When Jarrett Allen went down late in the fourth quarter on Friday night in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ eventual loss to the Miami Heat, there was a collective gasp among the fanbase.
Allen was hit in the eye by Bam Adebayo when the two were battling it out for rebounding position, and after the fact, Allen went straight to the locker room. After the game, Allen’s eye was reportedly “pretty messed up,” and it was not what one wanted to be thinking about with the playoffs looming.
Fortunately, the weekend brought a sense of relief. Allen’s injury was designated as an eye contusion, and while he missed Cleveland’s win on Sunday evening against the Charlotte Hornets, Allen didn’t suffer any structural damage, per the Cavs, and will reportedly be back sooner as opposed to later.
That said, with Allen being somewhat banged up, it’s sensible for Cleveland to have others occupying some rotational 5 man minutes. Evan Mobley will have plenty of those, and starts there when Allen has missed time, but in some stretches, others would figure to be involved.
Nonetheless, at this juncture, regardless of Allen’s status, it’s tough to understand the reasoning for one Cavaliers player getting meaningful minutes.
That Cavs player is Robin Lopez, who shouldn’t be playing other than in garbage time at this stage.
Robin Lopez hasn’t been regularly involved in the rotation for a while for the Cavaliers. He’s appeared in 34 games, and aside from one second of play in the loss at the Heat on Friday, had nearly registered five straight DNPs. He hasn’t been playing aside from in garbage time situations for a considerable period at this point.
But, with Allen out on Sunday versus the Hornets, Lopez was in for some of that in meaningful time, to give Mobley some relief. Mobley had early foul trouble, which played a role in the Lopez minutes.
It’s not as if Lopez played an allotment of 17-plus minutes or anything, either. He was in the game action at Charlotte for a bit under nine minutes, and he did have five rebounds in that time. J.B. Bickerstaff stated the following as it pertained to the Lopez minutes, via Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.
In theory, that’s somewhat sensible? Lopez is a true 7-footer, and he is an effective screener, and can carve out some space at times for drivers. His frame can be impactful on the glass, too, and he grabbed those aforementioned five boards in his time out there.
Aside from glass cleaning, though, it’s tough to rationalize Lopez receiving any meaningful minutes. He had a putback, and Lopez can get to and make his hook shots, and as we expressed, his screening can help the team in spurts.
The issue is, it seems far more often, Lopez is just clogging things up on offense, and defensively, despite his size, it’s hard to convince somebody that the 34-year-old is a rim protector at this stage.
Even against a severely shorthanded Hornets team on Sunday, Lopez was a minus-nine in less than minutes. On the season, Lopez has the worst net rating on the Cavaliers, among at least semi-rotational contributors, at minus-5.4.
Frankly, even with him seemingly in the dog house, Dean Wade could be more suitable in spurts at the 5, as he could provide help defensively, and is far more athletic and capable laterally. And despite shooting woes prior to him being seemingly out of the regular rotation, whether he’s playing the 4 or 5, Wade can aid Cleveland’s spacing to some degree.
Lastly, while one wouldn’t probably anticipate it at this point, two-way big Isaiah Mobley could feasibly be more viable at times as opposed to Lopez, particularly with Allen banged up. That’d be perhaps here and there when Allen is back, too, anyhow.
Point being, no matter the circumstances, at this stage of the season, meaningful Lopez minutes are difficult to rationalize right now. He’s not much of a rim protector or lob threat, and for more than anything, simply clogs the lane more.
He’s a great locker room presence, but late-season, Lopez getting meaningful run seems odd. Hopefully that last Charlotte game was a rarity in that way.