It was encouraging to see the Cleveland Cavaliers make strides to improve their perimeter shooting this offseason.
Cleveland added the likes of Georges Niang and Max Strus (via sign-and-trade) in free agency, both of whom should give the Cavaliers plenty of shooting pop. The Cavaliers needed to have more viable deep shooters to open up some room for Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, and both Niang and Strus should provide that in their time on the floor.
So, clearly, Strus and Niang should be regulars in Cleveland’s rotation, for what they both can provide on the offensive end. Additionally, the Cavs re-signed Caris LeVert, who will have a key bench role.
That does lead to wonder, though. Conversely, who are at least a few players who might have a really tough time getting meaningful minutes for Cleveland, then?
Here, we’ll touch on three Cavs players who might hardly see court time in 2023-24.
Let’s begin with a late-season add from last year.
Sam Merrill is hard-pressed for regular minutes
Sam Merrill was originally a 10-day signing last season by the Cavaliers who was eventually given a standard contract.
He would appear in five regular season games for Cleveland, in which he averaged 5.0 points per outing. In those appearances, he played an average of 11.8 minutes, with his two noteworthy performances coming in the Cavs’ last two regular season games after they had the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference locked up.
Merrill has not had much of a shot in his time in the NBA yet, in which he’s played with the Memphis Grizzlies in his second season, too, and in his rookie year, was with the eventual NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks. Going into his fourth NBA season, he is currently on the Cavaliers roster, but his deal from here is non-guaranteed, so he might not be around following training camp.
Now, Merrill is a player who has shown he can potentially be a knockdown shooter in his minutes, albeit on a low volume. He’s demonstrated some of that in opportunities in Las Vegas Summer League to this point, and in some time with the Bucks as a rookie, that was on display from him.
In theory, Merrill could prove to be a viable catch-and-shoot player for the Cavaliers next season in rotational minutes. He knocked in 44.1 percent of his three-point shot attempts in the G League last season with the Cavaliers affiliate, the Cleveland Charge, and that was on 8.9 attempts per contest.
The problem is there’s a litony of others that will factor in on the perimeter within the Cavaliers rotation, and defensively, it’s difficult to project the types of players Merrill can guard. With those things in mind, Merrill not being much of a playmaking presence, him being 6-foot-4, and not being able to play meaningful minutes at the 3, realistically, he would still appear to be a long shot for Cavs minutes.
Damian Jones could eventually be on the outside looking in
Going into next season, it’s nice to know that the Cavaliers will have what should be a more suitable backup 5 than Robin Lopez was last season. Cleveland acquired Damian Jones via trade from the Utah Jazz over the weekend before last, of which has since been finalized, and Jones could help Cleveland’s big man depth.
Jones is not a player who is going to put up gaudy numbers in his minutes, though, as evidenced by career splits of 5.2 points and 3.4 rebounds in 14.6 minutes per outing.
With Jones, his frame for some rotational rim protection, screening and rebounding could be meaningful for Cleveland to have for spurts, and his physicality as well. His 7-foot-4 wingspan has played into his career blocks per-36 minutes average of 1.7, and that should aid Cleveland’s defense over the course of 48 minutes, one would think.
However, Jones has bounced around a ton in his career, which is not ideal. Further, his lack of shooting capability really aside from near the rim and his issues with fouling could eventually lead to him being out of the rotation. That’s especially when considering Evan Mobley will seemingly get run again as a de facto backup 5, and by comparison, even as a two-way player, Isaiah Mobley has more offensive prowess than Jones, who is predominantly a roll-and-cut big.
Perhaps Jones’ physicality, length defensively, rolling activity and energy play ends up being a notable boost for Cleveland’s bench. As a two-time NBA champ, back in his first two seasons with the Golden State Warriors, he could help this still-young Cavs team from an intangible standpoint, too.
The issue is, with Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley and potentially Isaiah Mobley in the fold, Jones might prove to be the odd man out there at some point.
Ricky Rubio might be on the way out of the Cavs’ rotation
Lastly, Ricky Rubio‘s rotational outlook might be up in the air, to some extent. Rubio had problems finding his footing last season, because of him coming back from an ACL tear he suffered in December of 2021 before he ultimately returned to the Cavs last offseason in free agency.
Rubio came back from injury in January, and there were flashes of him getting back into rhythm as an impact bench contributor, but by and large, it was a forgettable campaign, involving the games he was in.
Rubio appeared in 33 regular season games, and due to the injury maintenance, he had only 5.2 points in 17.2 minutes per outing. Both of those were career-lows, and Rubio connected on just 25.6 percent of his three-point attempts.
His passing expertise was still on display at times, and, given the circumstances, him having 3.5 assists per contest in that time was decent. His defense was not quite all the way there, but he still did aid the team, to some degree, in his minutes.
Granted, on-ball, there were inconsistencies on that end, in fairness. And to reiterate, the shooting splits were awful, and Rubio was a non-factor in Cleveland’s first-round playoff series loss to the New York Knicks.
In a general sense, it’s reasonable to question if Rubio can get back on track next season, and with Cleveland signing a much younger Ty Jerome, who is a far better shooter, Rubio could seemingly be on the way out of the rotation eventually.
One shouldn’t rule out Rubio potentially having a bounce-back campaign in 2023-24, and his playmaking and on-floor leadership can still give the Cavs a lift, however, that might not play out. In that case, and considering there’s been some chatter about Rubio seemingly down the road potentially returning to finish his playing career in his native Spain, Cleveland maybe moving Rubio or him at least on the outside looking in for court time wouldn’t seem surprising.
Rubio, who turns 33 in October, has had a heck of a career, though. Father Time just might be limiting his on-floor viability with the Cavaliers now.