After last night’s victory over Kevin Love‘s former team in the Minnesota Timberwolves 106-90, the Cleveland Cavaliers have now won ten-straight games. It’s their longest win-streak since the 2009-10 season in LeBron James‘ first stint, and despite what you may think, defense is still helping them win.
The defense has been much improved during the course of the streak, and even though six out of the ten games have come against teams with losing records, the Cavs have started to make it more of a priority and a conscious effort on that end of the court.
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With their recent winning ways, they’ve moved up to 14th overall in opponent’s points per game, giving up 99.4 points a night.
The defensive rating still hasn’t been changed enough to the point where it’s going to win them a championship, but every little bit helps. Cleveland still sits at 24th in the league in defensive rating at 105.3 points per 100 possessions.
However, something that I’ve noticed in the past six games provides hope that the Cavs can have a strong enough defensive scheme to keep them in games when they count. Now with the right players and the right attitude, David Blatt’s team can start counting on their defense to spark their offense if need be.
When talking about the last six games for the Cavs, you may have noticed that it correlates with Iman Shumpert‘s debut with his new team. He hasn’t played a whole lot of minutes yet, but he’s starting to fit in in Cleveland and find his role on the team and where he needs to be on the court at what time.
Of course, Shump is there for one thing. Well, two things actually.
He’s there, for starters, to play defense. There are plenty of analysts and writers out there calling Shumpert a good but not great defender, and I can agree with that. However, on this team, he’ll have to become a great defender, which shouldn’t be too difficult for the versatile guard/forward out of Georgia Tech.
The second thing he’s in Cleveland for is to knock down open shots, which is a statement for likes of captain obvious.
Playing with superstars such as LeBron, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, the other players on the court are going to get their fair share of wide open looks. Shumpert is no different, and will be expected to hit these shots with regularity. Sharing the court with one of the best facilitators in the game in James will certainly give him plenty of opportunities to do so.
He’s a career 34 percent shooter from the three-point line, and has hit 33 percent of his threes since joining the Cavs. They’re not eye-popping numbers, but it shows he can certainly be a 3-and-D guy for Blatt’s squad.
Most championship-caliber teams, if not all of them, have a lock-down defender they can put on the opposing team’s best offensive player. In recent years, LeBron would take that challenge without a second thought. Now, in his 12th season in the NBA, James can’t afford to take the same defensive and offensive burdens he has in the past at the same time.
This is where Shumpert will come in.
I don’t have video of his highlights from the win over Minnesota, but here’s a look at him from a couple years ago defending Derrick Rose before his ACL tear.
Yes, the video is a couple years old, but still. It shows you the type of defender that Shumpert can be, and what I believe he’ll turn back into when he get acclimated to Blatt’s system and finds his role in the offense.
Defensive tenacity and quickness is something you can’t teach, and he’s got both. Something else you can see in the video that is going to fit extremely well with the Cavs is his unselfishness and underrated passing ability. He’s only averaging about 3.0 assists per game in his career, but he’s actually a pretty skilled passer.
According to NBA.com, during their 10-game win streak, the Cavs have a defensive rating of 101.6, which would be good for 12th in the league if they managed to keep that number there. In the five games since Shumpert’s entered the lineup, they have a defensive rating of 99.2, a number that would put them second in the league behind the Golden State Warriors.
His minutes have started to rise in the past three games, reaching the 20’s each time. While Shumpert continues to get his feet under him, each night on the court he’s showing his coach and his teammates just what he can do to help this team win.
When the Cavs reach the playoffs at the end of this season, he should have plenty of games under his belt, and should even force his way into the starting lineup to push J.R. Smith to a sixth-man role. Look for Shump to assert himself as the team’s best and most willing defender, assigned to the opposing team’s biggest offensive threat each night.
All stats via Basketball-Reference and NBA.com.
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