3 potential Cavs lineups featuring 2021 draft prospect Jalen Green
By Corey Casey
With 19 games left in the season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the 2020-21 campaign is beginning to wind down. As things stand for the 2021 NBA Draft, Cade Cunningham is set to likely be the number one pick, with Evan Mobley seemingly likely to go two and the debate between Jalen Suggs and Jalen Green will commence at the third pick in the draft.
That’s how it appears things could very well shake out at least. And from Cleveland’s perspective, in particular, I would personally take Green at that spot, but a number of teams may have arguments for Suggs.
If the Cavs move up in the top four in the draft, that is probably a very good spot where Green would go. As things currently stand the Cavs have the fifth-best odds in the NBA lottery and have a 10.5 percent chance at landing #1, while they have a 42.1 percent chance to land in the top 4, per Tankathon, which would again be an ideal spot for Jalen Green.
As Cavs fans have witnessed the previous two years the lottery is unpredictable, though, so a move up or move down are distinct possibilities.
Cleveland could easily move up into the top four and if that happens and they get the G League Ignite product in Green, he should fit on the Cavs like a glove. Injuries aside, the Cavs still really struggle offensively game-to-game, and are currently 29th in offensive rating.
Kevin Love returning has helped and opened up things more for the likes of Darius Garland and Collin Sexton, both of whom hopefully are not set to miss too many games here after missing Cleveland’s past one, and it wouldn’t appear they should.
Sexton has had a big year with 24.1 points per game, but the Cavaliers could use more consistent scoring on the perimeter and take some of the load off him.
With that being the case, here we’ll take a look at three potential Cavs lineups featuring Green.
We’ll get into that now, beginning with #1.
Potential Cavs lineup #1 involving Green: Garland-Sexton-Green-Okoro-Love
Playing Green at the 3 for long stretches would be a tough matchup for him defensively, but the Cavs may experiment with some lineups and you could see a closing lineup like this. For now the Cavaliers still seem committed to the Garland/Sexton backcourt.
Sexton I expect to continue to improve and this year he’s continued to make strides, averaging 24.1 points and 4.2 assists, has improved defensively, and shot 35.7 percent from three-point land and 48.0 percent from the field. He would also be able to fit with Green, because he’s proved to be very effective playing off the ball as well; that’s by and large been the case, despite a rough recent stretch from three.
Garland another year removed from his injury from college has reminded everyone why he was the fifth pick in the draft, too. One of the biggest positives from this year is if anything Garland has shown he’s a starting playmaking point guard. Garland would be the best playmaker of this group and that should fit well when you pair it with Green.
I do believe Okoro is someone that can more than hold his own playing the four if the Cavs wanted to have a closing lineup such as this, too. Kevin Love at the 5 obviously wouldn’t be very good defensively, but when he’s healthy offensively this team is a lot better and he opens things up more.
In this lineup you would have a ton of spacing and Garland, Sexton and Green, who had 17.9 points per outing in 15 games in the G League bubble. And he demonstrated polished scoring abilities there and has improved as a shooter it seems over the course of high school/AAU.