The Cleveland Cavaliers need to get pick-and-pops going

The Cleveland Cavaliers should be, in an overall sense, pretty satisfied with how their young guards in Darius Garland and Collin Sexton have been coming along. We know that Sexton is going to be a big-time bucket-getting presence, and even while his scoring output has dipped some as of the past six or so games, he’s still going to get his early and often.

In relation to Garland, he seems to be getting in a nice groove since returning from missing an eight-game stretch due to a right shoulder sprain, also. On the season, Garland’s had 16.1 points per contest, and has hit 43.1 percent of his three-point attempts.

And although he came off the bench initially in his return, in his past seven games, while he did appear a bit hesitant to let triples fly a bit after the shoulder sprain off-the-catch, he’s still been solid. He’s had 16.0 points per outing and has had 4.7 assists per contest to 2.7 turnovers in that span.

Nonetheless, what is apparent is that with the Cavs having gotten more healthier of late, and having had Dylan Windler back for the past eight games (who previously had a fractured left hand), the perimeter looks need to be more involved.

Granted, the Cavs injuries, which did include Sexton previously missing five games (left ankle sprain), too, played into it, but they haven’t gotten three-point looks enough. Cleveland is second-last in three-point attempts per game, and last in three-point makes per contest.

On a positive note, it is nice that Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff recently hit on how the Cavs do intend to generate more looks from deep, though. And in that realm, Kevin Love seemingly being on track to return relatively soon, and in which he’s reportedly been “progressing” regarding his high grade right calf strain/reaggravation is good to know. This Cavs team status update on Wednesday about Love having “begun individual basketball activities” is particularly encouraging.

Albeit with Love, it’s never shocking to learn of him being a key subject of trade rumors, and you can view more on that sort of thing at the link above, involving reports/rumors, along with that in relation to Andre Drummond here.

For a brief side note on that, Sam Amico of OutKick and Forty Eight Minutes also recently reported that the Cavs will look/are looking to move the expiring Drummond by the March 25 deadline, and the same will apply for Love when he is healthy.

Nonetheless, moving either won’t be the simplest task, and Love it still wouldn’t appear will be dealt this season. And Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor also reported how the Cavs could of course look to move Drummond, but they could perhaps “ride it out” with him through the end of the season and just let him sign elsewhere in the coming offseason.

In any case, either way, in relation to the shooting sense for the Cavaliers, in their upcoming stretch and/or generally, they need to clearly get the perimeter looks flying more/have more success game-to-game in that realm.

While he’s had a career-best 18.2 points per game thus far this season, and is again leading the NBA in rebounding at 14.6 per game, the Cavs need to reduce some of them featuring Drummond with post-ups and even drives to help offensive flow.

And while I’ve been more than pleased with Jarrett Allen as a roller/on-ball screener/lob threat, and that should continue to be involved, the Cavs do need to have some instances throughout games where they’re getting pick-and-pops involved.

The Cavs need to get pick-and-pops going.

We haven’t seen pick-and-pops much for the Cavs, and I get it with how Love has been sidelined. But that needs to be more involved going forward, as the Cavaliers could get a number of players easy looks with those.