Buy or Sell 3 trends from Cleveland Cavaliers this season

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Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert, Cleveland Cavaliers. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /

Buy or Sell 3 trends from Cleveland Cavaliers: Starting lineup is bad

Trend: Starting lineup has a -5.7 net rating

The Cleveland Cavaliers have a core of four stars that are ready to win now and are young enough to win for a very long time. Those four players are locks to start. The question all offseason was who on the team would earn the final starting spot at small forward, and the answer for the coaching staff became Caris LeVert.

That starting group — Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, LeVert, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen — has only started six games together due to a variety of injuries. They have totaled 100 minutes together, and the results have been…not good. They have a -5.7 net rating, with a frigid offensive rating and a shaky defense. Out of 14 lineups leaguewide that have logged at least 100 minutes, they rank 11th. Out of 47 lineups that have played at least 50 minutes, they rank 32nd.

Will this continue? There are two layers to an answer. On the one hand, no, this will not continue. That five-man combination should be better offensively than they have been together, and with a healthy Darius Garland moving forward should perform better. It would be surprising if that group doesn’t get to at least break-even over the course of the season. They won’t be this bad.

On the other hand, the early trend is speaking to a core flaw with that group. Caris LeVert is fighting defensively, and both Mitchell and Garland look improved on that end, but none of them are plus defenders and collectively they give up a fair amount of size. The Cavs have one other 5-man lineup that has logged more than 50 minutes, the starting group when Garland was out with Dean Wade swapped in. That is the sixth-best lineup out of 47 in the league, with a +23.6 net rating.

Starting games with Caris LeVert is fine, and that lineup will get better. Swap him out for Dean Wade, however, and you get a group that is better balanced and much more capable defensively. Given the offensive brilliance of Mitchell and Garland, this seems like the right way to use the players available.

Verdict: Sell…but a little Buy