The Cavaliers have been disappointing to start the season and there are a few reasons to point to. For one, the Cavs have had significant injuries to their starting line-up. They have only appeared together in 50% of their games and within those games 40% of them had multiple starters missing.
Another reason that fans are pointing to is JB Bickerstaff consistently running an eight man rotation rather than letting some of end of the bench vets and younger players get playing time. Through team injury, Craig Porter Jr, a rookie guard out of Wichita State, has stepped up and shown rotation potential. Bickerstaff had indicated that Porter Jr earned consistent playing time once the team is healthy. After this comment from JB, the starting line-up was healthy once again and Porter has played in 3 out of 5 contests with a total of 24 minutes under his belt.
[youtube clip](https://youtu.be/Lls6LVXfo9Q?si=qu0a-s6iPC0dEvwC&t=119)
JB has been under scrutiny from fans and media alike. The elephant in the room has been his wavering job status and it seems he has brought this energy onto the court. On 12/2/2023, the Cleveland line-up, with their usual suspects at starters, looked like a play-off line-up with basically a seven man rotation against… the 2-17 Detroit Pistons.
[image link](https://highscreener.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/image.png)
In fact, the Cavaliers use the least players with at least ten minutes played per game. As previously stated, the Cavaliers have had an abundance of injuries, especially to their starting line-up. This puts them with the fifth most injuries per game.
However, this does not excuse the shortened line-up. Each team with more injuries (MIA, CHO, BRK, and MEM), all play 0.4 more players per game up to MEM who play about 2 more additional players per game.
[image link](https://highscreener.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/image-1.png)
[image link](https://highscreener.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/image-2.png)
One could argue that there is a correlation between stricter line-ups and win-loss percentage, but with a correlation coefficient of -0.30 this year there is basically no correlation. Another argument, is that the Cleveland bench is historically thin. However, players that have been mostly excluded from the shortened line-up, Wade, Thompson, Porter Jr, and even Sam Merrill have shown impact in line-ups and one or multiple of them deserve at least utility use off the bench.
With JB’s job potentially in peril, it will be interesting to see if the line-up expands with the team getting healthier or if he will remain stubborn and stick to an eight man line-up for the remainder of this season… or his tenure.
over 900 pages web-scraped from basketball-reference.com
by montageidiots
5 Comments
I can’t believe Isaac Okoro has played 26 minutes tonight with 0 assists and 0 points. Can’t JB atleast split those minutes and give Craig Porter 13 minutes a night. And hey maybe not continue to play Dean Wade AKA supposedly better than Kevin Love when he has been very ineffective and give Craig Porter some opportunities. Also has he figured out if Merrill can play NBA basketball yet? Probably not cause he never plays. I hate to say it but JBs rotations and Mitchell’s ball hog mentality have stunted this team past the glory we saw coming last year and the year before. Two years ago I was in awe of the shared team basketball I saw between Rubio Garland Love Mobley and Allen. Now I feel we are only winning because Garland and Mitchell and Levert and Strus are really solid players. But are they a team?? I don’t think so, not with Mitchell scoring 30 a game and taking 20 shots a night. I don’t want to sound like I am being negative but I honestly think if Garland was the primary ball handler alone he would average over 10 assists and create better passing situations. Rant over.
I’m not a fan of the rotation either but at 8-3 in the least 11 they are doing what they should be doing. The next 4 are big games to really get back in the upper echelon of the East. I hope we start to see more players but that’s never been his MO
Not sure what you would change with the rotation tonight. We even got to sit mitchell for a long stretch.
I thought JB did a lot well tonight, the only baffling part ws why Porter Jr. didn’t play. This group was at their best with Rubio coming off the bench to run the offense and give a boost – Porter Jr. has shown he can take on that role. There were times when Orlando was making a run and we could have used that boost from CPJ.
I really appreciate this analysis about JB’s incredibly short rotations (though I think you might be drawing biased conclusions from some of your statistical analysis.) It’s clear to me that JB is an average coach at best who can’t seem to coach an offense. He’s riding the starters this year, like previous years, for wins, and we’ll probably see the injuries again mid-season. He has a very short leash for young players, though a number of them have not developed (Wade, Okoro). (I’d argue he’s not very good at development, that most players are who we expect.)
I don’t think all the problems are his. As much as I like our players, they are just not the best combination. Mobley, without a jumper, has too much overlap with Allen; Garland and Mitchell both thrive with the ball in their hands. I do think JB’s inability to find better rotations is another weakness.
My guess is we’ll see how things look through the all-star break before making any changes, and that there is probably a major trade coming and a potential coaching change.