Cavs Need Help For Mitchell & Garland. Maybe It’s On The Roster

The Cleveland Cavaliers finished a six-game homestand at 4-2, and now face a stretch where they play eight of their next 11 away from Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. They enter this stretch 6-9 on the road.

They won the first four games at home in this stretch before losing the last two to Toronto and Brooklyn, both of whom shot over 50% from three-point range. That’s hard for a team to do in an empty gym. The Nets lead the NBA in long distance shooting, but the Raptors are second from the bottom.

Once again, the Cavs problem is not enough guys contributing offensively consistently. J.B. Bickerstaff has a core four of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen, but he needs more players picking up the slack offensively, especially against better defensive teams.

Cleveland is averaging a little over 84 shots per game, and of those, the combination of Mitchell and Garland are taking 37, slightly less than half. We have seen in the two losses at home, opposing teams are focusing their defense on Mitchell, making it as hard as possible for him to get going.

The coaching staff has to do some things beside the pick-and-roll to get the wine and gold’s leading scorer at 28.5 points per game going. There doesn’t seem to be much action running Mitchell or Garland off screens to get them open looks. We’d like to see some of that.

We would also like to see Mobley and Allen get the ball in the paint more often. Toronto plays a very physical style of defense (they’ve adopted the Pat Riley Knicks and Golden State style of fouling most times down the floor, and the referees can’t call them all), but they don’t really have a true rim protecting big man.

Why not give the two seven-footers on the roster the ball. The Cavs’ starting big men average just under 20 shots per game, and that’s way too low for us. Especially with Mobley shooting almost 56% and Allen converting 62% of his shots.

Plus, if you establish an inside game, it makes it easier for Mitchell and Garland on the perimeter.

What does make it tougher for these four on the offensive end is the total lack of respect defenses have for whomever is playing the #3 spot. Bickerstaff reiterated his “they have to make shots” mantra after Monday’s loss to the Nets, but it goes against the coaching credo of putting people in positions where they can succeed.

Isaac Okoro is hitting 25% of his three-point shots. Lamar Stephens is 13 for 39. Dean Wade is making 41% from behind the line, but is hurt, and when he plays, he has periods where it doesn’t appear he wants to shoot.

As a result, defenders are ignoring them and helping on Mitchell and Garland. Maybe Kevin Love should start there, but still keeping him around 20 minutes per game. We’ve heard people say Cedi Osman should start at small forward, but he’s inconsistent shooting as well.

Maybe the answer is not putting these guys in the corner behind the three-point line where they are rendered ineffective? We understand this is an analytical advancement, but we always ask, what’s better: A made two or a missed three?

Either way, hoping Stevens, Osman, or Okoro become better three-point shooters doesn’t seem like much of a plan. The coaching staff has to come up with an alternative.

Or make a trade…

On Mitchell, Garland, and Mobley

It seems odd to be looking for flaws on a basketball team that has a 21-11 record, but for the Cleveland Cavaliers, when you get to a record that good, you get analyzed based on whether or not the team can make a deep playoff run.

That’s why we have an issue with the lack of depth on the roster. Since Kevin Love injured his thumb, his shot hasn’t been there, so there are many nights when Cleveland gets nothing from their second unit. And when that happens, they struggle to win, no matter the opponent.

Adding Donovan Mitchell has been a revelation, as he has played at an MVP level, even though he isn’t mentioned in that conversation nationally. Right now, he is scoring at a career high mark, averaging 29.3 points per game, and is shooting, both overall and three-point percentage are also at highwater marks.

His career high from the floor was 44.9% in 2019-20, but he is currently at 50.3%, and from long range, he is at a mind-boggling 42.8% compared to his previous best of 38.6% in 2020-21. Barring injury, he most certainly will make his fourth consecutive all-star appearance.

Are these numbers sustainable? It could be that because Mitchell is playing with better offensive players than he ever played with in Utah, he has more room to operate. We shall see as the season goes on.

We have seen a lot of talk about Darius Garland not playing up to the level he did last season, and while some of his numbers are down, it looks to us like most his shot is off.

Remember that Garland missed time after being hit in the eye on opening night, and he might lead the league in getting hit in the face this season. Perhaps that has thrown off his shooting, which is down from 46.2% last season to 43% in 2022-23.

