Cavs: Damyean Dotson has been in shooting rut, but continuing to get clean looks is key

I give Damyean Dotson plenty of credit for having to fill in as basically a de facto point guard earlier on this season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, particularly when Darius Garland was sidelined with a right shoulder sprain.

Collin Sexton at one point was sidelined for five games due to a left ankle sprain as well, and still has had other instances when he’s been banged up regarding that.

And the Cavs haven’t had Matthew Dellavedova in action yet this season because of complications involving a serious concussion he suffered in Cleveland’s preseason opener on Dec. 12 versus the Indiana Pacers.

On the plus side, although he did have his appendix removed last Saturday, it would appear that though he before reportedly may end up having to retire because of concussion symptoms/complications with his history, that he’ll end up back at some point.

Delly previously refuted that report from The Athletic‘s Kelsey Russo and Joe Vardon (subscription required), too, and at least seemed to be progressing on the way back. His timetable is not a certainty at this point, though, so we’ll see.

Anyhow, circling back to Dotson, albeit it hasn’t been the case for the Cavs in general as of late, but he has throughout the season does a pretty solid job as a perimeter defender in his minutes-share, and him having an assist rate of 17.3 percent has been a key positive.

For a natural 2 guard that’s historically been a catch-and-shoot player that can can create for himself some via pull-ups/step backs, his passing feel has been nice to see.

That said, Dotson has objectively been underwhelming in the three-point shooting sense, as he’s hit only 1.0 of 3.7 deep attempts per game this season, a 27.3 percent clip, in 19.7 minutes per outing (in 27 appearances). And in his last seven games active, he’s hit just 20.0 percent from deep, on 3.6 attempts per contest.

Dotson’s been in a shooting rut for the Cavs, but him continuing to get clean looks is key.

It’s been very odd that Dotson has been struggling to this extent, as although Cleveland had a particularly rough stretch of opponents this month, he has been able to get clean looks often, and in catch-and-shoot situations.

And although the overall triple efficiency has largely been an issue for him in the pull-up game this season, he had been hitting catch-and-shoot deep attempts at a respectable clip. Albeit now on the season, his catch-and-shoot three hit rate has been only 34.3 percent, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.

Part of the reason for that has unfortunately been in his last eight games active, that’s only 21.1 percent on 2.4 attempts, of which have accounted for 44.2 percent of his shot attempts.

What’s been hard to fathom, however, is that Dotson has been getting clean looks, again, on a considerable number of those attempts, as players such as Darius Garland/Collin Sexton, when they’ve been on with him, to go with Cedi Osman/Dylan Windler, have been hitting him.

Albeit on a positive note, Cleveland should seemingly be getting Kevin Love back hopefully after the All-Star break, which could help spacing, and from a ball/man movement perspective, which should aid Dotson in some burn with him. And I’d imagine in the second half, which should be more favorable for the Cavs, too, Dotson’s chemistry with the likes of Darius Garland and others should be improved as well.

Moreover, considering Dotson hit 36.2 and 36.8 percent of his 3.4 and 4.7 deep ball attempts in his past two seasons with the New York Knicks, and hit 38.9 percent on catch-and-shoot threes last season, again per NBA.com’s shot tracking data, he’s fully capable of turning things around in the second half.

Will Dotson do so? We’ll have to see, but if he continues to often get clean looks as a shooter, both via spot-ups and/or off-movement, I’d think with better chemistry with other Cavs, that could play out. On another positive note, though, he has at least hit 48.1 percent of his pull-up 2 attempts, but the deep shooting realm has been underwhelming.