Caris LeVert’s slashing has been bright spot for Cavaliers in recent games

So far this season, Caris LeVert has done a better job in an adjusted role for the Cleveland Cavaliers than I anticipated. I am somewhat skeptical about him as a possible long term piece for this team, but early on this year, with him healthy, he has aided the club.

To this point, in times at the 2 and 3, he’s helped the team’s man and ball movement, with 5.3 assists per outing, and has tacked on 4.8 rebounds per game. He’s made some really nice hustle plays such as tracking down long rebounds, and has gotten his hands in passing lanes off-ball defensively on a regular basis, too, and is competing on that end of the floor.

Now, LeVert hasn’t blown the doors off in the scoring department, necessarily, with 13.8 points per outing, and his effective field goal shooting clip has been 47.1 percent, which would be a career-low.

He has started out well from three-point land, connecting on 42.4 percent of those looks, but he’s hit only 37.1 percent from two-point range. That’s been somewhat precarious to see from LeVert, who has shot 48.4 percent from two in his career, spanning six-plus seasons with the Brooklyn Nets and Indiana Pacers, along with the Cavaliers.

Granted, as we alluded to, LeVert has been adjusting to playing off of Donovan Mitchell, and still is doing so to playing off of Darius Garland. He’ll have to continue doing so when those two are regularly on the floor with him, too, which has been spiratic, with Garland and Mitchell having dealt with injuries, most notably with Garland’s prior eye injury.

But, recently, LeVert has found more of a rhythm himself offensively as a scorer, and that’s been a positive of late for Cleveland.

LeVert’s slashing has been a bright spot for the Cavaliers in recent games.

There’s been some ups and downs for LeVert thus far, and he’s still seemingly getting his wet with the Wine and Gold. Following his trade acquisition last season from the Pacers, he was dealing with a foot sprain, missed the first nine games post-All-Star break, and was inconsistent, objectively.

Along with that, to this point 13 games into this season, as we noted, it’s been a bit of a mixed bag for him in terms of finding his place offensively. But, to me, his playmaking has again given the Cavaliers a lift, and he has knocked down catch-and-shoot looks pretty well.

The driving/slashing from him of late has been something that’s jumped out, though, despite the recent Cavs’ struggles. In LeVert’s last five outings, he’s had 12.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game, and his quickness and early offense have paid off in stretches.

In Cleveland’s loss to the Sacramento Kings, LeVert had 21 points, and his blow-bys, transition slashes and hesitations paired with those as counters kept the team within striking distance, prior to them making a run, before ultimately losing down the stretch.

And while the Cavaliers did have issues getting going against the Minnesota Timberwolves, clearly, LeVert did eventually find some openings later on in the near-comeback, and finished with 13 points on six-of-12 shooting. Of course, Garland’s 51-point explosion drew the lion’s share of praise from that one, and rightfully so.

However, although the Wine and Gold have dropped their last four outings, and they should’ve won two of those games, it does seem as if LeVert has found how to pick his spots as a driver a bit better throughout contests. In games ahead, I’d look to see him get some more catch-and-go looks, too, along with potentially Lamar Stevens, who is a guy I hope can cement himself in Cleveland’s rotation.

Pertaining to LeVert here, it’s been a four-game sample, sure, but he has gotten the basket in a meaningful way, and there’s reason to believe he can build on that. In that span, with his quickness and change-of-pace, he’s converted on 15 of his 21 shot attempts inside of five feet (a 71.4 percent clip), per NBA.com’s shooting data. For the season, that hit rate has been 53.1 percent.

Now, LeVert is not converting on pull-ups, which has contributed to his issues inside the arc for the season thus far, and his deep shooting has been off in Cleveland’s losing streak, at 33.3 percent.

Still, in stretches with Garland and Mitchell, or one of them, if LeVert can be an impactful driver and ball-mover, and be viable defensively in key stretches, the mid-range play might not matter that much with others involved. Caris has to be able to hit catch-and-shoot looks, in fairness, and we’ll see if he can be respectable there for elongated stretches.

In any case, while I do have concerns with LeVert as a starter, and I’m not sold on that yet as we get further into the season, he looks to be finding a rhythm offensively more.

So maybe that can help factor into Cleveland turning things back around here, and if LeVert eventually is a bench sparkplug that can be a closing player, so be it.