3 playoff heroes who easily could have been on the Cavs

3 playoff heroes who easily could have been on the Cavs: Grayson Allen

This offseason the Cavs addressed a number of needs on their roster, bringing in Ricky Rubio at backup point guard and adding Evan Mobley and Ed Davis as bigs. They had a significant need for shooting and addressed it by executing a sign-and-trade for Lauri Markkanen.

While Markkanen had a fine season, he stands 7 feet tall and was somewhat shoe-horned into playing the 3; there was no chance of playing him in the backcourt. That meant that behind Garland were a collection of shaky outside shooters and Cedi Osman, who had an up-and-down season.

A better version of Osman was available for peanuts this offseason, and that player is absolutely on fire in the postseason. Grayson Allen was a casualty of too many bodies on the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Milwaukee Bucks pounced by sending cash and an end-of-roster player for Allen. They promptly signed him to a contract extension that the Grizzlies were not willing to offer.

Allen would have been a deadly marksman for the Cavs, flying off of screens and preventing problems for the opponents’ defense no matter where on the court he was. Osman shot 35.7 percent from deep and hit 128 overall; Allen hit 40.9 percent of his moonshot, nailing 159 of them this year.

He has been even better this postseason, leading the Bucks in scoring in each of their last two games against the Chicago Bulls. He hit five triples and scored 22 points in Game 3, and then went 6-for-7 from deep for 27 points in the door-slamming Game 4. Allen is the exact kind of role player a team wants (extra-curriculars aside) and the Cavs would benefit from having a more lethal shooter in their backcourt rotation.