3 potential closing lineups the Cavs could deploy in rest of season

No. 2: Ricky Rubio-Donovan Mitchell-Caris LeVert-Evan Mobley-Jarrett Allen

This second Cavs closing lineup features Rubio at the controls, Mitchell and LeVert as key shot creators, and the Mobley-Allen frontcourt.

Typically, Garland’s going to be involved in these situations, as he should be, and he’s been playing terrific ball of late. This scenario just involves instances where Rubio is in a great groove, is getting others the rock in their preferred spots, and is making some plays for himself on-ball.

Additionally, Rubio has familiarity with Mitchell as well, given their prior Utah Jazz connection for a couple of seasons. So, that’s part of the reasoning for this potential grouping, too.

With Rubio at the controls here, he’ll know where to feed Mitchell in crucial moments for looks to get to his go-to spots, and with LeVert as an active cutter, Rubio could be able to find him on the weak side at times, also, to counter that, along with Mobley.

This isn’t to suggest that LeVert in some possessions could be a driving threat coming downhill off handoffs from Allen, though, and that should be in-play here, and he could look for shots, dumpoffds or kickout feeds. Those are aspects to keep in mind there, and/or with Mitchell, clearly.

Defensively, the Allen-Mobley duo is again the backbone in this lineup, but while there are some limitations, LeVert has done far better defensively than one would’ve imagined coming into this season, and with attention to detail off-ball could be useful.

That, combined with the activity of Rubio and length of him and Mitchell on the perimeter could come in handy here to enable this lineup to come up with big stops when needed down the stretch.

Timely rotations would have to be commonplace with this fivesome, however, and time would have to tell as if those would play out regularly.