Cleveland Cavaliers: 3 trends from the 3-game losing streak
By Ryan Piers
2. Strong performances from secondary wings
The offseason acquisition of Crowder was vital for multiple reasons; he’d help ease Isaiah Thomas into the lineup while providing LeBron an outside shooter. But most importantly, the Cavs finally had a secondary wing defender to complement James.
A strong defender in Boston, Crowder should lock down the Klay Thompsons and Jayson Tatums of the world while LeBron stops star scorers.
But complementary wings torched the Cavs in the three-game losing streak. C.J. Miles paced the Raptors starters with 16 points in 19 minutes. Andrew Wiggins led Minnesota in scoring with 25 points and Lance Stephenson scored 16 points, a majority of which came in the second half.
More from Cleveland Cavaliers
- Latest intel calls Donovan Mitchell’s future with the Cavs into question
- 5 players who will challenge Victor Wembanyama for Rookie of the Year
- Cleveland Cavaliers: Analyzing the Max Strus acquisition
- Ranking the 5 best available shooting guards in 2023 NBA free agency
- NBA Rumors: Cavs have secret weapon to lure LeBron back to Cleveland
LeBron will primarily match up on the opposing team’s stud. So in this stretch, it was DeMar DeRozan, Jimmy Butler and a combination of Victor Oladipo, Thaddeus Young and Stephenson.
Crowder should have the upper hand on the secondary player. In this stretch, he failed his assignment.
Now there are two explanations. One, Crowder isn’t living up to his defensive standard. The numbers seem to reflect that thought, as Crowder’s defensive plus/minus is -1.3 this season — by far his career low.
But here is the more likely issue: The 6’6” forward is playing out of position. With Cleveland going small, often starting Love center, Crowder is asked to guard post players four or five inches taller than he. He’s out of position, unable to fully utilize his suffocating defensive prowess on the outside.
As a result, Smith and Korver are assigned to players like Wiggins or Stephenson with Crowder on Bojan Bogdanovic.
Lue’s decision to go small leaves Cleveland under-utilizing one of its most valuable assets. The trend was never more apparent than in the Cavs’ last three games. Either the coach must adjust, or the Cavs need to trade for a post player.