Cleveland Cavaliers: Defense will be even worse without David Nwaba

It’s always tough to lose plus individual defenders, and the Cleveland Cavaliers’ defense will likely be even worse in 2019-20 with the reported departure of David Nwaba via unrestricted free agency to the Brooklyn Nets.

The Cleveland Cavaliers‘ defense isn’t going to be very good in 2019-20, and that’s pretty certain.

To be clear, even if the team brought back David Nwaba for next season, which was before a possibility, even after Cleveland reportedly did not extend Nwaba a qualifying offer (then making him an unrestricted free agent this offseason), the Cavs’ defense still wouldn’t be in great shape overall, considering their lack of plus defenders both on the perimeter and the interior.

That being said, Nwaba’s defensive ability, particularly against wings and primary ball-handlers, would have been a nice asset to have for Cleveland’s rotation, and now, there is no longer the possibility of him being on the Wine and Gold’s roster at all, as Nwaba reportedly agreed to a two-year deal with the Brooklyn Nets, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.

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According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Nwaba will make $1.7 million next season, and the second season of the deal (which is a team option, per The Athletic’s Michael Scotto), Nwaba will be due to make $1.8 million if that’s picked up (and both h/t Sam Amico of Amico Hoops).

As we’ve noted here at KJG, though Nwaba’s statline of 6.5 points per game on 55.8% true shooting and 3.2 rebounds per game last year in 51 appearances (per Basketball Reference) doesn’t knock your socks off, when he was healthy in 2018-19, he was a solid rotational player due to his quality defense against a variety of positions and he brought consistent energy in his 19.3 minutes per game.

Due to Cleveland Cavaliers’ well documented injury issues and the team needing to get young players big minutes last season, Nwaba had to defend players often much bigger than him (though he did defend primary ball-handling guards his fair share, too) and did a pretty darn good job when tasked with doing so.

So how how much of a defensive workload did Nwaba have last year?

Krishna Narsu (not Narshu as referenced below and h/t Indy Cornrows’ Caitlin Cooper and Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale) of Nylon Calculus (among other places, such as BBall Breakdown) highlighted that defensive versatility on the ball of Nwaba, and again, the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are devoid of plus defenders (outside of maybe Larry Nance Jr.), will miss this sort of thing.

Here’s what the aforementioned Cooper wrote about Nwaba from information from Narsu’s data, which was gathered from NBA.com’s matchup data via Second Spectrum (h/t Favale).

"“According to Krishna Narshu‘s data, only 24 players in the league last season defended a wider range of positions than the undrafted product out of Cal Poly, who spent nearly the same percentage of his defensive possessions against ones and twos (41.4 percent) as he did threes and fours (50.3). Per the NBA’s match-up stats, genetically-gifted power forwards and top-flight swingmen took the brunt of his physicality, with Ben Simmons, LeBron James, Aaron Gordon, Jimmy Butler, and Jaylen Brown all ranking among his 10-most frequent assignments during the regular season. Among those names, only James and Butler registered a field goal percentage above 35 percent from the field with Nwaba as the nearest defender, and the group as a whole shot a tepid 19-of-47 (40 percent) on 175 possessions.”"

Players like Nwaba matter, and I understand that if he were on the roster next season, the Cavaliers wouldn’t be lightyears better off, but for rebuilding teams wanting to set a winning culture, hard-nosed role players that are plus defenders are nice to have. Additionally, they can help set an example through blue-collar play for younger key players such as Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, Dylan Windler and others.

Nwaba is a sneaky-good addition for the Nets, and though his addition to their roster won’t warrant national headlines such as their free agency signings of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant this summer, he’s a player that will always provide value due to his defensive versatility and toughness.

For the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team fresh off recording the worst defensive rating in NBA history since it was recorded by Basketball Reference/the league, a potential defensive on-ball replacement, at least on the perimeter, could be the 6-foot-5-and-a-half, 213-pound (per Tankathon) Kevin Porter Jr., a player that has the makings of a plus defender and seems to have above average feel in playing the passing lanes on the strong and weak side as a help defender.

That skill set from Porter is not a sure thing, however, and rookies are rarely net positives on the defensive end of the floor.

So, again, the Cavaliers’ coaching staff, led by head coach John Beilein, will likely have a pretty rough time attempting to make the defense competent in 2019-20, and losing Nwaba especially hurts in that regard.