Why Sam Merrill has been a revelation

You know the saying new year, new me? That's been the Cleveland Cavaliers in January. A team that left 2023 as the team ranked 18th in 3-point attempts and 26th in 3-point percentage has entered 2024 ranked 4th in 3-point attempts and 9th in 3-point percentage. Talk about sticking to a New Year resolution if you ask me. A team that had been preaching and trying to incorporate more three-point shooting before the season started has now fully unleashed the capabilities of Georges Niang, Max Strus, and Dean Wade out of necessity due to the Evan Mobley and Darius Garland injuries. This newfound identity has been a happy accident, just like the leader of the Cavs' three-point revolution, Sam Merrill.A relative unknown outside the Cavs stratosphere, the 27-year-old who had bounced around the league the three years before landing in Cleveland has become a focal point of a bench unit ranked number one in scoring over this stretch. His constant movement, shooting, and quick release have made him a one-man wrecking machine capable of going on runs by himself, sending defenders scrambling trying to track him down, which has led to not only offense for Merrill but for his teammates as well, making everyone's life easier in the process. The gravity of his 43 percent from 3-point land has been everything and more to unlocking the underperforming bench unit.To further illustrate just how wild his efficiency is, for players that have played 20 games this year, Merrill is leading the league in 17.3 attempts per game per 100 possessions, an attempt and a half more than Steph Curry. Yes, you read that right. His 3-point volume is outpacing the greatest shooter of all time, and he is shooting a better percentage than Curry (43% compared to 39%). This isn't to say that Sam Merrill will now dethrone him but to show that his efficiency, plus the volume of shots he's put up, has been wildly effective since entering the rotation on a more consistent basis. A couple more crazy statistics for how much and how well Merrill has shot the ball: of his 178 attempts on the season, only 25 have been from inside the line. Couple that with the fact that his 3P% is better than his overall FG% (43.1% to 42.7%), and you understand why he's seeing all green lights when he's out there.Will he keep this up forever? Probably not; even the best shooters in the world will have a dip in production from time to time, but the good part of Sam Merrill's game is that he's not just a one-trick pony, either. Despite his diminutive size at 6'4, he has shown to be a good positional defender, drawing eight charges, which is a team-high on the defensive end for the Cavaliers. He also has some underrated passing chops, which have created baskets for others. It's still to be seen how it will go in a playoff setting but for the regular season, he is what the Cavs have sorely needed.It's safe to say that Sam Merrill, when the Cavs are fully healthy, will probably stick with the bench rotation because his impact has been a needed boost. It keeps with the identity cultivated for the bench unit that sorely needed that greenlight early in the season. It will be tough to figure out how the minutes will be distributed but make no mistake, Sam Merrill is here to stay.