Cavaliers Defense Starting To Get Offensive
Written By: Andrew | Category: Cleveland Cavaliers | Comments: 19
of⋅fen⋅sive /əˈfɛn sɪv / [uh-fen-siv]
–adjective
1. causing resentful displeasure; highly irritating, angering, or annoying: offensive television commercials.
2. unpleasant or disagreeable to the sense: an offensive odor.
3. repugnant to the moral sense, good taste, or the like; insulting: an offensive remark; an offensive joke.
While the 2009-10 Cleveland Cavaliers have begun to show some signs of life over the last couple weeks, particularly on offense, something that has gone unnoticed for the most part is the unraveling of the defense.
I mentioned in the recap of last night’s game that the Cavaliers have now given up 100+ points in an astonishing four straight games, and five times total on the season. Lets try to put this into perspective. Last season, the Cavaliers didn’t give up their fifth 100+ point game until January 19th, almost 3 months into the season. They didn’t give up back-to-back 100+ point games until February 4th and 8th. They never once gave up 100+ points in three or more consecutive games.
It’s staggering, then, to realize just how bad the Cavaliers defense has been. So the question, then, is what exactly is going on? Did Ben Wallace really make this big of a difference? How does a team lose Wally Szczerbiak and gain Anthony Parker (a major defensive upgrade) and still drop significantly in defense?
There are a few factors that stand out to my eyes. It should be pointed out that while the Cavaliers are giving up more points this year, their opponents FG% is not up all that much. Opponents are shooting 44.3% against the Cavaliers, which is 12th in the NBA. The Cavaliers are also 12th in opponents Effective FG%, giving up an eFG% of 47.8%. While those aren’t numbers of an elite defensive team by any means, they also would seem to indicate that the Cavaliers shouldn’t be giving up as many points as they currently are.
One point that needs to be made is that the Cavaliers are actually playing at a much faster pace this season. Last season Cleveland had a Pace Factor of 88.7, which was 25th in the NBA. This year their Pace Factor is 92.4, which is 15th in the NBA. While the Cavaliers are hardly going to be confused with the Phoenix Suns or Golden State Warriors, they are certainly playing a more crisp and brisk style of offense this year and it’s leading to a faster paced game. What this means is that their opponents are getting more possessions and it’s allowing them to give up more points.
On face value, this really isn’t that bad of a thing. It takes a lot of the pressure off the defense as the Cavaliers have been able to use their offense to win games this year. Whereas last year the Cavaliers’ high Offensive Efficiency numbers were more of a reflection of their ability to get offensive rebounds and keep the number of possessions down in a game, this year the Cavaliers are opening things up more and trying to create more easy baskets inside. Without the dire necessity, for the most part, of the defense to save the game every night, it’s only logical that the defensive focus and intensity would slip a bit.
Finding tangible evidence of this isn’t hard to do, either. The 2 main areas that are haunting the Cavalier defense so far this season are free throws and giving up streaks. There’s actually a stat for Opponents’ Average Points Unanswered on a per game basis. Basically, it measure every single scoring streak, whether it be 4 or 24 points, and averages it out. The Cavaliers are giving up an average points unanswered streak of 2.1 points. That may not sound like a lot, but Cleveland is 27th in the NBA in this stat. The only teams more susceptible to giving up big runs than the Cavaliers are the Wizards, Knicks, and Clippers. We’ve seen this time and time again this year, particularly in the 4th quarter. This year the Cavaliers are giving up 25.1 ppg in the 4th quarter (21st in the NBA in this stat). Remember last year when the Cavaliers routinely used their defense in 4th quarters to slam the door shut on and demoralize their opponents? Well, last year they were best in the NBA in 4th quarter points against at 22.7 ppg.
The other area of concern is free throws. The Cavaliers are giving up 0.331 free throws per field goal attempt (24th in the NBA), which comes out to a Free Throw Rate of 25.0%. Free Throw Rate is one of the “Four Factors” of winning NBA games, and right now the Cavaliers are letting their opponents get to the free throw line way too often. There’s a stereotype out there that the Cavaliers always get all the calls, but the numbers don’t bear that out. Only 5 teams have given up more FTA than Cleveland (conversely, the Cavaliers are only 10th in free throw attempts).
What these number show us is good news, in my opinion. Giving up free throws and allowing long scoring streaks are both symptoms not of ability, but of effort and focus. The reason this is good news is because its much easier to fix attitude than it is to increase talent level. The Cavaliers have been without Shaq for 3 straight games now, robbing them of their biggest inside defensive presence. They’ve been without Anderson Varejao for 2 straight games, and Andy is this team’s best and most versatile frontcourt defender. These factors have certainly played a part.
The biggest change, though, has been the insertion of JJ Hickson into the starting lineup. While Hickson has given the team a major boost in offensive identity, it hasn’t come without it’s trade offs on defense. Hickson is definitely improving on his defensive awareness and effort, but it’s still a work in progress. The good news is that a) the Cavaliers are trying to develop the offense to be able to win games, and b) many of their issues on defense are easily fixed by increasing effort. Perhaps this team will turn it on later in the season or in the playoffs, but it should also be pointed out that last night’s game against Washington was a game the Cavaliers would have won with their defense last year. This year, it’s another game in the loss column.
