Cleveland Cavaliers veteran guard Matthew Dellavedova reportedly sprained his thumb in the team’s preseason finale against the Boston Celtics, and that’s all the more reason why he should again be coming off the bench, as he’s done the vast majority of his career, when he’s healthy.
The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t exactly have the preseason they would have hoped for, as they only won one of four games, and that was against a non-NBA team in Argentinean club San Lorenzo de Almagro.
Cleveland did have a pretty good showing against the Detroit Pistons in a narrow 109-105 loss, on a positive note.
In their last two preseason games against the Boston Celtics, though reported injuries and players such as big Tristan Thompson needing rest and a jumbling of lineups with training camp invite players getting considerable minutes didn’t help (of which wing Sindarius Thornwell, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, J.P. Macura and Daniel Hamilton have been released, per the Cleveland Cavaliers), it was clear that the team is going to take a while to figure things out on both ends of the floor.
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Becoming more comfortable operating in Cleveland head coach John Beilein‘s motion-predicted offense, of course, will take time, and it’s unfortunate that one of the Cavs’ best playmakers, veteran guard Matthew Dellavedova, sprained his right thumb in Cleveland’s last preseason game, as was reported by Cavs.com’s Joe Gabriele.
Though it was only preseason, Dellavedova did lead the Cavaliers in assists, and according to a report last week from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, though Beilein’s offense allows for a two guard/lead ball-handler front, anyway, (Collin Sexton is a clear starter in the backcourt at this point), it’s evident in regards to the conversation involving the starting point guard/primary playmaker “that Dellavedova and Garland are the two best options to run the offense.”
Fedor also hit on how at least going into the season until star big Kevin Love becomes more comfortable playing the 5, and now assuming reported right groin soreness is something Thompson can play through on most occasions (he missed the last two preseason games because of that, but it was only preseason), that the Cavs’ starting lineup is pretty set, other than Dellavedova and Garland seemingly competing for the starting 1 role.
The other positions that Beilein and the coaching staff will trot out as starters, according to Fedor in that report, were Sexton manning the other backcourt position, with third-year player Cedi Osman being the small forward, to go with Love at the 4 and Thompson at the 5 (again, seemingly going into the season at least).
To me, though Dellavedova is still a really solid defender against opposing point guards, given his ability to maintain primary matchups most of the time in pick-and-roll coverage, fight through off-ball screens to contest shooters, and because of his toughness and feel as a rotator, this reported thumb injury going into the 2019-20 season is all the more reason to bring Delly off the bench when he’s healthy, and the extent/timeline for him is seemingly uncertain at this point.
A thumb injury on a player, especially a guard’s, shooting hand could be a nagging issue, and with the team needing to get Sexton and Garland a good chunk of minutes this year as backcourt partners, anyway, the team shouldn’t push to get Dellavedova back.
As I detailed even before Delly’s thumb injury, with Garland seemingly just fine after tweaking his ankle against the Pistons, and playing a preseason-high 25 minutes in the last preseason game, where he scored 16 points and notched four assists (per ESPN) and showing plenty of potential already, it’s more clear that, especially given Garland’s ridiculously deep range, really polished handle and similar court vision as a true point man, that he should be the opening night starter at the lead guard position.
Additionally, with veteran guard Brandon Knight being a solid bench perimeter scoring threat, but not having nearly the vision of Garland and Delly, and being realistically just as much of a liability defensively than Garland, I wouldn’t put him in the starting running.
At any rate, even when he’s fully recovered from the thumb sprain, Delly should come off the bench this season, and I’d imagine play some minutes with Knight, for example, given that Cleveland has so many guards that could warrant meaningful run.
With the way he plays with such physicality/with his rough-and-tumble style, and with him unfortunately having prior history with concussions, having the 29-year-old start over the team’s 2019 fifth overall draft pick in Garland wouldn’t make sense.
Though Garland will have growing pains throughout this season and did unfortunately only play in five games last season (per Sports Reference) at Vanderbilt due to a reported meniscus tear, Garland is fully recovered from that now, and he should be playing with starters a considerable chunk of games, and Dellavedova, who already has really good chemistry with players such as Love, Osman and big Larry Nance Jr. and bench microwave scoring guard Jordan Clarkson anyway, could be a nice spell for Garland when it’s needed for Beilein and company.
So, once again, given his thumb sprain potentially being a nagging issue, I’d rather Dellavedova even when he’s fully healthy come off the bench full-time for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
When he was active last season for the Cavs, he was really effective in his 19.9 minutes per game, as he averaged 7.3 points and 4.2 assists (per NBA.com).
Furthermore, Dellavedova has only started in 88 of his 377 career regular season games (per Basketball Reference), so keep that bench role for Delly, regardless of the status of him being fully healthy or not, Cavs.