Craig Porter Jr. bailed out Kenny Atkinson big-time when the Lonzo Ball experiment was quickly becoming a failure for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Those heroics may not prove to be enough for him once the Cavs return to action on Thursday.
With Koby Altman and the front office significantly upgrading the roster at the trade deadline, there are suddenly far fewer spots available in the rotation. That is still the case even with Atkinson's preference to go deep off the bench.
Porter may still get playing time throughout the year. However, it should come as a surprise to no one if those on-court appearances continue to shrink both in terms of their regularity and length as the 2025-26 season marches forward.
Cavaliers roster is suddenly too deep for Craig Porter Jr.
Adding both Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis was a bad start for Porter's hopes of retaining a clear spot in the rotation. The young Cavaliers guard made himself a regular when asked to overcome the Lonzo problem. Now, Schroder will be largely tasked with filling that void.
Having Darius Garland as a regular absentee made Porter's path to minutes much clearer too. James Harden does not bring those same type of availability issues. The new Cavaliers star played 79 regular season games last season, and 72 the year before that. Despite his age, Harden has been around more often than not in recent campaigns.
Returning bodies will only add to the shrinkage of Porter's opportunities.
Evan Mobley, Dean Wade, and even Max Strus should all hopefully be back around for the Cavaliers at some point. Those are all players who should have priority in Atkinson's rotations.
It would be willfully ignorant to say Cleveland will maintain a clean bill of health after what these last few years have offered as an example. However, no one can be blamed for still hold out for Cleveland to be pretty close to that down the stretch.
In a perfect set of circumstances for this season, the starting lineup for the Cavaliers would be Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Jaylon Tyson, Mobley, and Jarrett Allen. Filling out a 10-man rotation off the bench would likely feature Schroder, Ellis, Sam Merrill, Strus, and one of Wade or Nae'Qwan Tomlin.
That is suddenly a tough mountain for Porter to climb. The nights of play will come. However, for a player who has averaged 20.1 minutes per game since Dec. 23, it's hard to not prognose a major decrease.