Did Cavs spend $26 million on an Odyssey or a Grand Caravan?

The Pros of Signing Georges Niang

The Cleveland Cavaliers wanted to add shooting this summer, and they went out and added one of the most consistently accurate shooters in the league. Georges Niang hit just one of his first 16 career 3-pointers across his first two seasons; since then, he has hit at least 40 percent of his triples in each of the last five seasons.

Over two seasons with the 76ers, Niang took 72.4 percent of his shots from behind the arc, hitting 40.2 percent of them. He shot 87.5 percent from the free-throw line as well, further supporting his shooting chops. On wide-open 3-pointers, the best pure judge of a player’s shooting ability, Niang hit a scorching 43.9 percent last season;

That combination of high-volume shooting and accuracy led Niang to be one of the most efficient players in basketball last season. His 61 percent true-shooting was inside the top-60 leaguewide, just ahead of players like Luka Doncic, James Harden and Jayson Tatum. Niang is a willing shooter and a good shooter, and few skills in modern basketball are more important.

Pairing Niang with a versatile defender in the frontcourt will be key, but in the right ecosystem, his shooting could become a very real asset. The Cavs enjoyed the benefits of a shooting forward with Lauri Markkanen two seasons ago, but last year trotted out a collection of players such as Lamar Stevens and Isaac Okoro alongside their non-shooting bigs. Niang instantly gives them a potent offensive piece to mix-and-match into lineups.