Cavs Still Looking For “3 and D” Guys, Especially With Length

The NBA trade deadline is rapidly approaching, and rumors surfaced last week that once again the Cleveland Cavaliers are looking for “3 and D” guys, wing players who can shoot and can defend.

They have until February 8th to make a deal, and hopefully the players they are interested in have some length. The Cavs signed Max Strus (6’5″) and Georges Niang (6’7″) during the off-season, but they haven’t provided the shooting we are sure the organization was hoping for.

Strus topped out at 41% in 2021-22 but shot 35% last season and that figure has dropped to 33.7% in 2023-24. Niang came into the year as a 40% shooter from beyond the arc for his career, but this year has converted on just 36.5% of his attempts.

Dean Wade has some size on the wing when he plays there, and is a solid defender, but is wildly inconsistent. He took 10+ shots in back-to-back games at the end of December against the Pelicans and Bulls (7 of 11, 6 for 8 from three vs. NO; 4 for 12, 3 for 10 from three vs. CHI), but went seven straight games where he took less than five shots.

He was 3 for 15 from three in that span.

Outside of Wade, the other two new players aren’t exactly defensive stoppers. Both try, which is something, but are limited due to height in Strus’ case, he’s probably better cast as a guard, or quickness (Niang).

Add in the need for height, which we have talked about for the last two seasons. Outside of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, Cleveland has only two players over 6’10”. One is rookie Emoni Bates, who is very raw, and Damian Jones, who rarely gets off the bench.

Wade and Tristan Thompson, who is limited to playing in the post offensively, are 6’9″ and the only player 6’8″ is another player who doesn’t get much action in Isaiah Mobley.

FYI, the Cavs did sign 6’11” Pete Nance to a 10-day contract. Nance is averaging 15.5 points and 7.8 boards per game for the Charge. He, of course, is the son of Larry Nance and the brother of Larry Nance Jr., both of whom played for Cleveland.

We will see how much, if any, playing time Nance will get.

What Cleveland could really use is a wing in the 6’7″ to 6’9″ range who can shoot. The Pistons just traded for Danilo Gallinari, and we can’t imagine they intend to keep him. He is 6’10” and a career 38.1% shooter from the three-point line. He had knee surgery a year ago, but has played in 26 games this season.

We have always liked 33-year-old Gordon Hayward, who is rumored to be on the block in Charlotte. He’s started 25 games with the Hornets this year, scoring 14.5 points, grabbing 4.7 rebounds, and dishing out 4.6 assists. He’s a basketball player.

We understand neither of these players are strong defenders, but we think they could help the wine and gold.

Last season, the Cavs were over matched physically by the New York Knicks in the opening round of the playoffs. They still haven’t addressed that in our view. If they played New York again this season, we don’t see the result being any different.

We understand you can’t make your roster to beat the Knicks, you might not ever play them. But Koby Altman emphasized shooting the three ball in the off-season, and the Cavaliers are actually worse at it than they were a year ago.

They have three weeks to improve their current roster.

JB Makes Changes, Cavs Win Game Two

The Cleveland Cavaliers needed a win badly Tuesday night and they got it, evening the series with the New York Knicks at one game apiece with a 107-90 victory at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

The wine and gold showed toughness, especially on the glass, outrebounding New York a few days after the Knicks dominated on the glass.

And J.B. Bickerstaff totally changed his rotation, benching Ricky Rubio and Dean Wade, both of whom contributed little in game one, and pretty much went with seven players in the win. We don’t know how sustainable that will be going forward, but it worked in Game 2.

Darius Garland was phenomenal shooting the ball, making six of ten from three-point range, scoring 32 points, 26 of them in the first half. In the early moments of the game, Garland was very careless with the ball, seeming to want to make the spectacular pass rather than the right one.

He corrected that issue by just making a bunch of shots.

Donovan Mitchell became the playmaker, dishing out 13 assists to go with 17 points. There is no doubt the Cavs will need Mitchell’s scoring ability before this series is over, but with the Knicks trying to double him when they could, he simply made the right basketball play over and over again.

Caris LeVert was skewered by many fans after the first game, but he has been so solid over the second half of the season, we figured he would bounce back, and he did, scoring 24 points, grabbing four boards, and dishing out three dimes, as well as hounding Jalen Brunson all night.

He played a team high 40 minutes.

Cedi Osman didn’t shoot the ball well, but played solid defense and grabbed six rebounds, behind only the Cleveland big men, Jarrett Allen (10) and Evan Mobley (13).

We are critical of Bickerstaff at times, mainly how he judges the talent of his players, but it took guts to not play Rubio and make the decision after Dean Wade’s poor first half in game one, not to give him any time during game two.

