Splinters from the Bench: Analyzing what ails Cavs second squad

It’s no secret that the Cleveland Cavaliers have been getting virtually nothing from their bench through the first 15 games. But, just how bad is it? Is it worse than it appears on the surface? Is it a problem that can be fixed in-house or self-correct with time and familiarity? Is a mid-season upgrade necessary? If so, where? Let’s take a look at some of the biggest holes that are killing the team right now.

Three-point shooting: The Cavaliers have 118 made three-pointers this season (7.9 per game, 18th in the league). How many of those treys do you think are courtesy of the Big Three? How about 84 of them (over 71%). Outside of those three largely carrying the Cavaliers to the 8th best clip of 36.6%, the rest of the Cavs are shooting just 30.6%. Joe Harris is fourth on the team with 9 made threes, followed by 8 each for Dion Waiters and Shawn Marion. Outside of those six players, there’s only 9 threes thus far. The obvious sore thumb here is Mike Miller, who is not only not making threes and not taking threes, but he’s not even hitting the floor anymore. Miller has taken just 18 shots in 11 games and hasn’t played in the team’s last four games. Jones, who I didn’t expect to get regular rotation minutes if things went smoothly, still hasn’t seen any meaningful action despite Miller’s struggles, Delly’s injury, and James’s approval of him. Before it’s said and done, I think the Cavaliers are going to need to get a bench spot-up shooter that is going to knock down shots for them. Whether that can be Miller, Jones, Harris, or even Waiters for stretches remains to be seen. Perhaps I’m overreacting a bit on this one. I’d just feel much better if the three players saddled with the responsibility of scoring over 60% of the team’s points didn’t have to be the only meaningful outside threats too.

Scoring in general: How many double-digit point efforts do you think the Cavs have from their second unit this season? It’s a paltry 11, and six of those belong to Tristan Thompson. Dion Waiters has four double-digit bench performances, and Joe Harris has one. Even Shawn Marion has only eclipsed that mark twice. It’s a crude stat, but when the Cavaliers aren’t getting even one person per night outside of their Big Three plus Anderson Varejao in double digit scoring, there’s an issue. The Cavs bench comes in dead last with 22.3 points per night and is playing the second least minutes per night around the league. The second unit shoots it at just 40.7% from the field (28th) and 28.4% from three (26th).

Fourth big (or lack thereof): The Cavaliers have had a tight eight man rotation for most of the year. That includes just one big in Thompson coming off the bench for meaningful bench time. Brendan Haywood and Lou Amundson have yet to stick in the regular flow of playing time, though Amundson has been seen more lately. In short, LeBron James has been functioning as the team’s fourth big. According to Basketball Reference’s play-by-play data (which admittedly has its flaws as it has 34% of Tristan’s minutes coming from the small forward position due to James’s weight advantage on Thompson), James is spending 28% of his time at the four position, which is actually way down from his last two years at Miami when he was at a 82% clip for minutes at the power forward spot.

While the versatility of Thompson, Varejao, and Love allows all three of them to play both spots on the floor in a pinch, the lack of a larger bodied center with more shot blocking ability is going to catch up with the Cavaliers at some point I believe. The wine and gold currently sit at 23rd in the league in blocks, while the aforementioned trio has cobbled together only 30 send-aways. The trickle down effect here is that perhaps the Cavs would want more minutes for James and even Marion at the four spot if their wing players such as Miller, Harris, Dellavedova, Waiters, and Jones were warranting more minutes and/or were healthy. At his age, I think Shawn Marion is more equipped to handle guarding power forwards than he is shooting guards. Despite the fact that it’s functioning right now, Shawn Marion is NOT a NBA starting shooting guard at age 36.

The Cavs may just be resigned to being a team as constructed that is going to play small nightly and compensate for it in other areas. In most situations, it won’t be the back-breaker, but I’d feel much better if we got to see more of Haywood or Amundson on a regular basis or bring in someone else who can spot them 10 minutes per night. While the Cavs are doing a good job at limiting second chance points (5th best at 11.7 ppg), they’re giving up over 42 points in the paint per game, which is the 11th most in the NBA. The most indicting of all? Cleveland is allowing a nauseating 63.7% field goal percentage within five feet of the rim, third worst.

At the start of this season, I thought this roster was too deep and had too much experience fused with young upside to fail. But, right now, the back half of the roster is failing the Cavaliers, and it’s putting extra stress on the front end that’s still trying to figure things out itself.