Who Should Start at Small Forward for the Cavaliers?
When the Cleveland Cavaliers shocked the NBA world by acquiring guard Donovan Mitchell from the Jazz last month, many of the team's biggest questions were suddenly answered.
The Collin Sexton contract dilemma was suddenly resolved, as he was sent to the Jazz in the deal. The move provided an obvious answer as to who would be the two-guard alongside Darius Garland. And it signaled that general manager Koby Altman and his staff weren't simply going to rest on their laurels with a young team.
In checking those boxes though, the Cavs left one glaring question to be answered. With Lauri Markkanen also heading to Utah as part of the haul to land Mitchell, who would fill the void at small forward?
The first option undoubtedly is veteran Caris LeVert, who the Cavs acquired from Indiana at the trade deadline last season in an effort to shake things up after losing veteran guard Ricky Rubio earlier in the campaign. LeVert was an immediate scoring threat for Cleveland and proved as much in just his second game with the club by dropping 22 points against his former team.
It was a short-lived honeymoon phase for the 28-year-old though, as he battled ankle and foot ailments that kept him out of eight games shortly thereafter, which also stunted his ability to get acclimated with a young Cleveland team that, frankly, was playing over its skis.
Then down the stretch of the season as injuries mounted through the rest of the roster, LeVert found himself primarily in the shooting guard spot, but he bounced around between shooting guard and small forward throughout the season.
In the modern NBA of "position-less basketball" LeVert's versatility is a luxury to have. If healthy, he could be a real threat in this Cavaliers lineup as a career 43-percent shooter who can create his own shot. Where questions remain with LeVert though are in his defensive ability. He's certainly no lockdown defender and on a team that now has a surplus of scoring threats, prioritizing defense in the starting lineup may be more prudent to J.B. Bickerstaff and company.
That leads us to Isaac Okoro. It's been said that by year three of a player's career, you know who that player is, which makes the 2022-23 campaign an important one for Okoro. While there's been plenty of people inside and outside the Cavaliers organization holding out hope that the 21-year-old will become more of a consistent scoring threat, that simply hasn't materialized for him to this point.
To this point, Okoro has proven to be a streaky shooter, particularly from three where he's knocking down just 31% for his career. Now there may be some hope found in the fact that after the All-Star break last season, the Auburn University product shot 44% from three.
If that can be maintained and combined with his reputation as a pesky defender who can hold his own with opponent's best scorers, Okoro could truly become a three-and-D maestro. That is a question only he can answer with his play, but even if the offensive development doesn't come, his defense alone may be enough to earn him the starting small forward role. Imagine how loose Okoro can play surrounded by the offensive weaponry of Garland, Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen? It may be a perfect storm for both him and the team.
There are other "dark horse" options as well. Fresh off a newly minted three-year contract extension, Dean Wade has been a nice spark for Cleveland in spots, shooting a smoldering 45% from three last season and held his own defensively, with a rating of 111.0.
Many fans have also grown to admire forward Lamar Stevens play over the last year, however his inability to knock down threes makes his chances of landing the starting small forward role unlikely.
Even Cedi Osman has a case for the role, granted he didn't seem to fall out of Bickerstaff's favor last season.
The Cavaliers have the next few weeks of camp and preseason games to find an answer to their biggest lineup mystery. There's a prevailing thought that the best-case scenario sees Okoro starting at the three, with LeVert being the premier scorer of the second unit as an elite sixth man.
If nothing else, Cleveland's search for a fifth starter shows just how deep their roster is, which isn't a characteristic too many Cavaliers teams have possessed in recent years.
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