Cavs Need Starting Five to Get in Gear

The Cleveland Cavaliers have one of the best benches in the NBA.  Unfortunately, the starting lineup is playing horribly right now.

After sweeping their first three game road trip, beating Philadelphia, Washington, and New Jersey, they stepped up in class on their latest trek and got pummeled by New Orleans, San Antonio, and Indiana.

The wine and gold started the sojourn with a good quarter and a half against the Hornets, but Nawlins went on a 15-2 run to end the half, and the road trip got worse from there, ending with hammerings at the hands of the Spurs and Pacers.

Tuesday night, Byron Scott made his first change to the starting unit, replacing Jamario Moon with Joey Graham, mostly to give a more physical presence to the first unit.

That may not be the last change.

The simple thing to do would be to start the guys who have been coming off the bench, but that would just weaken the strength of the team, which is the second unit. 

So you have to come up with a mix, a group consisting of both starters and the bench group in order to get two units capable of being productive on the floor.

As much as J.J. Hickson is a big part of the future for the Cavs, it may be time to make him part of the second unit, and replace him in the starting lineup with veteran Antawn Jamison. 

Let’s be clear, this is not to say Hickson’s playing time should be cut, it’s when his playing time comes.

The Pacers game shows the wine and gold need to have more than one scorer, Mo Williams, with the starting lineup.  Adding Jamison would enable the coach to have two guys who can put the ball in the basket at the start of games.

The second unit would still have Daniel Gibson, who continues to be the Cavaliers’ leading scorer, on the floor with Hickson to provide offense. 

It also makes the second five something of a greyhound unit with all five players being guys who can get up and down the floor.  So they can provide energy, and have players who can score.

Understand that it’s not a total substitution we are talking about here, but it doesn’t get a veteran go to scorer in the contest at the beginning.  And Jamison has shown to have a variety of ways to score.

Another player that needs to pick up his performance is veteran Anthony Parker, although he did play well against Milwaukee on Wednesday.  Parker was relegated to a three point specialist when LeBron James was here, but it was felt here he could do more. 

Parker is making 47% of his shots from behind the arc, but is hitting just 33% of his attempts inside the three point line (37% overall).  Also, he seems to be a step slow getting out defensively on three point shooters, one reason opponents are hitting 38% of their triples.  If Parker isn’t doing these things, he’s needs to be replaced.

The problem is the Cavs’ only big guard option on the roster is undrafted rookie Manny Harris.  It will be interesting to see if Scott starts giving him more time if the wine and gold doesn’t start playing better.

This is the first real rough patch of the season for this basketball team, and the coach wants to see who will buck up and take charge.  Mo Williams did it against the Bucks.  Who else will elevate their performance?