Matthew Dellavedova: Keep Or Cut?

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ backup point guard had quite the season. He went from being a guy that most fans disrespected and groaned at to a hero when he had to step up in the playoffs after Kyrie Irving went down.

He closed out the Bulls in Game 6 (yeah, that still sounds weird) and then went on to do an admirable job against the league MVP Stephen Curry in The Finals.

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For a guy who was supposed to be a scrub, Matthew Dellavedova showed some mad chops this season. He went all out every night in the playoffs, giving his club every ounce of willpower he had.

Heck, the dude even had to go to the hospital for serious cramping issues, stay the night and then still played the next day.

What I saw from Delly in the playoffs was a winner’s mentality. And that’s worth keeping on a championship roster. But the Cavs are going to have to make some inevitable moves this summer to try and re-sign, sign and potentially trade some players.

Dellavedova gets the short end of the stick of that list. Out of the guys worth keeping on the roster, he definitely doesn’t fall into general manager David Griffin’s (or general manager LeBron James’?) “must retain” group.

Still, the word is that the Cavs are going to extend a qualifying offer to the Australian:

So, should Cleveland do what they can to keep him? Or should they instead drop him?

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Well …

The Case For Keeping Him

David Griffin getting prepared to give Delly a qualifying offer already is not a complete shocker. It just means that he saw what I and a lot of other people saw in the 24-year-old point guard: a winner.

While Delly is extremely limited offensively, he is an absolute grinder on defense. He doesn’t care who he’s guarding; he’ll get up in their grill and do his best to steal their lunch money, or at least make them uncomfortable.

On a title contender, it’s invaluable to have a guy who’s tough as nails and who will do dirty work for you. Delly is that type of dude. He just never gives up on a play.

I mean, ESPN Stats and Info video tracking even started keeping record of Delly’s GER (Grit Efficiency Rating):

You don’t get people to start doing that for nothing. He’s got a reputation now that probably already outweighs him.

It’s important to remember also that Dellavedova is a backup point guard through and through. He’s absolutely not good enough to be a title team’s starting floor general. But that’s not what he’d be signing up for, nor what he ever intended to sign up for.

We’ve seen Starter Delly and it’s not great. But it did make me think, “Hey, having this as part of your second unit isn’t awful.”

He exudes confidence; indeed, it became something like irrational confidence in The Finals (which was supposed to be J.R. Smith’s thing …). The effect is contagious though, and the rest of his team feeds off of his hustle plays and the energy he gives while on the floor.

Delly won’t make or break the Cavs. But have him in a role better suited to his game, and it’s fairly easy to see why he’s worth keeping around.

The Case For Letting Him Go

Well, we can start with the obvious: his offense.

Delly’s a train wreck on the offensive end of the floor. He can’t really create his own shot, he’s a poor three-point shooter, and when he drives into the lane he’s either going to a) wildly lob the ball up hoping someone, usually Tristan Thompson, will catch it or b) toss up a floater that nearly always looks too strong and is a surprise when it actually goes in.

It’s true that for the season Delly shot 40.7 percent from three-point range, but he was getting limited minutes for most of the year. Come playoff time he was able to jack up more shots, especially with Kyrie getting hurt, resulting in an eye-twitching 31.6 percent shooting from deep.

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If you have a half-decent defender as your second unit point guard, Dellavedova isn’t scoring on them. And just for the record, I don’t think I could mentally survive going through an entire season in which Delly happily takes more off-the-dribble treys.

He’s also not a fantastic passer (3.0 assists per game in 20.6 minutes this season), which is something you’d like your backup floor general to be able to do. It’s not as big of a deal for the Cavs, since they’ve got LeBron and Kyrie who can both handle the ball, but in situations where you need another ball handler (like this year’s Finals), Delly isn’t going to be a great help there.

He’s just not a traditional backup PG. Most coaches prefer a veteran guy who can come in, handle the ball and run the offense while the starters sit. That’s why rumors like that of Mo Williams being interested in a return to Cleveland spark such interest.

Delly hurts a second unit that already lacks scoring punch. It seems frivolous to chide a team about offense when its starting five consists of three of the league’s best offensive players, but maybe adding someone else who can at least give you more than 4.8 points per game off the pine is a good idea.

What say you? Keep the Aussie or no? Let the discourse begin.

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