The Cleveland Cavaliers are #1 in the NBA in offensive rating this season per NBA Stats. Last season, they were 16th.
How does a team with minimal roster change make such dramatic offensive improvements in just one year? The answer is spacing.
Gap Resistance
Last season, teams slowed down the Cavalier ballhandlers by sitting in the gaps and crowding them on drives. Nail help, like below, was a common occurrence.
The Cavaliers have since placed an emphasis on freeing up space for their ballhandlers by vacating the wing on the ballside.
Coach Atkinson & staff have incorporated a mix of traditional concepts and some less-familiar ones to create "vacant-wing drives"— let's take a look!
The Usual
The Cavs have done a great job of vacating the wing by mixing in common actions and alignments we see throughout the NBA.
Their most frequented of such is double drag; in both scripted and unscripted scenarios, they'll flow into double ball screens with both corners filled.
With 3 players involved in the action and the other 2 spaced in the corner, the wings are free to drive into:
The Cavs have some layers to their double drag.
They can get into it in some fun ways, such as off of staggered screens:
They can also mix in shallow cuts into double drag:
Other solutions they use that are commonly seen around the NBA:
"Empty Corner" ball screens
"1-4 flat" alignment during isolations
Positioning a player in the "Dunker Spot" during an action
A Unique Solution ~ "The Wheel"
A lesser-seen solution Cleveland's implemented to free up the wing is what I like to call "The Wheel".
By my eye, this usually occurs during random, unscripted offense when spacing isn't ideal. This rotating motion of "The Wheel" is generally triggered when a player drives to a 2-side (with the wing occupied):
The player in the corner will cut baseline
The player on the wing will drift down into the corner, generally taking their defender with them, leaving the wing vacant.
Cleveland has talented scorers across the board — all they need is some space to get off good looks.
If defenders choose to linger in the gaps, "The Wheel" creates great passing angles and tough closeout situations:
Potential Improvements
Where the Cavs can be better in "The Wheel" is with their sense of urgency to relocate to space after cutting.
Oftentimes, their baseline cutters won't get spaced on the opposite side quick enough. Thus, they aren't a sufficient passing target for the driver.
In a limited capacity, defenses have taken advantage of this by momentarily helping on the drive off of the cutter:
In my opinion, defenses can look to exploit Cleveland's cutting like this more often if they continue to exit to space in this manner.
The Impact, Quantified
Cleveland's improved spacing has elevated their driving game this season compared to last. Without as much gap resistance, they've created more drives and have been exponentially more efficient on them, ranking 2nd in Drive PPP after finishing 14th last season.
In particular, ballhandlers have really had great success getting to the "floater" range on drives and converting looks, ranking 3rd in PPP.
However, they still struggle to get to the rim and finish on drives, ranking just 29th in frequency and 11th in PPP.
More timely and purposeful exits on cuts as a part of "The Wheel" could definitely help with this, freeing up the paint for cleaner paths to the basket.
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