on shots 10-16 feet away from the rim for Cleveland). With the Cavs, he’s also turned into something of a knockdown shooter from deep after placing more emphasis on his catch-and-shoot threes than pull-up opportunities.

However, while he’s not necessarily prone to tunnel vision, he plays recklessly and doesn’t seem to have patience required to thrive in isolation. As a result, he’s also scoring just 0.66 points in isolation for the Cavs on 36.5 percent shooting from the field (17th percentile). However, Clarkson has been a high-end playmaker in the pick-and-roll, using his burst, shot-making ability and solid court vision to score 0.95 points per possession as a pick-and-roll ball-handler on 44.2 percent shooting from the field (83rd percentile).

Hood plays a more methodical style though, like Clarkson, he’s quick to get up the floor and to the rim on the break. You can find him trying to break down his defender off-the-dribble and though his ball-handling package is basic and his burst and fluidity when moving laterally doesn’t catch defenders off-balance, he slowly works his way towards the rim by feeling out gaps in the defense.

There, he’ll attempt to use his 6-foot-8, 206 pound frame and back down his man while using shoulder feints to create space for a lefty shot. If Hood wasn’t so left-hand dominant, it would be easy to see him using this to score in the lane consistently. Thankfully, he’s got a nice touch.

Speaking of which, Hood is also comfortable pulling up from the midrange (45.9 percent shooting from 10-16 feet).

Unlike Clarkson, Hood seems to have an acute understanding of how to make the right play. This certainly seems to aid his play as he scores 0.92 points per possession as a pick-and-roll ball-handler on 41.9 percent shooting from the field (79th percentile) and 1.20 points per possession in isolation on 53.3 percent shooting from the field (95th percentile).

In sum, the Cleveland Cavaliers best chance of replacing Irving will be through the combined efforts of Clarkson, Hood and, in some instances, Hill.

Any two of these players can combine for twenty points on any given night and allowing them to be aggressive will likely result in the Cavs seeing three players who are capable of stellar perimeter play.

Interestingly enough, no player on the Cavs provides a polar opposite to James thanks to Clarkson’s affinity for slashing, Hood’s preference of running the pick-and-roll and Hill’s inclination to make the right play rather than force a play. Still, each of these players can pressure the defense in their own right.

The Cleveland Cavaliers just need to establish a system and roles for them to thrive.

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*All stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com and stats.nba.com