Cavs recent post reiterates how Matthew Dellavedova is gifted passer

With his passing ability, I could very well see the Cleveland Cavaliers re-signing Matthew Dellavedova this offseason.

Cleveland Cavaliers fans would all agree that Matthew Dellavedova‘s shooting last season was far from stellar. In 2019-20, Dellavedova had career-lows across the board in terms of shooting/scoring metrics.

He had only 3.1 points per game, and hit just 35.4 percent of his shots and by far a career-worst 23.1 percent from three-point range. Considering Delly is a 36.8 percent career three-point shooter, that was unfortunate, and his changed shooting motion didn’t seem to click for him until what would be the closing stretch of the season for the Cavs.

Dellavedova was still a solid team defender, though, as evidenced by him being tied with former Cav John Henson, who was a piece involved in the Andre Drummond trade with the Detroit Pistons, in terms of having the lowest defensive rating among regular Cavs rotation players last season. Of course, Delly only appearing in 14.4 minutes per game played into that, but his awareness on that end has continually aided Cleveland when he’s been out there.

Albeit what is the most impactful part of Delly’s game in his rotational minutes for the Cavaliers is his passing. Despite the lack of shooting/spot-up hitting for Dellavedova last season, he still did help out the Wine and Gold as a reserve playmaker/ball-mover for pieces such as Kevin Porter Jr., Larry Nance Jr. and Kevin Love.

Dellavedova, who averaged 3.2 assists in 2019-20 in his 14.4 minutes per game, had just shy of a career-best with 7.9 assists per-36 minutes. He also had by far and away Cleveland’s top assist rate at 29.7 percent.

Along with that, leading into the season’s novel coronavirus-induced hiatus, Dellavedova ended up having more minutes-share, albeit Darius Garland missing the Cavs last five games due to a groin strain did factor some into that.

But overall, Delly was very productive in relation to getting his teammates involved, and in his last 13 games active, averaged 4.8 assists in 20.5 minutes per outing. Post-All-Star break after J.B. Bickerstaff took over Cleveland’s head coaching reigns, Dellavedova led the Cavs in assists per contest with 5.5, too.

Moreover, due to his passing feel/vision, plus team defensive instincts and with how he’d help others such as Garland, Sexton and Kevin Porter Jr. progress in their development as a coach-type player, I believe the Cavs should re-sign Dellavedova. Delly has previously stressed his love for Cleveland, too, and you’d think he’d want to come back and likely wouldn’t cost much, per a prior report from November from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.

So again, though, to further emphasize why the Cavs would be making a smart move in bringing back Dellavedova, a recent Cavs post jumped out to me along those lines.

Dellavedova is a gifted passer that sets up his teammates so well, as a recent Cleveland Cavaliers post reiterated.

With Delly being the Cavs featured player of the week across their social media channels (he’s formally still a Cav), a “By the Numbers” piece involving him by Cavs.com’s Jimmy Longo illuminated Delly’s passing ability.

Longo touched on Dellavedova’s prior contributions for the Cleveland Cavaliers during two postseason runs alongside LeBron James, Kevin Love and others before amid his first Cavs stint, but the more recent stats involving Delly’s now-past season stood out to me still.

Here was a bit of those that stood out from Longo’s recent post regarding Matthew Dellavedova, which again played into reiterating how the veteran is a gifted passer, as Cavs fans are well aware of. This was another reminder of that, which was a meaningful one to me.

"“9.3 … assists per game that Delly averaged over his four starts this season, with the Cavs going 2-2 in those games, including back-to-back wins over the Nuggets and Spurs.25 … combined assists Matthew Dellavedova tallied in those two victories over Denver and San Antonio.”"

This Cavs tweet from Longo’s article was another one that showcased how when he was on the floor for the Wine and Gold, Delly still was a highly productive passer/ball-mover.

In terms of Cleveland Cavaliers notable marks/clips, being in the same conversation with the likes of Terrell Brandon mean a ton to me, and Delly matching a rotational assist total from him (Brandon began as a rotational contributor) was particularly noteworthy from my perspective.

To me, it’s evident that Dellavedova should be brought back via team-friendly deal for next season, given the reasons stated above and furthermore, Longo’s piece reiterates how the soon-to-be-30-year-old is a gifted passer.

Delly isn’t nearly the same on-ball defender he once was, but re-signing him, especially from a coach-type-sense for youngsters such as Garland, Sexton and KPJ would be a wise decision by the Cavs.

Dellavedova can still get his teammates the rock in their sweet spots on the floor, too, though, as fans of the Wine and Gold know very well, and I’m sure the coaching staff would acknowledge.