Trade Alert: Grading LeVert deal from all angles

Grading LeVert deal from all angles: On-court fit

The Cleveland Cavaliers have tried it all at shooting guard this season. Collin Sexton started the season before his knee injury, and Isaac Okoro has been a frequent starter since then. Ricky Rubio closed games at the 2 to great effect before he tore his ACL. Cedi Osman, Dylan Windler, Dean Wade and even Lamar Stevens have logged minutes at the 2.

Now the Cavs can cut through that chaos and point to a clear starter at shooting guard, a player who should step in as a starter immediately and hold down the job for the foreseeable future. Despite their lost season, the Pacers were 2.0 points per 100 possessions better than their opponents when LeVert played the 2, which he did so 65 percent of the time.

Garland showed alongside Rubio that he can thrive off-ball, so putting the ball in LeVert’s hands and letting Garland move off screens should unlock some offensive juice. Garland is certainly the better on-ball option, but deploying him in different ways will put strain on opposing defenses. LeVert is a capable ball-handler and underrated playmaker; his assist percentage of 22 percent is in the 84th percentile among league shooting guards.

The Cavs will therefore also likely deploy him as the lead guard in bench lineups where Cedi Osman is in at the 2, a role LeVert can succeed in but that stretches him past his comfort level. Putting the ball in his hands mitigates the spacing concerns; just a 33.4 percent 3-pointer shooter for his career, he has been ice cold in Indiana, hitting 32 percent of his triples since joining them midseason a year ago.

That’s where the problems will really bloom. The Cavs start a non-shooter in Jarrett Allen and a so-so shooter in Evan Mobley. As long as LeVert is replacing Isaac Okoro in the starting lineup, and especially if Osman or Lauri Markkanen are starting at the 3, the spacing should be decent enough to survive. Yet playing LeVert at the 2 makes it difficult to put Lamar Stevens or Okoro on the court with him, and pairing LeVert and Rajon Rondo seems like a perilous decision.

Defensively LeVert is a problem as well, a player whose upright stance makes him a blow-by candidate on the perimeter. He will gamble for steals but isn’t a dynamic turnover-forcing player. He rates out as an average or worse player this season by many metrics because he gives up all of the value he provides on offense. That’s less of a problem in Cleveland than it was in Indiana given the elite duo guarding the paint behind him, but it certainly hurts the Cavs.

Cleveland needed a secondary playmaker and a confident shot-creator who can create against tough defenses or late in the clock. LeVert can be that guy; not the most efficient such shot taker, but someone able to make something akin to lemonade when the Cavs’ offense is dealt lemons. He also gives the Cavs a player who can get hot and score 30 or even 40 points; even when players like Jarrett Allen or Evan Mobley are at their best those totals are a stretch.

In the end, LeVert solves some problems for the Cavs but certainly not all of them. Given the team’s lack of offensive creation at the 2, they needed a player like LeVert. Given Garland’s defensive issues, they needed a better defender than LeVert. How the team balances those issues will be important to determining their ceiling this postseason.

Grade: B+