After the Cleveland Cavaliers swung a deal in trading for Donovan Mitchell from the Utah Jazz in a blockbuster early this month, they’ll pair him with Darius Garland in the backcourt, and Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen will man the 4/5.
Those four are the Cavaliers’ core looking onward, and with Garland, Mitchell and Allen, that was three All-Stars from last season. Evan Mobley could very well have an All-Star future ahead of him based on his stellar rookie year, too.
It is not a certainty as to who is set to start at the 3 position, and guys such as Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro could begin the season in that spot. From there, Dean Wade would be a logical choice, and to some extent, Lamar Stevens could seemingly be in the running; those two should both have some specialist minutes for defense, in my opinion, either way.
As for the bench, though, generally, there’s some questions that will have to be ironed out in training camp, feasibly, and in this sense, in the earlier portion of the upcoming season. The defensive specialist outlook is one of those things, along with the reserve primary playmaking question.
But one key thing to watch, from my perspective, is the Cavaliers bench scoring. The two crucial guys in that realm would appear to be Kevin Love, given his success in a move to that supersub role last season, and LeVert, if LeVert is primarily a bench contributor.
So, along those lines, who will lead the Cavs in bench scoring, for the most part, in 2022-23?
For now, I’d have to with Love, who we’ll take a closer look at first.