J.B. Bickerstaff, Cavaliers Set Specific Timing Goal For Suddenly Speedy Offense To Increase Efficiency

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff is preparing his team to play faster this season with an eye on scoring the ball quickly.

Approaching the fourth and final preseason game this Friday in Indiana, the intensity is going to pick up even more this week at Cleveland Cavaliers training camp.

Two weeks into it, coming off a blowout victory over Maccabi Ra'anana, Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff knows he and his staff have pressed their players to run, run and run some more. That’s not changing anytime soon.

“I think we're in really good shape. I think not only from a lung capacity standpoint, but we put our guys' legs under duress, and that typically happens to teams when the season starts,” Bickerstaff said before Monday’s game against Maccabi. “It was one of our goals to get those guys in a state of fatigue, so that now, their body recoups and they recover and they can move on and we're not having those same issues early in the season that you typically see sometimes.

“Especially for us coming out to bat, we've got two back-to-backs within a week's time. So being able to get guys in a position where they can push through those things and then recover. We felt really good about that.”

Principally, Cleveland wants to outsprint its opponents on the fastbreak — and the team has a set number in mind to time the crossing of mid-court.

“Our goal — and this is when we're in transition — is three real seconds. [We're] not really concerned about a shot clock, but three real seconds,” Bickerstaff said. “Again, we're not gonna be a team that's just doing this [motions back and forth]. We're gonna control the game. We're gonna get our guys to our spots.

“We're aiming to be almost two teams. We're a team off misses and turnovers, and we're a different team off makes, hoping that teams don't know exactly how to guard us and now they're a little bit caught off guard with what style we can play.”

Watching the Cavs’ offense compared to previous years is going to take some getting used to. There won’t be as many pick-and-roll dominated sets in the half-court, and there will be more of an emphasis on cutting and motion with shooting and scoring talent needing to be accounted for.

“We want to get the ball across half-court as quickly as we can. When you take a look [at] the numbers of efficiency, how it changes not only when you get ball across half-court, but how it changes when it's dribbled across and passed across, it completely changes the efficiency of your offense. So [we're] trying to get the ball across half-court as quickly as we possibly can.

“But then we've got spots on the floor that we're trying to fill to create as much space as we can, and trying to create that space as quickly as we can. So [it’s] more about thrust and the continuation of that thrust for us, with providing the proper spacing for the ball and the actions that we want to get into.”

Oct 12, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff motions to his team during the first half against the Orlando Magic at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse / Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Last season, the Cavs were ranked dead last in pace of play (95.7 possessions per 48 minutes) and in the bottom five in scoring (112.3 points per game) among their NBA peers.

With a drastic change of philosophy, there’s a real chance that Cleveland rectifies both this upcoming season.

"I think just the way we're playing this year, we're getting out in transition, we're trying to play faster," Cavs forward Dean Wade said Monday night. "We've got so many weapons on the offensive end."