Cleveland Cavaliers: 2 ways the defense can be much better this season

Getting better in the restricted area

The Cavaliers are not going to get better in the restricted overnight. They don’t project to have elite rim-protection with Kevin Love, Larry Nance Jr., Tristan Thompson, Ante Zizic or Billy Preston likely logging significant minutes as the true bigs in the rotation. Veteran Channing Frye is not a shot blocker, either.

With better perimeter defense in the case with youngsters such as Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman and David Nwaba going against primary and secondary ball-handlers on a regular basis, though, there should less penetration into the teeth of the Cleveland defense. In 2017-18, the Cavs struggled mightily at the point of attack with players such as Jose Calderon (who played with really good effort, but was athletically limited), Isaiah Thomas (who is 5-foot-9), and J.R. Smith (who was inconsistent at best) as primary defenders on a regular basis.

Cleveland was forced to help too often, and that led to opponents either slipping screens easily for layups or the Cavs were giving up dunks often after driving blow-bys. Jordan Clarkson (who I’ll give some benefit of the doubt as a mid-season trade addition) had his struggles containing primary ball-handlers, too, for example. Only four NBA teams allowed more made field goals per game in the restricted area and only six teams allowed a higher efficiency in that range last season, per NBA.com.

With Sexton, Osman and Nwaba playing more against primary or oft-used secondary ball-handlers out on the perimeter, the Cavs should allow considerably less penetration than they did last year. As we’ve touched on here at KJG, that will help players such as George Hill, Kyle Korver, Smith and Rodney Hood to stick to spot-up shooters easier, which should vastly improve Cleveland’s defense against three-point shooters. They gave up far too many open three-point shots, and that was primarily because opponents weren’t deterred from driving into the paint (and when the help came, it led to easy shots after slow rotations).

Thompson, Nance, Zizic and Preston would have more time to come and help on drivers or against switchout post mismatches, too, which would create much more help and weak-side shot block chances. In addition, Love should have more time to draw charges.

Preventing easy opportunities for opponents in transition is the second key area of improvement for Cleveland.