You can be forgiven for thinking that the Cleveland Cavaliers didn't need Max Strus.
Forced to start the season without their starting small forward when Strus suffered a nasty Grade 3 ankle sprain in the preseason, the Cavaliers would have been forgiven for an up-and-down start to the season.
Instead, new head coach Kenny Atkinson led the team to a dominant start, going 23-4 across their first 27 games, the best record in the NBA. In the absence of Strus, Dean Wade and Isaac Okoro both tooks shifts in the starting lineup and excelled. Wade's size transformed the starting lineup into a defensive behemoth, while Okoro has taken yet another step forward as a shooter and give Cleveland a three-headed monster of guards whose skillsers all complemented one another perfectly.
Do the Cavaliers need Max Strus?
Did they need Max Strus? The answer seemed to be no; they were having the best start in franchise history without him, multiple players were capable to starting in his stead, and the bench was one of the best in the league, with Caris LeVert, Ty Jerome and Georges Niang all having career years. Cavs fans began thinking up trade scenarios involving Strus not out of ill will, but just because he seemed like a surplus wing the team didn't need.
Those conversations spiked in recent days as Strus neared his return. He debuted Friday night against the Milwaukee Bucks, and given his long layoff and minutes limit around 20 minutes, it was assumed he would show a lot of rust and need some time to get back into peak form -- which was fine, again, because the Cavs didn't need him.
The rust, however, wasn't there -- or if it was, it wasn't noticeable because when Strus was on the court against the Bucks the Cavaliers couldn't stop scoring. That's almost not an exaggeration; Strus played 19 minutes, and during those minutes the Cavs outscored the Heat by 20 points. Cleveland had an offensive rating of 156.1 when Strus was on the court, which would be light years ahead of the best offense in the league.
In 19 minutes with Max Strus on the floor tonight in his debut, #Cavs had an offensive rating of 156.1.
— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) December 21, 2024
Impressively enough, the player in the NBA with the highest individual offensive rating -- that is, when that player is on the court their team scores the most efficiently -- is Caris LeVert, at 124.5. Isaac Okoro is second. Darius Garland is fifth. Cleveland is already destroying opposing defenses with the necessary pieces to excel on offense.
If you lower the bar for that list to just 15 minutes played, Strus leaps onto the leaderboard at the top with that 156.1 number, further ahead of No. 2 LeVert than LeVert is ahead of last-place Taylor Hendrick, who ranks 453rd in the league. It's obviously an unsustainable small sample size, but there also isn't any other such incredible sample in the league, either.
Max Strus makes the Cavaliers even better
What Strus showed on Friday is not that the Cavaliers necessarily "need" him to be a great team, but that he takes their excellence and rockets it to another level entirely. He is a perfect fit on offense for this team, a high-volume shooter with incredible instincts who can bring it on the defensive end. Building basketball teams is about both talent and fit, and Strus is maxing out the fit category for this team.
The Cavs have been right at the top of the league in overall offense and 3-point shooting, and Strus raises their ceiling in those categories. He gives the offense space with his gravity, he knocks down shots, and he does all of the little things to help a team thrive. That's why Strus could return from injury and play his first minutes of the season against a dangerous foe, score just nine points with two rebounds, and make such an elite impact.
The Bucks, coming off the high of the NBA Cup Final and without Damian Lillard, had no answers to stop the Cavaliers on Friday. Donovan Mitchell went nuclear yet again with 27 points in 27 minutes before he and all of the starters sat out the fourth quarter. Evan Mobley was everywhere on both ends of the court. Jarrett Allen chipped in another double-double.
Dean Wade, getting a start for one of the last times as Strus ramps up his minute totals, showed why he too is such a ceiling-raiser for the team, hitting four of his five 3-pointers and scoring 15 points. Rotation decisions are going to be extremely difficult for Atkinson moving forward, as everyone deserves to play.
Add Max Strus to that list. He came back and was immediately ready to play, showing why he is such a valuable player to this team and pushing their ceiling as a team up yet another notch. Too much higher, and this team may just prove capable of that playoff run everyone is dreaming about.