Cleveland Cavaliers: More offensive movement is a no-brainer

The Cleveland Cavaliers know that they aren’t as talented, but featuring more ball and man movement should help them manufacture offense.

Everybody knows the Cleveland Cavaliers don’t have LeBron James anymore. A positive from James’ departure to the Los Angeles Lakers, though, is an uptick in ball and man movement. The Cavaliers will have more of a balanced playmaking load in 2018-19, which will increase their passing totals.

In 2017-18, with James handling the ball the vast majority of possessions, Cleveland averaged only 270.1 passes made per game, per Second Spectrum. Only the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder averaged less. That won’t be the case this season.

Based on the way Cleveland’s been emphasizing an unselfish approach offensively, it will be interesting to see that come to fruition, starting in the preseason. The Cavaliers will have an offense that is predicated on getting the ball down the floor in a hurry, as we’ve harped on here at KJG.

Here’s Channing Frye’s take on that change to the offense in 2018-19, per the Cavs’ Official Twitter.

The Cavaliers won’t have to get the ball to James on nearly every possession, and their feature-everybody approach should foster a diverse set of playtypes, both in transition and in halfcourt situations. According to Larry Nance Jr., everybody will get their opportunities in Cleveland’s offense, per Cavs’ Twitter.

There should be more cutting by the perimeter players (namely Rodney Hood, Cedi Osman, George Hill, David Nwaba and Collin Sexton) into the paint initiated by Kevin Love and Nance mid-post touches, and that will open up the corner three-point looks for Kyle Korver and J.R. Smith.

Look for Hood-Osman, Love-Thompson/Nance, and Korver-Nwaba off-ball screening pairings to be featured early and often throughout the upcoming season. Without the passing accuracy and vision of James, the Cavs will need more of a conscious effort to get as many possessions as they can.

When the quick looks are not there, the Cavaliers can still use ball reversals to get good looks, and make opposing defenders work, too.

Cleveland will probably feature more players looking to score in pick-and-roll situations this year, but there will still be a fair share of lob passes to Tristan Thompson, Nance and occasionally Ante Zizic from Hill, Osman and Sexton. Sam Dekker is a capable cutter as well, and he’ll fit in at times as a player with above-the-rim ability on the break, along with two-way player Billy Preston.

Moreover, it’s not as if Cleveland won’t ever be playing isolation basketball. Every team does have to at times to score, and Hood, Osman and Sexton will have to do that some.

The issue with that is it’s not as sustainable without James, and it’s much more physically-taxing to have to rely on iso ball for long stretches. The Cavaliers had the third-highest isolation frequency in the league last season, and they placed in the 72nd percentile, per Synergy. This year is a much different story.

No Cavaliers, especially not Love, have the superhero size-strength-speed combination LeBron has, so moving the ball through the air rather than pounding it on the hardwood will be their bedrock in the near future. That’s common sense.