Caris LeVert is not at his best playing next to on-ball stars.
That is a lesson that the Detroit Pistons learned in painful fashion during their second round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers -- but it's one that Cavaliers fans have known for a long time, yelling it at Cleveland coaches during LeVert's extended tenure with the team.
Caris LeVert is made for a specific role
For years, the Cavaliers employed Caris LeVert and struggled with how to deploy him. He is the ultimate floor-raising sixth man, an on-ball scorer and playmaker who plays hard, but doesn't have the skillset to be effective off-ball. On a team that always had two on-ball guards -- be that Collin Sexton and Darius Garland at first, or later Garland and Donovan Mitchell -- the volume of time with both off the court was limited.
In those pockets, however, LeVert was fantastic. He attacked opposing bench lineups and drove right at them, setting up finishes at the rim or easy passes out to open shooters and cutters. He lacked the juice to run an offense full-time, but in small stints he was the perfect guy to take the reins and keep the ship moving.
Put LeVert next to a small guard, however, and suddenly the overlap became a bug, not a feature. It didn't make sense to take the ball away from an All-Star guard to put into LeVert's hands -- you don't swap an "8" for a "6" -- but that limited the time when it made sense for LeVert to take the court.
Caris LeVert wasn't built as a 3-and-D wing
To their discredit, the Cleveland coaches over the years tried anyway, even as it was obvious that LeVert was made for one specific role. To his credit, LeVert worked hard to become that player, putting in reps as an off-ball shooter and locking in on defense. But for all that Cleveland fans recognized his strong character, it was painfully clear that he was not the right answer at small forward next to the two guards.
Eventually, the front office realized this as well, and they included LeVert in the De'Andre Hunter trade in February of 2025. LeVert played for the Atlanta Hawks for a few months, and this past offseason signed with the Detroit Pistons.
LeVert had a down season, but even as the playoffs rolled on, his former head coach J.B. Bickerstaff knew he had a reliable veteran on the bench to deploy if needed. He began to work LeVert in against his former team, culminating in a Game 4 explosion where Caris came in and dropped 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting.
The Pistons tried and failed with LeVert
In Game 5, starting wing Duncan Robinson missed the game. Bickerstaff elevated Daniss Jenkins into the starting lineup, which meant he had few options to play with the starters when Ausar Thompson began to self-destruct offensively. Looking for a different option, he put LeVert onto the court with the rest of the starting lineup.
Things did not go well. LeVert missed all of his 3-pointers, recorded just a single assist, and was -7 in a game that went to overtime. The Cavs knew that they could help off of him without fear; the offense with LeVert on the court struggled because the ball was always in Cade Cunningham's hands.
The numbers tell the story even better than the eye test. Per databallr.com, the Detroit Pistons are strongly positive when Cade Cunningham plays and Caris LeVert sits. They are even better (in limited minutes) when LeVert plays without Cade. But they are only break-even when the two play together.
Heading into a must-win Game 6, the Pistons have to decide how to manage the minutes of Thompson, of Robinson, and most of all Caris LeVert. If properly deployed, he is an excellent bench option. If forced into the wrong role, he becomes a problem.
Bickerstaff should know better. Cleveland fans have worn themselves out yelling such truths to him over the years. And now the Cavaliers might squeeze a series victory out of his inability to learn that lesson -- or his lack of options to try anything else.
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