Georges Niang: What does a bounce-back season look like?

Niang’s defensive issues kept the Cavs from reaping the benefits of his incredible outside shooting last season.

Koby Altman and the Cleveland Cavaliers front office have been conservative in rounding out the roster after pushing most of their chips in for the Donovan Mitchell trade. Part of that is by necessity. There are only so many moves that can be made when you currently aren’t able to move a first-round pick until 2031. Part of that is also due to what some might call an unreasonable belief in this core. No matter the cause, this has left the Cavs with much of the same pieces now that they had when the deal was first completed.

Max Strus and Georges Niang are the two exceptions. They’re the only rotation players brought in from other teams in the last two years. Strus has worked out well and has been a natural fit in the starting lineup. The same can’t be said for Niang.

The pros and cons of Niang are fairly obvious. He’s a useful offensive player when he’s hitting his outside shot. Last year was his worst full season as an outside shooter and he still hit an impressive 37.6% of his three-point looks.

That shooting was incredibly useful for a team that needs all of the spacing they can get. This is why the offense was 3.1 points per 100 possessions better with him on the court than they were without him (77th percentile). The on/off difference speaks to how important frontcourt shooting is for the Cavs and how no other forwards were providing the level of spacing Niang did with his three-point volume. This is something the Cavs desperately need.

On the flip side, Niang’s defensive limitations were also clear. He doesn’t have the speed to hang with opponents on the perimeter and was often bullied in the paint. Niang benefited from the increased physicality that referees allowed during the last third of the regular season, but not enough to be a passable defender.

As a result, opponents scored 6.4 more points when he was on the court compared to when he was off (7th percentile). Even though the offense was better, the Cavs were 3.3 points worse with Niang on the court. This made it so Niang’s shooting couldn’t be leveraged like the front office likely hoped it would be when they signed him last summer.

At 31 years old, it’s unreasonable to expect Niang to become a better defender. What you do hope is that he can somehow become a better rebounder.

Evan Mobley was Niang’s best front-court partner. The spacing Niang provided helped Mobley offensively while Mobley’s incredible range helped cover up some of Niang’s defensive issues. The problems came with retrieving opponent misses. Lineups with both only grabbed 70.1% of available defensive rebounds (37th percentile).

Niang has only averaged over six defensive rebounds per 36 minutes once in his career since becoming a rotation player. This has translated into him being above the 20th percentile in defensive rebounding percentage just twice in the last six seasons. This is the area that needs to change if Niang is going to have a bounce-back season. The Cavs can’t afford for him to be bad on defense while also not being able to clear defensive possessions.

Signing Niang to a three-year, $26 million deal with their mid-level exception last offseason was one of the few upgrades the front office has attempted to make since acquiring Mitchell. The Cavs would almost certainly undo this deal now if they could. Especially since Dean Wade has certainly passed him on the depth chart.

Maybe there’s a world out there where Niang can turn this around. For him to do that, he needs to become a better rebounder while continuing his outstanding shooting. It’s difficult to envision him having a positive impact during his minutes unless that happens.