Most of his numbers seem on par with his career norms. He’s hitting 38.2% from three (career mark is 37/8%), he is dishing out 7.8 assists, down a bit from 8.6 last year, but Mitchell is sharing some of this responsibility, and although he’s had some key turnovers in close games, he is averaging less per game than in 2021-22 (3.3 compared to 3.6).

And it most definitely is an adjustment for a player to go from being the best on the team to the second or maybe even the third best when all is said and done. Some players can handle it, others cannot, and based on his body language on the floor and off, Garland seems to be fine.

At some point, he might be passed on the pecking order by Evan Mobley, which will take another adjustment. We have seen J.B. Bickerstaff put the ball in Mobley’s hands at time late in close games, and the big man usually makes the correct decision.

That bodes well for the future of this team.

Having a skilled big man like Mobley, who is also a very good defender, makes it difficult for the opposition. And the fact he can be a triple threat offensively, makes it even better.

Last year, we said this repeatedly when asked who was the Cavs’ best player, Garland or Collin Sexton? It doesn’t matter because in a year or two, it’s going to be Evan Mobley.

And when that happens, if the guards can see it, the Cleveland Cavaliers are going to be a very special basketball team. That will be all kinds of fun.

Cavs’ Start Resulted In High Expectations.

The Cleveland Cavaliers got everyone’s expectations raised when after losing their opener against Toronto, they reeled off eight straight wins, including the first two games on a west coast trip.

Perhaps they’d have been better off going say 6-3 or 5-4 instead of 8-1.

We jest, of course, teams should get wins whenever they can, but we feel a lot of fans and media people alike put J.B. Bickerstaff’s squad into the championship contender category when really, they are a young team that still needs more parts to reach title contention.

Since that start, the Cavs have gone 9-9, including 1-7 on the road, the lone win an ugly game against the lowly Detroit Pistons. They have stayed in the upper tier of the Eastern Conference by dominating at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, where they have an 12-2 mark.

Injuries and the resulting lack of depth have shown us that while this is still a team that should finish in the top six of the East and thus avoid the play-in tournament, the Cavaliers still aren’t a finished product.

Although Darius Garland missed much of the 8-1 skein after being hit in the eye, since that start, a number of other injuries have cropped up. Jarrett Allen missed some games, so did Caris LeVert, and now, Donovan Mitchell has missed two straight.

The season is a little over a third over, and only Evan Mobley, Isaac Okoro, and Cedi Osman have played in every game to date.

We felt the bench was a question mark coming into the year, but with Kevin Love’s fractured thumb and back issues, the second unit lost its primary scoring option. LeVert moved to the bench to help provide some points, but Mitchell’s injury put him back in the starting role.

There were some who thought Okoro and Dean Wade would be huge factors for the Cavs, and although Okoro is still a solid defender, offensively he is ignored by opponents, shooting just 40.2% from the floor in total, and making 10 of 43 three point shots.

Wade played in just 51 games a year ago and has already missed nine this season. And he’s not consistent when he does play either.

Cleveland still could use a legitimate shooter off the bench, which again points to what a huge disappointment Dylan Windler has been. The 26th overall pick three years ago with a pedigree as a shooter, the Belmont product has appeared in just 81 games total, and hit only 41.2 % of his shots, and has made just 32% of his three-pointers.

To be fair, his problem is he simply cannot stay healthy. He hasn’t played at all this season, either.

The point is the Cavs simply need more to be a legitimate contender. They have an excellent starting five, and they currently have an MVP candidate in Mitchell. But they lack depth.

Besides a shooter, they could also use another reserve big man, one who is a better quicker than Robin Lopez.

Ricky Rubio will be back in several weeks, and if he is close to the form he played at last season, the guard position will be in good hands.

The Cavaliers has probably somewhere between the team that started 8-1 and the team that has treaded around the .500 mark since. Watch the box scores, when they get production from two reserves, they usually win. When only one contributes, like Friday night’s loss, they lose.

They are still a work in progress. The red-hot start got people too excited.

Easing Concerns About Cavs, Mobley.

The Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t taking anyone by surprise this season. Last year, coming off a 22 win campaign in the 2020-21 season, they got off to a fast start because perhaps opponents did not take them seriously.

