3 players on the Cleveland Cavaliers roster right now to replace Caris LeVert with
By Chad Porto
3 players the Cleveland Cavaliers can use now to move on from Caris LeVert
The Cleveland Cavaliers have hit a breaking point. While J.B. Bickerstaff may be reminding everyone that only seven teams have 30 wins, and the Cavs are one of them, he also needs to remember something very specific; they’re only 23-20 over their last 43 games. In fact, if it wasn’t for the eight-game winning streak to start the season, this squad could be a .500 basketball team.
Part of the issue, at least that we saw during the end of said eight-game winning streak, is the fact that Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell don’t play defense well when they’re on the court together. Another issue, one that has popped up a lot over the last few weeks, is Caris LeVert.
LeVert has become a negative offensive player, especially on RAPTOR, putting up a -1.0 for the season so far, and he’s nearly a negative defensive player according to his BPM (+0.1). He’s not a bad player, but he’s a bad fit, being shoehorned into a catch-and-shoot role as a wing player. He’s also tasked with challenging some of the better scorers the Cavs face.
That’s not where he thrives on defense. He’s being asked to do a lot of things he normally wouldn’t have done, and everyone can see he isn’t a fit for this roster; at least everyone but Bickerstaff and management.
The Cavs should be trying to move on from LeVert, as he’s constantly shown he’s not helping this team. Especially when you use that Cedi Osman has 70 points on LeVert’s true shooting percentage. Osman is a better all-around player than LeVert.
His stats say that, his advanced metric say that, NBA’s advanced lineup stats say that, but yet we still get LeVert.
Well, with him probably missing Thursday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Cavs may finally get to see what the team can be without him. Is he really the albatross dragging the team down?
We think the Cavs have three viable options to replace LeVert with right now, and no trades are required. So with that, let’s take a look at the guys we hope to see get reps soon as the team’s starting small forward.