Wood Shop: Things That Frustrate

Today’s Wood Shop deals with some things that have been frustrating me about the Cavs lately. None of the things I bring up are hurting the Cavs that much. You’ll notice a common detail in each of the following examples: things  just work out for the Wine and Gold.  Even when they do stuff wrong, they can score and get stops. That’s just how talent works.

1. LeBron doesn’t always know how to deal with mismatches. He’s struggled all year. When a small guy ends up on him, he shoots over him. When a big ends up on him, he dribbles backwards, almost as if he’s about to drive inside, and then raises up. Basically, when there’s a mismatch, the King is shooting instead of posting or driving.

Last week, against the Bulls, his handling of mismatches was particularly annoying. Late in the game, LeBron ran a pick and roll with Kevin Love near the 3-point line. Nikola Mirotic switched out onto him. Yes, the Nikola that is European, over 6’6” and likes to take 3s. Down 11, the King decided to simply pull up for a long three. It went down, but come on, Mr. James, take that fool to the rack.

I know some people might point out that the lane looks a little clogged. It isn’t. LeBron’s original defender is worried about Love getting a pass lobbed to him, and the other Bulls’ bigs are trying to keep TT from positioning himself for an offensive board. The King could have driven hard, or driven and then found Love or TT for a layup, depending on how the Bulls helped in the paint.

And, it’s not like LeBron couldn’t drive by Mirotic. He did so earlier in the game. See the video below. Mirotic acts like a turnstile as the King goes for the layup. The crossover LeBron had to pull is the one I use if I have to blow by a sixth grader at the park.

2. The free safety is a position in football. They chill out down field and stop anything from happening over the middle. It’s a football position. LeBron has turned it into a basketball position. On defense, he has a habit of roaming the passing lanes and standing around waiting for “something” to happen. Sometimes, it results in steals and spectacular fast break dunks. Other times it results in open shots for the opposition.

In the video below, notice the open man down by the baseline. It’s Pascal Siakam, the nominally talented power-forward for the Raptors. Basic basketball rules say that LeBron or Tristan Thompson, the Cavs’ forwards on the floor at the time, would cover him. Nope. LeBron doesn’t play by those rules. He doesn’t tell TT to go play defense. Instead, he doubles DeMar DeRozan with TT to force a pass. That’s a reasonable move. Then, probably because he got bored, he drops a few steps to the baseline and stands around waiting for something to happen.

Something does. DeRozan passes to Lowry, who launches and misses a 3-pointer. It’s open because DeAndre Liggins had to crash down earlier in the play to prevent LeBron’s/TT’s man, Siakam, from getting an open dunk. LeBron gets the blame for Siakam staying open long enough that Liggins had to come down, because he’s just meandering behind the play after DeRozan started his drive. He should have sprinted straight to Siakam and Liggins could have recovered to Lowry sooner. Or, even smarter, he could have boxed out Jonas Valanciunas, and Kevin Love could have scooted to the open guy. Nonetheless, the King’s behavior is essentially rewarded because he rebounds the ball and runs down the court, which forces the Raptors to foul him at the rim resulting in two easy points.

Just a few plays later, the King relaxes again.

This time he’s covering Kyle Lowry. A couple of seconds into the shot clock, the King decides to “pressure” DeRozan. He drops down to where DeMar is working at the foul line. However, that’s all he does. He doesn’t swipe at the ball or make his presence known. DeRozan gets off a clean look which doesn’t fall. He shouldn’t have even gotten the look though, and, if he were a better passer, he would have found Lowry. Lowry could have blown by LeBron on the close out or just shot a 3-pointer quickly.

3. Kyrie Irving doesn’t see the floor like a point guard. He’s always looking to score, and sometimes it shows. Look at this play. In it, Kyrie runs a pick and roll with Channing Frye. Frye is feeling it when he pops out, receives the pass from Irving, and drains the 3-pointer.

It’s a masterful use of the pick to set Frye up too. Irving doesn’t drive right away, which would allow Frye’s man to stay relatively close. Instead, he drags the play sideways. That pulls Frye’s defender even further away, since Irving needs to be kept from driving past Lowry with ease.

