Despite a disappointing end to their season, the Cleveland Cavaliers saw plenty of success this year. Evan Mobley started looking even more like a future dominant big, Donovan Mitchell had the best scoring season in franchise history, and Darius Garland looked great for the most part.
However, there is still the question of “where do we go from here?” surrounding this team. They have a few areas that need improvement that should be the focus of free agency or some trades made in the offseason. Even if they make the necessary moves for the roster construction, there is still the fact that the Cavs may be playing the wrong style of basketball.
Under head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, the Cavaliers have made it a focus to be a dominant defensive force. This has led to the Cavs being one of the best defensive teams in the league in both of the last two seasons. The only problem is they sacrifice pace of play in order to do so.
This has led to the offense becoming stagnant and predictable at times. Mitchell and Garland get a screen to put them in a favorable matchup before creating a play, this is what buried the team during the series against the New York Knicks.
On top of the fact that the offense is predictable, the Cavs lack the shooters necessary to make up for it in a halfcourt offense. It’s not nearly as bad as the Los Angeles Lakers, but there is plenty of room for improvement in that department.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have Evan Mobley, they should use him.
If the Cavaliers aren’t able to make roster improvements during the offseason, they could still greatly benefit by speeding up the offense. This could be the best way to awaken the potential within Evan Mobley and make him be the second coming of Kevin Garnett that most believe he can be.
Instead of getting a rebound and proceeding to stop the ball to run a play, the Cavs need to be running down the floor and take advantage of their youth and athleticism. This is one of the areas that the current game plan has completely excluded.
Last season, the Cleveland Cavaliers were dead last in the NBA in possessions per game. They were second to last the season before. They are failing to take advantage of the fact that they have a talented big man who can run the floor.
Great offenses have the ability to create on the break and in the halfcourt. The only partial exception is the current Denver Nuggets team that is led by possibly the greatest offensive hub of all time in Nikola Jokic.
Finding a way to get Evan Mobley decent looks in a fullcourt offense may not make him a Jokic-type player, but it will create easy looks while allowing their defense to get set on the other side of the ball.
With the talent currently on the roster for the Cleveland Cavaliers, it makes no sense that they play at the slowest pace in the league. They should be at least above average in order to create advantages with the athletic youth on the roster.