[OC] What Max Strus brings to Cleveland

As soon as Cleveland acquired Strus, I started going back and watching Strus’ minutes with the Heat just trying to sneak a glimpse of what he may look like on the Cavs. The Cavs, of course, picked him up for a reason. After a disappointing loss to the Knicks in the first round, the team’s needs were clear: spacing around their two guards and two bigs. Strus provides this in spades with efficient volume three point shooting without sacrificing defense (JB wouldn’t want to lose that number one defensive rating next year). The thing is, Strus had a rough shooting season last year. On the year, he shot 35% from behind the arc on 9.3 attempts per 75 possessions. That percentage is actually worse than one of the guys Strus is replacing, Cedi Osman, who shot 37.2% last year.

So why Strus?

Strus had an incredible 2021-22 campaign that saw him shooting 41% on 10.4 attempts per 75 possessions. He was one of two players that season to play more than 200 minutes and shoot 10 per 75 possessions with above 40% efficiency from behind the arc. And it wasn’t a fluke, while his peer did this over near 600 minutes, Strus did it over 1600 minutes.

I wanted to see what changed. And the answer reminded me of a familiar monster. The 2019-20 Bubble Heat.

The bubble Heat revolutionized and weaponized the dribble hand-off. It’s how the Heat ran through the Eastern conference and how they were able to throw punches at the Lakers. It basically created a play that used a more traditional non-spacing big and gave them an opportunity to space the floor. Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson learned how to master it. While the league has largely adopted this play in just three years, the Heat put Strus through the same regiment this last season.

[youtube video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnb-5tiApuc)

It didn’t exactly work.

I watched and tracked every Strus three point shot last season. I wanted to show how many of his shots were catch-and-shoot (C&S), dribble hand-off (DHO), pick-and-roll (PNR), off-screen (OS), and passed-into-screen (PIS) opportunities.

|Shot Type|3PM|3PA|3P%|FREQ%|
:–|:–|:–|:–|:–|
|C&S|146|364|40.1%|70.8%|
|DHO|20|72|27.8%|14.0%|
|PNR|9|16|56.3%|3.1%|
|OS|16|56|28.6%|10.9%|
|PIS|2|6|33.3%|1.2%|

Strus is not the DHO master that Duncan Robinson, Tyler Herro, and others have become. However, he is still a dynamic three point shot taker and maker that opponents have to respect.

By bringing Strus into more complex ball-handling situations, the Heat got him to show a bit of his playmaking. The DHO, PNR, OS, and PIS situations are all very similar, but keep the defense on their toes as they do not know how the ballhandler will get the ball. Strus uses these opportunities to create advantages for others. While Strus is not an elite dribbler, he is a reliable one. He can get into the paint and around some crowds.

Strus will not be expected to be a ballhandler, however having the ability to handle just makes Cleveland’s offense more dynamic. If the defense has to worry about Strus in multiple ways, driving, shooting, and passing, something is bound to break down. Imagine Mobley or Allen in Adebayo’s position for these plays and you can already imagine Strus in Cleveland.

[youtube video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rBLUWts2vo)

Strus embodies the Heat team philosophy of extra passing and always finding the best shots (unless your name is Jimmy Butler then every shot is the best shot). He is a willing extra passer and he is constantly moving on the offensive end. A lot of the C&S opportunities tracked came from Strus moving to a better spot rather than sitting and watching the ball come.

[youtube video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHwSTneVBwM)

He is good at sitting and watching the ball come as well which Cleveland will welcome with open arms. Besides Garland and Mitchell, he will easily be the best C&S player they have. Instead of having Okoro and Stevens eating minutes in the corner, you will have Strus, who in his career has shot 47.5% from the corner.

Even with his lack of shooting success on these ballhandler duty threes, the Cavaliers shouldn’t stop putting him into these opportunities altogether. A lot of what will make Strus an important piece on the Cavaliers moving forward will be his movement and shooting threat without the ball, but mixing in these on-ball opportunities will keep defenders occupied. As Cavaliers fans well know, no player outside of Mitchell and Garland was commanding that attention in the playoffs last year.

What is realistic for Strus’ shooting next year is to fall somewhere in the middle of his amazing 2021-22 season and tame 2022-23 season. With that, the Cavaliers should have their small forward for the foreseeable future and a valuable piece in their playoff journey.

all statistics taken and derived from basketball-reference.com and nba.com/stats unless otherwise noted