Fedor answered a couple of my questions in his game column. He called the offense "almost unrecognizable".
Pace has been one of the buzzwords during the early days of camp. Players spoke with Bickerstaff this offseason about their desire to play faster, taking advantage of youth, athleticism and a glut of playmakers. Bickerstaff agreed...
The Cavs pushed the pace, played with better tempo, looked for early-clock opportunities, made quicker decisions and consistently sprinted out in transition -- following misses and makes...They finished with 24 fastbreak points -- a number they topped just twice in 82 games last season...
They finished with 48 3-point attempts, only surpassing that number once last season...There was off-ball movement and cutting. No congestion or spacing issues.
Max Strus chimed in:
I like how our offense played and the ball moved. We got great shots. Just didn’t make them. Shots will fall. Not worried about that at all. First game of the year. If we play like that every night, we will have a lot of fun nights.
Back to Fedor:
Last season, the Cavs ranked last in the NBA’s pace metric -- the number of possessions a team uses per game -- at 96.27.
Just how different was Tuesday night?
The Cavs finished the game with a 106.5 pace factor -- about four ticks higher than last year’s season leader Golden State.
My comment: Are we going from worst to first in pace?
And Bickerstaff:
Last year, although we were efficient offensively, we didn’t create many easy opportunities. The easiest opportunities and highest field goal percentages have come in transition. If we can find a way to create more easy opportunities, it puts a different pressure on the defense and defenses have even tougher decisions to make about what they want to take away....
We want to be explosive...We’re not aiming to get bad shots up quickly just because we want to say we have more pace. The game plan isn’t to become helter-skelter either. We want to play at a tempo where the defense feels us.
Fedor:
As their free agency signings showed, the Cavs are willing to take a slight step back at the end of the floor if it means a leap forward on offense, especially after their offensive flaws were exposed in the first-round playoff series against New York -- a non-competitive five-gamer in which the Cavs averaged a paltry 94.2 points.
And Strus:
The shot profile we were able to create tonight is what we want. Everybody had wide open shots and I think maybe we weren’t ready for that. The game came easy tonight. Yes, we want to play fast but we want to get great shots. We have a lot of guys who are talented and can get into the paint. We have a big (Mobley) who has great court vision. Now we have shooters all around the floor. That’s what I came here to do. I came here to shoot. That’s what they’ve asked me to do. Music to my ears. I’m gonna keep shooting every time I’m open and everybody on our team knows that.
So here we go. The Cavs are moving into the modern era with an uptempo, fast-paced game that pushes the ball in transition at every opportunity and looks for open 3's. We might see 50 three-point attempts per game and 25 fast break points. Having Jarrett Allen on the floor might slow things down a bit, but you need to force missed shots and get the rebound to run in transition, and that's what Allen does.
This kind of uptempo running game is tailor made for Isaac Okoro, who is a liability in the half-court offense the Cavs have been running since he was drafted. This could jumpstart his career and we saw a bit of that last night as he led the team with 19 points in 21 minutes, many coming in transition. Okoro might benefit from this change more than anyone.
Garland, Mitchell, and LeVert should thrive in transition situations as well. Mobley runs the floor really well for a big. I can see a lot of open 3's coming off fast breaks as defenses scramble back to defend the rim.
Get ready for a fun season.
