Dante Exum will not have much playmaking workload with Cavs

Dante Exum will not be tasked with much playmaking workload with the Cleveland Cavaliers in his minutes on the floor.

Dante Exum has been decent in his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers thus far since being traded to them in late December.

Now, nobody would expect Exum to be close to the offensive threat of Jordan Clarkson, the player Exum was traded by the Utah Jazz to Cleveland for, and the Cavs acquired then-two future second-round picks.

In Exum’s time with the Cavs, though, he’s been about what I probably would’ve expected, and is a far better defensive player on a game-to-game basis than Clarkson, frankly. Thus far with the Cavs, Exum has had 5.6 points and 2.3 rebounds in 16.8 minutes per outing in 24 appearances.

Exum is a decent rotational piece to have for minutes it would seem at the 1 or 2 mostly, because Exum is sound from a positional sense defensively on the perimeter. Coupled with that, he does usually take proper angles to help, and generally, does a nice job of navigating through off-ball screens to contest/deter drives.

Also, on the other end, Exum is an instinctive cutter, and is a nice ball mover and finisher near the rim in some occasions on drives.

That said, while Exum in most of his career with Utah was playing in a rotational lead guard role, it’s evident that now on the Cavs and I’d imagine going forward, that Exum will not have much playmaking workload.

Exum’s injury issues play into that, along with Cleveland Cavaliers promising youngster Kevin Porter Jr., to a large extent.

The unfortunate problem with Exum throughout his career has been the injury bug.

He dealt with his share of shoulder and knee issues with the Jazz, including missing all of 2015-16 due to a torn ACL and post-All-Star break, Exum missed what would ultimately be the Cavs’ last eight games of 2019-20.

That was in relation to a high ankle sprain, and had the novel coronavirus not put the NBA season on pause, and it eventually ending for 19-46 Cleveland, who was not invited to Orlando, Exum seemingly would’ve missed a chunk of more games. Exum missed a three-game stretch in January due to a rough bout with the flu, too, for injury context.

Given that, and Kevin Porter Jr. to a large extent, Exum will not be tasked with playmaking much for the Cavs in his minutes on the floor. Porter flashed big-time potential as an on-ball creator as a rookie in 2019-20, and in 23.2 minutes per game had 10.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 0.9 steals overall.

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While Porter is naturally a score-first player, he showed encouraging signs in terms of playmaking, and averaged 3.2 helpers and had an assist rate of 17.1 percent in his last 12 games active, per NBA.com.

Along with that, early on in his tenure after taking over as Cavs head coach, J.B. Bickerstaff mentioned how he wanted to see KPJ run some at the 1 in what was set to be in the closing stretch of the season.

We didn’t ultimately see that, but I would bet we could a fair amount next season to relieve playmaking burden for Darius Garland in some respects.

Porter’s tight handle/driving presence drawing attention and his willingness as a passer should bode well in the playmaking realm.

Plus, while it wouldn’t be nearly to the extent of Porter, I could very well see Matthew Dellavedova getting some burn alongside Exum in some stretches when Exum’s on the floor.

Dellavedova is a player I’d think the Cleveland Cavaliers could definitely re-sign as a veteran reserve playmaker to also help out KPJ in that sense behind the scenes and he is still a highly capable team defender. Also, when he’s out there, Delly is clearly going to initiate offense.

Delly led Cleveland with 5.5 assists per game post-All-Star break, and though he wouldn’t get nearly the same burn often in 2020-21 as in that stretch, he could still get some meaningful minutes in plenty of instances.

So again, while Exum would make for a solid defensive piece next season if he can be mostly healthy, he is very injury-prone first off.

Coupled with that, with KPJ’s presence, of course factoring in Garland already, Exum won’t have much playmaking workload. Dylan Windler could play into that, too, and while he hasn’t played yet with Cleveland, he is reportedly progressing well in his rehab involving complications with a stress reaction in his left leg.

Though Exum could feasibly still get meaningful minutes-share in some stretches as more of an off-ball/cutting piece that is more defensive-minded, he won’t be tasked with playing a notable playmaking role I wouldn’t imagine.

He had 3.0 assists per-36 minutes last season, and while his career clip there is 4.1 per-36, I wouldn’t expect nearly that in the near future for him.

Exum is still a willing ball-mover with good instincts in that regard, but he only appeared at the point 4 percent of the time with Cleveland in 2019-20, and he shouldn’t have key playmaking burden much such as often initiating drive-and-kicks.

Whether or not Exum, who is set to expire after next season, can stick with the Cleveland Cavaliers is up in the air, and that’d likely come due to his defense.

Don’t expect much as a key initiator in Exum’s minutes on the floor with the Cavs regardless from here on out, however.