Evaluating Cavs guard rotation with Garland, Rubio out
Predicting the Cavs backcourt rotation
Starters: Kevin Pangos (24 minutes), Isaac Okoro (32 minutes)
Pangos gets at least the first chance at starting, but he won’t be operating with a long leash given his poor play and frigid shooting thus far. He has a track record of playing well in Europe and a few bad games and just 82 total minutes shouldn’t erase that.
I do think the team wants to give RJ Nembhard minutes too, so Pangos won’t play as many as the other starters. Okoro becomes even more valuable as a backcourt defender with Rubio out, so his minutes stay robust. He has some playmaking skills that could work in certain lineups as the lead creator.
Bench: RJ Nembhard (14 minutes), Cedi Osman (12 minutes at shooting guard), Denzel Valentine (14 minutes)
Nembhard could leap over Pangos with solid play, perhaps even to the point that the Cavs cut Pangos loose late in the season in order to sign Nembhard to a full contract, a la Dean Wade last season. He will get some minutes to see how he does with Garland and Rubio out, with the best of the two securing the backup spot when Garland clears protocols in a few games.
Cedi Osman and Denzel Valentine will likely fill the remaining minutes at backup shooting guard, with Valentine or Okoro handling a few minutes as the nominal point guard to fill out the rest of the rotation. Bickerstaff does prefer a tighter rotation, so he could easily cut out Valentine or shift him elsewhere in the lineup.
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However things shake out, this will be a rough patch to weather without Garland, one of the league’s breakout stars, and one of its steadiest backup point guards in Ricky Rubio, who was having the best scoring season of his career. Kevin Pangos and RJ Nembhard won’t be able to fill those shoes to any meaningful degree; it now becomes a story of surviving until Garland returns.