J.R. Smith In Perfect Situation With Cleveland Cavaliers
By Ben Gibson
Why J.R. Smith fits in so well with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
J.R. Smith is a punchline as often as he is a good basketball player. He certainly deserves any plumbing-related jokes sent his way, but we often forget he is a great shooter, especially when he isn’t expected to carry his team every night.
This has been very clear with the Cleveland Cavaliers as he’s behind LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving in the team’s pecking order. His job is simple when the ball is in his hands: Just make shots.
This was extremely clear on Wednesday night when Cleveland set a new NBA record with 25 made 3-pointers, seven of which came from Smith.
That hasn’t always been the case with J.R., though.
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You want J.R. on your team, you just don’t want him to lead your team. That isn’t a knock on Smith as much as it is an acknowledgment of his limitations. In Denver and New York, J.R. was effectively the second banana behind Carmelo Anthony. One way or another, he was expected to get his own shots while helping the offense run smoothly. Opponents focused on the two of them, and in J.R.’s case, ran him off the line and allowed him to settle for jump shots.
When J.R. Smith is your second scoring option, your options are limited.
This has changed drastically since his arrival in Cleveland. Deep mid-range shots used to make up at least a quarter of his shots in New York, but with the Cavaliers, that’s down to the low teens, according to Basketball-Reference.
What’s happening is J.R. isn’t being forced to create for himself or for others. That work is being done for him. He gets the ball, he shoots. The job is simple and he’s excelling at it in Cleveland, very much so in the postseason so far.
So far in the playoffs, he’s 30-of-57 from beyond the arc. According to NBA.com, 66.7 percent of his shots come off zero dribbles — catch and shoot — and he’s making 56.8 percent of them. Thirty-two of these attempts in have come when he’s open or wide open. His teammates are getting him the ball in situations where all he needs to do is shoot, which is what he’s best at. It used to be nearly a 50/50 split of possessions where Smith held the ball versus quickly releasing it.
Now 76.9 percent of his touches last two seconds or less in these playoffs. The numbers were roughly similar in the regular season, so this isn’t an anomaly.
Last season, after Love and Irving left the playoffs with injuries, we saw why it is so important to have J.R. in situations where all he needs to do is shoot and where he isn’t in the opposing defense’s top three concerns. In the Finals last year, Smith was forced to hold on the ball longer and to dribble more due to being tightly covered by the defense.
With the Warriors focusing on stopping him and LeBron, it was relatively easy for Golden State to turn Smith into a pedestrian player. He made only 29.4 percent of his 3-point attempts against them last season, compared to the 52.6 percent he’s made so far in the seven games he’s played this postseason against the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks.
With Love and Irving back for this postseason run and demanding the opponent’s attention, it has allowed J.R. to flourish. So far, 93.6 percent of the 32 shots Smith has made this postseason have been assisted, a big reason why he’s shooting 49.2 percent from the field in the playoffs. Last year only 65 percent of his shots were assisted in the playoffs and he shot 40.3 percent.
Not bad, but it wasn’t enough for the Cavaliers to keep pace with the Warriors as the Cleveland rotation lost two of its heaviest hitters.
Last year, the only thing that could have gone worse for Cleveland injury-wise was for LeBron to get hurt. Any team is going to suffer when two of its starters get hurt, but when the Cavaliers lost Irving and Love, they lost two All-Star caliber players. Cleveland is a top-heavy team with its big three, so when it became just one, they had little chance as Smith and the rest of the lineup were bumped up to sports that were above their pay grade.
When Cleveland’s big three are healthy, Smith doesn’t need to do anything but shoot to have a positive impact on the Cavaliers. He can let LeBron, Love and Irving do the heavy lifting while he punishes teams with his shooting. If the Cavaliers stay healthy and Smith can remain in this role, this a rematch of last season’s NBA Finals will be drastically different.
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Can the Cavaliers beat the Warriors? That is hard to say, but if Smith isn’t expected to carry the weight they did last year, they stand a much better chance.