Cleveland Cavaliers: The Need For A Backup Point Guard

After dropping their fifth game in a row to the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers are now sitting at 19-19, .500 for the first time since they were 7-7 in November. They’ve been passed by the Milwaukee Bucks for the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, moving them down to sixth.

It’s been hard to watch the Cavs recently, especially without their superstar LeBron James. He’s apparently nearing his return, possibly even tonight when they face the Phoenix Suns, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.

That’s the best news the Cavaliers could wish for, as he’s clearly needed to help his struggling team out of the pit they’re falling in.

Aside from the return of James, there’s something I’ve been noticing and keeping a close eye on the past few games. That one thing is the play of Matthew Dellavedova, the backup point guard.

DELLY’S STRUGGLES

Last Monday when the Cavs visited the Philadelphia 76ers, they gave up a double-digit lead halfway through the third quarter and lost the game 95-92. At that time Philly was the worst team in the league record-wise and hadn’t won a game at home since April.

Yeah, Cleveland was short-handed after the reported trade that would force them to pull Dion Waiters, Alex Kirk and Louis Amundson, and were also without James and Kyrie Irving, but still. They were playing fine and had a huge lead, but just imploded on the offensive end.

Not all of that lies on one player of course, but overall the play of Dellavedova could have very well lost them the game.

This is a piece from Dennis Manoloff from The Plain Dealer in Cleveland:

"Dellavedova went 1-of-7 from the field and 0-of-2 from the line for three points in 39 minutes. He had eight assists, two rebounds, one steal and two turnovers. The 76ers, led by Carter-Williams, ran their offense literally through Dellavedova: Wherever he was, the ball went.[…]With 28 seconds left and the Cavs leading, 92-91, Carter-Williams missed a jumper. Cavs forward Kevin Love rebounded. The 76ers eventually fouled Dellavedova with 20 seconds remaining, putting him at the line for two shots.To that point in the season, Dellavedova had taken four free throws and made them all. However, in a classic case of the moment being too big for the player, Dellavedova clanged both attempts off the back of the rim."

Not only did he miss the two free throws that would’ve put them ahead by three, he also botched the Cavs’ last possession of the game, seemingly refusing to give the ball to Kevin Love when he had great position in the post.

Since that game was without Irving due to back spasms, let’s take a look at a more recent game they played together.

Take the loss at the Golden State Warriors for example. With the explosive guards they boast, Delly only played a little more than 15 minutes in the game.

He was once again ineffective in just about every facet of the game. His minutes were held to 15, while David Blatt had to use Irving for 40 minutes just to have a chance at keeping up with the Warriors No. 1 offense.

Perhaps more telling for the drop in scoring between Irving and Dellavedova is their offensive rating in that game. Irving’s rating was at 103 points per 100 possessions, while Delly’s was at a miserable 87 points per 100 possessions.

According to NBA.com, the Australian-born point guard drops the Cavaliers offensive rating more than six points when he’s on the floor compared to when he’s off the floor.

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With him on the court, the Cavs score 100.1 points per 100 possessions, and score 106.6 points per 100 possessions with him off the court.

As for the beating the Cavs took at the hands of the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night, Delly wasn’t much better. The game was over midway through the third quarter, which is where he picked up the majority of his 24 minutes.

When he did play in the first half, which wasn’t long, Dellavedova seemed to take all the air out of the Cavs sails. Like I said, it’s not all on one player, but being the point guard for the second unit, it’s his duty to keep Cleveland in the game and run the offense the way Blatt wants it run.

That didn’t happen against the Kings, especially in the minutes he played when the game was still close in the second quarter. Here’s a tweet from Chris Fedor, a Cavs/NBA reporter for Cleveland.com:

Not in the slightest bit.

With all their recent additions, the Cavs should still be much better once LeBron James makes it back to the court. He’ll assume a majority of the point-forward duties whether Irving or Delly are on the court or not, and will force Delly to play more off the ball rather than running the offense.

Of course, for all of these stats, Irving is still playing more than 10 minutes per game than Dellavedova. However, they present the now glaring need for a more efficient and effective backup point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

If they want to keep Irving’s and James’ numbers down like coach Blatt has been talking about, then this has to be figured out. Whether it comes in a trade or the signing of a free agent, if Dellavedova’s play doesn’t improve, he might find himself on the outside looking in.

All stats via Basketball-Reference and NBA.com.

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