3 potential experimental lineups Cavs could use next season

Cleveland Cavaliers potential experimental lineup #3: Porter Jr.-Windler-Nance Jr.-Love-Onyeka Okongwu

This lineup configuration has several experimental factors that the Cavs must consider.

Firstly, Porter Jr. would be the point guard of the lineup. This in itself is not too crazy. During his rookie year, Porter Jr. showed flashes of solid passing, and had an assist rate of 14.7 percent, which was encouraging.

Being the primary ball handler of a lineup is not outside of KPJ’s skillset, and Bickerstaff has previously stated how he wanted to see at some point if Porter Jr. could run the 1 at times in what was set to be more of a closing stretch of 2019-20. Then the novel coronavirus-induced hiatus occurred, and then the Cavs were not invited to Orlando, though.

Anyhow, with Nance Jr. and Kevin Love also on the court, the Cavaliers could look to use their veteran bigs as offensive facilitators as well.

This would provide opportunities for Porter Jr. cuts, Dylan Windler catch-and-shoot triples, both via spot-ups and off movement, or possibly lob plays to rookie center Onyeka Okongwu, if the Cavs select him come November 18 in the 2020 NBA Draft. Keep in mind, Okongwu is a gifted passing big as well, even while his passing metrics at USC in his one year there didn’t showcase it, really.

This could also be a solid three-point shooting unit for the Cavaliers. Porter Jr. did hit 40.7 percent of his catch-and-shoot triples in year 1, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data. And Nance Jr. seems to improve his shooting every year, while Love is an established shooting threat and the Cavs are hoping that Windler can be a sharpshooter during his rookie season.

Now, a big factor to consider with this lineup would be the defensive impact of Okongwu. With a few questionable defenders in this lineup, Okongwu would need to step up and prove his rim-protecting abilities; he had 2.7 blocks per contest in 2019-20 at USC, and he’s capable of switching out.

But the offensive potential is high enough that this would be an experimental lineup I would support, despite the defense.

The possibility for experimental lineups will be an interesting development to watch when the Cavaliers eventually return to action. And for context, NBA commissioner Adam Silver previously stated in an interview with Citizen CNN that his “best guess” is that next season will begin in January, but we’ll see.

With the amount of versatility on the Cavs roster, there are plenty of possibilities that J.B. Bickerstaff will be able to consider next season, whenever that ultimately kicks off.