The Cleveland Cavaliers are a team without many holes.
In fact, it would be easy enough to look at the current roster and conclude that they have no holes. The Cavaliers are 26-4 heading into their Friday night showdown with the MVP Nikola Jokic and his Denver Nuggets. They have a Top-10 defense, the RANK offense in the league, and their roster is deep with rotation-worthy players.
There is plenty of star power, with Donovan Mitchell a nuclear offensive player ready to explode at any time, Evan Mobley leveling up and Darius Garland looking healthy and comfortable. Their fourth player, Jarrett Allen, would be the second-best player on a lot of team.
Then behind them is a shocking amount of two-way depth at multiple positions. They have Ty Jerome and Caris LeVert both in consideration for Sixth Man of the Year, plus Dean Wade, Isaac Okoro and Sam Merrill capable of playing multiple positions. Now MaxStrus has returned and will soon reclaim his spot in the starting lineup. This team is excellent when healthy, has depth to weather injuries and is currently rolling through the league.
Yet there is still one place where this Cavaliers roster falls short. They go three deep at every single position on the roster except for one: center. Tristan Thompson, their third center, is no longer an option for minutes in an NBA game for a contending team.
The Cavaliers have a Tristan Thompson problem
Tristan Thompson is obviously a beloved part of the franchise, a player drafted by Cleveland and developed into a starter on multiple elite teams, including the 2016 title team. He always plays hard, cleans the glass and doesn't need a lot of touches. The ultimate role player big man, Thompson was critical to the success of the second LeBron era.
Having Thompson return to the team last season was a great decision, as a young collection of bigs could benefit from his experience. He has been a strong locker room voice and everyone in the organization loves having him around.
The problem is that he is also a rostered player, and the Cavaliers have just three centers on the roster: Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, and Tristan Thompson. That means if one of them misses any amount of time, Thompson is tapped to step into the rotation. If both of them were to miss the same game, the Cavaliers would likely decide to start Thompson.
That is a disaster waiting to happen. Currently, the Cleveland Cavaliers have a deep rotation that they can mix-and-match lineups from, and every single player in the rotation has a positive plus-minus. Dig even deeper, and even the reserve players are contributing positively. Jaylon Tyson is a rookie who plays sparingly and is break-even on the season.
And then you have Tristan Thompson. In 12 games this season, Thompson is a cumulative -31. A 26-4 team that is destroying the league has one weak link, and it's their third-string center. That speaks to how strong the rest of the roster is, but it also means the team has to address the issue.
That's nothing to take away from Thompson, who continues to work hard to keep his body in shape and plays hard when he does take the court. Yet he is approaching his 34th birthday, and as a player whose game was never about skill and always about athleticism and motor, he simply doesn't have it anymore.
The Cavaliers need to find a solution. That may mean trading for another center, someone who can play sparingly the rest of the season but is ready to step up into a larger role and not be a disaster. That may mean signing a free agent center to provide more depth at the position. They could risk waiting until buyout season and hope someone is bought out that would fit the need.
Whatever the solution, they Cavs can see the problem. Thompson is an excellent leader and mentor on this team, but he needs to be in position to never see the court. If he does, the Cavaliers suddenly go from a team with no weaknesses to a team with a glaring one.