J.B. Bickerstaff Has Tough Decisions To Make With Cavaliers Roster

J.B. Bickerstaff will need to rethink the Cleveland Cavaliers rotation when Evan Mobley and Darius Garland are healthy.

There's some good news for Cleveland Cavaliers fans. The team is finally getting back to full strength while they continue to play some of their best basketball. Evan Mobley will reportedly make his long-awaited return on Monday after missing a month and a half due to his knee injury. Darius Garland shouldn't be too far behind him.

However, his return does complicate some things. J.B. Bickerstaff now has some tough decisions to make with his rotations and roster. 

Mobley coming back means that there will be less playing time to go around. He's averaging 33.6 minutes per night in the 21 games he's played in this season. Those minutes are going to need to come from somewhere. 

Bickerstaff has a few options here. One, he could simply go back to the rotation that he was using before the injuries. That doesn't seem likely though considering that Sam Merrill has emerged as a crucial piece to the offense, Dean Wade has established himself as a legit 3-and-D threat, Georges Niang is playing incredibly off the bench, and even Craig Porter Jr. still isn't getting the minutes he deserves.

On the other hand, Mobley was on an All-NBA defensive team last season and Garland is an All-Star-level point guard. They need to and will be in the mix. 

That leaves Bickerstaff with option two. That's expanding the rotation to a 10-man cycle keeping someone such as Merrill in the second unit and bringing Wade in off the bench. Even this is easier said than done though. If the rotation does have more players in it, obviously, that means some members will see their minutes drop to make sure everyone fits. 

Bickerstaff talked about this exact dilemma following their convincing victory over the Orlando Magic last week.

"We're fortunate that we have guys that are versatile and we’re fortunate that we have guys that can defend multiple positions," said Bickerstaff. "Guys have earned minutes. It’s not gonna be easy, obviously, but I’d rather have this problem

Yes, in theory having too many players deserving of minutes is a good problem to have. However, the reality is there are only 48 minutes in a game figuring out where each of those players fit isn't going to be easy.