The Cavs have too many quality players. See, in the NBA Playoffs, no teams go more than 8 or 9 deep. And here the Cavs sit with 11. They barely seem to lack for depth (quality is another issue), even with 3 men down right now.
So what do we do come playoff time, when everybody is healthy? It’s a good problem to have.
First let’s look at who we have and where they fit in.
Lebron obviously dominates the minutes at small forward. Especially come playoff time, there is no point in penciling in a backup.
The big rotation looks to be well established with Z starting alongside Ben Wallace, with Joe Smith coming off the bench with Anderson Varejao. With Wallace’s age and Smith’s knees, their minutes will probably stay around 20, leaving ample for our biggest threat under the glass and our best lateral defender.
The backcourt is a bit messier, with Wally Szczerbiak(!) and Sasha Pavlovic completely unable to play on the ball and Delonte West, Boobie Gibson, Damon Jones and Devin Brown all playing their own version of point guard.
Mike Brown obviously trusts all 6, so they might as well all play, right? None is complete liability, each contributes some speciality, so it’s up to the coach to maximize their worth.
The difference between the Cavs and most teams is that rather than a top cut of obvious cogs, a handful of backups and solid rotation players, and the guys who get spot minutes, the Cavs have Lebron and 10 rotation players. So since we’re built non-traditionally, why play our hand like every other team? Why not just run out the team that matches up best against any given opponent?
Well, for one, we’ve seen that tact fail before. As recently as last year, the monolithic Mavs tried to out-talent the Warriors by choosing to match their style. We’ve seen the Cavs, again and again, unwittingly fall into the trap of playing our opponents style and giving away points as the supporting cast wasn’t prepared to fill their roles alongside Lebron.
Deep teams are built for the regular season. It’s up to the Cavs to discover a way to use that depth over the course of a 7 game series to assert their style and make our opponents uncomfortable.
The nature of the NBAs “game every few days” model is that guys need to learn how to stay sharp after a layoff. Our depth should help substantially in back to backs and our veteran rotation should know how to play on Monday, get very limited minutes Thursday, then come back strong for 30 minutes on Sunday.
Tomorrow, during the game, I’ll explore each potential playoff matchup and explain how the Cavs can cause matchup nightmares that give us the edge in any series.
Go Cavs!
