The Cleveland Cavaliers must have a higher frequency of pull-up 3’s

The Cleveland Cavaliers shouldn’t just settle for a ton more pull-up three-point shots, but there will need to be a higher frequency of them to open up more ball and man movement.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been one of the best three-point shooting teams the last four seasons. It’s hard to project how they’ll end up this year in that area, though, with the loss of LeBron James. With James’ passing, the Cavaliers didn’t need to take as many pull-ups; that won’t be the case as much now.

No player in the game gets more open triples for his teammates.

Nonetheless, the Cavs have started their post-James adjustment (as they debuted against the Boston Celtics Tuesday night) by pushing the pace as often as possible, and there will be more shots taken earlier in the shot clock. Those will probably come via drives or spot-ups in the corner.

In the halfcourt offense, though, there won’t be wide-open three-point shots as frequently. In a recent piece by NBA.com’s John Schuhmann, he highlighted just how many threes (with many of those being of the wide-open variety) James created for teammates and himself over the last four seasons.

"“Over the last four years, the Cavs were built around the unique talents of LeBron James, who made or assisted on 1,621 (43 percent) of the Cavs’ 3,754 3-pointers over the four seasons (59 percent of the 3-pointers the team made with him on the floor). James’ teams have now ranked in the top six in offensive efficiency for 10 straight seasons.”"

On the plus side, Cleveland should have more players able to create three-point looks for themselves without James reigning them in.

Cedi Osman and Rodney Hood will have the green light in pick-and-roll and isolation, and at times, Jordan Clarkson, George Hill and even Kevin Love will get to stake their pull-up claim for Cleveland. One could theoretically put Collin Sexton in there, too, but that seems a bit premature for the rook.

Cleveland could get efficient three-point shooting from Sexton if he’s able to be in catch-and-shoot situations more. He didn’t show off-ball efficiency at Alabama, but that was probably because he simply wasn’t used to it; he had to create so much of their offense by himself.

Moreover, head coach Tyronn Lue has to know that Cleveland does still need to shoot 28 or so three-point shots per game.

This is the NBA in 2018 (and soon to be 2019), and Cleveland needs to provide spacing for its cutting-reliant players in Tristan Thompson, Larry Nance Jr., David Nwaba and occasionally Sam Dekker.

If the Cavs only shoot 20 threes like they did against Boston in their first preseason game, they simply won’t score enough. Granted, with the regular rotation players logging normal minutes, they will shoot more than that.

The point is, in order to maximize the on-ball creation of Osman and Hood especially, they’ll need to have pull-up three-point volume. If those players take those shots (in PnR situations in particular), it will make defenses over-commit to them more often and Cleveland will have layers to their halfcourt offense.

Cleveland’s increased ball and man movement will be then more effective playing off that in games. The Cavaliers took 8.4 pull-up 3-pointers per game last season, which was the ninth-highest volume in the league, per Second Spectrum.

Now, I’m not saying I want Jordan Clarkson to come in the game and just gun contested 30-footers, but he’ll need to take some at times, because players shooting those shots will cause defenses to relax.

That will enable off-ball actions between Thompson and Nance (as screeners) to get Kyle Korver, J.R. Smith, Hill, Love and Channing Frye open, which will be more effective for catch-and-shoot perimeter looks. Cleveland’s number of pull-up 3’s may not go up much, but either way, there will need to be a higher frequency by necessity.

Nobody on Cleveland’s roster is going to collapse the opposing defense and create as many wide-open catch-and-shoot perimeter looks like James did. However, if Hood and Osman among others take those shots, the driving lanes will open up, and those spot-up looks will become more open.

The Cavaliers halfcourt offense is going to feature more movement, which is great, but it can’t consist of players simply getting more steps in. Moving with a purpose is the whole point, and that will be maximized as a counter to the pull-up perimeter game.

If the Cavs are patient enough, those pull-up triples will open up the lob passes for the rollers and back-door cuts from Korver and Nwaba from defenses ball-watching.

Pull-up mid-range shots will come from Sexton and Clarkson predominantly, which is okay occasionally, but those often contested shots won’t win games in the long run. Those players won’t have the size advantage.

So pull up and show out from distance in the halfcourt, (mostly) Love, Osman and Hood. That’ll get your other teammates going as the season progresses, and the Cavs need that from deep.