But the shocking move was with Isaac Okoro. Okoro started and picked up two fouls in the first three minutes on the floor, was removed from the game and never returned. Was his knee acting up again? After all, he did miss the last two weeks with an injury. Still, we were stunned he never went back in.

Instead, Bickerstaff went with veteran Danny Green at the #4 spot. Green only took two shots, making one, but the defense has to guard him, and they don’t do that with Okoro.

We expect the Knicks will try to exploit Green defensively as the series goes on. Quite frankly, having Green guard Julius Randle is not a good match for the Cavs, but the element of surprise worked for Cleveland.

So, the series goes back to Madison Square Garden for games on Friday and Sunday and the Cavs need to win one game in New York at some point if they want to win the series.

As mentioned earlier, the Cavaliers are going to need quality minutes from players not named Mitchell, Garland, Allen, Mobley, and LeVert if they are going to prevail. So, there will be opportunities for guys like Okoro, Rubio, and Wade to help.

They have to come through because you can’t keep playing seven players.

It worked in game two, and it had to. Going down 0-2 at home would have spelled a quick end to the Cavaliers’ season.

Cavs’ Warts Show In Disappointing Game One.

Sometimes, it stinks to be right. That’s how we felt last night watching all our fears about the series between the Cavaliers and Knicks come true.

We were concerned about the Cleveland bench, and led by Josh Hart, the New York reserves outscored the Cavs’ by a 37-14 count. Hart not only scored more (17 points) than the wine and gold’s bench, he also outrebounded them, grabbing 10 boards.

The Cleveland bench had just five.

We were also worried about the rebounding of the Knicks. Cleveland spent the last two months of the regular season losing the battle of the boards, and indeed, the same thing happened in game one, as New York grabbed 51 caroms to the Cavs’ 38.

We have been complaining about the lack of size for the Cavs since the trade deadline, when the organization decided to let Kevin Love go. Love can’t guard on the perimeter anymore, and his shooting dropped off when he injured his thumb.

We felt they would add another big man to the roster to replace Love on the buyout market. Instead, they picked up Danny Green and Sam Merrill, two wings, neither of whom saw action in game one.

And by the way, former Cleveland big man, Isaiah Hartenstein had eight points and five rebounds.

Our other concern was J.B. Bickerstaff. The coach had a week of practices to decide who would get action in the playoffs, and the only member of the bench who made an impact in the game was the last player he used, Cedi Osman.

Osman had nine points and two rebounds and drew the defensive assignment against Jalen Brunson in the fourth quarter, and we thought he acquitted himself quite well.

The first big man sub used by Bickerstaff was Dean Wade, who somehow was put on Julius Randle, and was abused by the Knicks’ star in seven minutes, and Cleveland was outscored by 14 minutes while he was on the floor.

Cleveland out-shot the Knicks from the floor (43.4% to 42%) and from three (32.3% to 27.6%). The young Cavs inexperience showed, missing six free throws (NY missed just three), including a pair each by guards Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland.

Mitchell tried to will the Cavs to victory, scoring 38 points and dishing out eight assists, but he got very little help. Garland had 17, but also five turnovers. Evan Mobley seemed a bit tentative around the basket, hitting just 4 of 13 shots.

We saw some criticism of Jarrett Allen, but he had 14 points and 14 boards and dished out 4 assists, the second highest total on the team.

New York predictably left Isaac Okoro open on the perimeter and he missed all four of his attempts from long range and went one of six overall. The Cavs need Okoro’s defense on the floor, but he can’t be a liability on the offensive end.

And Caris LeVert, who finished the regular season strong, had an off night, making just one shot in seven tries, and had just one assist and one rebound.

The good news is the Cavs know now what kind of performance is needed in the playoffs. And we have always said until the ultimate game in the series, the even numbered games are most important. The Cavs can even things up on Tuesday night, and if they lose that one, it could be a very short visit to the playoffs for the wine and gold.

Simply, Garland, Mobley, and LeVert must be better in Game 2. We wonder if we will see Osman earlier in the next game. And why not use Lamar Stevens, who may be the “grittiest” Cavalier?

But it will be a big issue if the Cavaliers cannot hold their own with New York on the glass. The defensive job isn’t over until you get possession of the ball.

JB Seems To Want Another Big. Go Get Him One.

Since the middle of this NBA season, we have been concerned about the Cleveland Cavaliers not having enough depth of big men.

They start one of the best duos in the league with Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. But the signing of Robin Lopez is fine if he is going to play once a week for about ten minutes, but if he is pressed into service longer or more frequently than that the Cavs have a problem.

