Cleveland Cavaliers: Two expectations for the bench in 2020-21
By Amadou Sow
What should we expect from the Cleveland Cavaliers bench in 2020-21? Here, we’ll dive into that.
The ability to have consistent play when your starters are not on the court is what separates the good teams from the bad ones in the NBA. For the Cleveland Cavaliers, the inconsistencies from the bench unit were shown in their record last season, of which was 19-46.
Last season, the Cavs ranked 23rd in the league for bench points at 33.5 bench points per game. A lot of factors went into this, including the trading of their sixth man, Jordan Clarkson. Clarkson’s trade to the Utah Jazz tanked the Cavaliers bench unit just as it was starting to hit its stride.
In December, the bench averaged the 11th-most points in the league at 38.0 per game but, this quickly dipped in the month of January to 27th in the NBA at just 30.3 per game. To end the season, the Cavaliers bench ranked 29th in March. Shortly thereafter, Cleveland’s season would ultimately end out with the novel coronavirus-induced hiatus/them not eventually having been an Orlando bubble team.
Anyhow, now, with the Cavaliers adding players to revamp that bench unit, this area will be something to watch during the 2020-21 season, which is set to begin for them on Wednesday versus the Charlotte Hornets, and will be a factor in just how well the Cavaliers will play.
With these additions, one could expect to see a better performance from the Wine and Gold’s bench than last year.
With that in mind, we’re going to look at two expectations for this year’s Cavs bench.
We’ll begin with the first expectation, which will examine both ends of the floor.