They got into the “play in” tournament with 44 victories but lost both games to Brooklyn and Atlanta, thus not making it to a best of seven series.

This year, other teams are very aware of J.B. Bickerstaff’s squad making a 12-7 record to start the year more impressive. They’ve beaten Boston twice in hard fought overtime games, and that is half of the Celtics’ loss total.

We also have to remember the Cavs have also already been on one of their west coast trips this season, going 2-3 on the five-game trek. And they’ve also played Milwaukee twice, losing both times, and therefore have played four games, a little over 20% of their schedule against the two teams who reached the NBA Finals out of the Eastern Conference the last two seasons, and are the favorites to get there again this season.

Of course, when the wine and gold do lose a game, the “football mentality” of the city comes alive and there is panic and dismay in the air.

Friday night, the Cavs had a terrible third quarter against the Bucks and there were questions from social media about the team and the coach. Keep in mind, Cleveland was without three key players in their nine-man rotation–Kevin Love, Caris LeVert, and Lamar Stevens, and then Jarrett Allen hurt his hip in the second quarter and played just three minutes after.

Right now, the Cavaliers’ roster isn’t deep enough to sustain that many players being out, particularly one of their big men, as after Allen and Evan Mobley, there isn’t much depth.

Speaking of Mobley, we have seen some criticism of his progress in his second season. We feel that is ludicrous.

His minutes are up slightly, his shooting percentage has increased to 54.1% from 50.8%, his free throw accuracy is better (up to just under 71%) and his rebounding is also up slightly from 8.3 to 8.5. His scoring has decreased by a half a point per contest, down to 14.5, and that is a product of getting one less shot per game.

Let’s face it, the Cavs have more offensive weapons than they had last season, so there are less opportunities for Mobley offensively right now. We think as the season goes on, Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell will get better finding the second-year pro where he prefers to get the ball, and his offensive numbers will go up.

That said, Mobley is still third on the team in shot attempts per game behind the two starters at guard.

He will also get stronger as he gets older, and that will help him on both ends of the floor. No reason for concern.

When Love and LeVert get back, the Cavaliers will have a better bench and adding two players who can contribute will greatly help production on both ends of the floor.

If anyone is worried about the Cavaliers, take a deep breath. They are handling things just fine.

Wine And Gold Bench Not Getting It Done

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a red-hot start to the season. After losing their opener to Toronto, they reeled off eight straight wins, several of them without All-Star guard Darius Garland, who was poked in the eye in the first game of the season.

Everything was clicking for J.B. Bickerstaff’s crew, Cedi Osman got off to a great start shooting the three ball, Dean Wade scored a career high 22 points in a comeback win over New York. And they beat Boston on the road in overtime with Donovan Mitchell and Caris LeVert both scoring 41 points.

But on the west coast trip, the Cavs were going for win #9 and led the Clippers in the fourth quarter, but lost, starting a five-game losing streak that ended Friday night in a double overtime win over Charlotte.

Sometimes it’s difficult to get a victory after a long losing streak, and hopefully now that the wine and gold got back in the win column, they can right the ship. But some holes did spring up during the losing skein.

Jarrett Allen missed a couple of games with an ankle problem, and that exposed a size problem. Allen and Evan Mobley are a big reason Cleveland succeeds defensively (they are still 4th in defensive efficiency), but they are the only rim protectors on the roster.

With Allen in there, Mobley can get out an defend on the perimeter where his length bothers smaller players, as it did at the end of the first overtime Friday night against Terry Rozier.

The only other experienced interior big man is Robin Lopez, signed in the off-season as a free agent. Lopez is a seven footer, but is slow, and not really a shot blocker. And quite frankly, we don’t think he can be out there for 25 minutes a game if something happened to Allen or Mobley and they couldn’t play for a stretch of games.

Since the winning streak ended, the bench hasn’t provided much, meaning Bickerstaff has a very top-heavy roster.

They have four all-star caliber players in Mitchell, Garland, Allen, and Mobley, and two solid veterans in Kevin Love, who could be out for a while with a hairline fracture of his thumb, and LeVert, meaning the depth folks thought the Cavaliers had is no longer there.

