Between the time when the Wine and Gold opened the season with a two-point loss at the United Center with President Barack Obama looking on and the moment they lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy three weeks ago in Oakland, the Cavaliers backcourt took on several incarnations along the way.
Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert – Cleveland’s starting backcourt in last June’s NBA Finals – missed 24 and 21 games, respectively, to start the season. Mo Williams and Matthew Dellavedova each started 14 games this past season. Jared Cunningham started three after making the squad out of Training Camp but before being dealt at the Deadline. Jordan McRae – who found a home after impressing during a 10-day deal – even got himself a regular season start for the World Champs – and, man, did he get his money’s worth!
J.R. Smith set personal, franchise and league records from beyond the arc and Kyrie established himself as one of the game’s greatest young players at any position after tearing through the Eastern Conference Playoffs and outdueling the two-time MVP to give Cleveland its first title in a half-century.
Since winning the first NBA title in franchise history, the Cavaliers backcourt has continued to change in the offseason – with some decisions and moves still waiting to be made.
But as we look back on the title-winning 2015-16 campaign, we start with the Wine and Gold’s dangerous and diverse backcourt …
No team in the East was more dangerous from three-point range than the Cavaliers this past season. And although they have a pair of forwards in Kevin Love and Channing Frye who are as deadly from deep as any guard, Cleveland’s backcourt was the main reason for their long-distance efficiency.
This year, the Cavs averaged 10.7 threes per game, good for second in the Association. They hit double-digit triples on 15 occasions, including an NBA record-tying 16 straight games. Cleveland drained 880 bombs over the course of the season, including 194 in the month of March – both franchise records.
In the postseason, the Wine and Gold hit 12 or more triples in 12 games and hit more than 20 in three games – including the NBA record-setting two game performance against Atlanta in the Conference Semis, canning a combined 46 three-pointers in Games 2 and 3.
Since his arrival in Cleveland in January of last year, J.R. Smith established himself as the Conference’s top long-range marksman. No player in the East has hit more regular season treys than Swish – who’s drilled 151 since arriving in last season’s blockbuster trade with the Knicks. He eclipsed Wesley Person as the franchise’s all-time single-season leader with 204 threes and now has 1,679 for his career – ranking 17th on the NBA’s all-time list.
J.R. was just as strong in the Playoffs, drilling a team-record 65 triples – hitting at least five in six postseason contests, including two games with seven or more.
(As good as Smith was this past year, shooting an even 40 percent from beyond the arc, it was actually Matthew Dellavedova who led the Cavaliers at .410 from long-range, good for fifth in the Eastern Conference during the regular season.)
And as much as the basketball world was fascinated by the Splash Brothers – specifically Golden State’s two-time MVP – it was Kyrie Irving who canned the big bomb in the biggest moment, and Curry who came up short after being blanketed late by Kevin Love.
Over the course of his prolific Playoff run, Irving shot 44 percent from long-distance – easily the top mark among point guards in the 2016 Playoffs.
Going into the season with added depth to the backcourt and a pair of key pieces – Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert – on the shelf, there was plenty of PT to go around throughout the 82-game campaign and 21-game run to the title.
Along the way, the Cavaliers guard coterie contributed big and small – from the dog days of December to the critical moments of June.
Actually, we can start as far back as last October, when Jared Cunningham parlayed a pair of strong preseason outings into a roster spot with the Eastern Conference Champs – seeing action in 40 games and starting three.
Cunningham’s departure in the three-team deal that eventually landed Channing Frye opened up a roster spot for Jordan McRae – who inked a 10-day deal on February 28 and eventually signed for the rest of the season. McRae – taken No. 58 overall by the Spurs in 2014 – didn’t see a ton of action until getting a start in the regular season finale – dropping 36 points on the Pistons, going 14-for-29 from the floor, 3-of-5 from long-range, including the game-tying triple at the buzzer.
McRae didn’t see much floor-time the rest of the way, but he didn’t cool off either – hitting all four shots he attempted in the postseason.
After Kyrie’s injury in last year’s Finals left the Cavaliers lacking at the reserve point guard spot, Cleveland signed Mo Williams in the offseason. And in his second iteration with the Wine and Gold, Mo both started and finished the season strong.
Williams – an All-Star with the Cavs in 2009 – started the first 11 games of the season, guiding Cleveland to an 8-3 start. In that run, Mo had a six-game run in which he averaged 19.3 points per. But a nagging knee injury killed his rhythm and Williams saw limited minutes the rest of the way. But Williams bounced back to close the season strong – hitting some key buckets in the Finals, including a highlight film baseline teardrop in Game 6.
Nobody arrived later to the party than 12-year veteran Dahntay Jones, who joined the Cavaliers on the final day of the regular season and, like Mo Williams, saved his best for last.
Other than getting tangled up with Bismack Biyombo in the Eastern Conference Finals, Jones didn’t see many meaningful moments in the postseason until a trio of Cavaliers got into early foul trouble of Game 6 of the NBA Finals. With Golden State rallying to close Cleveland’s lead, Jones scored five points, grabbed a big board and blocked a shot in just two minutes of action.
The Cavaliers’ campaign took a noticeable turn when Iman Shumpert returned from a preseason wrist injury – scoring 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting in his season debut as Cleveland crushed Orlando by 35 points.
Shump’s value can’t always be quantified by statistics, but he did put up some big ones in a March 5 win over Boston – becoming the first Cavalier in team history to tally at least 12 points, 16 boards and four assists off the bench.
One of the league’s most physical perimeter defenders, Shumpert helped the Cavaliers grind down Golden State’s vaunted backcourt as the 2016 Finals wore on. And his four-point play in the first half of Game 7 didn’t hurt the cause either.
Kyrie Irving came into the NBA ready to roll and no singular moment – the Rising Stars Challenge, the Three-Point Shootout, the All-Star Game or overtime in San Antonio just to name a few – has ever been too big for him.
So as electrifying a moment as it was when the fifth-year pro canned the game-winning three-pointer with less than a minute to play in Game 7 of the NBA Finals – it wasn’t a surprising one. The kid was simply born for the bright lights.
After missing the first 24 games of the season after a knee injury eliminated him from last year’s Finals, Irving uncorked his “rage” when he returned – averaging 19.6 points the rest of the way, capping the comeback with his dagger in Oakland.
The three-time All-Star notched at least 20 points in 28 games, eight of at least 30. And although he didn’t post a pair of 50-point outbursts like he did a season ago, Irving still had some monster nights – including a 32-point outing in a win at Washington, netting 19 points in the fourth quarter, and a 35-point effort in a win over the Hawks to lock up the top seed in the East.
At .885, Irving was the second-best free throw shooter in the East (behind only Khris Middleton) and continued to post amazing numbers at the stripe in overtime – where he’s gone 37-of-38 for his career.
In the postseason, Irving hit an entirely new gear.
Against the Pistons, he averaged a team-high 27.5 ppg in the four-game sweep. Against Atlanta, Irving averaged 21.3 ppg, upped it to 24.2 against Toronto and 27.1 against Golden State in the Finals. He topped the 20-point plateau in 18 of Cleveland’s 21 postseason contests (including six times in the Finals).
Kyrie posted six games of at least 30 points in the 2016 Playoffs with one 40-point masterpiece in one of the biggest games in franchise history – his 41-point gem in Game 5 of the Finals, becoming just the second player in Finals history (joining Wilt Chamberlain) to shoot at least 70 percent from the floor in a 40-point game.
There isn’t a stage that’s been too big for Cleveland’s quiet assassin since his entry into the Association – and his three-pointer to end an entire region’s suffering will now cement that fact in NBA history.
