SAN FRANCISCO: The wheels of progress are turning, slowly but surely for the Cavaliers. It will be months still before they are whole, before they have all of their pieces in place, but the first two important moves have been completed.
Kyle Korver’s addition has given the Cavs’ bench some much-needed pop. That was No. 1. It has also allowed coach Tyronn Lue the flexibility to move Iman Shumpert into the starting lineup. Move No. 2. Shumpert was always an upgrade over DeAndre Liggins, but Lue was hesitant to make the switch because of how thin it left the Cavs in the backcourt and on the bench. Now it all fits better.
Both Lue and General Manager David Griffin have hinted that Korver could ultimately wind up in the starting lineup, but that only makes sense if it will be Korver’s role in April, May and June. Why start Korver now if he’s going back to the bench in the playoffs? And if Korver is starting in the postseason, that would mean bringing J.R. Smith off the bench when he returns from a fractured thumb in April.
Smith was scuffling even before the injury, but he remains a better defender than Korver. Lue has talked for weeks about how much he likes the way Liggins and Shumpert can defend opposing point guards as starters, which takes some of the defensive load away from Kyrie Irving. That isn’t the case with Korver.
Korver is the superior shooter to Shumpert, despite Shumpert’s impressive overall numbers this season. Theoretically, Korver shouldn’t need as much space to get his shot off, while Shumpert can benefit offensively from playing with the starters.
That was evident during Friday’s 120-108 win over the Sacramento Kings, when Shumpert matched season highs with four 3-pointers and 16 points. Seven of his nine shots came without a defender within 4 feet of him, according to the league’s shot tracking data. That type of space will continue for Shumpert when he’s on the floor with LeBron James, Kevin Love and Irving.
Shumpert was candid after Friday’s win, admitting that while Cleveland celebrated its championship, he was busy watching film of the Finals and realizing how the Golden State Warriors were ignoring him on offense. Yet he still couldn’t do anything about it.
Shumpert endured the worst shooting season of his career last year. He became a liability on offense. To his credit, he realized it through film study this summer and chose to overhaul his approach. He worked on his jump shot, on cleaning up his mechanics so he could repeat the same shot every time. In the process, he changed his mentality from drive-and-shoot to shoot first.
“I had one of those moments after the Finals where it was like, man, people are leaving me wide open,” Shumpert said. “Sooner or later a coach is going to say, ‘All right, he just don’t want to shoot corner 3s. We’ve got to stop putting him in there.’ When it comes to something like that, I never want to be in a position where my teammates feel like, ‘I can’t throw him this pass over here because that’s just not where he’s comfortable. That’s not where he wants to be.’ ”
Shumpert got off to a terrific start shooting the ball from deep, but has slumped the past few weeks. He’s still shooting .383 from 3-point range, the second-best mark of his career.
And those corner 3s? He’s shooting 41 percent from the corners this season after he shot less than 30 percent there last year. He attempted 32 3s from the left corner last season and shot 32 percent. He has already attempted 22 from that corner this season and he’s shooting better than 55 percent.
Korver, meanwhile, benefited from Friday’s morning walkthrough. Lue took the time to begin installing plays for him and insists there are plenty more to come. Korver is like a new toy for Lue, someone who is deadly at moving without the ball and shooting when coming off screens like Ray Allen and J.J. Redick before him. Guys like Love and Channing Frye are better from long range with their feet set, but Korver is allowing Lue to dig up old sets he hasn’t been able to use before as a head coach.
Korver played the entire second quarter Friday and all but the final 45 seconds of the fourth because the game was out of reach. Lue will likely continue tinkering with those minutes and who he surrounds Korver with, but for now he likes pairing him with James on the second unit.
This is still a work in progress. Smith won’t be back for months and that backup point guard doesn’t appear to be coming anytime soon, not after General Manager David Griffin said the trade market has been slow to establish because so many teams still believe they’re in playoff contention.
That means James will have to be patient. So, too, will the Cavs while Lue tinkers with his lineup and rotations. With the Warriors looming on Monday, the Cavs are not a finished product. But they’re closer now than they were a week ago.
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.