Cleveland Cavaliers: Larry Drew is an improvement on Tyronn Lue

Still Offensive Offense

On the offensive side the positives are less readily apparent. Their offensive rating is only marginally better. The Cavaliers still have one of the lowest shooting percentages at the rim (56 percent), they are actually passing less than before, running less screens and creating significantly less assist opportunities, even beyond the decline you’d expect from playing at a four-possession slower pace than under Lue.

The team’s entire offensive improvement is linked to going from the 26th best three-point shooting team (31.6 percent) under Lue to the 5th-best from beyond the arc under Drew (37.8 percent). Given the aforementioned variability in three-point shooting percentages, just how sustainable is their current offensive success?

The Cavaliers are taking four less tightly contested shots and replacing half of them with wide open ones, so that’s positive, and I welcome the greater percentage of threes, but the reduced passing and screens make me wonder how long they can maintain that strong shooting from behind the arc. Especially as the Cavaliers trade off Kyle Korver and presumably soon, George Hill.

Drew’s performance hasn’t been one that would make you cancel coaching interviews, but it’s easily surpassed the low bar Lue set, and continues to surprise on defense, while the team is still offering a substantial level of sub-standard effort. If Drew could get more guys on the floor that care and will hustle (maybe you take a step-back Rodney Hood?), they seem capable of still greater improvement on defense.

Meanwhile the offense needs to do more to support what looks like it might be a statistical anomaly (is this really a good three-point shooting team is it just a small sample size with Drew’s 16 games?) or surrender to the significant downside risk of lower offensive efficiency (see also, Nance and Thompson post-ups).