What we learned this week: Offense impresses to start season

Allen’s fast start has fueled the Cavs’ three-game winning streak to open the season.

The Cleveland Cavaliers took care of business with three stress-free wins against bad teams to open their season. You couldn’t ask for a much better start to the Kenny Atkinson era.

Let’s get into what we learned this week.

The half-court offense has looked good

The Cavs have scored 135 or more points in two of their three games this week. That’s something they only achieved three times in regulation last season. It’s fair to point out they went against bad defenses in this stretch, but they played more bad teams than this last season and weren’t having these kinds of nights often.

Playing with the proper pace and space have been points of emphasis for Atkinson throughout training camp. The Cavs offense is benefiting from that, but not in the way that you might think. They’re currently 12th in pace and 20th in three-point attempts. The better tempo and spacing have however translated to an easier-flowing half-court offense.

Cleveland has the third-best half-court offense so far with a 112.7 offensive rating. For context, their best season-long half-court offensive rating under J.B. Bickerstaff was 99.8 in 2022-23. Although they aren’t taking a ton of three-pointers, they’re generating very clean looks for their best players. The Cavs are knocking down 55.2% of their 19.3 wide-open threes per game. The better spacing principles contribute to that.

“Our spacing has been so good,” Dean Wade said after Friday’s home opener. “It’s very clear when you can shoot and when you can’t.”

The three-point shooting numbers and the overall offensive efficiency will come down. However, the process that led to the hot start should allow the offense to be considerably better than what we saw last year.

The starters have been good together because of their defense

The fit between the starters was an issue last season. Starting Wade with the core four has yielded good results so far. However, that’s mostly due to their fit defensively.

Through three games, the starters have a 103 defensive rating (100th percentile). That is due to having three versatile defensive bigs in Wade, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen.

“You can just switch three through five,” Atkinson said about the starting lineup after the win against the Detroit Pistons. “It just makes life easy for us defensively.”

Having three backline defenders in the starting unit allows the guards to aggressively jump passing lanes. Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell have done this well and are partially responsible for the starters forcing turnovers on 16.7% of defensive possessions (80th percentile).

The offensive side of the ball hasn’t been as clean of a fit. The starting unit has registered a 113.8 offensive rating (48th percentile) through three games. They’ve struggled to get to the rim and play well in the half-court.

That said, this is a defensive first-team. Having a starting lineup that can establish this type of defensive identity is important. We’ll see if the offense comes around with the starters.

Jarrett Allen is the biggest beneficiary of Kenny Atkinson’s offense

Most of the focus this off-season was on how players like Mobley and Garland were going to benefit from Atkinson’s offense. While both have done so, they haven’t benefited to the level Allen has.

Allen is averaging 18 points in 27.5 minutes per on 83.3% shooting through three games. This includes finishing 87.5% of his looks at the rim. Allen is able to do this because of the increased spacing.

“We have five out spacing,” Jarrett Allen said after Friday’s win. “That messes up defenses because they’re used to the big being in the dunker’s [spot]. It gives opportunities for me to cut.”

This has shown up most when Allen isn’t sharing the floor with Mobley. In those situations, Allen has been used more at the top of the arc as both a passer and someone who can beat their man off the dribble as he did in the example below.

Mobley is only taking 2.3 threes per game, a number you’d like to see hover closer to four. But even though the volume is low, Mobley simply standing at the three-point line has given Allen more room to operate.

Atkinson has been splitting Allen and Mobley’s time together pretty evenly so far. But, for this team to reach their potential, the pairing needs to work well together. So far it has been. That may be the most encouraging aspect of this hot start.