In a little more than two weeks, the Cleveland Cavaliers open the regular season. They hasn’t been a big turnover from the roster of last year’s team that went 22-50 in the COVID shortened season, and quite frankly we don’t know what to expect.
The best player from a year ago no longer on the roster is Larry Nance Jr., moved in a three team deal which netted GM Koby Altman forward Lauri Markkanen.
Nance is an all around player, but missed more than half the season a year ago, playing in just 35 of the 72 contests. He will be missed, but the potential of Markkanen could more than make up for his loss.
Altman also brought in veteran point guard Ricky Rubio, which is nice, the Cavs could use a veteran who plays smart basketball. However, he plays the same position as one of the team’s best players in Darius Garland. Rubio could be a good sounding board for the third year player, but if Garland makes the strides expected by many, how much time does Rubio get on the floor?
Coach J.B. Bickerstaff still has a relatively inexperienced team. The only “old heads” are Kevin Love and Rubio, both of whom have been in the NBA for 10+ years. Beyond that pair, the two oldest players who figure to see decent playing time are newcomer Denzel Valentine (28) and Cedi Osman (27).
The most important Cavs figure to be Garland (21), Collin Sexton (22), Jarrett Allen (23), Markkanen (24), Isaac Okoro (21) and rookie Evan Mobley (20).
That’s a lot of youth for the coaching staff to have to teach about the ways of the NBA.
We also still have concerns about how the roster fits. Starting Garland and Sexton at guard, as expected, leaves the Cavaliers very small in the backcourt. Okoro, a tough player who had a solid rookie season last year, is short at 6’5″ for a small forward.
We still believe his size makes him a better fit at the off guard, but can he score enough to play there.
Then we have the frontcourt where the bulk of the playing time will go to three seven footers, Allen, Markkanen, and Mobley.
And what to do with Kevin Love, who is still here, and it probably won’t be long, particularly if he isn’t getting a lot of time, before he makes it known he would like to be elsewhere.
What style will Bickerstaff use for his squad. Right now, this doesn’t figure to be a strong outside shooting team, particularly from three point range. So, does he try to defend, force missed shots, and try to take advantage of fast break opportunities?
The problem with that is can the smallish guard apply the type of defensive pressure needed for this to work? Defense is as good as the weakest defender on the floor. Good teams will find the bad defender and take advantage.
Can Cleveland have that kind of defense?
We have heard the staff wants to use Mobley off the bench, at least early in the season. We think this makes sense, because at his stature, we can see him taking a pounding from bigger, more veteran players. It might be best to use him about 18-20 minutes per night at the start of the season, and we also might use him at small forward at times as well.
But the biggest thing for this team is can they play together, for each other, particularly when things go poorly. Can they make each other look like better players than they are individually?
That’s the key to success. And knowing what you can do and can’t do as a player, and where you rank in the pecking order on the team.
That’s our biggest worry about the wine and gold. Altman hasn’t made any bad picks, none of his high picks are complete busts. However, right now, they don’t seem to fit very well together. Getting them to do just that is the biggest key for success by the Cavs this year.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 