You don’t want to make too much of preseason basketball, but there are some things we can learn from the Cleveland Cavaliers’ opening loss to the Chicago Bulls.
Evan Mobley is all that matters this season. The team goes as he does. So, the natural question is whether or not he has another leap left in him. If you ask anyone associated with the Cavs, they’ll tell you that he does.
We’ll see whether that materializes as the year progresses. We aren’t going to figure that out in the 18 minutes he played
in a game where the outcome doesn’t matter. However, it’s difficult not to be encouraged by the direction things are going.
The Cavs need Mobley to play like he’s the team’s best player. He did so on Tuesday as he led the starters with 10 shots. This included possessions like the one below where he took it coast-to-coast and finished through Patrick Williams with ease.
It’s not the most impressive sequence ever, but it’s something you see superstars like Giannis Antetokounmpo do numerous times throughout a game. If Mobley is going to ever reach an MVP level, it’ll be because he has the skills to do this on command.
Along those same lines, this is another good example of a play that superstars make look routine. Mobley knew that he had an advantage over Matas Buzelis. Once he worked out that the help wasn’t able to come in time, he finished with ease.
The best players in the league don’t achieve that status through doing the impossible. They gain it by making the difficult tasks — like a seven-footer creating his own shot off the dribble — look incredibly easy and repeatable. We’re continuing to see glimpses of that with Mobley.
Playing with the starters should simplify De’Andre Hunter’s role, which is a good thing. He knows that he’s there to hit open shots and attack mismatches on offense. Defensively, he needs to communicate well with the bigs, be aggressive at the point of attack, and crash for rebounds. It isn’t too complicated.
This is in stark contrast to last year. Hunter was thrust into a winning team and asked to play power forward — a position he isn’t best suited for — while being one of the primary offensive creators off the bench. He was good in that role, but it wasn’t the most optimal situation for him. This new role with the starters could be.
Getting Hunter the ball in places he can attack is an emphasis for Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson.
“We’re putting him in some [different] spots,” Atkinson said postgame. “Getting him at that elbow some, getting him in that midpost a little bit, get him a little closer to the basket.”
The play below is a good example of that. The Cavs ran a simple pin-down screen to get him a good look over Buzelis. An 18-foot jumper isn’t the most analytically efficient shot, but it’s one that Hunter is comfortable with and can get him going on a night like this.
Similarly, they cleared out a side here and let Hunter work on Kevin Huerter. Again, this isn’t an analytically optimal shot, but it’s one Hunter is comfortable with given the space he’s able to create.
Isolation midrange jumpers aren’t staples of a Kenny Atkinson offense. He’s known for wanting a movement offense that emphasizes threes.
At the same time, basketball isn’t played on a spreadsheet. You need buy in from your best players and they need to be comfortable in their role to succeed. If that means using a few inefficient possessions to accomplish that, so be it.
“We have to adjust to our personnel,” Atkinson said. “What are our strengths? What are De’Andre’s strengths?”
Making calculated concessions like this isn’t lost on the players.
“It helps a lot,” Hunter said. “I’m confident in myself, but having the confidence from my teammates and coach as well definitely helps.”
Hunter is a top-tier scorer. It’s easy for that to get lost in the conversation when you’re on a team with three other ball-dominant stars. Hunter should, and rightfully will, take a backseat to them in the overall offensive structure when the team is healthy.
At the same time, modern offenses are predicated on creating and exploiting advantages. Hunter is a walking mismatch with his size when he’s playing the three with the starters. That’s something the Cavs are looking to leverage.
“He’s got size to be able to post you up,” Larry Nance Jr. said. “He’s got the midrange game that smaller guys can’t keep [up] with. … He has the handle to take you off the bounce. He’s a mismatch pretty much no matter who you put on him.”
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Nance said it “felt good to be home” when asked about his debut. It was easy to see that he meant it based on his smile. At the same time, seeing him back on the floor with the team was great as well.
The Cavs’ best role players have been specialists the last few years. They excel in a few areas, but aren’t necessarily the most well-rounded players. This has come back to bite them repeatedly in the playoffs when teams find ways to scheme out what the supporting cast does best.
Nacne doesn’t necessarily solve this issue, but he and Lonzo Ball should help tremendously. It was easy to see how Nance could contribute as he fit in seamlessly as a secondary creator, rebounder, and disruptor of passing lanes on defense. All of which are things they needed outside their star players.
Craig Porter Jr. showed that he’s been working on his three-point shot as he went 5-5 from distance.
“I just feel like that was a hole I had to fill,” Porter said when asked about the outside shooting. “It wasn’t that I couldn’t shoot or anything, it was just taking them and being confident in myself. All summer long I’ve just shot as many threes as I can until my arms fall off. It’s just paying off for me so I’m going to continue to just keep working at it.”
It’s much easier to envision Porter being able to provide productive minutes if his shot becomes a weapon and not a hindrance.
Tyrese Proctor was an unexpected surprise. The rookie came out and played with a confidence you don’t see from guys who take an NBA court for the first time, even if it’s only preseason.
Atkinson mentioned that he’s come into this season with the expectation of Proctor getting most of his playing time with the Cleveland Charge in the G League. That might not be the route he goes if this performance and what we saw at the end of Summer League are an indication of where Proctor is.
NBA teams are like family, especially ones as close as this Cavs group has been the last few years. Isaac Okoro has been a constant presence in that family. He won’t be this year.
After the game, Okoro, now with the Bulls, walked through the Cavs locker room to greet some of his former teammates. This isn’t uncommon under the circumstances.
Donovan Mitchell, who’s locker used to be right next to his, yelled, “I’ll see you tomorrow,” when he walked by. Both laughed after the interaction. Maybe they will see each other then. The Cavs do travel to play the Bulls again in Chicago on Thursday. However, they won’t actually see each other tomorrow like they did for everyday the last three years from October through May. Underneath those smiles, it seemed like there was some pain at Mitchell’s joke no longer being true.
Change is a natural part of life and can be a good thing. There’s reason to believe that the Cavs and Okoro are both in a better position now because of the trade this summer. That, however, doesn’t necessarily mean that the transition is easy for everyone involved.
Basketball is and always will be more than a business.