Author: AndrewSchnitkey
Andrew Schnitkey is a founding editor of WaitingForNextYear. Though he has written about every Cleveland franchise over the years, his primary focus is the Cavaliers and NBA basketball in general.Andrew Schnitkey has written 449 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
Good write up. The defense looked great in the 1st quarter last night and it looked just as bad in the 2nd quarter as it looked good in the 1st. I think the defense will come, it seems to be more of a mindset issue than anything. Turnovers and lack of aggression on the offensive end killed this team more than anything. The foul count was out of whack but the Cavs settling for jumpshots is just as much to blame as the referring.
I think opposing teams are glad Andy isn’t on the court right now. He’s the most annoying player in basketball. Glad he’s on our side. We need him back.
Does Jamario Moon have any offensive game other than a standstill 3 pointer and dunk? He can’t create a shot, never moves without the ball-he’s content to stand at the 3 point line; all of which was known in regards to this CBA journeyman. I cringed the day he was signed for $6M/2 years while better and much cheaper options (can you say Matt Barnes) signed elsewhere. He better be able to play defense, he’s at best a low-end roster utility player-not a significant contribution option.
IIRC Matt Barnes was never anything more than a fan rumor/pipe dream.
I was at the game last night. It was really ugly. I kept telling my wife that I never thought I would see the day where the Wizards out-defended us. Hickson and Mo were especially ineffective last night.
On another note: I always knew DC hated LeBron, but, man, do they ever HATE him. The fans were out for blood. I thought they were going to start calling for his public execution right there. In some way, though, as a Cleveland fan, it was nice to be hated (rather than irrelevant).
Also, did anyone notice how Z was hitting his shot early but then went cold? Not sure what’s been up with him. In the first quarter, I was starting to believe the theory that his shot has been cold b/c he’s coming off the bench. But, he couldn’t shoot in the 2nd half despite starting. Weird.
LeBron’s defensive focus hasn’t been that great lately. I have seen him get beat quite a bit this year. I think the attitude has everything to do with it right now. Once these guys get focused on the defensive end it is on!!
Excellent piece Rock. I think it is all about attitude and feeling comfortable. With all the new personnel and adjustments in style of play, the Cavs are thinking a lot more right now about what they need to do and I think that’s taking them a little out of their game at the defensive end. Then, right when the team has a nice couple of road wins in Florida and seems to be finding their groove, their two most important players on an already thin front line go down.
I think the defense will come around, but the Cavs’ attitude must spark it. Last night, you could tell the Cavs just gave up. That happened VERY rarely last year.
Ben-regardless, I’d have NEVER given $6M to Moon. And I truly hope I’m wrong……I’d love to see that guy contribute, but he troubles me given the investment in both dollars and roster space. I fear there’s a reason he kicked around the CBA.
Jamarion Moon – 14.13 PER. Per 36 avgs this season: 11.1 pts, 8.2 rebounds, 1.0 steals, 0.8 blocks. FG% = 46.7%. 3P% = 36.8%
Matt Barnes – 10.33 PER. Per 36 avgs this season: 11.3 pts, 8.1 rebounds, 1.3 steals, 0.6 blocks. FG% = 38.1%. 3P% = 18.6%
As per usual, Isis, you are way out of your element here. In what universe is Matt Barnes a better player than Jamario Moon? Oh, and for the record, in defensive ON/OFF stats, Barnes is +4.1 and Moon is +4.4, so neither one is playing good defense, so you can’t go there either.
Also, Moon’s efficiency rating is better than Varejao’s and better than Gibson’s. Better than Delonte’s. In fact, Moon is the Cavaliers’ most efficient bench player so far this year. If you want to question whether Moon can keep it up for a full season, that’s fair. But don’t sit and act like Moon isn’t contributing to this team and that he has no skills. That’s just ridiculous.
You’re not honestly expecting a response to the use of fact/logic, are you Rock? You might be waiting a while.
i have to hope they’ll pick up the D soon. It’s gotta infuriate Big Mike B that his team is not just blowing leads late, but nuking the hell out of them.
Can’t imagine it’ll keep up like this…unless for whatever mysterious reason, we are actually a worse defensive team w/o Ben and Wally….
This coming the night after Jamario played 26 minutes, was a -3 (compared to LeBron’s -12 in 35 minutes), scored 10 points on 4-8 shooting (2-4 from three), had 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block.
Yeah, this guy contributes nothing to the team, Isis. You’re right.
@B-bo: Yeah, I know I shouldn’t even worry about what Isis says about anything, but I’m not going to allow him to come into the comment sections on the articles I write and spread a bunch of unfounded nonsense.
@6 CleveFanVA,
I remember a half-time interview with Phil Jackson last year when we played the Lakers. They asked him what he was going to do about Z who had been shooting well in the 1st half. Phil very nonchalantly said something to the effect of, Z usually cools off and we won’t have to worry about him in the 2nd half.
Z scored 22 in the game but only made one bucket in the second half.
Yeah, this guy Isis contributes nothing to the team
We could only hope he contributed nothing.
Andy would have been HUGE last night for us. Jamison was on and there was nobody to stop him. Andy could have stepped up and at least put a body on him.
Earl Freakin’ Boykins, man. Sheesh.
agreed, but what about their turnovers, what are the numbers there?…they throw away so many passes, including lebron