The Point Four-ward: No Points Bulletin

Four points I’m thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers…

1.) With training camp opening in just a few weeks, the Cavs are slowly accumulating their roster of invitees. Assuming the Cavs eventually reach a deal with J.R. Smith, they will carry thirteen guaranteed contracts heading into camp.

Yesterday, cleveland.com reported that former Brooklyn Nets guard Markel Brown has joined Cory Jefferson and DeAndre Liggins as contenders for the final two spots on the defending champs’ roster.

With the status of Mo Williams still uncertain as the Cavs head into the season, the team’s most pressing need would seem to be getting one more ball handler into camp, whether that means inviting a free agent on a non-guaranteed deal or by figuring out a way to deal Williams for a proven NBA player.

In his weekend notes, Terry Pluto weighed in on the Williams situation:

The Cavs really don’t know what Mo Williams plans to do. There have been rumors of his retirement, but neither he nor his agent has told the Cavs that he is quitting. But there also are few signs he is preparing for the season… I doubt Williams will play this season. He has been very disconnected from the team. It’s an odd situation.

Should Williams decide to retire, the Cavs would have a third roster spot available, making the Cavs an attractive situation for a training camp invitee.

2.) Still, Brown doesn’t seem like a great fit for the Cavs. For one thing, he shot only 31% from three point range last season (and that was up from 26% his rookie year) and the Cavs need their perimeter players — heck, they need all of their players outside of Tristan Thompson — to be able to hit outside shots and keep the floor spaced for LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. I’ve said it before: Matthew Dellavedova‘s defense and point guard play was excellent, but I don’t think he gets the run he did last year if he hadn’t made himself into a 40% shooter from deep. One of the big concerns with Kay Felder‘s otherwise sterling summer league showing was his ineffectiveness behind the arc. And it was the threat of Williams’s shot that was getting him minutes over Delly in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals.

Brown is a solid defender, though, and there is some wisdom to filling out your roster with guys whose best skill is less variable than a player with sparkling offense. In many ways, he’s like a mini-version of Iman Shumpert, which doesn’t sound like a recipe for solving the Cavs’ back-up point guard troubles.

3.) Or does it?

The Cavs have experimented playing Shumpert at the position he played in college at Georgia Tech and the results haven’t always been pretty. Still, if you trace back the Tyronn Lue branch of the coaching tree, you find a man whose offensive system was able to maximize the skills of non-traditional point guards: Phil Jackson and his use of Tex Winter’s Triangle Offense.

While both Jackson and the Triangle have attracted criticism for not being in lock-step with the modern NBA of space-and-pace, many teams — including the Cavaliers — use aspects of the Triangle and, looking back to how Lue used Shumpet in the Finals, they might start incorporating more.

Back when current Lakers head coach Luke Walton came to the Cavs to form high basketball IQ bench bunch known as the Herculoids, he said this about the what type of point guard can succeed running the triangle:

The Triangle offense is more of the point guard making the pass to the wing, which initiates the offense… In the Triangle, we had Fish (Derek Fisher) with so much success because he was OK with making that pass and then going to the corner, getting open shots or eventually coming off a corner pick-and-roll if the ball got there. It takes a certain understanding and certain types of players to have success with that offense.

While Shumpert’s decision making and ball handling have never seemed sharp enough to play a lot of lead guard, he is at his worst when he tries to break his man down in isolation. He is solid enough to bring the ball up court and initiate the offense. A lot of the Cavs action led Shumpert into the corner… and he did have this play in Game 7 where he seemed comfortable taking an open shot from the corner.

For some sense of how the Triangle doesn’t have to be the four-letter word of NBA offenses, check out Coach Nick’s video below. The Cavs-specific material comes at 3:45, 6:25, and 8:26, but the whole thing’s a good watch.

4.) Finally, if Cavs fans needed a reminder that the regular season is just around the corner, Richard Jefferson obliged by posting an image of the extra, special bling Cavs players will be able to flash on their fingers following their October 25 home opener against the New York Knicks.

Jefferson leaked the image of the Cavs championship rings on his now legendary Snapchat account. And, as expected, the rings are a tasteful, modest display of the team’s big achievement.

No. Of course, they’re not. They are championship-y to the hilt, loud, flashy and adorned with all that glitters.

So, while many NBA fans have turned shifted their attention back to the Bay Area in anticipation of Kevin Durant‘s first season with the Golden State Warriors, the Cavs will soon have a sparkling reminder of just who the defending champs are and just what they’ll be trying to follow up in 2016-17.