Cavs Mailbag: Is Quicker Pace To Blame For Leaky Defense?

Welcome to Cavs Mailbag! In this daily mailbag, Spencer Davies will respond to fans’ curiosities surrounding the Cleveland Cavaliers throughout the duration of the 2023-24 season. In order to submit yours, simply send your questions on X to @SpinDavies or via email at spindavies22@gmail.com.

Happy Friday, everybody! With the Oklahoma City loss behind them, the Cavs turn their attention to their second meeting with the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night. This time, they’ll be in enemy territory in the Bay Area at Chase Center.

Due to some personal obligations this weekend, we’re going to do one question each over the next few days of the Q&A.

Without further ado, here’s the first:

How much of the defensive woes this season do you think might be attributable to the faster pace the Cavs are pushing on offense? - @HoopiterNFT

Not too much. Some, but not too much. I think most of the problems on defense have been about players closing out too aggressively and being off balance on the perimeter. Opposing players are giving them quick pump fakes or a left-to-right crossover to get by way too easily.

Maybe an indicator that proves it better than defensive-rating metrics is the amount of fouls being committed. The Cavs are averaging just under 21 fouls per game, which puts them in the bottom third of the NBA. Also, in allowing the penetration that they do, even if opponents don’t convert at the rim, bigs like Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley and Tristan Thompson are being pulled away from the key. That allows the other teams’ bigs to capitalize on putbacks and easy opportunities underneath, which explains the 15.5 points per game average for Cleveland’s opposition, which ranks 23rd in the league.

And although the Cavs do take care of the rock relatively well, when they turn it over, teams are taking advantage of it by scoring 19.4 points per game on average. That’s the fifth-worst mark in The Association. So valuing the basketball would certainly be helpful. Making some threes would help too, since those tend to lead to long rebounds.

Cleveland needs to follow its defensive principle of “no middle” and be more on-task with the schematics that the wine-and-gold are used to. Having Allen in there should help, but there shouldn’t be that much strain on him and the backline every night. The Cavs need to stop overhelping on the wrong guys and lock-in on key players better too, as Caris LeVert said in a postgame honesty session following the Thunder loss.