Cavs: Quick decision-making from young pieces is big positive

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach John Beilein and the coaching staff are getting Cleveland’s young pieces to be make quick decisions in most instances, and that’s a big positive.

It’s no secret that the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ young pieces are going to have growing pains throughout the 2019-20 season.

With the Cavaliers primarily focused on player development, that’s to be expected, but fans should be encouraged by head coach John Beilein and the coaching staff getting the young pieces making quick decisions in most instances.

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It hasn’t been a stellar start to guard Darius Garland‘s rookie year, as he’s putting up 8.6 points but only on a 36.6% effective field goal shooting clip, which as NBA.com indicates, is second-worst on Cleveland.

With Garland being the Cavaliers’ primary playmaker in a bunch of instances throughout games, though, it’s understandable for him to poke and prod some, and it’s understandable for him to have some indecision at times, as he’s played ten total NBA games.

That being said, Garland has been playing with a good pace in recent games, is getting Cleveland’s offense initiated quicker, and is consistently attacking in pick-and-rolls and often due to decisiveness, he’s gotten players such as Tristan Thompson, Cedi Osman and Collin Sexton great scoring opportunities.

Garland is now leading Cleveland with 3.7 assists per game, and he’s also been more willing to get to his spots as a scorer with less hesitation and has been more sure of himself.

In the last few games, he’s really shown off his ability to get into the lane and have more assertiveness to get to his floater, rather than be content taking long, often out-of-rhythm two’s or ill-advised shots over a ton of length.

In addition, Beilein and company have gotten Sexton to make quicker decisions it seems, too, and though I’d still like to see Sexton get more than 2.3 assists per game, he’s been making extra passes more, and hasn’t quite over-dribbled as much as he did last season.

Sexton, has been letting catch-and-shoot three-point looks fly way more often this season, thanks to Beilein, associate head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and company, and that’s been great to see. Plus, as Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor demonstrated, Sexton recently took to the coaching staff telling him to just let it fly, and not pass open catch-and-shoots to dribble it out, and that was shown in Sexton’s career-high 31-point performance against the New York Knicks.

Anyway, Collin is leading the Cavs in scoring thus far, and is second in three-pointers made per game, per NBA.com, and on a 39.6% clip.

Though Sexton, like Garland, is going to get in his share of dribbling throughout games and on Tuesday in a narrow loss to the Philadelphia 76ers that was prevalent at times, but both Sexton and Garland have been having much more productive dribbling as of late by and large. Both have seemed to play off of Kevin Love better as a post player/playmaker as off-ball players, too.

I loved to see this from Sexton, and again, he was applying what Beilein/the coaching staff told him here, as Fedor hit on, in terms of just letting shots go off-the-catch.

Though I still would like to see Cedi Osman used as a playmaker more, especially considering he has a knack for hitting Love with terrific deliveries thanks to impressive vision, it’s also been a big positive to see Osman moving the ball really well.

He’s making hockey assists, and continually getting Tristan Thompson and Love the ball instead of trying to just continually attack the basket and get his, which is understandable, considering he’s had less scoring opportunities this year.

Osman didn’t mess around here with this drive-and-kick, and it led to a Sexton open triple, which he buried, and I’m sure the coaching staff loved this play.

Anyhow, though I again would like to see Cedi get some more chances on the ball, it has been a plus to see him make quick decisions, and he has been making the most out of his opportunities usually off-the-catch or as a cutter with the spacing Love’s inside-out presence has provided.

Osman’s shooting 40.9% from three-point range, and is shooting with confidence, but with Beilein’s offense getting him the ball more on the move, Osman has shown plenty of urgency.

He’s been quick to get downhill, and it’s good to see him taking floaters, instead of perhaps taking ill-advised longer two’s or trying to further push the envelope as he did last season (when he got the ball more out of rhythm).

He was prone to over-dribbling last season, which along with Sexton, was understandable to a degree given the Cavs’ lack of spacing and off-dribble threats, but Cedi’s been more decisive, and again, the coaching staff seems to be paying off for him, too, in that regard.

Though rookie wing Kevin Porter Jr. has been prone to settling for some tough 2’s, when he’s been decisive, such as in getting near the rim, he’s had more success, and I believe he’ll play faster with more experience.

So overall, with the way the young pieces seem to be progressing nicely and with them making quicker decisions, the Cavs have had less stretches with stagnant offense, as was the case earlier in the season.

I’m going to let the younger guys off the hook a bit with Philly’s tough D and their length, but anyhow, by and large, it’s been good stuff from Cleveland’s youngsters.