From Distance: Value in Size

Four point play…

1. The house I grew up in is not of the typical cookie-cutter design that mostly permeates Mentor, Ohio. It was built in the early part of the 20th century by a somewhat amateur architect with a penchant for international flair. As far as I know, he made four houses in all.

Diagonally across our little boulevard, a beautiful Tudor sticks out like an incredibly healthy thumb. Directly across from the Tudor and adjacent to my father’s home is a Mexican style stucco that quite delightfully confuses our sensibilities. Going the other direction sits a somewhat boring colonial style home of no particular note. Three outta four ain’t bad. Then there is my childhood house.

We frequently referred to it as a gingerbread house. Considering its severely sloping red roof, it would possibly make more sense chilling deep in the Black Forest or the Swiss Alps (though to be fair, lake effect snow does make that roof rather useful). It’s brick, but the architect being the guy he was, thought a little stucco would add some flair as well. It was scary for kids on Halloween, and adored by my mother and father year round.

While we all loved the character and individuality of our house, especially amidst the architectural boredom that is Midwestern suburbia, there was one primary problem that prevented complete satisfaction.

The house is small. It is more than enough for my father now, but I grew up with two older sisters. Let’s say there weren’t quite enough rooms in which to comfortably squeeze five people. It’s a sturdy, charming house that is wonderful for a couple with one child. It was out of its league for five.

Sometimes no matter the flair or beauty, it’s just not big enough. I could stand in the living room and touch the roughly eight foot ceiling. Which, incidentally, is something that Trae Young couldn’t do.

2. I enjoy watching Trae Young’s lightening fast release as much as anyone. The time it takes the young man to gather and launch is simply incredible. The shot form itself is also interesting. Trae doesn’t ditch any momentum from his legs through his flick.

There has been a bit of a revolution when it comes to shooting style in the last few years. More and more players are taking Steph Curry’s seemingly “release on the way up” as a model. If a small player has good footwork and a great handle, the shot is more likely to get off than an old school, Klay Thompson/Mark Price textbook jumper would.

It’s a pretty shot in many ways and one that is likely to be accurate on open shots at the next level. Basically the complete opposite of Lonzo Ball’s ridiculous stroke.

Still, Young is simply too pedestrian an athlete for me to get excited. I wasn’t joking about his standing reach. He has been measured to have a reach under eight feet. His 6’2″ wingspan and average quickness don’t give me any more confidence that the young man will have a chance in any post-mortem reality of not being a horrific defender on the next level.

We have just been liberated of having to watch Isaiah Thomas on a nightly basis. Young does tower over Thomas, but has half the quickness that IT has displayed throughout his career. Young hasn’t even been able to consistently get into the paint against the better college teams. He does most of his damage on wicked pullups and backcuts when defenders get too high. Defensively, he’s a non-entity.

Let’s be honest, there is chance that Trae Young could be the next Steph Curry. I certainly didn’t expect Curry to be able to develop his body as well as he has. Still, I think the likelihood of him being the next Brandon Jennings is higher. A slower, right-handed, admittedly better shooting Jennings. Does that really excite you?

Enough about that. We will have plenty of time to cover draft prospects as we move through the year. This post is more about size. The reason Cavs fans should have no reason to curb their enthusiasm post “Altman miracle 2018” is the size and length that joined the squad.

3. We have covered the individual players over the last week. Let’s see how the new longer Cavaliers may be best deployed. I’ll tackle a new lineup each week over the next couple to see how this will fly.

Lineup: Nance, LeBron, Korver, Hood, Cedi.

Why it will work: We have already seen the pace and force with which LeBron James and Larry Nance Jr run the Pick and Roll. An opposing defense can’t load up on any primary action of the play without giving up three pointers all over the floor. Nance is too good of a dive man for a defense not to crash early on the weakside. Obviously, a defense can’t really afford not to help hard on LeBron as he comes barreling down the lane.

The result is that opposing defenses are clogging the paint early, begging Nance to be a short roll shot creator. Junior has been up to the task. In the play below Felton does a good job of eliminating the short corner three pass, but Nance still understands where his outlet is. He might have been able to shoot it as well, but clearly, Larry is looking to find his shooters. The ball keeps popping until Hood drains the three.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziJFFPkJOTM&t=4m10s

Hood is a great top of the break three point shooter. A lot of extended ball swings against good defensive rotation result in shot opportunities from the top of the arc. Come playoff time, no good team is going to let an offense step into easy corner threes. The fact that Hood drills the top of the arc shot is a great asset for Cavalier floor-spacing.

Hood and Nance have also already shown a proclivity to use a high dribble hand-off on the weakside after pin down action to free Hood for his pet straightaway bomb. If a defense traps too stop Hood’s three, they risk a direct roll to the basket from Nance.

None of this is revolutionary stuff. It’s just that Hood is a better shooter and Nance is a better rolling playmaker than Wade and Tristan respectively. Their skill-sets make these actions almost impossible to stop. Remember, during the Nance/Hood dance, the defense also has to worry about Korver on the opposite side of the floor.

I’m sure defenses will take their chances funneling the ball to Nance as a roller and Cedi as an “anything-er”. Teams still don’t have much info on Osman’s play-making ability. They don’t really respect his jumper yet either. Cedi will continue to get wide open weakside threes whenever he wants.

Good. The fact is, Osman is a far better play-maker than people know yet. His strange free throw shooting struggles aside, he is also effective in attacking closeouts with efficiency and leverage.

Defensively, for the most part, the lineup can switch across the board without having to sacrifice too much rebounding. Having a 6’8″ guy in Cedi essentially acting as a defensive point guard will allow the Cavs to hit the glass from a few more angles than normal.

Korver, Cedi, and Nance all do a great job of finding guys to boxout. When locked in LeBron is a fantastic defensive rebounder. While Hood isn’t spectacular on that front, the threat of his leak out does prevent the offense from crashing too hard.

Why it won’t work: Against a monster like Steven Adams, Nance and Bron might not be enough upfront to have a chance to regularly finish defensive possessions via rebound. Love’s boxout mastery would be necessary against the real giants of the NBA. Still, there are so few of those guys around to really concern me.

The lineup also lacks a secondary play-maker that has a long history of success in the NBA. It is conceivable that Hood and Cedi just wouldn’t come through in times of real consequence. A George Hill steadying presence might be necessary in place of Hood or Cedi.

I’m still optmistic. The shooting and constant motion that Hood, Korver, and Osman supply would tire the defense out in a way that benefits play-making. Nance isn’t the minus that Tristan Thompson is in that regard. And, ya know, LeBron.

Conclusion: At the moment, it doesn’t seem like this would be the primary lineup to take down any team in a Finals series. Hood, Cedi, and Nance are all green. Still, the physical matchup abilities of this lineup are more than intriguing. The Cavs no longer need to worry about Andre Iguodala or Shaun Livingston’s size against the Warriors. Cleveland has its own length to counter with in the backcourt.

4. Are we getting ahead of ourselves? No. Assuming LeBron stays healthy, this team needs to be thinking about lineups for the Warriors from here on out. The Celtics won’t be able to score with the Cavs in the playoffs. The Raptors won’t be able to stop the Cavs either.

Size, length, and athleticism… Now that the Cavs have it, it’s time to think about the big time.