Cavs: 1 stud, 1 dud from win over Portland Trail Blazers

Cavs: 1 dud from win – J.B. Bickerstaff’s tight rotations

One of the narratives emerging from the early season is J.B. Bickerstaff’s tight grip on the rotation, playing just eight guys outside of crunch time in the majority of games. Given that his eighth man has usually played just a handful of minutes, he has really been leaning on seven guys on a nightly basis.

He did that again last night, playing only seven guys in the absence of Lauri Markkanen and Kevin Love due to health and safety protocols. That meant he rode Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley specifically hard, playing them each 40 minutes, and Garland another 36. That might be fine for a single game, but it’s a trend now, and those minute totals will run this team into the ground. A few wins now is not worth a season of fatigue and injury.

The other downside to such a tight rotation is that it is keeping helpful players off the court. Dean Wade and Dylan Windler played last night presumably only because Markkanen and Love were out, and it’s reasonable to conclude that Windler would have seen few or no minutes if Isaac Okoro was healthy.

That’s a mistake. Windler has the best two-way upside of this limited wing group, and he was excellent Wednesday night in hitting all three of his triples and playing solid defense on the wing. As good as Cedi Osman has been to start the season, Windler has to get regular minutes, both to evaluate whether he is a long-term piece for this team and to alleviate the minutes load on the rest of the team. Markkanen is probably not the long-term starter at the 3, but Windler might be, and the team has to figure that out. If the goal is winning, that’s also a reason to play Windler.

This was an awesome win for the Cavs, and a true team effort. Our “dud” for the night was really just saying that everyone was awesome and that Bickerstaff should use them all. This team is showing surprising depth and a will to win, and the next 73 games could turn out differently than we thought before the year. At the very least, they have one more encouraging win under their belt after triumphing over Portland on Wednesday night.