Cavaliers-Pacers Preseason Preview: A Statement Game for the Bench Players

The Cavaliers host the Pacers in Cincinnati tonight for an otherwise mundane preseason game except for two words: bench players.

This game shouldn’t be close, and head coach David Blatt will likely rest his starters with the regular season less than two weeks away.

It’s a really a big yawn for any casual fan looking for an entertaining matchup. Let’s face it; Cavs-Pacers preseason is pretty boring.

But, wait!

There is one intriguing aspect tonight though — how do the Cavs’ secondary look? Who is this Matthew Dellavedova? We know LeBron likes setting picks on him instead of for him, but is the 24-year-old Australian really a name to whom some attention should be paid?

BUT FIRST, THE PACERS

The Pacers are a potential lottery-team with Paul George possibly out for the entire season, Lance Stephenson taking his talents to Charlotte and Roy Hibbert becoming more and more of a major question mark.

Chris Copeland has taken every opportunity to show us his love for shooting, so expect him to score a bajillion points this season. Outside of him, Indiana will struggle to find a consistent source of offense, no disrespect to Rodney Stuckey or David West. Stuckey is inconsistent, and West is sometimes battling some sort of injury or overmatched.

IMPORTANT GAME FOR CAVS’ ROLE PLAYERS

So, looking at the Cavaliers, who is intriguing in a matchup tonight where role players will be tested. The Cavaliers will have to win these “gimme games” if they hope to compete with the Bulls for the No. 1 spot.

As I wrote earlier this month, the No. 1 and 2 spots could come down to a matter of a few games for Cleveland and Chicago. They’re both that good, and they’re both that close. For that reason alone, there’s a lot of pressure on guys like Dion Waiters, A.J. Price, Dellavedova, and veterans Mike Miller and Shawn Marion to use these opportunities to develop a sense of consistency on the floor together.

Last night against a fledgling Bucks team, it was Waiters who stepped up. He had 23 in 25 minutes, going 8-13 from the field, 3-6 from deep and 4-6 from the stripe. He also characteristically had five turnovers, and being less careless with the ball is something he’ll need to work on this season. Waiters and Dellavedova were both a +13, so that’s something Blatt should keep an eye on in terms of which role players to give the most minutes to during certain games when Kyrie Irving is out.

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Price showed some intrigue with nine points in 14 minutes, but shot 1-5 from three and will need to work on picking his spots better if he wants to be relied upon as a serious backup to Irving. There’s a decent chance that he and Dellavedova will split a significant number of minutes with Irving likely out a stretch of games due to some injury, so Price will also need to distribute the ball better — he had only two assists in 14 minutes against a poor defensive team in the Bucks.

But if we can assume that the Spurs are the benchmark for success, we know that role players and depth are crucial for any team that wants to be in the best position in June.Everyone is focused on the big three of LeBron, Kevin Love and Irving this year — and for good reason; they’ll have to develop their own consistency to really be firing on all cylinders come the postseason.

LOOK BEYOND THE BIG THREE

We know what we can expect from the big three — what can we expect from everyone else?

The role players will have to step in and boost the team when the starting five is evenly matched or perhaps struggling against the cream of the crop out west, and that secondary squad will have to maintain leads when the Cavs are staving off a furious comeback from a hungry team in the East, a la the Wizards or Bobcats.

There’s a lot of time between now and the playoffs, but this Cleveland team is new — by anyone’s standards — and the clock starts ticking now.

Preseason Cavs-Pacers may not sound like a big deal, but tonight is an opportunity for the role players to make a statement.