The next possession, the Cavs run the same play. This time though, Kyrie dribbles in a little bit and hoists a mid-range jumper.

Frye is open. He’s shooting 48.1% from deep. He’s hitting two a night. Finding Frye is a sure assist in those situations.

It’s not surprising that Irving didn’t find him though. Sometimes he just wants to score. Look at this play.

He takes DeMarre Carroll one-on-one after dribbling for a couple of seconds. Once he dribbles in, Carroll is still near him and he attempts another crossover. At that point, the rest of the Raptors have collapsed into the paint to stop him from making love to the backboard. Look who is open on the right side in the corner. It’s Iman Shumpert. He’s even crouched as if he’s prepped to shoot. Irving puts up a miss though.

4. Tristan Thompson is struggling because of Irving’s inability to play the point guard position without trying to score. To date this season, TT has scored 18 buckets off of Irving passes. Last season, Matthew Dellavedova had found TT 21 times in the same amount of time.  Those numbers don’t seem like a big deal, until examined more closely. To start, Delly’s persistence in going for lobs got TT points. Thompson averaged 7.8 last season and is just getting 6.6 a game this year.

Furthermore, Delly wasn’t on the floor with TT as much last season as Irving has been with him this year. Delly played just 15.2 minutes a night with Canadian TnT, while Irving is averaging 24.6 minutes a game with him right now. Delly hit up TT often. With Irving, it’s a rarity.

It’s a rarity because Irving still can’t run a pick and roll. Last season, I rambled on and on about that here. I had hope that Irving would learn, but I’m starting to think his issues aren’t just a lack of understanding about how to run a pick and roll for someone other than himself. Part of the issue for Irving is where he likes to shoot. He loves the mid-range elbow jump shot that’s one crossover move in from the 3-line. It’s actually ruining his pick and roll development though.

For the past two seasons 28-30% of his shots have come from the mid-range, and he’s hit at least 10% higher from that area than league average. It’s a good shot for him, as he’s hitting 49.2% from there to date.

Yet, this shot is problematic for Irving’s pick and roll play because it forces him to cut off his roll man. He loves the elbows, and that area is usually where roll guys want to run through when cutting. It provides them with a nice angle to attack the rim. Look at the play below.

Irving uses TT’s screen promptly. However, he just dribbles into the mid-range elbow area and shoots before TT can even dive. And, if Irving would have kept going in his dribbling direction he’d have cut right in front of TT’s rim run. Irving has essentially decided the pick and roll was just to free himself only a few dribbles into it. It was never for TT to score, and opposing teams are going to figure that out eventually. They will then trap Kyrie hard after he screens, when he’s at the elbow ready to pull the trigger.

Irving messes up pick and rolls in this manner quite often. There’s a quick fix though. When the Cavs decide to run a screen for him, they need to start it with the roll man coming up to the 3-line directly above the right or left elbow. Whichever side Kyrie is dribbling towards, the big man needs to screen near the opposite elbow. Irving then has to start from the left or right side of the floor when he uses a screen (left side when dribbling right, right side when dribbling left).

Here’s why: in the play above, picture TT setting the screen at the left elbow instead of the right. Irving would then dribble right towards his preferred elbow shooting area (the right in this situation), since his dribble is already going that direction. He would also be dribbling side ways for a second dragging the opposition’s big man out.  After a few seconds, he’s in a spot where he can hit shots, and TT has the chance for a free roll to the rim that’s uninhibited by Irving. There might even be a defender missing if they fear Irving’s drive enough to help over for a prolonged time. Irving can then shoot or pass. He’s no longer forcing himself into a set decision.

5. These problems will take a long time to get fixed. Part of the issue with the things I brought up for the Cavs is that they aren’t sinking the team. In the examples I had about LeBron messing about on defense, the King scored on one of them and in both the Raptors didn’t score. In the example about when the King doesn’t attack mismatches right, he still scored. And, in regards to Irving, even though he may by missing the open man sometimes, the majority of the time he still gets a bucket. The Cavs are talented. They don’t feel their mistakes like other teams, but at some point they will. These issues won’t always happen in winning situations.