3 reasons Caris LeVert should start for Cavs after the All-Star break

#1: LeVert’s been a starter throughout most of his career

Since LeVert entered the NBA with the Brooklyn Nets in 2016, he’s been an on-and-off starter, but has ultimately been more regularly in that starting role. Most recently with the Pacers, he’d started every game this season and last.

After having been in that role the last two seasons, getting comfortable coming off the bench here in Cleveland may have some effect on what we’ve seen in the four games we’ve seen him play. He started one of those games. There wasn’t a significant difference but there were some that would ultimately say, hey get this guy in as a starter moving forward.

That start, which happened to be against his old team the Pacers, he played his most minutes as a Cavalier with 35 minutes. He put up the most shots of the four he already played with 19 attempts and connected on 10 of them. He also had three steals in the game, had a total of 22 points, and contributed 16 percent of the total points scored in the game for Cleveland. Granted, Darius Garland was out in that game, but it was impressive from LeVert.

He’s had similar minutes in the other games he came off the bench, although not nearly the production in comparison to the game he started in. He tallied 31 total points in the other three games. His shooting percentage was way down in the bench games too only hovering around 30 percent on makes. He was also a minus-22 when he was on the floor in the bench games, while a plus-6 in the lone start.

From the numbers, one can easily see LeVert does better in the starting role. I always remember conversations I’d have with my own daughter, who played basketball at the collegiate level in the past and she was both a starter and bench player at different points in her career. She’d always say that when you’re a starter you can get acclimated to the flow of the game while when you were coming off the bench you felt like you had to contribute right away, or your time would be limited.

Though LeVert has had similar minutes in all the Cavs games, that flow of the game and knowing you won’t get pulled out of the rotation seems like it’s a better fit for him.