Cleveland Cavaliers: What Isaiah Thomas’ return could mean for the Cavs’ rotation?

The long wait is finally over. With 4:33 left in the first quarter, Isaiah Thomas checked in for the Cleveland Cavaliers for the first time and he did not disappoint.

Isaiah Thomas played 19 minutes in his Cleveland Cavaliers debut and chipped in 17 points on 6-12 shooting from the field and 3-8 from three. What’s more, he had a plus/minus of +17 when he was on the floor.

In his first offensive possession, he got a little pick from Jae Crowder which led to a bucket by Crowder and an assist for Thomas. Thomas was able to score from all over the floor. He got to the basket for an and one as well as the midrange, and he was able to hit a couple from the outside.

Thomas looked like his old self which is going to be huge for Cleveland down the stretch. Thomas was the guy on the Celtics last year, which finished first in the East. He will be able to give LeBron a rest and take some of the load on the offensive end.

James and Thomas will just need to figure out ways of playing off one and another. But James is such an unselfish player that it should work in the end. Thomas talks about this year being a special year and for that to come true, the two will have to mesh.

Thomas didn’t play against Boston but is expected to start Saturday against the Orlando Magic. He showed some good things with the bench unit. Thomas received a number of screens from Thompson. Leading to open shots for Thomas or him setting up his teammates. Early in the fourth quarter, Thomas got a screen from Thomas that led to a pass to Wade who was cutting baseline.

The five-man unit of Thomas, Dwyane Wade, Tristan Thompson, Kyle Korver and Jeff Green played 8 minutes against Portland was quite effective.

They posted an offensive rating of 142.2 and a defensive rating of 73.2, good for a net rating of 69.0. Clearly, the one game is an insanely small sample size, but it has potential to be lethal when James is resting.

When LeBron sits the bench should be able to stretch leads allowing more rest for everyone.

Plus, now Thompson is back and looking healthy and like his old self. Over Thompson’s past three games, he’s averaging 9.0 points and grabbing 8.0 rebounds (2.7 offensive rebounds) per game.

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If Thompson returns to himself that he was when the Cavs won the Finals then he will be an important part of the bench unit or starting unit should he get put back in there.

He also could become a valuable trade chip at the deadline if the Cavaliers look to make a move names like Marc Gasol, DeAndre Jordan and Paul George.

Another area that Thomas could help in is with LeBron’s minutes. With Thomas looking like his old self, he’ll allow LeBron to take longer breaks during games and have some rest games.

At the same time, you have to figure out ways to still keep Green and Korver still getting the minutes they have been getting per game.

Against Portland, the Cavaliers played 10 guys at least 17 minutes. So, what could a potential rotation with minutes during the regular season look like using 10 guys?

(Postseason rotations would change with the Cavaliers likely shortening the rotation.)

Starters

PG Isaiah Thomas (30)

SG J.R. Smith (26)

SF LeBron James (32)

PF Jae Crowder (25)

C Kevin Love (30)

Bench

Dwyane Wade (23)

Kyle Korver (23)

Jeff Green (22)

Tristan Thompson (20)

Jose Calderon (9)

These ten were the guys who played the most minutes against Portland and not just when the game was in hand late.

If they do decide to continue playing a ten-man rotation I would like for them to include rookie Cedi Osman. The Cavs need to develop young guys for the future and for now and Osman has shown flashes of being a good NBA player.

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*All stats gathered via stats nba.com.