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On the Cavaliers and the Love of the 3-Point Shot

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No shot in basketball is more tantalizing than the 3-point shot. An arbitrary arc drawn on the court that encompasses the team’s offensive zone, it acts as an ever taunting force, daring and begging players who find themselves outside said arc to shoot the ball.

For some teams, the shot is an exercise in performing winning basketball. For other teams, the shot is a reminder of everything that is wrong with that team’s offense.

The Cleveland Cavaliers might be somewhere in between those two extremes, but such is the nature of 3-point shooting for most teams. The old basketball adage of living or dying by “the three” is one of the more true clichés in all of sports. It makes sense, too, because after all, you can make a pretty strong argument that in the game of basketball, the most important thing you can do is make shots.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that the Cavaliers’ fate in games this year has more or less been directly correlated to their 3-point shooting. After setting the rim on fire from 3-point land earlier in the season, the team has continued to lean on the shot on this road trip, only to much worse results.

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The Cavs sure are bricking a lot of shots off the front of the rim - which is the classic sign of tired legs.

There's somewhat of a dichotomy at work, in that it's hard for a team that puts up top effort on D to consistently knock down 3pters thanks to tired legs. Of course the Suns have always run a lot AND maintained a high 3pt%, but they don't play much D. I do think the fact they take so many shots helps keep their shooters locked in on range. The Spurs were tops in the league in 3pt% last season, but their defense dropped down to 11th.

So, there may be some ways to balance it, but teams like the Spurs, Suns, and Celtics move the ball exceptionally well, have numerous offensive threats, and create a lot of great looks for their shooters in the rhythm of their offense. We can't do much about our lack of offensive threats, but we can work on the other areas.
 
T
So, there may be some ways to balance it, but teams like the Spurs, Suns, and Celtics move the ball exceptionally well, have numerous offensive threats, and create a lot of great looks for their shooters in the rhythm of their offense. We can't do much about our lack of offensive threats, but we can work on the other areas.

Great analysis, but teams like the Spurs, suns and Celts dont have 2 of their best players as rookies (including a rookie pg) plus a starting pf and sf going a combined 2 for 836 on open 3 point shots every night. Reality is we are better in almost every facet of the game than I expected at this point except for the performance of Casspi.
 
I think Andrew hints on a good point:
Therein lies part of the problem with the Cavaliers’ offense. With limited creativity and scoring ability on the wings, the Cavaliers are stuck relying on volume shooting from Jamison, Kyrie Irving creating off the dribble, and the bigs cleaning up on the scraps. There seems to be no mid range game for the Cavaliers and they are thus they are making it easier for teams to defend their strengths.

When your two best inside players excel at offensive rebounding and your other offensive options are limited, an open three should be your primary look. You don't have to make all of them, but hitting a couple can open up the inside when defenders close out.
 

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