Caris LeVert might come off Cavs bench regularly, and that’s fine

The Cleveland Cavaliers had reportedly been seeking perimeter help for a while with their injuries, and with that in mind, it wasn’t surprising that they eventually acquired Caris LeVert via trade with the Indiana Pacers last weekend. Cleveland sent out Ricky Rubio’s expiring contract, their own 2022 first-round pick, lottery-protected, a 2022 second-round pick via the Houston Rockets and a 2027 second-round pick via the Utah Jazz to Indiana.

Now, in my opinion, Cleveland gave up a fair amount for LeVert, but with Rubio being done for the season, and Collin Sexton likely, it appeared to just be a matter of time before the Cavaliers got perimeter/wing help to ease the workload on Darius Garland.

Garland’s had to carry Cleveland, to a large degree, for extended stretches offensively since Rubio’s injury, and LeVert can aid the team by taking some pressure off Garland, in the shot creation and to some extent, playmaking sense.

Garland had missed Cleveland’s past four games prior to their win over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday because of lower back soreness, also, and that back soreness has been an issue for much longer it seems. He’s considered day-to-day, but he missed Cleveland’s comeback win over Indiana on Friday, and it’s something that the Cavaliers will still have to manage.

In LeVert’s case, after the deal went down on Sunday and was made official early this week, he made his debut with the Cavaliers in that Spurs game, finishing with 11 points.

He shot only 4-of-11, but in his first game in a new situation, he did fine, and I thought still did some good things in other ways in his 28 minutes in what was a quality Cavs win. In Cleveland’s win on Friday, where they somehow were at one point down 21 points early on, LeVert was one of the key reasons why the Cavs eventually chipped away and pulled it out, and he was huge down the stretch, with a number of key buckets.

It was somewhat noteworthy that LeVert came off the bench in that first appearance with the Cavs, though, even with it being his first contest with them. And based on recent comments from Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff on Wednesday, via Evan Dammarell of Fear The Sword and Right Down Euclid, it’s going to take some time before the team decides if he should start or more often come off the bench.

LeVert did end up starting at Indiana, and filled in some as a lead playmaker, where he got better as the game progressed, and ended up 22 points and five assists.

I could maybe foresee LeVert starting some still, and likely will keep doing so on a number of occasions, but he could maybe just come off the bench a fair amount as the go-to guy in that realm, and assuredly still play starter’s minutes, or 30-plus minutes pretty regularly.

LeVert might end up coming off the Cavs bench regularly, which would be fine.

First, we’ll examine how LeVert could function in that sixth man-type role often to start out with Cleveland, and then they could guage things from there.