Cavs’ Larry Nance Jr., Matthew Dellavedova and Kevin Love fit #NBAAssistWeek
By Dan Gilinsky
When looking at the players on the Cleveland Cavaliers currently in relation to #NBAAssistWeek, Larry Nance Jr., Matthew Dellavedova, and Kevin Love set the tone and should be key playmakers for the team in 2019-20.
The Cleveland Cavaliers should be able to have more ball movement and hopefully man movement in 2019-20 than they had most of the time in 2018-19, when the squad had so many injuries and lineup turnover game-to-game, often causing the offense to be out-of-sync.
Hopefully, though, that out-of-sync offense isn’t the case as often in 2019-20, with more weapons such as rookies Darius Garland, Dylan Windler and Kevin Porter Jr., and with new Cleveland head coach John Beilein really prioritizing man and ball movement even more, and also featuring bigs often as playmakers near the top of the key and other places on the perimeter via dribble hand-offs and entry passes to cutters.
So with it being #NBAAssistWeek, I thought I should touch on the importance of Larry Nance Jr., Matthew Dellavedova and Kevin Love as likely the best passers on the Cavaliers currently.
Nance really stepped up last year as a playmaker, and led regular rotation players on the Cavaliers in assists per game with a career-best 3.2 (per NBA.com), and I’d think he should have a similar average in 2019-20 and coming years.
You can see when Nance is on the floor, he is a gifted passer that will rarely misses the open man, and that should continue to help his teammates in coming years (these 2018-19 passing highlights per The Athletic‘s Sam Vecenie).
Along with that from Nance, the another key playmaker and probably the best passer when it comes to vision on the Cleveland Cavaliers currently is Dellavedova.
As we’ve often referenced when it comes to Delly, who was acquired via reported trade last December from the Milwaukee Bucks, the Cavs’ ball movement is better when he’s in the game.
Though he was only active in 36 games for Cleveland and only played in seven of 24 possible contests post-All-Star break in 2018-19 (per NBA.com) due to reported concussion symptoms, Dellavedova did have 4.2 assists per game for the Cavaliers last season, which in that sample size, led Cleveland.
Here’s some of that ability on display from Delly in a win over the Phoenix Suns last season where he had 11 assists (and the passing highlights per Youtube user Church of Delly).
The Cavs had their highest assist rate when Dellavedova was on the floor (excluding prior two-way Jalen Jones, who was only active in 16 games, per NBA.com) last year, too.
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Additionally, Love should be a player that projects as one of the Cavs’ quality playmakers in 2019-20 and perhaps coming years, too, thanks to the aforementioned Beilein’s offense utilizing bigs as passers often and Love’s willingness to reward cutters.
Love’s ability to knock down three-point shots at a high clip (a career 37.0% hit rate on 4.4 attempts per game, per Basketball Reference), along with making his presence felt as a low and mid-post scorer when healthy makes those around him get better looks, such as Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, Jordan Clarkson and likely to a good degree at different points next year for Garland, Porter, and Windler, too.
Love is a really skilled passer for a big (with a more than respectable 2.3 career assists per game and a career 12.1% assist rate, per Basketball Reference) and has passing vision/touch should be featured next season more if he’s healthier; he only played in 22 games last season mostly due to reported toe surgery (again, per Basketball Reference).
I would imagine in 2019-20, we’ll be able to see his beautiful outlet passes on display after defensive rebounds to players such as Osman, Sexton and others. Here was a nice one to The First Cedi in a W over the Milwaukee Bucks last season (per Youtube user NBA National Basketball Association).
With Beilein and his staff’s influence, I would love to see more Cleveland Cavaliers emerge as quality playmakers in coming years.
If that’s the case, the offense will be difficult to guard and players like Windler and Porter should feast on open looks from deep and potentially as cutters/lob finishers over the top, too.
The Cavs had the second-lowest assist rate in the NBA last season, with only the New York Knicks, who finished with the league’s worst record in 2018-19, behind them, and not coincidentally, only the Knicks had a lower team true shooting rate (per NBA.com).
I’d like to see Beilein and company get Cleveland to get the ball swinging around more, so the looks are more open consistently from the perimeter and on the interior for cutters/rollers.
For now, keep watching those Nance, Delly and Love passing highlights, Cavs fans.