Key #1: How the Cavs deal with a big primary playmaker
Doncic is a rising star in this league, and at 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds with an outstanding handle, he’s a handful for even the best NBA defenses.
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Doncic’s ball fakes are a thing of beauty, and his ability to shake bigger defenders and pull up, pull back or get into the paint, and also shoot over smaller defenders in the mid-post makes him really just unfair to defend.
The second-year do-everything jumbo playmaker is putting up 26.2 points, 9.6 rebounds and 8.4 assists per contest, and it was no shock that he won Rookie of the Year last season.
How Beilein and the Cavs deal with Doncic is particularly intriguing to me, because it’s really the first time Cleveland will be going against a big primary playmaker that can create for themselves and others in a huge way.
The Bulls have a solid veteran point man in Tomas Satoransky who is 6-foot-7, but he is nowhere close to the scorer Doncic is, nor does he have the handle to break defenses down often.
Satoransky is a heady passer, can make spot-ups, and is a savvy cutter, but again, how Cleveland deals with a big primary playmaker that can score in bunches and make every pass in the book sticks out to me as something to look forward to in this one.
I’d think that the Cavs would try Porter on Doncic some, but Porter as a rookie is prone to fouling unnecessarily. With KPJ’s athleticism, though, and when he is disciplined, he’s more than capable of defending at a high level when locked in, so I’d think the Cavs’ coaching staff will elect to do that in some instances.
Osman in this situation is a natural matchup given his 6-foot-7 size, but he’s likely going to struggle against Doncic, and if Osman gets screened, the Cavs will be scrambling. Yikes.
A natural move by the Cavaliers and associate head coach J.B. Bickerstaff would be, in my opinion, to trap Luka some. The Cavs will have to continuously switch their coverages up on Doncic, anyhow, though.
Along with that, it won’t be easy for Sexton, Garland and the Wine and Gold to deal with the slashing and drive-and-dish threat of Delon Wright, either.
Wright has proven to be quite a reported sign-and-trade pickup for Dallas, and has averaged 11.4 points and 3.8 assists per game (per NBA.com). At 6-foot-5, his ability to get through his primary defenders on the perimeter often and get looks near the rim could be a bear to deal with, too.
Capable floor spacers in bigs Kristaps Porzingis and Maxi Kleber, and potentially at times, a combination of reserve wings Seth Curry and Tim Hardaway Jr. and forward Justin Jackson, will make Wright’s slashing tough to account for, more so as well.
For just two second-round picks, in particular, this offseason, Wright’s really been quite a nice piece for Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle to have. Hopefully the Cavaliers can keep him out of the paint, but that will be much easier said than done.
Reserve guard Jalen Brunson, though a smaller guard, is a heady player, too, and Matthew Dellavedova reportedly being out again won’t make defending Brunson easier.
Cycling back, though, seeing how the Cavaliers defend big primary playmakers, factoring in that Wright could feasibly be a lead playmaker on occasion, will be a huge key to watch in this Cavs-Mavs matchup.
So on to the second key in this Cavs-Mavs matchup.