Cavs: Why not retire Number 5? 4 reasons to honor J.R. Smith

Cavs: J.R. Smith was the team’s best on-ball defender

Let’s also not forget that the only reason J.R. Smith was able to come to Cleveland was because of a trade involving Dion Waiters. Waiters was a locker room annoyance and he never was able to live up to his billing as a great two-way player. The Cavs sent the Syracuse guard to Oklahoma City and received J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert from the Knicks. Immediately, as he had shown throughout his career. already, Iman Shumpert was a great on-ball defender and immediately became the man who would guard opposing stars for the Cavaliers.

Then in 2016 Shumpert’s minutes dropped and Smith had to step up and be the best on-ball defender for the Cavs. During that 2016 run, Smith averaged over a steal per game, and was able to slow down the likes of guys like DeMar DeRozan and Jimmy Butler. On top of that, Shumpert was riddled with injuries in Cleveland, and Smith was the perfect guy to fill in for him.

Throughout his career in Cleveland, he became an even better perimeter defender. While his second-half start in game seven helped the Cavs bring home a title, the same can be said about his on-ball defending. He was a large part of the reason the Cavs were able to hold the Warriors to only 89 points in game seven.

However, his real defensive gem came in game six at home. Smith was tasked with defending Klay Thompson, and he was a pest all night. In this clip here you can see how well he closed out Thompson, and forced him into bad shots. J.R. held Thompson to 14 points on 6-of-17 shooting from the field, and a measly 2-of-10 from deep. While his defense wasn’t his strong suit, he adapted his game to better fit with his teammates, and it seemed to have paid off for him.