The Cleveland Cavaliers can’t afford to have a three-man bench rotation

The Cleveland Cavaliers apparently only have three bench players they trust.

The Cleveland Cavaliers dominated the Toronto Raptors on Sunday, with Donovan Mitchell going off for over 30 points in a lopsided win. Yet, you’d be forgiven if you saw the box score around the start of the third quarter and saw that eight players had only checked in. The Cavs ran with just three bench players on the night, sitting Cedi Osman, and didn’t bring anyone in until the game had been long-decided in the waning minutes of the fourth.

Osman, who was questionable against the Raptors, appears to be the only player on the bench who can shoot. He’s got a much better true-shooting percentage than Caris LeVert, Dean Wade, and Ricky Rubio. All three of them were the guys off the bench that got minutes on Sunday.

When Osman isn’t on the court shooting, there isn’t anyone who can realistically stretch the court among the bench players outside of Osman. The problem is that the bench, as a whole is bad offensively. Sure, defensively they’re great. With Dean Wade and Ricky Rubio, how can you not be? But LeVert and Osman are the best scorers they have, and they’re both negative producers on offense according to their offensive box plus-minus

Osman, however, has a positive RAPTOR score on offense, while LeVert has a negative (+0.4 to -1.2). They have comparable defensive scores (+1.7 to +1.8) as well. So it doesn’t make much sense to sit Osman long-term.

If the Cavs do indeed go into the playoffs with the bench they have, minus Osman, they’re going to be screwed.

The Cleveland Cavaliers bench is awful on offense

Rubio hasn’t found his shot yet, and Wade is not the same offensive producer that Kevin Love was. LeVert can create at times with the ball in his hand but his shooting from mid-range is bad and getting worse, while Osman is streaky as a three-point shooter.

Something he maybe does too much.

The Cavs bench is so bad that if you go into the playoffs with Osman or even LeVert down, you’re not going to get any real production off the bench. Not only that, but you’re going to be quickly ran out of the gym, as the Cavs starting five would have to carry a bulk of the offense.

That’s not sustainable across four rounds, against teams with a bench that can score.

Hopefully, Bickerstaff isn’t planning on sitting Osman for too long, as the team needs his offense off the bench if they hope to beat some of the better teams in the playoffs. The Cavs are 26th currently in total team scoring with just 111.8 per game.

Clearly, they don’t have the luxury of sitting a guy like Osman or even LeVert anymore.

They may even want to consider giving Raul Neto some more minutes and see if he can increase the team’s scoring. Do you know who’d help, a big power forward with a good three-point stroke and double-double ability.