Cleveland Cavaliers: Evaluating the state of the C position
The center position is one that the Cleveland Cavaliers continue to meddle with, making annual changes to their roster to find the long-term fit they seek. Given that center is the league’s most replaceable position, this both seems like too much attention and a realization that a difference maker at the position is incredibly rare.
During the team’s NBA Finals runs with LeBron James, the team rotated through Anderson Varajao, Timofey Mozgov and, at its best moments, Kevin Love shifted down to the 5. Tristan Thompson also played a fair amount of center for the franchise. Then after James departed the process began of stripping down the old vets at the position and finding a better option for their future.
From their own free agents to potential NBA draft picks, the Cleveland Cavaliers will have some big decisions to make regarding the future of their center position this offseason.
That process is not over, as the team has to determine what it has on the roster and whether that is enough. Before the NBA Draft kicks off and free agents start “agreeing” to deals, the Cavaliers need to know what they have and what they feel like they still need.
How much of their assets — cap space, draft picks, etc — should the team spend on finding the right fit at center? Is any money spent too much given the way centers haven’t mattered much over the past decade, or is it an acknowledgment of how big some of the contenders have become and how the last three MVPs were won by “bigs” in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic.
To conclude our series on the state of the Cleveland roster, what do the Cavs have and is it enough to count on as this team looks to consolidate their rebuild and start pushing for something greater?