Cavs: 3 potential pick-and-roll duos to look out for next season
By Amadou Sow
The pick-and-roll game is so crucial, and for the Cleveland Cavaliers, there are three potential pick-and-roll duos, in particular, to look out for next season. This is also factoring in a sensible target for Cleveland in the 2020 NBA Draft.
With the 2019-20 NBA season currently on hiatus until further notice due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, it’s unclear if the season will resume at some point. Also, it’s uncertain as to when the 2020 NBA Draft will be for the Cleveland Cavaliers and other teams.
The upcoming draft is a big one for the Cavs, though, as they have some holes to fill and with uncertainties at the center position, that is an area that they may look to correct in the draft. Looking at the centers on the roster, all could become free agents at the end of this season, depending on if Andre Drummond declines his $28.8 million player option or not.
Luckily for the Cavs, there looks to be some nice big men to choose from in this year’s draft and general manager Koby Altman and the Wine and Gold front office would be wise to use a pick one. Solidifying their big men rotation should be a priority for them as they look to improve their pick-and-roll offense.
This season, the Cavaliers have hit the roll man off of the pick on 6.7 possessions per game, of which the roll man has shot 50.6 percent from the field and they’ve scored 48.7 percent of the time, according to Synergy Sports. While Cleveland’s placed in the 35th percentile in terms of pick-and-roll roll man situations, there is reason to be optimistic.
Looking at the data shown above (again even though that percentile isn’t great), the pick-and-roll (PnR) CAN be effective for the Cavs and it should be something that they look to do more next season, whenever the following season does start.
With that being said, here, we are going to look at three potential pick-and-roll duos that we could see next season, beginning with one featuring a promising young Cavs perimeter piece and a prospect Cleveland could very well target in the 2020 NBA Draft.