Cleveland Cavaliers: 3 things to watch for in preseason action
By Dan Gilinsky
The Cleveland Cavaliers released their 2019 preseason schedule on Thursday, and here’s a few things to watch for in those four games.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are going to be all-in on their full-rebuild in the 2019-20 season, and probably two or-so more years, really.
That does’t mean they won’t be entertaining, though.
They should be a fun team to watch next year and in the coming years, because of how a few young pieces emerged as quality contributors last season in Cedi Osman, Collin Sexton and Ante Zizic, and the three rookies Cleveland added via the 2019 NBA Draft in Darius Garland, Dylan Windler and Kevin Porter Jr. should bring more intrigue to the squad, too.
light. Related Story. Cavs: 3 goals for Zizic for 2019-20 season
All three of the rookies should be contributors in their own way as rookies this year, and hopefully, fans of the Cavs will be able to see that introduced to the rotation in preseason action in October.
The Cavaliers announced their preseason schedule on Thursday (per an official team press release), and it will feature a four-game slate against San Lorenzo de Almagro of (via translation) the National Basketball League of Argentina, a home and away matchup against the Boston Celtics, along with a road contest against the Detroit Pistons.
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Cleveland will play against that club from Argentina on October 7, and then finish up preseason play against Boston at home on October 15 (again, per the team press release).
So what’s one of the things to watch for in this set of games before the 2019-20 regular season begins?
#3: Potential candidates for the 14th roster spot, other two-way
The Cavs currently have 13 players that are set to be on the roster going into the regular season, and one of their two two-way spots is filled by developmental stretch big Dean Wade, who might be able to provide Cleveland with some good rotational minutes when given the opportunity next season.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are reportedly likely to go into next season with a roster spot open, according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, and so the competition for Cleveland’s last spot should be interesting to watch, and when it comes to the other two-way spot, and preseason play could add to that.
As far as potential candidates for those, Cleveland has reportedly signed guard J.P. Macura and big Marques Bolden to Exhibit 10 deals, and they’ve also signed wing Sindarius Thornwell to a non-guaranteed training camp deal, and guards (that played for Cleveland’s G-League affiliate, the Canton Charge, in 2018-19) Malik Newman and Levi Randolph also to training camp deals.
In my opinion, given that the Cavaliers had the league’s worst defensive rating last year (per NBA.com), and need help desperately when it comes to that end of the floor, I would imagine the early frontrunner for the 14th roster spot should be the 24-year-old Thornwell.
Though he has not had a huge role in his first two NBA seasons (both with the Los Angeles Clippers), as he’s only played 10.7 minutes per game in that time (per Basketball Reference), as we previously touched on, he could be a valuable piece in head coach John Beilein‘s rotation with Thornwell’s ability to defend at a high level on the perimeter, thanks to impressive lateral quickness and agility and sound contesting of shooters, and his addition would probably soften the blow of David Nwaba‘s departure via unrestricted free agency to the Brooklyn Nets.
When it comes to the other two-way signing, with the 21-year-old Bolden showing promising rolling acumen for the Cavs in Summer League, and with Bolden averaging 1.7 blocks per game and 3.5 blocks per 40 minutes (per Sports Reference) last season at Duke, I’d think he’s the frontrunner in that sense, and could be a nice developmental big that could mainly improve in time in 2019-20 with the Charge.
After all, Cleveland was last in the NBA in blocks last season (per NBA.com) and their lack of rim protection has been an issue since the team won the NBA championship in the 2015-2016 season.
The other three training camp invitees can shoot it from three-point range (mostly via catch-and-shoots) as we’ve mentioned, though, so they’ll have their shot to prove themselves in preseason, too.