Cavs Have Bolstered Roster for Finals Run Before, May Not Be Done This Season
BROOKLYN, New York — The Cleveland Cavaliers are not satisfied.
They're the NBA's defending champions, they sit in first place out East at 27-8 following Friday's 116-108 win over the Brooklyn Nets, and they're not sitting back wondering if their roster is good enough as-is to compete for another title.
Hence the trade for Atlanta Hawks swingman Kyle Korver, which the Cavs hope to complete by Saturday, according to ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin and Marc Stein.
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But anybody surprised by Cleveland's aggressive pursuit to further enhance a squad that already qualifies as "championship-caliber" shouldn't be. This is the same team that sent away longtime Cavaliers staple Anderson Varejao to acquire lights-out-shooting big Channing Frye last season—someone who has a pretty good idea how Korver might be feeling right now.
“It made me think, 'Holy s--t, I’m on a contender now,'” Frye said Friday, reflecting on his own transitional experience a year ago.
“Then, at the beginning, it’s a little overwhelming, thinking I’ve got pressure on me to do A, B, C and D. But after coming here and them explaining to me—basically, after a week, they were like, ‘Channing, this is what we want you to do, and that role will expand the more defenses play you differently.’ So I just went from that.”
Frye’s game has been rejuvenated since he arrived in Cleveland. Last season, his player efficiency rating rose from 11.8 before the trade to 14.9 after, and it now sits at 16.3—his best mark since his rookie year. He fits the offense by providing spacing as a big man who can shoot threes, much like Kevin Love does.
Korver is one of the best three-point shooters in NBA history, and his presence will help accomplish the goal of stretching out opposing defenses to their breaking point.
“He can get a double-team without the ball,” Frye said. “Anytime he comes off a screen, if you’re not up, he’s one of the guys that when he catches it, it’s up, even if you’re right behind him. Hopefully he gets used to getting a lot of looks and shooting that thing. Hopefully he doesn’t get jelly [jealous] of how wet my jumper is.”
The 33-year-old Frye laughed at his own use of language, but he has a point. He leads the NBA in three-point shooting percentage this season, in no small part thanks to open looks like this generated by kick-out passes:
And it's not just Frye who becomes the beneficiary of Cleveland's offensive approach. DeAndre Liggins, who is still a relative unknown to the league's casual fanbase, is able to get in on the action as well:
That should benefit Korver, but don't kid yourself if you think shooting is the only thing he's good for.
“We all make a mistake if we just think Kyle’s a shooter,” Kenny Atkinson, an assistant with the Hawks for four seasons before becoming the head coach of the Nets last spring, said Friday.
“He’s a better all-around player than people think. He’s a better defender than people think, better passer. He’s got a really great IQ, and he’s going to help them in so many ways. I think it’s an excellent move on their part, and he’s going to really help that team, especially when playoff time comes.”
For all the other good things that Korver can do, his main attribute still is that long-range shooting—he is a career 42.9 percent shooter from downtown, 40.9 percent this year. As a team, the Cavaliers entered Friday shooting 39.1 percent for the season, second in the NBA to the San Antonio Spurs.
Cleveland ranked seventh in three-point percentage last year at 36.2 percent, but that number dropped to 32.9 during the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors. And while it’s just a one-game sample, the team made only 34.3 percent of its trey attempts in the one-point win over the Dubs on Christmas Day.
So, if it seems like Korver is heading to Cleveland specifically with another Finals rematch in mind, especially knowing that Golden State has the best three-point defense in the league—well…maybe not quite.
“I’ve been in this game long enough to know that you can’t project who’s going to be there at the end,” Cleveland reserve James Jones said, himself a top-flight shooter.
“If you do everything to chase or to match up with someone, it usually doesn’t pan out well. We’ve known all along, we’ve always said that we want to get stronger. That means if we can add a piece, especially a skilled shooter, someone that can add to our firepower, you try to do that.”
That is what the Cavs are doing, taking one of their strengths and accentuating it. If Korver is a counter to what Golden State does, great. But the Warriors, good as they are, are not invincible. The Spurs should offer a challenge in the West, and, as luck would have it, San Antonio ranks third in NBA three-point defense.
Meanwhile, in Cleveland's own conference, the Indiana Pacers, Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks rank second, fourth, and fifth in that category, respectively.
Adding Korver makes the Cavaliers better equipped to deal with several potential springtime opponents. But as we learned last season with Frye—not to mention Love, Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith in 2014-15—this team isn't one to stand pat.
"We gotta get a point guard," James reiterated before the game Friday, per Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. "It's my last time saying it. We need a point guard."
One available option, who has chemistry with James, is former Heat floor general Mario Chalmers, who tore his Achilles last season and now is a free agent. If Chalmers is healthy, it would be easier to add him than to make yet another trade.
Norris Cole, another former James teammate from Miami, also is a free agent. And on the buy-low trade market, Rajon Rondo is out of favor in Chicago.
The most important thing is that, whether it’s via swap or free agency, Cleveland finds someone who fits into the offense. It'll need a guard who can penetrate to help manipulate defenses.
“You have all these guys that are going downhill, getting the defense to touch the paint, then spraying out for guys getting wide-open looks,” Frye said. “It’s just good basketball.”
Cleveland knows that playing its best basketball is good enough to win a title without any gimmicks pointed at a specific opponent. Korver only adds to what the Cavaliers already do, and the same can be expected of anyone else who gets to feel the jubilation Frye did last year when joining a championship favorite.
*All statistics provided by Basketball-Reference.com and are current entering Friday's games.
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