For the Cleveland Cavaliers to be at 21-17 at this point in the season, I’ve been more than satisfied thus far. Cleveland is still a relatively young team, and despite that, combined with their brutal first third or so of the season’s schedule, they’re right in the thick of things in the Eastern Conference.
The Wine and Gold are currently at the sixth spot in the East, which is no small feat. On the year, the Cavaliers are third in defensive rating, fifth in assist rate and 10th in true shooting rate.
Nonetheless, it’s tough for the Cavs that after Collin Sexton was set to be out for the rest of the season as of early November because of a meniscus injury, that Ricky Rubio suffered the same fate from an ACL tear last week.
Sexton’s injury was a blow in itself, and Rubio had been providing a heck of a lift as mostly a supersub-type player for Cleveland both in the scoring and playmaking variety, and we’ll have to see if his expiring contract is moved by the Feb. 10 trade deadline. Rubio could be a player Cleveland looks to re-sign still during this offseason, and there reportedly were internal discussions about a possible extension for him within the Cavs.
In the interim, it was understandable for Cleveland to address the Rubio injury by trading for veteran Rajon Rondo, who was acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers. He is reportedly bought into this new situation with Cleveland, and can still aid the group from a playmaking perspective.
Rondo is likely set for his Cleveland debut on the Cavaliers’ upcoming six-game road trip, which begins on Friday at the Portland Trail Blazers, and lasts through Jan. 15. The other matchups in that slate are the Golden State Warriors on Sunday, followed by the Sacramento Kings on Monday, the Utah Jazz on Wednesday, the San Antonio Spurs next Friday and then a meeting with the Oklahoma City Thunder via second leg of that back-to-back will wrap it up.
So with that in mind, who are a few Cavs players to pay close attention to on this road trip, then, in hoping Cleveland can bounce back following a number of COVID-19 protocols absences, playing into them losing four of five?
We’ll take a look at three Cavs to watch on this upcoming roadie here.
The first Cav to watch in this Western Conference road trip is the aforementioned Rondo.
3 Cavs players to watch during their upcoming West road trip: #1- Rajon Rondo
As we hit on, Rondo is not the player he once was earlier on in his career with the Boston Celtics, clearly, and that was a while ago at this point.
That said, he’s a four-time All-Star and has led the league in assists four times, and in recent seasons when he’s been regularly involved, has still proven to be a productive distributor with the Lakers, some with the Atlanta Hawks last season and during the postseason with the LA Clippers last season. In Rondo’s past four seasons, he’s still had 9.2 assists per-36 minutes, and in the past three seasons, has had a respectable 4.6 assists in 18.4 minutes per outing.
Rondo has had 5.8 points per game over the last three seasons, and just 3.7 per outing in 18 appearances this season with the Lakers, so it’s apparent he’s not nearly the driving presence he once was. I acknowledge that, and Rondo’s not the pull-up shooting presence, nor has the willingness to take those the way Rubio does.
Even still, I do still think with the early buy-in reportedly there with Rondo, in particular, that he can still make a difference for the Cavaliers feasibly for the rest of the season with his passing abilities and pick-and-roll feel, and thanks to his basketball IQ.
It’ll be interesting to see how Rondo does with seemingly a notable bench playmaking role in-store for him, and he’ll reportedly get time with Darius Garland as well.
Hopefully Rondo’s conditioning/wind is there, though, as he was recently cleared from COVID-19 health and safety protocols, similarly to Garland, who missed Cleveland’s last four games prior to returning in their close loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday.
Next up after Rondo, I’ll be looking to see if Lauri Markkanen can rebound in upcoming games on this roadie.
3 Cavs players to watch during their upcoming West road trip: #2 – Lauri Markkanen
The second Cav I’ll be paying close attention to is Lauri Markkanen. Markkanen has been somewhat underwhelming for Cleveland this season as a deep threat, as he’s connected on a career-low 30.5 percent from three-point range, and after a very encouraging stretch of games last month, has been in a slump.
In Markkanen’s last 10 games, he’s connected on just 9-of-48 deep attempts, an 18.8 percent from three-point land, and has had 11.7 points per contest in that span. With plenty of those being pretty darn open attempts, it’s been rough to watch from a player that hit 40.2 percent from three last season with the Chicago Bulls, which was the best deep shooting clip he had in four seasons with them.
Granted, Markkanen not having the likes of Ricky Rubio or Darius Garland as great distributors in a batch of games last week reportedly played some into that, but thankfully, Rondo can I’d think, and having Garland back will. Point being, Markkanen needs to start demonstrating some more consistency as a catch-and-shoot threat, as he’s more than capable of doing.
His shooting abilities still makes him a meaningful floor spacer though, and I acknowledge that Markkanen’s role changing offensively while playing often with two other bigs has been an adjustment for him. That’s fair to mention.
On a positive note, Markkanen has done some really good things inside the arc, as a post-up threat at times, cutter and pull-up player off of hard closeouts in this rough stretch from three. And on this upcoming West road trip, him generating free throw opportunities could help get him out of this funk, to some degree, and maybe if and when doubles do come, we can see more solid big-to-big dishes to him to Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen or Kevin Love.
The overaching them here, though, is that overall, Markkanen needs to provide more for these Cavs, who signed him to a fairly sizable four-year deal this offseason, in which he was acquired via sign-and-trade.
He did have a better stretch following missing a few weeks due to COVID-19 protocols from Nov. 22-Dec. 15, when he had 14.6 points per game, and hit 38.6 percent of his threes. So hopefully the dude gets going again here, as the Cavaliers need it. That would only make Kevin Love’s bench contributions even more meaningful in stretches, too, as he’s been scorching hot, as KJG’s John Suchan alluded to.
3 Cavs players to watch during their upcoming West road trip: #3 – Dylan Windler
As far as the third Cav to highlight here, I’m going with a bit off the beaten path in rotational wing Dylan Windler. Windler has been in and out of the rotation this season periodically, and has done some positive things, as he did when he was healthy last season as well.
But injuries are always a concern with Windler, as he missed his first season due to that reason, and last year, while it was another shortened campaign because of COVID-19, Windler did unfortunately still appear in only 31 games.
He missed from the end of March on because of a knee injury, and ultimately had surgery to address tendinopathy concerns in late April, and this season, he’s missed some games because of hip and knee soreness. Like many Cavs players, he missed some recent contests while being in COVID-19 protocols, too; that’s happened to guys throughout the league, though, as we know.
Anyway, as we were alluding to, Windler when having meaningful opportunities off the bench has helped out the Cavaliers this season still, and sans Okoro on this trip seemingly, I’d expect him to get some solid playing time in coming weeks. He did give the Cavs a lift in hitting two triples versus Memphis on Tuesday, to go with two assists in 19 minutes.
Aside from health concerns, however, while there have been some spurts of games where Windler has been hot, as there were last season, there are still times where he appears to be noticeably passive. On this road trip, if the opportunities come for him in stretches on the wing, Cleveland needs him to not be bashful when the catch-and-shoot looks come, as he’s still a gifted shooter.
He hit a fairly underwhelming 33.8 percent from three last year, but the stroke is pure from Windler, who can splash from way deep when he gets himself in-rhythm, and thus far this season, he has hit 38.2 percent from three.
That’s been in 23 of 38 possible appearances, involving the rotational questions/others involved, and in relation to the injuries/COVID absences, though. And on the year, he’s had only 2.6 points in 10.5 minutes per appearance, and the three-point attempts have only been 1.5 per game.
But if Windler can help his case on this road trip, it could be a notable boost for Cleveland. Osman being back should make a difference, too, clearly, as a side note, with how he’s rebounded really well this season.