In hopes of diversifying their offense, Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue has created several new sets of plays for the recently-revamped team to run, according to a report from ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
As most hoops fans know, the Cavs made sweeping changes at this season’s trade deadline, sending away six players. In return, Cleveland received George Hill, Larry Nance Jr, Rodney Hood, and Jordan Clarkson.
The new-look Cavs won their first two games together before the All-Star break, but they’ve registered a 1-2 record since, which includes their 110-94 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.
“Lue introduced an offensive structure that starts with feeding the ball to the elbow and has “six or seven” options to pursue from there, depending on how the defense reacts,” McMenamin writes in his recent article. “In the starting unit, the elbow feeds — while Kevin Love is hurt, at least — will flow through LeBron James. With the second unit, those touches will go through Larry Nance Jr. or Jeff Green.”
The Spurs really clamped down on James in Sunday’s loss. San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich sent a myriad of different players in his direction on defense.
“Not being able to run a lot of stuff,” Lue told ESPN of the Spurs game. “They did a good job of switching and putting anybody on Bron — putting Patty Mills, putting [Bryn] Forbes, you know, putting Tony Parker [on him]. So we drew [up plays showing] where we want guys to be and it’s going to be a process and we’ll continue to get better at that.”
Coach Lue also noted that his team has become a bit too predictable on the offensive end of the floor.
“I thought today was a good day, a good teaching day,” Lue told McMenamin. “I was able to add some more stuff offensively because right now with only two or three practices, we’re predictable offensively and teams are kind of sitting on that and taking advantage of that.”
The Cavs, now the 3rd-ranked team in the Eastern Conference standings with a 34-24 overall record, will be back in action on Tuesday night, as they’re scheduled to host the Brooklyn Nets. Tip-off inside Quicken Loans Arena is set for 7:00 p.m. with FOX Sports Ohio having live broadcast coverage.