From Distance: Addition by Subtraction

Four point play…

1. The Cavaliers have now won five games in a row without the services of Derrick Rose, Iman Shumpert, and Tristan Thompson. Okay, you’re right. Shumpert played seven minutes against the Sixers. It was enough burn to give him an opportunity to orchestrate a wonderful zero pass, deep two-point attempt which he clanked. Go Team.

Overall, the team has reeled off nine straight, but the true domination started when all of the Cavs’ non-shooting rotation players hit the bench. Since then, Tyronn Lue has been unable to play the guys who short-circuit team defense and offense on a regular basis.

What Ben? You think Tristan Thompson wrecks team defense as well? 

Yes and no. The “no” part is obvious. Tristan does have some defensive prowess as a decent lateral movement big man. When he is engaged on a switch, TT has the quickness to hang with most wing players for a few dribbles. Interestingly, the “yes” of the question stems from that same ability. When Tristan is on the floor, the Cavs defense asks him to switch everything almost as a rule. While Tristan can flash that defensive ability at times, it is foolhardy to ask him to do that every possession.

He might be good at guarding the perimeter for a bigman, but he isn’t good at guarding it for a player in general. Since Tristan has been out, the guys filling in have either been wings who are accustomed to shadowing quicker guys on a possession to possession basis, or Channing Frye.

When Frye or Kevin Love are involved as Pick and Roll defenders, the Cavs employ a soft trap and recover scheme. As mentioned in David’s recap of the Heat game, the Cavs D will often briefly trap the ball-handler while the weakside defense crashes down on the roll man. That mini-trap prevents the ball-handler from easily firing the cross-court pass to the now open weakside shooter.

It is an exercise in timing. Both crash/chuck defender and trapping bigman need to coordinate how long they stay in the dangerous position or open shots can be had everywhere.

The trap and recover style defense could be employed with Tristan as well, but his pride as a switch defender would have to take a backseat to strategy.

Offensively, though Tristan has shown flashes of play-making ability on the short roll, he simply isn’t dangerous enough as a screener. He has no n’ Pop ability and his Roll is limited. He can catch a lob, but only if it is in a perfect situation. He isn’t like a Rudy Gobert or DeAndre Jordan type that can grab anything near the box for the finish. To be fair, Tristan has gotten much better over the years. The difference is that the two guys above turn average guards into good lob throwers. Tristan needs an exceptionally talented lob artist to do damage.

As an off-ball screener, the defense can trap whichever shooter he is trying to free without too much fear of Thompson repercussion. The fact that Tristan can’t shoot kills a lot of Floppy action.

When the defensive big man has to worry about the lob or a screen and pop, they are in trouble. The guy flying around the pick is going to find an open space unless the defense sells out on stopping the shooter. With Tristan Thompson in there, the defense can do just that. Those quick off-ball screen traps make it harder for Kyle Korver and J.R. Smith to get going from deep.

2. When Kevin Love or Channing Frye are the elbow screen men, the defense is at a complete loss. Get too high as the defender, and the back-cut is wide open. Remember that the big man can’t stray too far from the screener if the screener can shoot. If the defensive man is in a chase and lock position, the shooter is going to be able to turn the corner into open space. The following is more Loop than Floppy, but Smith’s dunk against the Heat is illustrative of what I’m talking about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAKv1jvE5pg

With LeBron James holding the ball on the right side of the floor, Kevin Love and Kyle Korver set a staggered screen for the looping J.R. Smith on the left side. His defender, Goran Dragic is in a trail technique as J.R. flies by what end up being tiny brush screens.

Dragic swerves a bit assuming J.R. is going to three-point land, but otherwise is doing about all he can in that situation. It’s the power that Love and Korver have over their defenders that is the relevant aspect. Neither defender pays the slightest attention to J.R’s action. Both Winslow and Ellington are afraid to even glance away from their guys for fear of being toasted from deep. Some subtle dive and clear movement from Jeff Green further frees up the lane for the monster jam.

This doesn’t happen if Tristan is setting that screen. The defense can happily blitz the shooter and/or Winslow can fully sag into the paint. Shooting gravity makes a screen-setter a point maker.

3. Iman Shumpert and Derrick Rose wreck team play on both ends in more overt ways. Offensively, neither guy is a threat from deep. Rose has always been a horrific shooter from beyond the arc. Shumpert is better, but still rightfully ignored by the defense as a spot-up shooter.

They both love possessions that start with them dribbling the ball by themselves and end with them firing up a jumper. At least Rose will attempt to get into the paint. Shump is plenty content to hoist from 20 for no good reason.

Defensively is where these guys really kill the team. Shumpert is fine on an island against an average to bigger guard. He can use his quick hands and lateral quickness to do some adequate work. As an off-ball defender, I’ve seen two-year-olds with longer attention spans. The coaching staff basically tells Shump to hound his guy the whole time now knowing that he rarely can be trusted to consistently crash down on the roll man or help the helper.

When he is glued to a guy, it looks like he is a defensive stopper. He’s not. He just doesn’t have the focus to do anything else. He doesn’t have the angle awareness or play recognition to beat guys to spots. He is always guarding a guy or ball watching. Great defense is often about leaning into a passing lane just enough to prevent the pass from even being thrown. That play recognition is crucial. It is also how LeBron has been getting a ton of steals lately. Sadly, Shump doesn’t have it.

You can basically apply everything I said about Iman Shumpert to Derrick Rose. Well, excepting any of the positive things. Rose is, and has always been, horrendous on defense. He has very limited lateral quickness these days and has no sense of play development. Random 20 point nights against Washington aside, he isn’t a positive NBA player anymore.

4. Addition by subtraction, folks. Without those players, Tyronn Lue has been forced into only playing guys who can shoot the rock. Frye and Love have been doing great work as the lone bigman in their lineups. They are battling hard against the monsters of the NBA and getting the upper hand.

Their consistent boxing out of opposing centers has led to big rebounding nights for LeBron. They are punishing any team that thinks they can hide a smaller guy on them on killer mouse-in-the-house post action. They are providing consistent positional play at the rim and in PnR defense so the defense can function as a unit. And yes, more than anything, their shooting range has freed up the lane for drives both in flat possessions and in screen action. This isn’t too complicated. Play shooters. Play with intelligence. Win a bunch of games.

Quickies:

Blake Griffin’s MCL strain is a bummer for a Clippers squad that finally started to win again. With Griffin out for at least two weeks months and Pat Beverley done for the year, a fun Clippers start to the season seems like years ago. It will be very interesting to see how the next two weeks play out. The Clips could be in sell mode very soon.

Wow. I’m as shocked as anyone as it pertains to the firing of David Fizdale. I’ve been impressed with him during his time as the Grizzlies’ head coach. Clearly, Marc Gasol didn’t agree. Nevertheless, I would say Gasol is more likely to be traded now than before. The only way this move makes sense from the organization’s point of view is that they want to make sure that they don’t have a “disgruntled” Gasol lowering his trade value. Either way, it is hard to be a head coach in the NBA.

Speaking of which, shout out to Quin Snyder of the Utah Jazz. The team plays incredible team ball on both sides. If they can ever get healthy enough to barge into the playoffs, they are going to be a tough out. They do so many smart things on a play to play basis.

Like the Cavs fantastic bench unit. Frye, Green, Korver, and Wade have made me excited for the start of every second quarter. I’m still hoping that Cedi Osman can work his way into regular minutes with that mind meld, but I have to admit that tossing Smith in there has been pretty darn successful. Veteran smarts. Shooting everywhere. It’s nice to enjoy watching Cavalier basketball again.