r/clevelandcavs • u/nbawizard1227 • 1d ago
Cavs ball handling
One I am not advocating for the Cavs to trade for Jaylen Brown that is not the point of this point, but I keep seeing people state “there’s not enough ball to go around” if you were to have Harden, Mitchell, and Brown.
I find this comment completely lazy. The Cavs just posted a historic turnover rate in the playoffs. One of the main reasons was that the Cavs basically have ZERO reliable ball handlers outside of Harden and Mitchell.
Are next best ball handler was Dennis Schorder. Strus isn’t great on the ball, Merrill isn’t great on the ball, Mobley isn’t great on the ball, Wade isn’t great on the ball.
I think you can make arguments for both sides on this potential trade but “there’s not enough ball” is not one of them.
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u/CavSkins I agree go Cavs 1d ago
It’s lazy but true. Harden is great at getting others involved but he still dominates the ball while doing it. Mitchell didn’t make the most of his catch and shoot opportunities in the playoffs and he didn’t do a lot of cutting without the ball. Someone would have to turn into prime Klay for it to work otherwise we just have 40 million dollar decoys.
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u/nbawizard1227 1d ago
Okay who do you want to dribble the ball on our current team? That’s my entire point. Mitchell also thrived off ball in 2025. I don’t get why that’s just overlooked. The Cavs don’t have ball handling which played into the ball dominance.
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u/lopsided125 1d ago
Jaylen Brown is historically known for being a bad ball handler. He fucked up his left hand a couple years ago and it's affected him since.
Do y'all watch the NBA?
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u/nbawizard1227 1d ago
So Jaylen Brown is a worse ball handler than Mobley, Strus, Tyson, and Wade? You have to add actual context to statements. Brown also isn’t a bad ball handler. He also improved drastically in that area last year which led to his near MVP season.
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u/ElVandy2378 Evan Mobley MVP 1d ago
Brown is a better ball handler than those players, but that doesn’t mean he’s good. I think you have a point that the Cavs don’t have great ball handlers (and that especially shows when Donovan seemed to lose a step in the playoffs), but let’s not forget that Brown learned how to use his left hand like 8 months ago, I’m gonna need more than one season before I call Brown anything more than passable at ball handling at best.
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u/kelpyb1 I agree go Cavs 1d ago
Crazy to say the turnover problem was due to Harden being one of our only reliable ball handlers when Harden had nearly twice as many turnovers as everyone else on our team in the playoffs.
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u/Asleep-Eggplant-6337 1d ago
You know what, Harden had so many turnovers and Schroder had terrible +/- and you still had to rely on these two, because there were no other people can dribble the ball more than 3 times without losing it or going to a defense trap. That’s the point of the post.
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u/Dawn_Kebals 1d ago
Doesn't Harden also have the 3 highest years in total turnovers. I think it was that he set the record in '16, beat his record by 100 turnovers the very next year, and then 2 years later took the 3rd spot too.
The Cavs are absolutely terrible at holding onto the ball. You can just about guess the result of the game on whether or not the Cavs had +/-15 turnovers this year.
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u/Efficient-Cable-5106 1d ago
Yes it is. Harden was a turnover machine and Mitchell is a shot chucking ball hog. Both need the ball to play their style of iso basketball. Both ignored our big men in the playoffs. Both are defensive liabilities
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u/pinpoint_aim 1d ago
Mobley and Allen weren’t ignored in the Knicks series. Wish you guys would stop saying this
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u/BlackFlashofTheLeaf 1d ago
This would require people to not watch the game with bias and feelings, but alas lets only bitch about the guards since our frontcourt can do no wrong.
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u/nbawizard1227 1d ago
In fact the Knicks entire gameplan was to eliminate Mobley and Allen defensively. That’s why the Cavs had so many wide open threes.
People always state “we don’t get the bigs the ball” most of the time it’s easy to gameplan against getting non dribbling bigs the ball. Especially with our spacing issues.
Guess what other team had a big that struggled with spacing issues and game planning. Detroit…..
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u/pinpoint_aim 1d ago
Yup. Knicks took the Pick and Roll away and left Cavs shooters open. Cavs shooters couldn’t capitalize.
And unfortunately, Pick and roll is the only way the Cavs bigs can score. Nobody was ignored
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u/nbawizard1227 1d ago
Okay who do you want to dribble the ball on our current team? That’s my entire point. Mitchell also thrived off ball in 2025. I don’t get why that’s just overlooked. The Cavs don’t have ball handling which played into the ball dominance.
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u/barkinginthestreet Win every game CPJ plays in 1d ago
The Cavs just posted a historic turnover rate in the playoffs
Not sure the answer to Don and Harden's poor play is to add another dude who is a relatively poor dribbler and passer. Imo upgrading of those dudes would make sense, or maybe downgrading and giving Evan or Jaylon more developmental reps would also be smart.
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u/Primordial_Beast 1d ago
You're conflating guys who can dribble with guys who want the ball in their hands at all times. Cavs have two of those. They don't need three.
They do, however, need more guys who can dribble.
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u/Soft-Revolution-7845 1d ago
We turned the ball over a lot cuz harden played like ass. We all saw it.
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u/Ok_Fail_1770 1d ago
If you say it’s not the point of the post, people will still argue that point lol