The Cleveland Cavaliers cannot worry about declining transition efficiency

The Cleveland Cavaliers are going to live and die by running the pace up this season, and they can’t allow a potential decline in transition efficiency to deter them from sticking to pushing it.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are not going to walk the ball up the floor this year. Head coach Tyronn Lue has constantly preached that the team is going to push the pace more and more in 2018-19, and this team has the horses for it.

The Cavaliers are going to feature more players attacking off the dribble this year, and that’s a plus as the squad is shifting its focus more to player development. That doesn’t mean the team is not going to try to make the postseason, but it does mean the young pieces will need to be more aggressive getting the ball down the floor in a hurry.

At the Cavaliers’ annual Wine and Gold scrimmage at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton on Sunday, that pushing pace narrative was on display to the T, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.

With Rodney Hood, Cedi Osman and Larry Nance Jr. having much bigger roles in the offense, the team is better off getting rebounds and immediately going, as we’ve often said here at KJG. If players such as rookie Collin Sexton (who’s lightning fast even with the ball) make mistakes, that’s okay.

Nance, maybe more than anybody, is excited about running with Sexton, as prior co-expert Quenton Albertie demonstrated recently.

Young players are best-suited in the long-term when they are thrown into situations where they need to make quick decisions.

There will be turnovers from Sexton and others, and I’m not sure Kyle Korver getting the ball from rebounds and pushing is a tremendous idea, but in a season where the Cavaliers will be searching for answers offensively, trying to get as many possessions (and layups and corner three-pointers) as possible is a sound move by Lue.

The Cavaliers will have athletic bench contributors such as Jordan Clarkson, David Nwaba, Tristan Thompson, and at times Sam Dekker, (backing up Kevin Love), Ante Zizic and Billy Preston as cutters to the rim in transition. Heck, even Kobi Simmons had a jam from Sexton on the break in the Cavs’ scrimmage.

That should space the floor just enough for J.R. Smith, Korver, Love, George Hill and occasionally Channing Frye to get open shots as trailers with the defense collapsed from Osman and others’ drives.

It’d be unrealistic for the Cavaliers to have the same efficiency as they had last season with LeBron James as a fastbreak locomotive, as they finished in the 79th percentile among teams, per Synergy Sports. However, with a team that is going younger (and not playing players such as Jose Calderon big minutes), pushing the pace is the right move.

It enables Osman and Sexton to take advantage of their speed in unsettled situations more, especially after what should be more forced opponent turnovers this year, which is the key to this team getting as many wins as they can, outside of Love’s effectiveness as a primary option in settled offense.