CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cavs own the Eastern Conference’s best record. They had three players selected for the NBA All-Star game in Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley, and could have arguably had a fourth in Jarrett Allen. Their single largest offseason addition, however, was their head coach. Kenny Atkinson has had a wealth of experiences to draw from: He was an assistant to the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors in 2022, a successful head coach with the upstart Brooklyn Nets for four years (2016-2020), and helped the France men’s national basketball team push Team USA to the limit in the 2024 Olympics en route to a silver medal. In this series, “Inside the Cavs Playbook,” I will help shed some light on a few of the favorite sets Kenny Atkinson has installed to help guide the Cavs to the best offensive rating in the league. ‘77 Shallow’ A “7” is shorthand for a single ball screen, so a “77” is a double drag or double ball screen early. How the Cavs use this is by having a big line up as the first screener, and they have a wing or guard as a screener. Once the ball handler uses the first ball screen, the would-be second screener then “shallow cuts” -- or cuts under as the ball screen action happens. This creates confusion in the defense, because the typical coverage most teams employ is to switch the guard action and keep the big at home. Let’s look at this action when the Cavs used it against the Hawks. Ty Jerome is the ball handler, Evan Mobley is the big setting the first screen, and it looks as if Donovan Mitchell is setting the second screen. Keaton Wallace (No. 2 for the Hawks) is guarding Ty Jerome; and Dyson Daniels (No. 5) is guarding Mitchell, and those two would simply switch while Larry Nance Jr. (No. 22) stays connected to Evan Mobley. What actually ends up happening here is that Mitchell sets a quick brush screen on Nance, while Dyson “point switches” for Wallace to take Mitchell while he takes Ty Jerome. Wallace actually lingers on Jerome for a beat too long before switching out to Mitchell, and that little bit of breathing room is more than enough for Mitchell to nail the triple. Here’s the play in full: The nice thing about this play is the Cavaliers have mapped out how to counter the adjustments the defense makes. The Timberwolves have this action scouted, so they try to effectively deny Mitchell from making his shallow cut. The wrinkle from Cleveland is to have Jarrett Allen screen again but flip the angle of his screen. Rudy Gobert is in drop coverage, meaning he drops away from the screen action. So once Jarrett Allen hangs up Nikeil Alexander-Walker, Darius Garland can just step into an open three pointer. Another way Atkinson has his team get into the “77" shallow action is through a simple ball reversal. Against Boston, they initiate the action with a Niang dribble handoff to Caris LeVert, who swings it to Mobley at the top of the key, and Mobley hands it off to Mitchell. Instead of cutting all the way through, LeVert actually just lingers in the path of Mobley’s defender, Luke Kornet (40). This causes Kornet to get caught up on the high side, which basically means Mobley is rolling relatively unimpeded. As Mobley dives to the basket, the defender in the corner (Derrick White) is faced with a difficult decision: He can either tag/obstruct Mobley as Mobley gets to the basket and leave the shooter in the corner; OR he can stay in the corner and hope that Kornet can stop the lob. Derrick White chooses to stay connected to Sam Merrill, so Mobley gets the alley-oop: It truly is a pick-your-poison situation, because when the Brooklyn Nets helped off the corner to tag the roller, somehow the Cleveland guards made something happen. Here, Ty Jerome throws a beauty of a pass to the rolling Mobley. D’Angelo Russell (1) has to rotate over and Mobley draws free throws: Here’s another example of the Cavs going ball reversal into the 77 action, this time early season against the Charlotte Hornets: This time, Darius Garland is the ball handler and he is able to get downhill. The defender helps off the strong side/ball side corner, so Craig Porter Jr. correctly spaces further into the corner to get the open 3-pointer. Garland and Mitchell put so much pressure on defenses with their burst and ability to get touches in the paint, that sometimes, as a defense, you are seemingly left with no choice but to contain the drive. Here’s a look at 77 Shallow vs. the 76ers: Look for how the Cavs use “77" in upcoming games, and check back in soon for the next part of our series on the Cavs' “pet sets.”