3 potential lineups Cavs could use involving suggested FA target Josh Jackson

Potential lineup #2 for the Cleveland Cavaliers involving Jackson: Kevin Porter Jr.-Jackson-Osman-Larry Nance Jr.-Drummond

This would be an interesting lineup for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Kevin Porter Jr. would take on the point guard duties. Porter Jr. spent his rookie season as either a shooting guard or small forward, and most of the time at the latter.

But towards the end of the season, shortly after he took over the head coaching reigns, Bickerstaff supposedly wanted to experiment with Porter Jr. playing the point guard position at times.

If Porter Jr., who did show encouraging passing feel as a rookie, could handling primary playmaking duties in some stretches, it would open up new lineup opportunities for the Cavaliers. One glaring issue that plagued the 2019-20 Cavaliers team was their backcourt defense. Darius Garland and Collin Sexton were both bad defenders. Neither of them could ever really stand a chance against opposing guards to any level of competence.

But a backcourt featuring Porter Jr. and Jackson would be far better able to handle their defensive duties. The backcourt would be better in terms of size, as Porter Jr. is listed at 6-foot-4 and Jackson is listed at 6-foot-8, and both would simply be better in terms of overall defensive ability. Porter showed promising team defensive feel, as he had 1.4 steals per-36 minutes as a rookie, too, and for his career, Jackson has put up an identical clip per-36.

This lineup would also provide more offensive repetitions for Josh Jackson. Porter Jr. would likely be the main ball handler. Andre Drummond, who fully intends to pick up his player option for 2020-21, would still get the ball a lot and Larry Nance Jr. would be involved, but Jackson would have the ball a lot more in this lineup.

With that being the case, Jackson could be a drive-and-kick option for Porter Jr., or he could be trusted to make plays for himself. This lineup would offer more offensive freedom to Jackson, and that could help in his development.

The biggest question mark surrounding this lineup is how would it flow offensively. These five might be a solid defensive unit, but would they all be able to make it work on offense? Porter Jr., Jackson, and Osman are all nice complimentary pieces, but I would be concerned about how they would fit together.

This would be a nice lineup defensively, but the clunkiness that would come on offense just might not be worth it.