As noted earlier, Osman and Wade had great starts to the season, but the former hasn’t been good lately and Wade has been hurt but followed up the 22 point game with a scoreless one. No doubt, Bickerstaff needs both to step up and provide production each and every night.

After not getting much time early in the season, Lamar Stevens has taken advantage of the injuries and has started to get minutes again, getting at least 29 in last three contests, averaging 9.3 points in those games. He’s solid and deserves to keep getting minutes, probably at the expense of Isaac Okoro who is really struggling, especially on the offensive end.

Raul Neto got playing time while Garland was out, but since the Cavs went west, he’s been AWOL.

That leaves Bickerstaff with six solid players, guys he can depend on every night. That’s not enough, particularly for a time with playoff aspirations.

The first thing that needs to happen is someone, notably Osman and Wade, need to step up, but it doesn’t have to be one of those two, they are just the most likely candidates. It could be Okoro too, but he seems to have lost confidence in his offensive game right now.

Maybe it’s a slump for the bench crew, or perhaps we were all just fooled by the eight-game winning streak. But if this team wants to avoid the play in tournament, they need depth that Bickerstaff can rely on.

Time for some players to step up

Cavs Could Use Another Big

Cleveland Cavaliers’ president of basketball operations Koby Altman has done a remarkable job of building the roster from ashes after LeBron James departed as a free agent.

After three dismal seasons, the Cavs returned to league relevance last season, and even after a four-game losing streak, the wine and gold are off to a solid start this year.

He drafted Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley and smartly got involved with the James Harden trade to Brooklyn, picking up Jarrett Allen in that transaction.

During the summer, he swung perhaps the league’s biggest trade, getting Donovan Mitchell from Utah in a package that included Sexton, giving the Cavaliers perhaps the NBA’s best starting backcourt.

One thing we would like to see an improvement on is the back end of the roster. After a fast start, the Cavs’ bench hasn’t contributed the past few games, getting only consistent minutes from veteran Kevin Love.

We understand Ricky Rubio and Love will eventually be the backbone of the reserves, and Rubio is likely out until January recovering from knee surgery. He will be a big boost to the second unit if he plays like he did last season before he was injured.

And hopefully, between Cedi Osman (continues to be wildly inconsistent), Isaac Okoro (great defender, but offensively is a mystery), and Lamar Stevens (doesn’t get enough playing time), J.B. Bickerstaff can find someone who can contribute on a nightly basis.

The depth at guard seems to be fine. Rubio will be back soon, and Caris LeVert, who is starting at small forward, can play there as well. But right now, the depth in the front court could be a problem as the season moves on.

Altman signed Robin Lopez as a free agent and he has played limited minutes, getting into just eight games, playing 75 minutes. And he’s really the only reverse behind Allen and Mobley who is a true inside player. When Allen is out of the lineup, like he has been the last two nights, the Cavs are severely limited.

Love rebounds very well, but isn’t a great interior defender any more.

Mobley struggled guarding Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert and Karl Anthony-Towns last Sunday and having to use him as a rim protector takes away his ability to guard on the perimeter.

We would also say Lopez is an upgrade over Ed Davis, but remember, last year’s squad also had Lauri Markannen, who could slide over to the power forward spot whenever Allen or Mobley were on the bench or out of action.

So, what we are really trying to say is the Cavs are operating one big man short.

Just being curious, but perhaps Cleveland could have packaged the three second round picks they had in the last draft to get another big guy, either in a deal with another team or trading back up in the first round, maybe Walker Kessler, who was taken at #22?

They did take 7’1″ Khalifa Diop from Senegal at #39, and he is averaging 5.7 and 3.8 rebounds in the EuroCup League. They also chose Isaiah Mobley (brother of Evan) at #49. He’s played in one game for the Cavs this season and will get most of his minutes in the G League this year.

And they took Australian Luke Travers at #56, and he’s scoring 7.8 points a game in the land down under.

Little to show for those three picks.

We know, we know, there is still plenty of time to revamp the roster before the trade deadline in February. Until then, there is no question the wine and gold are short on some size.

Hopefully, Allen and Mobley stay healthy.

Cavs’ Bench Needs To Shake The Doldrums

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a promising start to their trip to the west, winning in Detroit (yes, it’s west) without Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell and beating the Lakers.

