Cup of Cavs: Moving without the ball will open up the offense for Darius Garland and others
Cavs news and links for Tuesday, October 15.
We’re just over a week away from Cleveland Cavaliers regular season basketball.
The first sip
Kenny Atkinson was brought in to optimize the offense. Increasing movement away from the ball is one easy way to do that. We only got a glimpse of what the starters will look like in the new system but plays like the one below are encouraging.
This play seems rather simple on the surface. But this only works because of the proper spacing on the court.
Evan Mobley probably hangs out in the dunker’s spot if this play happened last season. Instead, as soon as Nikola Vucevic denies the pass from Donovan Mitchell, Mobley floats to the corner. Vucevic helps and Zach LaVine rotates to prevent the pass to Mobley. Coby White should’ve rotated to Darius Garland but doesn’t, which allows him to cut in for the easy basket.
Generating easy floaters for someone like Garland is extremely helpful and is something he could’ve benefited from last season during his slump.
Garland struggled to finish his floater last year. He converted just 44% of his shots in the short midrange (56th percentile) after finishing 49% of them the season before (74th percentile). The injuries were a big part of this, but most of these attempts came after repeatedly running pick-and-rolls in the half-court. While it’s something he’s proven to be good at, you want to be able to get easier offense too when it’s available.
The Cavs offense struggled to do the simple things right the last few seasons. Being in the right position off-ball and showing a willingness to move will allow them to pick up easy points like they did in this example.
NBA preseason schedule
- Celtics vs. Raptors - 7 PM
- Hornets vs. Knicks - 7:30 PM
- Spurs vs. Heat - 7:30 PM
- Pelicans vs. Rockets - 8 PM
- Kings vs. Jazz - 9 PM
- Thunder vs. Nuggets - 9 PM
- Warriors vs. Lakers - 10 PM