Some folks have the opinion that in the playoffs Allen and Mobley will play about 40 minutes per game, so there is no reason to bring in another player who can handle center or power forward, but we like to have our bases covered.

Allen’s recent eye injury brought the need for another decent big man into focus (no pun intended). Yes, Cleveland has won three of the four games without their starting center, but they lost to Philadelphia, who of course has MVP candidate Joel Embiid.

Lopez got eight minutes the first game Allen was out and the Cavs were a minus 9 in those minutes. He hasn’t been in a game since.

Dean Wade got the opportunity the next game, another win over the lowly Hornets, and he provided no points (on four shots) and more concerning, no rebounds in 19 minutes! The exclamation point is for someone 6’9″ playing that long without accidentally getting a rebound.

Against Philly, coach J.B. Bickerstaff dusted off two-way player Mamadi Diakite, who had played all of 16 games with the Cavs this season, and he played nine minutes, totaling two points and a rebound. He then played 12 minutes in the win over Washington, getting two points, five boards, and picking up five fouls.

We realize there is no question Allen and Mobley will play the bulk of the minutes once the playoffs start. But what if they have to miss time? If it is a long-term injury, the Cavaliers are probably screwed anyway, but what if either has to miss a game? Or one of them gets into foul trouble?

Does Bickerstaff really want to trust Diakite to play 15-18 minutes in the playoff game? And based on the Wizards’ game, could he last 15 minutes without fouling out?

After the Sixers’ game, the coach said he felt the team was short on big men, shorter than he is comfortable in being. So why don’t Koby Altman and Mike Gansey get him another player with the ability to play the #4 or #5 spot?

They used the roster spot created with the Kevin Love buyout to sign another wing, 6’4″ Sam Merrill, who has played in just two games since his arrival on March 3rd. And that was after signing Danny Green on the buyout market. He’s appeared in four games.

We understand Green’s experience may help come playoff time, but why get another wing like Merrill when there is clearly no playing time available for him.

The front office could still go out and get another big man before the playoffs, but they would have to cut someone. Maybe that’s why Diakite has played the last two games, they are seeing if he can be a contributor going forward.

The Cavs have made it a priority to get into the playoffs, the real seven game series playoffs this season. Why not go out and get an insurance policy for the post-season if Allen or Mobley have to miss some time next month?

It just makes too much sense.

Cavs’ Need To Solve Bench Problem.

Since February 1st, the Cleveland Cavaliers have gone 10-4, but it seems like they are still in state of flux.

In this span, the Cavs have bought out Kevin Love and the remaining members of the second unit, save for Caris LeVert, have been wildly inconsistent.

J.B. Bickerstaff has said he is using his bench personnel based on game situations, meaning it depends on the opponent. We disagree with this, but as we all know, we are not, nor ever have been an NBA coach.

We know the players are grown men, but we still feel when players know how they will be used, they feel more comfortable and that leads to better performances.

We get the Cavs didn’t want to get into the luxury tax this season, and we understand why. They want to save that for next year, when they figure to make a deeper run in the playoffs.

That said, we continue to see a very top-heavy roster, one that will need to be tweaked going into next season if the Cavs want to contend for an Eastern Conference championship.

The front office and coaching staff have put a lot of faith in certain players and over the last month, those players haven’t justified that confidence, and right now, it’s a problem for the Cavs.

We know once the playoffs start, the rotation will be tightened, and Bickerstaff will likely use just eight guys. LeVert will no doubt be one, and Ricky Rubio will be the other. Who’s the third non-starter to get time?

Bickerstaff has established a defensive mindset for the team and that’s great. In the seasons between LeBron James leaving with Ty Lue as coach until Bickerstaff took over, there seemed to be no identity for the wine and gold. The current coach gave them one.

However, it seems like every roster move and decision about playing time is based on how a player defends, and that can be problematic because it puts the entire scoring burden on Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen.

If one of that quartet is having an off night, more often than not, it’s a huge problem for the Cavs.

Isaac Okoro is still starting and after a brief stretch in January and early February where his shot was falling, particularly from three-point range, he has returned to his usual performance. In his last 10 games, he’s scoring 6.4 points per game on 43% shooting from the floor and is 9 of 32 (28.1%) from long distance.

In Dean Wade’s last 14 games, he is averaging 2.6 points and 3.3 rebounds a game. He’s shooting 32.5% from the floor and 27% from three.

Cedi Osman was making 45.8% of his shots before the All-Star break, averaging 21 minutes per game. Since the break, his time has dropped to 17 minutes, missing one game entirely, and his shooting has dropped to 35%.

