History Says Cavs' Offense is Good Enough to Win It All

AP Photo/Tony Dejak

All season long, the one stat that has been put hand-in-hand with the Cleveland's chances of winning the title is defensive efficiency.

Twenty-three of the past 25 NBA champions have been in the top ten in this category, and, despite an elite offense, the defense has been constantly monitored throughout the entire season.

A good defense is always a recipe for a championship team, but with how great the Cavaliers' offense has been ever since the infamous Jan. 15 date that will be forever etched in the 2014-2015 Cavaliers season, it is not nearly a necessity for the Cavaliers. Above-average at best should be able to get it down, which is where the Cavaliers are at since Jan. 15.

But for the Cavaliers, the statistic that should give them the best reason as to why they can win a title is effective shooting percentage.

Since J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert were acquired, the Cavaliers have been firing three-pointers left and right at an outrageous rate. It's almost insane looking at how many three-pointers the Cavaliers take per game, leaving those to wonder if they are taking too many from behind the arc?

Although the 30.7 three-point attempts per game may seem astronomically, the Cavaliers are hitting 38.1 percent of those attempts, which is fourth in the league since they acquired Smith and Shumpert.

The ability to make three's at a high rate does more than just make the Cavaliers a threat from behind the arc, it opens up the lane for guys like LeBron James and Kyrie Irving to attack the rim, something they both do at an elite level.

In James' case, he has been much better at attacking the rim since he returned from a two-week hiatus, coming back healthier and with a much different team. Before the trade, James shot 61.8 percent around the rim. After the trade, he has shot 68.8 percent in that area.

Adding this weapon has made the offensive deadly, and because three's are weighted more when converting effective field goal percentage, it makes the Cavaliers defense (slightly) less of a worry come playoff time.

This brings us to why effective field goal percentage is a great indicator for the Cavaliers heading into the playoffs. Let's take a look at the last 15 Finals match-ups and each teams rank in effective field goal percentage:

As you can see, 11 of the 15 champions and nine of the 15 runner-ups ranked in the top-five in effective field goal percentage. More importantly, take note of the last four years, where each of the Conference champions ranked in the top-five in effective field goal percentage.

This shows the importance of not only taking three-pointers, but also being able to make them at an effective rate. And thanks to the increase in three-point shooting and analytics (looking at you, Charles Barkley), effective field percentage picked up steam in how teams view -- and try and use -- this stat.

Since Jan. 15, the Cavaliers lead the league in this category, and the sample size (38 games) gives that ranking plenty of credibility heading into the playoffs. It also gives reasoning that three-point shooting is an more of an effective weapon than a crutch that holds the Cavaliers back.

Of course, if they do struggle to hit three's, the Cavaliers have James to bring them out of scoring slumps. Heck, even if James is struggling, the Cavaliers can always fall back on Irving, who has no problem creating his shot against any defender put on him.

That's what makes the Cavaliers offense the best in the league; the amount of offensive options they have hold no limits. This makes the case for effective field goal percentage greater than that of their defensive efficiency.

So although defense is important come playoff time, recent years have told us that a top offense is just as important.

And in the Cavaliers case, the high-level of offense could be enough to overcome the defense that may not be at a championship level quite yet.