Cavs: Evaluating 3 deep reserves pressed into service

Cavs: Evaluating 3 deep reserves – Ed Davis

When the Cavs elected to cut Mfiondu Kabengele and sign Ed Davis, it was viewed as an addition to help the Cavs off the court. Davis was a veteran player the staff wanted in-house to mentor these young big men. Davis would encourage them, critique them in a way they would hear and respond to, teach them the dark arts of surviving inside in the NBA.

Davis was only ever going to see playing time if multiple centers ahead of him were out. That is exactly the scenario that occurred this past week. Jarrett Allen and Lauri Markkanen were out for illness reasons, Evan Mobley had an injured elbow, and Kevin Love was on a minutes restriction. Cue the music for Ed Davis.

After playing less than seven minutes all season heading into Wednesday’s game, Ed Davis got the start against the Brooklyn Nets and again the following night vs the Golden State Warriors. He played significant minutes as well, nearly 24 against the Nets and over 28 against the Warriors.

There were absolutely positives, including his ability to clean the glass. Davis averaged 12.5 rebounds per game, consistently putting himself in position to secure the board off of opponent misses. He was also there for his teammates’ misses at time, including this tip-in off of a Darius Garland miss for his first points as a Cavalier.

https://twitter.com/cavs/status/1461134334123864066

Then against the Warriors he was everywhere on the glass, tallying 13 first-half rebounds and scoring seven points, showing instant chemistry with Garland:

Davis seemed to sputter from there, going scoreless in the second half with just one rebound. Going from no consistent minutes to 52 minutes in back-to-back nights was a huge conditioning ask, and in the 4th quarter of that Warriors game there was nowhere for Davis to be as Steph Curry led a 5-out lineup in a painful evisceration.

Jarrett Allen is almost certainly back on Monday, so Davis will go back to the bench. This team has multiple better options than Davis at the 5. What he did in his appearance was twofold. First, he gave this coaching staff confidence that when called upon, Davis can step in and play hard, clean the glass and not make mistakes (0 turnovers in those two games). Second, Davis likely extended his career, as if Cleveland doesn’t bring him back next season another team will want to bring him in for that combination of readiness-to-play and veteran savvy.