Beighle: The Cleveland Cavaliers starting lineup will not work

One huge takeaway from the Cleveland Cavaliers’ season opener is that their phenomenal starting lineup might have detrimental spacing issues.

The Cleveland Cavaliers won their season opener. But, their remodeled team did not impress like most were hoping for. After being up eighteen at a couple points throughout the game, the Cavaliers let the Celtics storm back to take and hold the lead throughout much of the fourth quarter.

It’s not the comeback that will plague the Cavs because even the Warriors gave up a ginormous lead on the NBA’s opening night. It is the shooting and spacing that might haunt this team until Isaiah Thomas returns. For starters, the Cavaliers shot just 22.7% as a team from deep. Just as expected, the Cavaliers also had a high turnover rate, committing 17 turnovers. If you combine that with just three steals and four blocks, it is obvious that the Cavaliers only survived due to LeBron’s heroics.

The Cleveland Cavaliers seem to have a ten-player rotation. That said, there are only a handful of ways that they can enhance their lineups. Before the Cavaliers make any changes, they must realize the issue. The issue is that the Cavaliers are not playing through Kevin Love enough, and without shooters in their starting lineup, spacing becomes a major concern.

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Of the starters, the supposed second option, Kevin Love, had the least amount of shots. The Cavaliers’ starters are lined with playmakers that demand the ball, and the shot distribution sheds some light on that. Love was the only starter to not hit double-digits field goal attempts despite having arguably the biggest shot of the game on a made three-point attempt late in the fourth quarter.

For the Cavaliers to excel this season, the Kevin Love that was once a former MVP candidate must arise. That Love averaged almost 20 shots per game throughout his best season in Minnesota. Love’s dominance will be stagnated by the ball-dominating Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose. Love spent over half of his minutes with the starting lineup, more specifically 15.6 out of 28.4.

The Cavaliers are an excellent team and one the league’s best, but they will have kinks like this to figure out before they even think about taking down Golden State. With the injury to Gordon Hayward, the Cavs are easily the top Eastern Conference choice, but with Rose taking fourteen shots a game to Love’s nine, this team won’t be going anywhere too quickly.

My solution: start Iman Shumpert. He’s a better defender than Derrick Rose, and he knows his offensive role. Shumpert starting would free up more opportunity for Love while enhancing Rose’s effectiveness by letting him dominate the second unit. If Lue is serious about making Love the second option, he can’t expect to let him dominate while playing with both Wade and Rose.

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Changes must happen, but the Cavaliers have the entire season to sort these things out.