3 key Cleveland Cavaliers players to watch post-All-Star break

Heading into the All-Star break, which is being held in Cleveland this go-round (which is pretty darn cool), the hometown Cleveland Cavaliers are 35-23 on the season. That’s far exceeded everybody’s expectations, and led by the league’s fourth-best defense (in relation to defensive rating), the Cavs are currently fourth in the Eastern Conference standings.

The team defense for the vast majority of the season has been what the Cavaliers have hung their hat on, and the likes of rookie Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen have been difference-makers, for the most part, on that end of the floor. Those two are the main reason why Cleveland has conceded the lowest opponent field goal percentage at the rim this season (58.7 percent), per NBA.com’s tracking data.

Mobley’s versatility, and him often being able to handle perimeter threats and at times even primary playmakers in switchout situations, along with his team defensive feel, has been incredible to watch, too, and Allen has made strides on the perimeter.

I also have to credit guys such as Isaac Okoro, before he went down and was eventually traded, Ricky Rubio, Dean Wade, Lamar Stevens and others, too, for the team defense of Cleveland. Plus, Darius Garland himself has improved his team defensive play, and has led the club in steals throughout the season.

Now, the Cavs defense has had some rough performances in the past few games, but I do believe the All-Star break will allow the team to look at some things, and I’m not necessarily overly concerned.

And on the offensive end, Cleveland has gotten great play out of Garland, who was initially named an Eastern Conference All-Star and will be on Team LeBron. The Year 3 leap has been there for Garland, who has had 20.3 points and 8.0 assists per contest, and his connection with both Mobley and Allen (who was named as James Harden’s All-Star injury replacement), has been on-point much of the season.

Garland’s helped out perimeter threats too, which has been crucial with Collin Sexton out for most of the season to this point, and with him likely out the rest of the campaign.

Other significant contributors have been Kevin Love, who has had a resurgent season in a shift to a bench role, and rotational guys such as Cedi Osman, Stevens and Wade have made a difference for the team, too.

It was evident that with Sexton and Rubio’s injuries, that the team seemed likely to make a trade for another shot creator, though, and I’d think as he gets more time with the Cavaliers, near-deadline trade acquisition Caris LeVert will get going in that way more.

So, when looking past the All-Star break/festivities then, who are a few Cavaliers players to keep an eye on, in particular?

We’ll take a closer look at three Cavs, in that realm, here.

Let’s get started with the first.

3 Cavs players to watch post-All-Star – #1: Caris LeVert

It’s debatable, but the first Cavs player, for me, to keep a close eye on post-All-Star break is LeVert.

It’s again, going to take time for him to get comfortable with Cleveland following him being dealt to them by the Indiana Pacers the weekend before last.

The Cavaliers and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff will seemingly need some more games to gauge whether LeVert should regularly start or come in as a supersub-type contributor, too. The results for LeVert with the Pacers were mixed overall in his season-plus or so with them, when you weigh in that his splits were maybe a bit inflated with Indiana’s injuries this season.

LeVert himself has had his share of injury woes throughout his career as well, in fairness, dating back to his time with the Brooklyn Nets, where he spent most of his career thus far.

Anyway, with the Cavs so far, the results have been mixed for him with 13.0 points and 3.8 assists in 31.0 minutes per outing in four games; he’s only had an effective field goal shooting clip of 43.1 percent and has hit just 28.6 percent from three, and triples aren’t necessarily a crucial aspect of his game. But we’ve seen the shot creation on display, particularly with pull-ups/floater looks, and he can get to the basket coupled with that, a la Sexton.

Secondary playmaking and in spurts, primary playmaking from LeVert can help ease the workload for Garland, also, with I’d think Rajon Rondo and/or two-way Brandon Goodwin mixed in. We’ll have to see if Goodwin is eventually converted to a standard deal for the postseason with a corresponding roster move, as an aside.

Circling back to LeVert’s outlook, though, how the Cavaliers involve him the rest of the regular season and hopefully getting him in-rhythm for the postseason, provided they can solidify themselves to get there, is maybe the biggest storyline to watch for the team post-All-Star.