In our opinion, we don’t think the coach has ever been a real fan of Osman’s game, and we differ there. We think Osman should start because opposing defenses would have to guard him, and we feel he could be an effective slasher and passer.

We would still like to see Lamar Stevens get more time in the last 15 games to see if he can be a rotation piece, and he showed what he can do last night. Stevens is a solid defender and has a decent mid-range game. He doesn’t shoot a lot of threes, because he knows he’s not effective from out there.

At this point, we think he’s a better option than either Wade or Okoro.

The hardest thing for a coach to realize at times is when he is being stubborn. We hope Bickerstaff uses these last five weeks of the season to kind of hold tryouts for who should earn playing time in the playoffs.

Right now, no one is really stepping up on the offensive end of the floor.

Time For Cavs’ Bench To Step Up

On February 13th, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the San Antonio Spurs to extend their winning streak to seven games and raise their record to 38-22.

Since then, the Cavs have played six halves of basketball and of those six, one-third of them have bee ghastly.

The last game before the all-star break was against another Eastern Conference contender for a home court advantage spot in the first round of the playoffs in the Philadelphia 76ers, and the wine and gold were overmatched in the first half, trailing 63-38 at intermission.

The Sixers hit 8 of 15 three point shots, and the Cleveland bench plus Isaac Okoro shot 4 of 13 from the floor and hit a lone shot from behind the arc in seven attempts.

Cleveland rebounded to outscore the Sixers 74-55 in the second half, but Philly shot 5 of 12 in the second half from three-point range. The Cavaliers not named Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen, and Evan Mobley scored six points on two of six shooting.

J.B. Bickerstaff’s squad played a more complete game at home against Denver in the first game after the break, but still dropped a game to the Western Conference leaders. But the Nuggets torched the Cavs from long range, hitting 17 of 36 threes, including 10 of 18 in the second half.

For the game, Cleveland hit just 6 of 26 long-range shots. The Cavs’ bench plus Okoro made just one three-point shots in nine attempts.

The Cavaliers went to Atlanta on Friday and laid another egg on the road, getting overmatched by the Hawks in the first half, heading into the locker room down 81-57. The bench bunch contributed just 10 points in the first half on 3 of 14 shooting and the Hawks made seven of their dozen three-point attempts.

For the game, Atlanta hit 15 of 28 from beyond the arc.

The Cavs have prided themselves on their defense over the past two years, but in the last three games, they’ve allowed 123 points per game and created a huge halftime hole for themselves in the two of those contests.

We have pointed out all season long that the Cavs’ recipe for victory is the “Big Four” to play well and have at least two players from the second unit have solid games. Over the last three games, they have gotten little from the substitutes.

Caris LeVert is the #1 reserve for Cleveland, but in the last three games, he has scored just 11 points total on 5 of 10 (1 for 6 from three) shooting. He has to score for the Cavs to be successful.

Dean Wade has five points taking just five shots. Okoro, who starts but isn’t one of the four principal players has 13 points on 4 of 12 shooting (2 of 7 from distance).

The best reserve has been Cedi Osman, who missed the Sixers’ game, but has averaged 7.5 points in the two others.

Somebody simply has to step up for Cleveland to win.

Another issue has been Mitchell’s long-distance shooting. Cleveland’s lone all-star shot 41% from distance through December but has hit just 33.5% since the calendar changed to 2023. We know he’s been bothered by a sore groin, but his three ball isn’t falling, he has to get to the basket more.

We understand how the regular season has very few games, but tonight’s is a big one for Bickerstaff’s club. They need a win and they’ve lost to the Raptors in all three games between the two teams.

The bench bunch has to get it going starting tonight. And the point guards need to get LeVert going early. The team needs his scoring and ability to create shots to be successful.

Can’t See The Wisdom In Love Buyout

We don’t like giving up on athletes who can still play.

That’s why we are having a hard time wrapping our head around the Cleveland Cavaliers’ decision to reach a buyout agreement with Kevin Love.

We do understand that Love is a defensive liability, he can no longer guard quicker guards on the perimeter. Look at the top scorers in the NBA. Nobody can guard them because mostly, you aren’t allowed to play defense in the league anymore.

Damian Lillard is averaging 31.4 points, Ja Morant 27.3, Donovan Mitchell, Kyrie Irving, and Trae Young are all averaging over 26.5 per contest. These are all talented players, but under today’s rules, they are very difficult for anybody to guard on the perimeter.

The consensus among people we know and we read is that Love can still play in the league and at a solid level. And we have an issue that J.B. Bickerstaff basically made him an outsider.

