Zach Lowe on if the Cavaliers Can Sustain Their Recent Success – Sports4CLE, 1/24/24

Zach Lowe on if the Cavaliers Can Sustain Their Recent Success – Sports4CLE, 1/24/24

L again some of the reasons the Cavs have had success without their two best players and if it’s sustainable this from the low poost they are blowing the doors off everybody with three-point shooting for the season they’ve taken like the seventh most threes in the

League I think per per as a share of shot attempts in this 16 game stretch 44% of their shots have been threes 44% that’s almost like whoa is that too many like how are they taking that many shots but it’s working for them and the question is going to be where does that

End up when Moy comes back obviously their three-point attempts will go down Garland weirdly doesn’t take a lot of threes and their threes have been depressed with Garland on the floor they’ve got to find a way to live in between offensively where they were before the injuries and where they are

Now with the injuries we should note that one of the reasons they have transformed into a monstrous rebound team is that they’ve been playing Tristan Thompson Tristan Thompson remains an incredible offensive rebounder um like four guys have to box him out on every possession and the refs have decided that Tristan Thompson can

Essentially play football under the rim and just throw people around and they’re not going to call anything which is great for the Cavs and he did go on to say he was suspended and they’re going to miss him um it’s an interesting um thought just how do you obviously

With Moy and Garland coming back they’re not going to shoot that many threes but they have to you have to shoot enough to space the floor to to give you know Moy and Allen and Garland and especially Mitchell the space that he needs to to work yeah one thing they found is

Obviously during these injuries is the the emergence of Sam Merrill who has enabled them to uh take a lot more threes that’s basically all he shoots Dean Wade kind of the same same thing um you know I think there’s going to be some consideration when Garland comes

Back of having him play off the ball with as well as Donovan Mitchell has been facilitating and that’s not a shot against Garland he does a nice job but you know the way Mitchell is creating and the way Marill is spacing the floor and Max stru you know credit to Kobe

Alman he went out to get Shooters this offseason it’s obviously working one of the guys and Sam Merrill just happened to already be on the roster but you know stru George Nang those guys knocking down threes uh and obviously at a high clip and and taking them uh a lot

Because they’re getting you know so many good looks off feeds from Mitchell so I think that’s something the Cavs might consider is you know let Mitchell become the primary ball handler have Garland play off the ball maybe not all the time but a lot of the time or at least part

Of the time uh when Garland returns and you know as far as Mobly no he’s not going to go out there and take three-pointers like Dean Wade does or George Yang so his their threes will go down when he returns but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be congested it’s

Just you know they have to adapt a little bit and I give JB bicker staff a lot of credit here for being able to adapt and uh with with those two guys out and kind of making the offense more of a perimeter oriented offense than ever before but he’ll have to adapt and

Adjust again once Moy comes back and I still think they’re going to take a lot of Threes And I still think Sam Merill is going to play a lot he deserves to be a regular part of the rotation now but it’s just not going to

Be quite as much that said I don’t think that’s a huge deal or something to be concerned

Dave Bacon and Sam Amico respond to what Zach Lowe had to say on the Cavaliers’ recent success without Evan Mobley and Darius Garland.

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