They had fourth quarter leads in every other game, but lost the last three, and come home tonight to face Minnesota.

The Cavs have played eight of their first twelve games away from Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, and now five of the next six are in town, which helps immensely as the wine and gold have won all four games held there.

An old NBA adage tells us bench players play better at home and that was certainly true for J.B. Bickerstaff’s squad on the trek, as really only Kevin Love gave him quality minutes consistently.

Of course, Love’s a veteran, a guy who has started most of his career, so it’s not surprising he plays well no matter where the game is, he’s averaging 12 points and 7.7 rebounds a game.

Cedi Osman averaged 15.5 points per game on red hot shooting (52% from the floor, 9 of 19 from three) in the first four games. Since then, he’s made just 14 of 39 (36%) and just 8 of 26 three-point shots, scoring in double figures just once, the blowout win in the Motor City.

Dean Wade started while Garland was out with his eye injury and scored 22 points, a career high, in the win against the Knicks at home. He missed the last game of the trip, but in the four games he played, he scored 11 points, including a zero against Detroit.

And then there is Isaac Okoro, who’s confidence looks shattered right now, missing two-point blank layups against Golden State Friday night. He’s made just 9 of 32 shots from the floor, missing all 12 three point shots. He even put up a six trillion (playing six minutes without any other entry in the box score) vs. the Kings.

In the last four games of the roadie (he did have 9 points vs. the Pistons), he scored seven points on 1 of 8 shooting in 47 minutes, grabbing four rebounds and dishing out two assists.

When three of your four primary substitutes are playing like that, it’s difficult to win.

At what point does a concern become a problem though.

As we said earlier, five of Cleveland’s next six contests are at home, so the second unit has an opportunity to straighten out the issue. But if they don’t start playing well, what are the options?

One would seem to be putting Wade back in the starting lineup and bringing LeVert off the bench. Not that the latter has done anything wrong, it would simply be putting another scorer with that group. Doing this would also give the starters a bit more size.

As for Okoro, we don’t know what the solution is. Defensively, he is still excellent, contributing greatly to the win against New York with his effort on that end of the floor.

On offense, he appears lost right now. As mentioned earlier, he’s lost whatever confidence he ever had offensively. At times when he is passed the ball, it looks like he can’t get rid of it fast enough. Defenses are ignoring him, and it puts a burden on the offense when you are basically playing 4 on 5.

We’d also like to see more of a 10 man rotation to limit minutes on the starters, particularly Mitchell, who currently leads the NBA in that category. Raul Neto has done a solid job when used, so why not use him?

We understand it’s still early, but we are sure Bickerstaff hasn’t liked the last three games. Home cooking will help, but so will better effort by bench.

Mitchell As Advertised.

When the Cleveland Cavaliers took a big swing for Donovan Mitchell late last summer, we were a bit skeptical on the deal. We thought it robbed the Cavs of the “big” identity, not having Lauri Markkanen, at 7′, playing small forward.

We also thought it did not solve the problem of the team’s small backcourt, with Mitchell and Darius Garland measuring at around 6’2″.

However, until you see a player every day, it’s tough to evaluate him properly. And man, were we wrong about Donovan Mitchell.

One question we had was his will to win, and he has proven that should not have been questioned. It’s pretty clear he feels this team has more weapons than he played with in Utah, and when Garland gets back, you have to think this team will even be better offensively.

Also, Mitchell plays much bigger than his listed 6’1″. He has a very strong upper body and can get off the floor and battle for rebounds and navigate his shot against much bigger players. He plays with force.

And he’s a willing passer. In his six games with the wine and gold, he has had eight or more assists in four of them. Granted, Garland is out of the lineup, so the ball is in Mitchell’s hands a lot. But as a point of comparison, in Collin Sexton’s three plus years with Cleveland, he had eight or more assists just nine times.

Plus, he’s another guy who plays with the “scrap” that J.B. Bickerstaff loves to talk about. In the last two games, the Cavs trailed by more than 10 points, but kept working hard, picking up the intensity on the defensive end of the floor, which enabled them to come back and win both.

