Cleveland Cavaliers need to focus on pace and space

The Cleveland Cavaliers have snapped back to reality. Their early season aspirations of reaching the playoffs have been squashed as an 0-9 skid has dropped them back into the depths of the Eastern Conference standings.

What went wrong? The Cavs once ranked as the NBA’s top defense – now they sit in 22nd place. Their Offensive Rating has plummetted to dead last and even Collin Sexton’s scoring has dwindled in recent games.

Of course, fans have been quick to blame Andre Drummond. And, considering how the team has chosen to restrain him to the sidelines until he is traded, this seems fair. However, while Drummond may be an easy scapegoat, his uninspired performances aren’t the root of all of Cleveland’s problems.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are having an identity crisis and it’s time for the team to fully transition into a pace-and-space style of play.

Early in the year, Cleveland began playing a grit-and-grind brand of basketball. This worked, as mucking up each game became necessary due to numerous key injuries. Allowing Drummond to force action in the paint and turn every game into a junkyard scrap was the only way the Cavaliers could compete without five of their core rotational players.

However, it became clear the Cavaliers couldn’t maintain this style once they became healthy. Players like Darius Garland and Collin Sexton aren’t built to play gritty defense every night and things only got worse when Larry Nance, the team’s most versatile defender, had surgery on his wrist.

This hasn’t stopped J.B. Bickerstaff from sticking to his guns and encouraging the team to play grit-and-grind ball with lineups featuring two non-shooting bigs and rarely running action on the perimeter.

As a result, Cleveland is shooting the fewest 3-pointers in a league where 3-point shooting has become the barometer for success. Not only do they attempt the fewest, but they also make the fewest, and shoot the second-worst percentage from deep.

This is perplexing as the Cavaliers’ dynamic backcourt has proven to be good shooters. Both Sexton and Garland connect on above 40 percent of their 3-point attempts – but they are one of only two duos in the NBA to attempt fewer than 200 total 3-pointers in at least 400 minutes together on the floor. The other duo? Sexton and Isaac Okoro – who’ve combined for the fewest 3-point attempts in the NBA (minimum 400 minutes).

For context, Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum have attempted 329 total 3-pointers in 100 fewer minutes together. The league-leading duo, Royce O’Neal and Donovan Mitchell, have combined for more than 600 total 3-pointers in 758 minutes – shooting roughly one 3-pointer per minute.

It’s clear the Cleveland Cavaliers need to catch up to the rest of the league. There’s a reason these teams are shooting 3-pointers and it serves no purpose to lag behind the NBA’s current trend. This means the team needs to get the ball out of the post and run more action on the perimeter.

Right now, Cleveland is in the top-five for post frequency, first in paint touches and 25th in pace. All of these factors together paint a picture of a team that isn’t taking advantage of the pace-and-space era, choosing to go against the grain and play an outdated brand of ball.

It’s really as simple as increasing the pace and well, shooting the ball. There’s no reason guys like Sexton, Garland, Dylan Windler and Taurean Prince aren’t jacking up 3-pointers every time they get an opening. It’s a numbers game – and not attempting deep shots isn’t going to win them games at any point.

Some of their problems will be resolved once Kevin Love returns. The former All-Star has no problem pulling 3-pointers and is still one of the league’s best stretch bigs. It will be even better when Nance is healthy as he is the ideal forward with playmaking abilities in a run-and-gun system.

The 2021 NBA Draft will help them build on this system as well. Names such as Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Jonothan Kuminga and Jalen Suggs can all thrive in a frenetic offensive system. The Cleveland Cavaliers need to begin laying down the groundwork and building their new, improved identity.