Cavs’ next HC should try to get offense going earlier in shot clock

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ next head coach should try to get the squad getting more activity going earlier in the shot clock, because it will create less of an individual burden on a possession-to-possession basis.

The Cleveland Cavaliers were up and down last season on the offensive end. Of course, as we’ve mentioned often, Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman, who project as key young playmakers for the future for Cleveland, came on well in the second half of last season, which was a positive, even as the losses continued to pile up for the team overall.

That being said, even though Sexton and Osman’s production was better on night-to-night after the turn of the year on a broad scale, what is crucial for players like them moving forward, along with a potential playmaker such as Cleveland’s first 2019 NBA draft pick (which will likely be very high based on the Cavs’ lottery odds, which we’ve mentioned) is the team getting into its offense earlier in the shot clock on a consistent basis.

The hope is, with players such as Matthew Dellavedova, Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love being healthier in the 2019-20 season, that Cleveland can have more activity in the earlier part of possessions to put more pressure on opposing defenses and get more open shots, while having to rely on late-clock isolations from players such as Jordan Clarkson and (who projects as a key trade chip due to his bench scoring and expiring deal after next season, per Spotrac, anyhow) and Sexton less.

While Clarkson, who had a career year last season with 16.8 points per game on 50.9% effective field goal shooting (per Basketball Reference), can get buckets in a variety of ways in late-clock situations, it’s still not something the Cleveland Cavaliers, who will likely be playing a high number of younger players big minutes in the coming years due to their reported player development focus (as general manager Koby Altman has alluded to often), should be as content with as they seemed to be last season.

Obviously, as we’ve often hit on, it wasn’t easy for former head coach Larry Drew, given the amount of injuries the team had last year, particularly to their bigs, to really have a high-assist rate team, so the Clarkson, Sexton and the too-often Osman isolations/overdribbling highly contested shots were a result far too much, and that was to be expected, especially with the playing of non-floor-spacers such as Marquese Chriss and David Nwaba.

The hope is, though, that a full offseason should help Sexton and Osman, who really had his first considerable NBA minutes-share last year with 32.2 minutes per game (per Basketball Reference), be more decisive earlier in the shot clock next year, because if that’s the case, other pieces that are solid cutters such as Nwaba (who seems likely to be back based on reports from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor), Larry Nance Jr., Love, Osman himself and occasionally Clarkson would get more opportunities to get easier baskets.

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Too often, players such as Nwaba, who did show a better ability to shoot three-pointers from the corner (36.1% per Basketball Reference) but still does not really space the floor, were just getting spot-up looks as their touches, and they were not much in the flow of the offense, taking them out of rhythm.

Hopefully with plenty of film room study with Dellavedova and a willing passer and solid pick-and-roll playmaker in Brandon Knight (though both are expiring next year, so they could potentially be traded but I wouldn’t think until next year) going into his second year with help Sexton.

Sexton and Osman did both show better decision-making and initiated ball-swings more post-All-Star break, but the offense on a possession-to-possession basis still did not have enough productivity in the earlier part of possessions, and Cleveland’s next head coach needs to change that in regards to Sexton, Osman and other playmakers in the coming years for Cleveland to have more efficient offense.

Last season, only the New York Knicks averaged less assists per game and had a lower true shooting percentage than the Cavaliers, and not surprisingly, Cleveland had the highest frequency of shots taken in the NBA in late-clock scenarios (with 7-4 seconds left) according to NBA.com, and with that late-clock burden, only four teams had a lower effective field hit rate.

Two of the reported candidates in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ head coaching search (which we’ve hit on extensively), those being Utah Jazz assistant coach Alex Jensen and Denver Nuggets assistant coach Jordi Fernandez, are involved with teams that feature much more off-ball movement and activity earlier in the shot clock.

Utah tied for sixth in the NBA in assists per game this year and Denver was second.

With both Jensen and Fernandez (who both previously were head coaches on the Cavs’ G-League affiliate, the Canton Charge) reportedly having extensive experience in player development, I would think they would help Cleveland’s offense get into its sets earlier in the coming years, which would allow the ball to get hopping more, which would get better looks from ball-reversals to shooters such as Love and Osman, and that would also enable Ante Zizic to be rewarded for getting early-clock post position, too, for example.

Despite the players harping on how they were going to play faster last offseason and even before Tyronn Lue was fired, Cleveland played slow.

They played at the second-slowest pace in the NBA last year (per NBA.com), and given that they’ll likely be playing younger guys a ton of minutes in the near future, it’s hard to see them playing at a really fast pace (though I’d like them to ramp it up some if possible), but if the offense can maximize the possessions they do have more by having more cutting activity and off-ball screens, regardless of players such as Dellavedova (as an initiator) and Love (an inside-out scorer) being in, then the Cavs won’t have as many stagnant possessions and players will be able to develop better.

Cleveland placing in the 17th percentile in off-screen scoring and the seventh percentile in cutting scoring (both per Synergy Sports Technology) in 2018-19 was, well, not what I’m looking for from them in the next few years, and that’s a key area the next head coach needs to address, because Cleveland will not have the top-end talent to win consistently without its assist rate vastly improving, and that will happen from offense being initiated much quicker.

A good example of the Cavs featuring quality early-clock production came in February against the Memphis Grizzlies, and Love benefited greatly from that, along with Ante Zizic, who had more time to survey the defense and played well.

This is the kind of thing that Cleveland must try to have moving forward, and I would imagine Delly working with the young playmakers a bunch this summer should help them have more urgency in each possession. Some possessions where Sexton and others make plays for themselves are fine throughout games, but that is not going to lead to efficient basketball when you don’t have top-end talent, and in turn, won’t lead to winning consistently.

It’ll be up to the next head coach and their staff to make sure the offense has more consistent early-clock movement, as that will help in the long run and hopefully, help build a winning culture.