Mitchell also seems to have fit in seamlessly with his new teammates, taking a leadership role right from the start, but he looks like he’s played with this group for years. We are sure when Garland returns, there might be a bit of an adjustment because both players like to have the ball in their hands, but they seem to have good chemistry, as does the rest of the roster.

And already, they’ve had a number of players step up. Friday night, Caris LeVert had 41 points. Sunday, Kevin Love had 29 points. Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley have been a defensive force inside and on the boards.

Cedi Osman and Dean Wade have both contributed the long-range shooting needed while Garland has been out, with Wade knocking down a ridiculous 15 of 24 three-point shots.

We are usually critical of Isaac Okoro, particularly offensively, but his defense Sunday night was a big reason for the victory over New York.

After tomorrow night’s contest with Boston, the first long trip of the season comes along, starting in Detroit and moving to the west coast. Getting Garland back should ease the burden on not just Mitchell, but every Cavalier.

Will there be some regression? Sure, we doubt the Cavs can continue to shoot 43% from beyond the arc for the season. On the other hand, there will be games where Allen and Mobley both contribute more on the offensive end.

However, it’s hard to find anything to point at on this team right now. There were questions about the #3 spot coming into the year, but LeVert, Osman, and Wade have done a yeoman’s job there.

Right now, isn’t this team just as likeable as the Guardians came to be?

New Look Cavs Should Finish In East’s Top Six

Wednesday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers open the 2022-23 season against the Toronto Raptors with high expectations. And they should be looking forward to it.

Last season, the Cavs won a surprising 44 games, doubling the total from the previous year (although it was a shortened 72 game season), and getting into the “play in” tournament, where they were eliminated by losing to Brooklyn and Atlanta.

For much of the year, J.B. Bickerstaff’s squad was in the top four in the East, using their big lineup with first-time All-Star guard Darius Garland providing the long-range shooting.

Injuries started to hit. Ricky Rubio, who was so good at the start of the year, injured his knee, and later Jarrett Allen missed time as well. Kevin Love led the Cavs in games played with 74.

Cleveland struggled after the mid-season break, losing 17 of 26 games, and to us, playing a different style than they did earlier, more reliant on Garland for scoring.

GM Koby Altman took a huge swing during the summer, trading for another All-Star guard, Donovan Mitchell from Utah, giving up Collin Sexton, who missed most of last year with a knee injury and ending the big lineup by moving Lauri Markkanen in the same deal.

Mitchell is a proven scorer, a career 23.9 points per game, and last year, he poured in 25.9 per contest. However, he is still just 6’1″, albeit with a long wingspan, so concerns about a lack of size in the backcourt is still a concern.

Can Garland and Mitchell provide enough defense against opponents’ guards? Bickerstaff maintains defense is still the wine and gold’s identity. That means everyone needs to pitch in, it cannot fall to just Allen and second-year power forward Evan Mobley.

Letting opposing guards to get to the paint with ease breaks down the defense completely. Mitchell and Garland have to do better.

We cannot wait to see the progression of Mobley this season. Last year as a rookie, he scored 15 points, grabbed 8.3 boards, and blocked 1.7 shots per game. He no doubt will be better in his second year.

For all the discussion about who the best player on the Cavs was a year ago, and then include Mitchell in the conversation this season, in a year or two (or perhaps this season) that point could be moot. The answer will probably be Mobley.

The biggest question for Bickerstaff will be who is starting at small forward and who else will get minutes once the regular season commences. Knowing the coach likes height, the favorites might be Cedi Osman or Dean Wade, but both players are very inconsistent.

He could go with veteran Caris LeVert, who can score and pass, but can he play without the ball, which he probably would with Mitchell and Garland starting. Finding the best fit could be a process that takes the Cavs into when the calendar changes.

The Cavs should avoid the play in tournament this year by finishing in the top six of the Eastern Conference and getting a best-of-seven series to start the post-season. On paper, they are more talented than last year’s team.

However, last year’s squad showed other teams a different look, one with three seven footers on the front line. This year’s roster is smaller, but seemingly more skilled.

We didn’t see all of the key players during exhibition play, so we are left wondering how Mitchell fits in, who (if anyone) loses touches in the offense.

That wonder will end come Wednesday night up north.

It could be a very exciting winter downtown.

Who Plays Small Forward? Cavs Have To Have An Answer

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.