Cleveland Cavaliers: Poor preseason, unresolved issues hint at long year
By Chris Parker
Interior Defense
In the preseason the Cavaliers have already shown signs of having trouble stopping teams in the paint. They allowed an average of 51.0 points in the paint in their four games – only the Hawks (51.2), Wolves (52.4) and New Orleans Pelicans (65.2) were worse. Teams shot 68.5 percent inside of 5 feet (only the Knicks were worse) and only seven teams allowed more such shots, according to NBA.com.
This in some respects goes back to the decision the team made to chase the NBA trend and go smaller. This is perfectly sensible to compete with the Golden State Warriors in their small-ball approach with lots of three-point shooting. The presumption, by and large, is that you can make enough back with your extraordinary three-point shooting to counteract the typically porous interior defense that’s typically been provided by face-up/perimeter-oriented centers.
It’s a bet the Warriors win in spades, but there remain serious questions about whether the Cavaliers questionable offensive efficiency will ever counteract their filo dough interior. Last year, the Cavaliers had some of the worst interior defenders in the league by defensive field goal percentage within six feet.
Last year there were 10 players in the entire league with at least 3.7 shots defended within 6 feet per game who actually improved an offensive player’s chance of making the shot, per NBA.com. Guys like Tobias Harris (+1.8 percent), Zach Randolph (+6.2) and Nikola Jokic (+4.3) were among those. The Cavaliers’ three interior defenders all made the list: Kevin Love (+1.6), Larry Nance Jr. (+3.3) and Tristan Thompson (+4.3).
In summation, not only were the Cavaliers bad last year, they haven’t changed their personnel nor given any indication in the preseason that they’ve improved.
The next issue that looms large is transition defense.