With John Henson, Ante Zizic banged up, Cavs should give Marques Bolden a long preseason look

With bigs John Henson and Ante Zizic reportedly banged up at the moment and potentially out for the entirety of preseason, the Cleveland Cavaliers should give rookie camp invitee big Marques Bolden a long preseason look.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are going to have a bunch of bigs on their 2019-20 roster that could warrant meaningful minutes, and those include the team’s best player in Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Larry Nance Jr., John Henson and Ante Zizic.

Taking that into account, I would imagine though these players don’t need a ton of preseason reps, that Cleveland head coach John Beilein and the coaching staff would like to get those pieces some run in preseason, and you could see that Love, and Thompson and Nance more so, got some meaningful run in Cleveland’s first preseason game on Monday against Argentinean club San Lorenzo de Almagro and got themselves into some rhythm.

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It would’ve been productive for the veteran Henson, a mid-season trade acquisition last season from the Milwaukee Bucks who did not play for the Cavs at all in 2018-19 due to a reported torn ligament in his left wrist, to get some preseason burn to like others, establish some rhythm heading into the 2019-20 regular season, especially considering he only appeared in 14 games last season (all the active games with Milwaukee, per Basketball Reference).

The 6-foot-11 Henson, who could bring some rotational rim protection to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ rotation, unfortunately is reportedly dealing with a “right groin strain,” according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, and Henson’s not likely going to playing in Friday’s preseason game against the Detroit Pistons.

From there, Fedor would also note that Zizic likely won’t be playing in the Pistons preseason game, either, as he’s been reportedly dealing with “soreness in his left foot.”

In addition, Fedor would note Beilein said that the two bigs “probably won’t play again,” in terms of preseason action; the Cavaliers have two more preseason matchups with against the Boston Celtics again, too to finish out their preseason schedule coming up on Sunday on Tuesday, for reference, and though Fedor touched on how Beilein said there’s a possibility of Henson and Zizic appearing against Boston, I wouldn’t expect to see either in there, as it is only preseason after all.

Playing off that, given that Henson and Zizic are banged up, it’s all the more reason for the Cleveland Cavaliers to give training camp invitee big Marques Bolden a long preseason look.

Bolden, who was an undrafted rookie that agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal with the Cavs this offseason and played for Cleveland’s Summer League team in both the Salt Lake City and Las Vegas stints, is a player that could be a nice developmental rim protector for Cleveland to bring along slowly with their G-League affiliate, the Canton Charge, but again, with Zizic and Henson potentially not appearing at all in preseason, it’d be ideal for the Cavaliers to give Bolden more minutes.

Though it was not against an NBA opponent on Monday, Bolden did set a number of quality screens, and his 6-foot-11 frame proved to be a factor on the defensive interior, as he blocked two shots and had four rebounds in 16 minutes of action (per ESPN).

That’s right in line with what the 21-year-old Bolden was able to do at Duke, as he had 1.7 blocks in 19.0 minutes per game in 2018-19 as a junior, and averaged 1.1 blocks in 13.6 minutes per game in his career (per Sports Reference), and though his Duke career was hampered by reported injuries, he seems to be fully healthy and ready to roll now.

Though I wouldn’t expect the Cleveland Cavaliers to offer both of their two-way contracts going into the regular season (undrafted rookie stretch big Dean Wade has the other) to bigs, if Bolden continues to show he could be a quality rotational rim protector in meaningful minutes in the preseason, maybe Bolden ends up getting the other two-way deal, anyhow.

I still wouldn’t expect Cleveland to give Bolden or another camp invitee big such as Jarell Martin their 14th roster spot heading into the year, given that the team should probably go with a player that can be a potential small forward for them such as camp invitees Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot or Sindarius Thornwell, but if Bolden knocks the Cavs’ socks off against the Pistons and Celtics in the closing three preseason games, maybe he’s a viable 14th man after all.

Moreover, with Henson and Zizic reportedly banged up, Cleveland should give Bolden a really long look, and in my opinion, give Bolden 22 or so minutes in each remaining preseason game, even if he does just end up playing this year with the Charge, because veterans don’t really need a ton of preseason reps, anyway.