The Cleveland Cavaliers have started training camp for the 2022-23 season and they know who four starters will be: Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell will be the guards, Evan Mobley will be the power forward, and Jarrett Allen be man the pivot.
The question is who will start at small forward or the #3 spot. Most fans have their favorite to play there, but really, there is more to it than just numbers.
The player that J.B. Bickerstaff chooses has to fit with the others. He has to be an offensive threat, otherwise the opponents will double team someone, which will limit the effectiveness of that player and possibly the entire offense.
And while he needs to be an offensive threat, he has to understand he will be the fifth option on that side of the court, knowing he needs to be a facilitator to get the ball to the others.
Lastly, Bickerstaff has to worry about the second unit too. He needs to create balance so when three bench players are on the floor, the Cavs aren’t worrying how they are going to score.
We believe the contenders are Isaac Okoro, Caris LeVert, Cedi Osman, Dean Wade, and Lamar Stevens
The favorite to land the spot is third year player Okoro, mostly because he was the 5th overall pick in the 2020 draft. Okoro improved his three point shooting from 29% as a rookie to 35% last season, but last season, opposing teams were leaving him open, and he still seemed hesitant to shoot.
For us, he needs to demonstrate he can knockdown shots without hesitation and make defenses pay attention to him. If he can do that, he might be the guy.
LeVert is the most accomplished scorer of the group, scoring at 14.6 points per game in his career. He’s a good passer and is certainly someone the defense would need to pay attention to. That’s probably why he’s a better fit with the second unit, using he and Kevin Love as the primary weapons among that group.
We are fans of Osman, so we are a little biased here. We think Osman has been miscast as spot up three-point shooter, and although he has a career mark of 35%, he’s inconsistent. He’s really a slasher/distributor, that’s what he does internationally, and is a solid defender.
Doing those things, he might be a great fit with Mitchell, Garland, Allen, and Mobley. He is willing to shoot though, and has size too, at 6’7″ (compared to Okoro at 6’5″ and LeVert at 6’6″).
Wade is 6’9″, so he would fit more into Bickerstaff’s love of size, and he’s a good shooter (36% from three), but he seems hesitant to shoot at times and thus far in his career, it feels like he goes through stretches where he disappears on the floor. It’s hard to justify increased minutes if that happens.
Stevens would be a good choice too. He gives you the same defense as Okoro but with a better offensive game. We often think Stevens would get more time than Okoro if the latter wasn’t the fifth overall pick.
What we like about Stevens is he knows his game, and he can be effective in the mid-range game, so defenses have to respect that.
The performance of these five players is something to watch when the exhibition games commence. But don’t just look at their numbers, look at what the play on the court looks like with the other starters.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 