The flurry of moves that kick off NBA Free Agency requires a number of quick-twitch reactions, with responses often emotional or at the least lacking context. Are you excited about your team’s moves? Did they make you queasy?
The Cleveland Cavaliers leaped right into the fray, agreeing to deals for Georges Niang, Ty Jerome and Max Strus within the opening weekend of free agency. Then Damian Lillard was requesting a trade, NBA Summer League was kicking off (and going very well for Cleveland) and the NBA offseason kept churning.
How do the Cavs’ moves look with some time to process?
Now that Summer League is over, and the transaction cycle has slowed to a crawl, it affords an opportunity to look back in greater detail on the moves the Cavaliers made. How do they look after a few weeks to process them? Do other moves made around the league make the Cavs’ signings look better or worse?
While the Max Strus signing has taken up the most oxygen, the Cavs ultimately used a large chunk of their Mid-Level Exception on forward Georges Niang, signing him over from the Philadelphia 76ers on a three-year, $26 million contract. Since early in his career, Niang has been known as “The Minivan” as he gets the job done but isn’t exactly built like a sports car.
As we analyze the signing, we ask the question: what kind of minivan did the Cavaliers get? Did they spend their money on a Honda Odyssey or a Dodge 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.
The Cons of Signing Georges Niang
Georges Niang is a good shooter. He’s a good teammate. He plays hard. At this point, the accolades for Niang have mostly been used up. It’s a credit to his shooting that he earned such a contract from the Cavaliers, but if they aren’t careful his weaknesses could push him out of the rotation and ensure his $26 million salary is dead weight.
Defensively, Niang lacks any sort of a punch. He totaled just 30 steals and 14 blocks over 78 games last season, and he is easily caught wrong-footed and driven past when defending in isolation. He had a negative Defensive Box-Plus Minus and the 76ers were outscored during his time on the court.
Niang is not a particularly good passer, finisher or isolation player. He’s a mediocre defender. A team has to use him in one specific way — as a shooting forward with versatile defenders around him. If they do, he can thrive. Yet even so, the hoops that need to be leaped through may not be worth it in the long run.
Georges Niang has a lot to prove as to whether or not he can be a two-way presence or simply a one-trick gunner. The Cavaliers spent a lot of money this summer; they need to hope that the money they spent on Niang isn’t wasted.