3 potential starting lineups for the Cavaliers in 2022-23

Potential starting lineup #3 for the 2022-2023 Cleveland Cavaliers: Sexton-KPJ-B.J. Boston-Kevin Love-Andre Drummond

Having Kevin Love and Andre Drummond on the roster in my opinion wouldn’t be a good thing at this point. I don’t think it happens this far down the road, but it’s something that’s possible.

Drummond reportedly said on a podcast appearance on Tuesday that he’ll “definitely” be back with the Cavs in 2020-21, and seemingly intends to pick up his $28.8 million player option, which was not shocking. However, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, Drummond/the Cavs could potentially work on negotiating a contract extension, though the 2020 NBA Draft could play into that.

Again, I believe the Cavs would be way better off drafting Okongwu, or James Wiseman, who briefly played at Memphis before withdrawing from school after being ruled ineligible for a good stretch of games, and having one of them on a cheap deal for a number of years. The idea of paying two bigs a considerable amount of money in today’s NBA isn’t a sound idea.

That’s especially for an old school defender who while he is a better low-post player now, is a non-shooter and can’t really defend on switches. This isn’t a knock on Drummond at all as a player, but his game isn’t a great fit for the modern NBA.

Plus, then coupled with Love, who is probably untradeable at this point, though he could perhaps be down the road with him going into the last year of his current deal then in 2022-23, investing likely still a ton of money into two bigs isn’t a smart choice in today’s game.

Aside from that, having a Sexton-KPJ backcourt could be very interesting and it’s possible that this could be the backcourt of the future eventually. Sexton, while he certainly needs to make strides as a playmaker, improved in the second half of the season, and KPJ showed particularly encouraging signs in that regard. Right now you could question the fit, but they could end up being the starting backcourt at that point.

B.J. Boston, like Johnson, is really underrated because he is in a loaded draft.  Boston is 6-foot-6 and 175 pounds (per 247 Sports) who offers plenty of length. Plus, Boston is also someone that can really score, has a good outside shot and is another wing in this said 2021 NBA Draft who could be an excellent two-way player for the Cavs.

It’s hard to say what Love will look like at this point. He will always be able to stretch the floor with his shooting, but at this point he’d be 34 years old. Again I just don’t see him getting traded with his contract and how the current pandemic situation will seemingly affect teams financially going forward going into 2020-21 and perhaps further.

Ideally you probably don’t want Love starting at this point in the 2022-2023 campaign, but he still will be able to stretch the floor, as evidenced by him hitting 37.4 percent of his three-point attempts in 2019-20 on a career-best 7.0 attempts per game. Along with that, he’d be able to offer plenty of veteran leadership.

For Drummond, I don’t think it makes a ton of sense to extend him, because again I don’t think you want to invest that kind of money into two bigs in today’s NBA and I don’t think his game is the best fit for today’s game. On a positive note, Drummond would fill the gap at center, is a decent shot blocker, is the league’s best rebounder and is a big body that is a really good screener.

Obviously going forward potential starting lineup number one would be the best-case and perfectly played out scenario, even if it’s a long shot.

Still, it’ll be intriguing to see what happens and how the Cavs build this team, and even just the next season should tell us a bunch in terms of how things will shape up.