After dropping 10 of their last 13 games, Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue knew he needed to do something different to change Cleveland's fortunes. Specifically, the defense has been atrocious, like when they gave up 148 points to the Oklahoma City Thunder last week.
Coach Lue teased a lineup change after the Cavaliers loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night. With Dwyane Wade, Tristan Thompson, and even Kyle Korver on the bench, he had a few options of how to go about it.
But with defense being a priority, it immediately makes the most sense to start an actual center at the center position. This isn't a slight to Kevin Love, he's been great, but he's more naturally a power forward. It makes sense to put Love at center against undersized teams or those that rely more on shooting than offense in the paint. But over the course of a long season, Tristan Thompson is a better option than Love at center.
Moving Thompson into the starting lineup was a no-brainer once Lue announced a change was coming. The biggest question would be: who does that relegate to the bench? J.R. Smith publicly said he would accept a bench role after Lue's announcement, indicating he might make the move. Jae Crowder was another option, or even Isaiah Thomas as he continues to find his role with the Cavaliers.
Ultimately, I predicted Lue would swap J.R. Smith out for Thompson, but he went with Crowder instead.
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| (Joshua Gunter/Cleveland.com) |
At first I was surprised, or maybe just disappointed my prediction was incorrect. If defense was the mindset, surely starting Crowder at shooting guard would be the better option. Even offensively, Crowder (8.7 points per game, 41% FG) has outperformed Smith (7.4 points per game, 37% FG) in the 2017-2018 season so far.
Why move Crowder, who's been better on both offense and defense to the bench?
That's exactly the point: Crowder is better, and with Thompson moving to the starting lineup, the Cavaliers need as much defensive help as they can get. Crowder needs to move to the bench because he's the better player. Maybe he'll even have more of a chance to shine in this new role. And whenever the Cavaliers need to clamp down on defense, they can always play him with the four other starters late in games.
Smith, in his 14th season, is shooting his second-worst field goal percentage (37%) and second-lowest three-point percentage (34%) of his career, amounting to a career-low in points per game. The Henny Boy may be in the tailend of his career, but with the gift of staying in the starting lineup, he needs to start producing. His amount of shots taken per game (7.2, lowest in his tenure with the Cavaliers) is fine, he just needs to make more of them.
Crowder's hardly been an offensive ace, averaging 3 shots made on 7.3 attempts per game, but separating him from Smith should lead to more offensive looks for the 6th-year forward out of Marquette. Perhaps he can get some chemistry going with fellow Marquette alumni Dwyane Wade, who currently leads the second unit.
Despite their recent turmoil, the Cavaliers sit at 3rd in the East at 27-19. Could they beat the Warriors, the Celtics, or even the Raptors in a seven game series tomorrow? Probably not. Luckily Coach Lue has a few months to toy around with his lineups to find what works. The talent is obviously there on this roster, the execution just needs to improve.
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