Just a little over a month ago, on New Year’s Eve and on January 2nd, in back-to-back victories over the Bulls, Love had games of 20 points and nine rebounds and followed it up with 12 points and 17 boards. We don’t think the veteran lost it in a six-week period.

That’s not a criticism of Bickerstaff either. Every coach does some things that we would do differently, it doesn’t mean we want that guy fired.

Bickerstaff is a defense-first coach. When he took over, we felt the Cavaliers as an organization didn’t have an identity, the coach established that defense was going to be the trademark of the wine and gold.

And certainly, Dean Wade gives the Cavs better perimeter defense than Love. We have said before that we believe Wade is underrated for his ability to guard and overrated for his shooting.

In the 14 games Wade has played since he returned from his shoulder injury, he’s averaging 4.4 points and 3.3 rebounds per game, shooting 44% from the floor and 35% from three. Love is shooting 35% from three, despite a hand injury that occurred early in the season.

When Love was benched on January 26th, we thought it was to give his thumb, which he fractured in mid-November, an extended rest to finally heal, and for him to get his shot back on track. In January, his three-point shooting had dropped to 22.9%.

We don’t like the “per 36 minutes” statistic, but Love was still rebounding, with the second-best rate on the team, behind only Evan Mobley.

Maybe Bickerstaff could have cut Love’s minutes a bit and still kept him in the rotation, maybe giving him less minutes in the second half of games when defense is at a premium.

Again, going back to the first line in the piece, we hate giving up players who can still contribute if you don’t have to.

Also, Love’s defensive issues are due to the seemingly idiotic way the NBA plays the pick and roll these days, switching on everything. In our opinion, that’s allowing the offense to dictate your defense. It simply makes no sense. Every team wants their guard against an opposing big man, or to put it more simply a quicker player vs. someone who can move as well.

It’s also troublesome that the two teams who are most interested in securing Love’s services are teams very near the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference standings: Philadelphia and Miami.

That should tell the Cavs’ front office this wasn’t handled correctly.

No Trades For Cavs, But Green Is Coming. Anyone Else?

The Cleveland Cavaliers seemed to have found an elixir to their January malaise and have reeled off six straight victories, pushing them into fourth place in the Eastern Conference, which would give them home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

It was a bit surprising that Koby Altman and Mike Gansey did not pull off a trade at the deadline, mostly because only four teams in the league did not make a deal.

As we have been saying over the last month, we felt the Cavs needed a big more than a wing heading into the post-season, but the front office didn’t do that either, although it looks as though Cleveland will be signing veteran free agent Danny Green, recently traded from Memphis to Houston, and then bought out by the Rockets.

Green has only played three games this season, recovering from a knee injury, but he brings some length at the wing position and he’s a career 40% shooter from three-point range. Cleveland could use another reliable shooter from outside.

Green’s signing will take place after he passes through waivers, which should happen later today.

It will be interesting to see if Altman grabs another big man that comes available on the buyout market.

Right now, the Cavaliers have Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley starting at center and power forward, respectively, but they really don’t have anyone else with size that they can trust with meaningful minutes.

The team’s third big is probably 6’9″ Dean Wade, who is more of a wing to our way of thinking. He plays more offensively and defensively on the perimeter, and he is a very good defender out there. Kevin Love has fallen out of the rotation and although he still can rebound, he doesn’t match up with many opposing big men who operate in the paint.

Robin Lopez is still on the roster but doesn’t have the lateral quickness needed to defend in today’s NBA. We wondered the other night why Bickerstaff didn’t use him when the Bulls put Andre Drummond in the game. There aren’t many players he could match up against.

We were interested in Dewayne Dedmon, recently let go by Miami, but he decided to sign with the Sixers, just ahead of the wine and gold in the standing. Dedmon is a seven-footer who played in 30 games with the Heat, scoring 5.6 points and grabbing 3.7 boards. And over the past couple of years, he’s developed a little range from behind the arc, hitting 11 of 37 threes this season.

If J.B. Bickerstaff could get five minutes a game out of an added big man, that’s an extra two and a half minutes of rest for Allen and Mobley per game for the rest of the season. And if one of them has to miss a game, there’s a legitimate big man to substitute in.

It’s seems to us that this recent hot stretch has featured Mobley and Allen more on the offensive end, the Cavaliers are making a concerted effort to get them the ball early in games so they can work inside out. The pair and making 55.4% and 65.3% of their shots from the floor respectively.

The Cavs are going to need their two big men in the playoffs and getting them even a little more rest during the remaining schedule should help them in April and May. Especially because both are so active defensively.

Does the front office feel the same way?

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’ 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.