With just a few weeks until the NBA Playoffs, the four best players on the Cleveland Cavaliers have not played enough minutes together to qualify for lineup data on NBA.com. That's not a huge shock, as one part of that quartet (James Harden) has been on the team less than two months and another part (Jarrett Allen) missed over three weeks in April. Still, it's pretty rare for a team with championship hopes.
A lack of film and data could be a strength of the Cavs because other teams won't know how to gameplan against them. It also could be a weakness of the Cavs because the Cavs themselves might not know how to gameplan when their "Big 4" is fully active.
In other words, the Cavaliers will need to figure out on the fly just who they are in the postseason. We know James Harden will orchestrate the offense (and that Jarrett Allen will benefit from that). We know Donovan Mitchell is an elite playoff performer. We know Evan Mobley must be more aggressive and shut down the paint to opponents. How all of that presents itself in a playoff atmosphere is still a mystery. Aren't mysteries fun?
Cavs fans don't know how their best players play together
And if Tuesday's game against the Lakers was any indication, they have reason to be concerned. It was the first in weeks we saw the Cavs at full strength, and it sucked! The Cavs were blown out by the Lakers, losing by 14 in a game that was never that close.
Evan Mobley was a complete non-factor in the game, and the other stars weren't much better. Donovan Mitchell scored 10 points and James Harden was far more passive than fans would like him to be. It was a disaster.
I don't think this will be the norm. Overall, things are still going well with Harden in the mix — the team is 15-6 when he plays. That's great! But that mark comes mostly without a full lineup. Since Harden's Cavs debut on February 9th, Jarrett Allen has missed 11 games, Donovan Mitchell has missed five, and Evan Mobley has missed four. The sample size of all these guys together remains miniscule.
There is no reason to think this foursome won't work. Donovan Mitchell finally has the elite floor general beside him that he never has before, and Mobley and Allen's lives should be easier with Harden still drawing so much defensive attention at 36 years old. But I don't fault Cavs fans for biting their nails as the team enters its most important postseason in a decade with no real knowledge of how its best players complement each other.