The Cleveland Cavaliers can’t go with a small-ball lineup without Cedi Osman, who could not go long last night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. That sort of foiled their likely plan with Sam Dekker and Kevin Love sidelined, and it proved that two-big lineups aren’t a good idea for Cleveland over long stretches of games.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have had some rough luck with the injury bug to start this season (I’m not saying it’s an excuse, but it hasn’t helped). Against the Oklahoma City Thunder last night, Cedi Osman was only able to play six minutes, and had to leave due to lower back spasms, per Cavs.com beat writer Joe Gabriele. With Sam Dekker reportedly out for two to four weeks (per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor), and Kevin Love sidelined for a while longer with a reported toe injury, it would have seemed the Cavs would’ve been shifting toward small-ball more, and Osman at the 4 would’ve been a nice wrinkle. Now, in games without Osman, the team will go bigger more often, as they did against OKC.
That could be good for the Cavaliers on the defensive end, but it’s not a feasible move for them for long stretches of games. Larry Nance Jr., Tristan Thompson and Ante Zizic are all formidable at the rim offensively as rollers/cutters, and they are all very effective as screeners, but given that none of them stretch the floor, having two of them on the floor at the same time makes Cleveland’s guards have little to no room to operate.
Although Thompson and Nance did some good things together defensively in their 15 minutes played last night, the Cavaliers had to rely on tough shots to go from players such as Jordan Clarkson and J.R. Smith, and the offense (by and large) was limited. Spacing matters, and with the Cavaliers already being last in the NBA in three-pointers made and attempted, playing two bigs at once isn’t realistic.
The Nance-Thompson pairing is overly reliant on hustle offense, and Zizic paired with either puts the Cavs’ defense in a bind where they have to double-team opposing ball-handlers too often due to a lack of lateral quickness and/or change of direction. If it weren’t for the Thunder being one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the league (they are last in three-point efficiency), Cleveland would have paid the price much more.
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Plus, OKC superstar point guard Russell Westbrook wasn’t playing due to a reported ankle sprain, and that helped the Cavs a great deal. It’s not that backup Dennis Schröder is a slouch, but Westbrook is simply on a different level, and is a way better passer (Schröder had zero assists in the whole game).
Hopefully, for the Cavs’ sake, Osman’s back spasms aren’t a recurring problem, and he’s okay soon. They need his passing ability on the floor and defensive versatility on the perimeter, because asking Jordan Clarkson to have eight assists for a number of games is a VERY tall order, and rookie Collin Sexton (who did play fairly well) had only one assist in his first NBA start.
Due to George Hill reportedly being a late scratch, Sexton was tasked with running the offense, and although he did have 15 points on 50.0 percent shooting, the lack of spacing with a primarily paint-oriented offense hurt the young guard’s playmaking; he had just one assist and three turnovers.
Along with that, Kyle Korver and J.R. Smith struggled mightily as the Thunder were able to key in on them on the perimeter. They combined to shoot just seven-of-25 (including only 5-of-18 from deep), per ESPN.
Clearly, the Cleveland Cavaliers (who are offensively-challenged as it is) need to stay away from the two-big lineups minus Kevin Love and Sam Dekker. Thompson, Nance and Zizic should all get minutes, but playing two of the three at once isn’t a prudent idea in relation to the guards. Not every team clanks threes as much as OKC, and hopefully “The Second Cedi” is back soon to give their perimeter offense (and defense) a boost.
That will help open things up for the guards, and in a guard’s league, speed and spacing kills.