FanPost

Have the Cavs found their 2nd Unit?

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been struggling to find a 2nd unit that works. Lately, you'll see Lue trot out Kyrie Irving, along with Richard Jefferson, Iman Shumpert, and Timofey Mozgov. When these 4 players are on the court, the Cavs are getting out scored by just under 2 points per 100 possessions. While this unit isn't getting killed, and it's not a huge sample, you don't want your 2nd unit to be a negative, especially in the playoffs where teams can take advantage. This lineup lacks any creators outside of Kyrie, and that extremely limits what the offense can do without seeing a lot of Kyrie ISO. While Kyrie and Mozgov have actually been a positive when on the court together without Lebron (I was shocked too), I believe that the 2nd unit should be run by Lebron, and be accompanied by Frye.

Last night, even though Lue played the Kyrie, Shump, and Moz group together, with some RJ sprinkled in, in the first quarter (with mediocre results), he had a new plan going into the 2nd quarter. The 3 man front court of Lebron, RJ, and Frye (without Kyrie or Moz) had only played 7 minutes together up until last nights game. Last night, they played roughly 10 minutes together. The results? Fantastic. According to the popcorn machine, The combination of Delly/Shump/LBJ/RJ/Frye was a +9 for the first 4:15 of the 2nd quarter. This same lineup was a +4 in 5:32 to start the 4th. That means in about 10 minutes of game time, the Cavs outscored the Pistons by 13 without even having Kyrie or Love on the floor!! At the end of the 3rd, this same lineup was out there with Kyrie instead of Shump, and the Pistons were outscored by 5 points in 1:15. Let's take a deeper look into this bench unit.

Why This Works

When you put Frye at Center with Lebron and RJ, this allows you to play 5 out. This means, Lebron has an empty paint to feast on.

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You can see here when Lebron sets the pick on Delly, you have Frye in the bottom right corner, Shump on the right wing, and RJ on the left. Lebron screens on the left side of Delly, so that when he rolls, even if Baynes wants to help off of Frye (which would leave a wide open corner 3 for Frye), Lebron is on the left side of the hoop, which makes it harder for Baynes to get over. If Tolliver commits to stopping Lebron for the easy oop, 38% shooter Richard Jefferson is wide open for a 3, ready for an easy pass from Delly.

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Here, Lebron is working out of the post, with 3 shooters (and Iman) on the wing. With Frye at the top of the key, it completely takes Baynes out of the equation to stop Lebron in the post. The others to stop him: Bullock, Tolliver, Stanley Johnson, and poor little Steve Blake. While Tolliver slips off of Delly to help on Bron, who is strong arming Bullock to the hoop, Stanley is rotating over to stop a pass to Delly/RJ, RJ makes the smart move to come down to the basket. This makes Tollver stop his full help, and have to box out RJ to make sure he doesn't get an O board, or an easy dump off from Lebron. When Lebron is posting up Detroit wings, with 4 shooters around him, good things will happen.

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Lebron in transition, baby. A train off the tracks in which no one has a hope to stop. Baynes is the only person really strong enough to put a body on Lebron to stop him, but he has to keep his eyes on Frye the whole time, who is working his way towards the top of the key, in case Lebron needs to pass back for an open 3.

This unit is great for a lot of reasons. It gives the Cavs a strong 2nd unit, which allows all of Kyrie, Love, and TT ample time to rest, while ensuring the Cavs don't get beat on the floor. It gives RJ a bonafide purpose on this team, and it allows him to simply be a catch and shoot 3 on offense, while not getting destroyed on defense, due to him being able to guard 4's on that end, with Lebron guarding the wing.

Lue said Frye would have a role in this series. This is it. It's a good sign to see Lue try lineups that have had such little run in the regular season, especially when they work like this.Let's hope this is the Cavs 2nd unit for most of the playoffs.

(SHOUTOUT TO DELLAVALIERS FOR THE GIFS!! Your great work allowed me to make this post without spending a lot of time finding clips of these lineups. Thanks man.)

This is a Fan-Created Comment on FearTheSword.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff at FearTheSword

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