2 dark horse candidates to eventually break into Cavs’ starting lineup

According to Basketball Reference, the Cleveland Cavaliers had 28 different starting lineups last season, which is a lot of different lineups. Considering the Cavaliers were plagued with injuries, COVID-19 protocols, and other issues, it makes sense that Cleveland was forced to readjust multiple times when it comes to their starters.

The most common lineup used was Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro, Lauri Markkanen, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen. This group had a win percentage of 68.8%, while playing only a measly 16 games together while starting.

However, winning 11 out of 16 games is a great sign for this group, and if you put that starting lineup win percentage into an 82-game season, you get a bit over 56 wins. Not to say if this group started all 82 games that they’d win that many games, but if they all were healthy, they might’ve made the playoffs, and maybe have been good enough to avoid the play-in.

That said, with a new-looking roster, there are some questions as to who will start at each position. Point guard, power forward, and center are pretty much locks on who will start (Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen, respectively), so shooting guard and small forward are a bit up for grabs at the moment, or so it seems.

As of writing this, Collin Sexton is still a restricted free agent, and does not seem close to signing a long-term contract with the Cavs.

Taking all of that into account, let’s see some dark horses for who could start at the shooting guard and/or theoretically small forward spots, at some point during the coming season, if Cleveland elects to switch some things up.