Sam Merrill: Set up to succeed under new offense

Merrill should thrive in Cleveland’s new motion offense.

The Cleveland Cavaliers signaled they wanted to overhaul their offensive scheme by hiring Kenny Atkinson. Lineups under J.B. Bickerstaff were creative, however, the sets and schemes they ran never quite seemed to click. Defenses, once matched up correctly to the Cavaliers, wouldn’t have much to dig into as most of their offense ran on the vanilla side. Their attack was pick-and-roll oriented and was frankly a slog that got stale and easy to counter.

Atkinson’s offensive bread and butter is the motion offense. His teams have relied on pushing the pace and scoring in transition while the defense is recovering. That offensive style allows an equal opportunity for all to score.

Last season, the only true movement shooters on the roster were Max Strus and Sam Merrill. Merrill mostly generated his shot opportunities from three ranking in the 99th percentile in the league on percentage of shot attempts from three (89%).

There is no question that Merrill can shoot the leather off the ball. Merrill thrives from the three-point line (40.5%) and is willing to be active off-ball. With Atkinson, there is a track record of falling in love with this archetype of player. While with the Brooklyn Nets, Atkinson had an affinity for former Cavalier Joe Harris. Kyle Korver was that player when he was an assistant with the Atlanta Hawks.

Atkinson explained to Harris once that he reminded him of Korver and that opened up the door to Harris’s role in Brooklyn. Harris went on to thrive under Atkinson and led the league in three-point percentage in 2018-19 with 47.4% shooting from beyond the arc.

It is fair to say that Atkinson should be equally thrilled to have Merrill who possesses similar offensive traits to Harris and Korver. While there is reason to wonder about the mouths to feed in the star backcourt, this Cavaliers team needs depth and a willingness to shoot from their supplementary players. Motion is the name of the game in today’s NBA. The Cavaliers have felt archaic at times and this is the best opportunity for them to show their talent offensively.

Merrill was essentially the only player on the floor using off-ball movement last season which made it easier to guard him. He came onto the scene hot last season, shooting 44.2% from three before the All-Star break, however, defenses were quick to adapt. Once opponents realized a mostly methodical offense had one rogue movement shooter it became easier to mark and eliminate quality looks. Merrill saw his three-point percentage dive to 35.7% after the All-Star break as a result.

If the Cavaliers switch up their offense and buy into Atkinson’s movement it’ll be harder for defenses to lock into Merrill as there will be more moving pieces to keep track of. We saw in Atkinson’s previous stops how impactful a shooter like Merrill can be when the team is reliant on ball movement, motion, and selflessness.

The Cavaliers need players that can space the floor the way he can. Last season, it was hard for Merrill to find quality looks on a congested offense. Under Atkinson’s free-flowing and high-pace-of-play offense, Merrill will blend into the rest of the system instead of being an outlier. If the offense resonates and the movement sticks, Sam Merrill will become a household name for the national audience.