A new season means new decisions for every NBA team to make. For some teams those decisions are massive; how are the Phoenix Suns going to build their rotation? Who on the Houston Rockets will get pushed to the deep bench? What offense will new head coaches implement, especially on teams like Phoenix and Milwaukee who have their eyes set on a title?
One particularly important and public decision is who to put in the starting lineup. That group will almost certainly not play all 82 games together, so there will be adjustments during the year, but how a team decides to start the year says a lot about how they view their roster and what their goals are for the year.
The Cleveland Cavaliers hope to compete for a championship this season, so finding the right mix of players for the starting lineup is every bit as important as it is for every team. Four of the starters seem set, at least until the Cavaliers decide to trade Jarrett Allen.
Who will the fifth starter be? That will be a key question for the coaching staff to answer in training camp. Let’s look at the options.
Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Caris LeVert, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen
Last year’s initial starting lineup lasted just a few minutes before an injury knocked Darius Garland out for a couple of weeks, but it came back at times during the year, including making an appearance in the playoffs against the New York Knicks. Caris LeVert’s combination of shot creation and hustle on defense earned him the respect of coaches and a prominent rotation role whether or not he was starting.
Hopefully, the lack of floor-spacing motivates the Cavs to go in a different direction, but this group is familiar and comfortable. LeVert plays hard, and he gives the guards a release valve to attack a defense selling out to stop one or both of them. Out of all Cleveland lineups last season that played at least 50 minutes, this lineup had the second-best net rating at +15.1.
Even so, he’s not a particularly good fit, and he’s the least likely of these three players to crack the starting lineup.
Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen
The Cleveland Cavaliers went to great lengths this summer to sign Max Strus. Rather than court him using the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception, they increased their bid by working out a three-team sign-and-trade and brought Strus in with a four-year contract.
The assumption is that they did so to start Strus at small forward, and he is probably the clubhouse leader simply based on the investment. The Cavaliers went out this summer to add shooting, and it would make sense if they injected that shooting right into the starting lineup.
Strus has experience starting for a playoff team, logging 33 starts for the Miami Heat last year and then starting all 23 games in the playoffs en route to the NBA Finals. Despite standing just 6’5″ he has played the majority of his minutes at small forward the past two seasons, with his strength helping him to take on larger defensive assignments.
The movement shooting he provides will stretch defenses in a way that Isaac Okoro and Caris LeVert did not last season, forcing opponents to track him all around the court. He and Darius Garland can work off of each other as the Warriors have often used Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
The other side of the coin, however, is that starting Strus at small forward makes the Cavs quite small; in addition to being 6’5″ he has just a 6’7″ wingspan. He also is a threatening shooter but not a particularly accurate one, which could dilute his impact in the toughest of situations. Still, Strus starting is the most likely outcome.
Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Dean Wade, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen
Max Strus is most likely to start, and the Cavaliers should give him plenty of run alongside the four stars to see how his movement shooting elevates that group. Even so, the best lineup that the Cavaliers have is probably the one where Dean Wade joins the core four.
Wade had a down year last season, with a shoulder injury sidelining him for months and then clearly messing with his shot once he returned. The hope and expectation is that his offseason rehabbing the shoulder should have him back at 100 percent heading into the season.
Even with a down year, this lineup with Wade alongside the four stars had a +17.2 net rating last season. That’s always been the case with Dean Wade; go back a season and the lineup with Wade and four starters (swapping him in for Lauri Markkanen) had a +22.4 net rating in a robust 108 minutes.
Wade is the quintessential glue guy, a good defender and rebounder who makes smart plays and isn’t hunting his own shot. If his 3-pointer returns this season he should be an obvious rotation player and a strong candidate to close games; whether J.B. Bickerstaff and company recognize this is another question.
Given how much they are paying Wade (only $5.7 million this season) and the fact that Bickerstaff didn’t play him in the playoffs last season, it seems unlikely that he will get a crack at starting to begin the season. Hopefully, if Wade continues to fit so well with this team’s stars, he will have a real chance to earn that spot by the end of the season.