I do believe with his versatile game, the Cavs should be able to figure things out with the Michigan product, who is ironically, a Columbus native. If that plays out, he could seemingly be extended in the upcoming offseason and stick around long-term.

The team does still want to keep Sexton around, too, and a couple of recent reports make me optimistic they can do so. We’ll have to see down the road, with Sexton set to be a restricted free agent currently.

3 Cavs players to watch post-All-Star – #2: Lauri Markkanen

The second key Cav to watch the rest of the way is Lauri Markkanen. It’s been an inconsistent campaign for Markkanen, who admittedly had his share of inconsistencies in his first four seasons with the Chicago Bulls.

On the year, Markkanen has had 13.6 points per contest, to go with 5.3 rebounds. It’s been a mixed bag for him from three-point land, where he’s shot 34.2 percent on the season on 5.9 attempts per game.

Objectively, one had to assume that in his first year with a new set of teammates, and with Markkanen regularly playing with two other bigs this year, though, that it’d take him time to find his footing. That’s what played out, and he hasn’t had nearly the three-point shooting clip he had with Chicago last season, where he connected on 40.2 percent of his deep attempts, regardless of a mid-season role change to coming off the bench.

Markkanen has also missed a stretch of games earlier this season in November because of COVID-19 health and safety protocols, and last month, Markkanen suffered a high ankle sprain in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. He’s missed Cleveland’s past 11 games.

Fortunately, Markkanen is reportedly progressing with his rehab, and it seems that with the extended All-Star break helping, he appears to be close to a return. Bickerstaff’s comments on how Markkanen is beginning to “ramp up” his training/work, via Evan Dammarell of Fear The Sword and Right Down Euclid, is a positive sign on that front, too.

Granted, it’ll still take some games for Markkanen to get back into the flow of things, and we’ll have to see how he gets re-acclimated in the offense, with LeVert involved as well.

Fortunately, before he did sprain his ankle, Markkanen was really getting into a nice rhythm, and seemed to be getting his chemistry down with Mobley, Allen, Garland and others, and was coming out of a shooting slump.

In Markkanen’s last 10 games prior to the injury, he hit 44.6 percent of his deep attempts, got more cutting opportunities both in set offense and in transition it seemed, and he was getting to his spots inside the arc in the mid-post and via pull-ups. In that span, he shot 52.1 percent overall.

Hopefully Cleveland can get Markkanen going once again, and I’d fully expect to see the 7-footer once again in the starting lineup right when he gets back, albeit on perhaps a minutes restriction initially.

3 Cavs players to watch post-All-Star – #3: Evan Mobley

Last but absolutely not least, I had to go with Evan Mobley as the other Cavaliers player to watch in the closing stretch of the season here.

We know that Mobley, who has had 14.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 blocks per game this season, has been terrific in his rookie year for the most part for the Wine and Gold.

He’s impacted the game in a plethora of ways on both ends for the Cavs, and while others have of course factored into it, it’s telling that in the games he’s played, Cleveland is 32-18 this season. This 20-year-old 7-footer is on track for superstardom in the not-too-distant future I believe (news flash: I’m not the only one).

However, Evan hasn’t been quite himself on the offensive end in some contests of late. In the past eight contests, he has had four games where he’s put up single digit scoring, which is clearly not the norm for the rook. In that span though, Garland being out for five of those outings due to lower back soreness had some to do with it, and I’m not discounting that for Mobley and the overall offense.

Even still, it was evident that Mobley has seemed out of sorts, to an extent, on the offensive end in some recent games. But he’s still had some impressive performances lately, and assuredly, the Rising Star rep for the Cavs (along with Isaac Okoro) should benefit from an extended break, one would assume.

I’d imagine that Mobley and the team getting to regroup leading into post-All-Star break play should pay dividends, and I’d expect Evan to look rejuvunated heading into the closing stretch of his rookie campaign, hopefully heading into a postseason run.

There’s nothing to be too concerned about involving the rook, I wouldn’t believe. He and the rest of the squad should benefit from the break, is all.