Cleveland Cavaliers: Larry Drew is an improvement on Tyronn Lue
By Chris Parker
Lineups
There’s a similar, hard-to-isolate sense that Drew has a much better idea of how to fashion substitution patterns and is more capable of freelancing should the circumstance dictate. Last season he made better use of the trade-deadline arrivals than Lue did, and he continues to field less confounding lineups.
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From my perspective, Drew’s willingness to try Osman at the 4 is a big plus. It was dictated somewhat by injuries to Kevin Love and Sam Dekker, but it was his impulse ahead of the twin low-rises of Tristan Thompson and Larry Nance Jr.
Playing Osman at power forward came in conjunction with the decision to free David Nwaba, which quickly paid dividends. Drew returned the favor graciously, sticking with Nwaba even on nights when his shot struggled. Drew seems to appreciate defense much more than Lue, which presumably influenced the Nwaba move. In total it allowed the Cavaliers to field a longer, switchier, more athletic defensive lineup on the floor.
Finally, he made a solid commitment to Collin Sexton, which has also more than repaid that faith. Of course, this was also dictated by an injury, and the front office, but Drew hasn’t required a lot of prodding. When he took over, Sexton had still to hit his first three-point shot and was averaging 11.2 points a game. Since then Sexton’s averaging five points more (16.2) and a three-pointer every game in about seven more minutes a night, per NBA.com.
As I noted in an earlier column, Larry Drew is a former point guard and did a good job of bringing along Jeff Teague in his early career while coaching Atlanta. He seems to have done a good job of instilling the confidence in Sexton for him to play his own game. You may not like the number of long two-point jump shots Sexton has taken, but maybe Drew is right to unleash him first, then worry about the bonsai tree-style aspect of pruning and grooming him into an efficient NBA star.