The Cleveland Cavaliers have been one of the more surprising teams in the NBA thus far this season. They are currently holding the fifth spot in the Eastern Conference, only 3.5 games behind the conference-leading Brooklyn Nets.
Many expected the Cavaliers to be closer to the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft than the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. The strategy they took to build their roster in the offseason left many people scratching their heads, but it was one they believed in and it has paid off thus far.
The Cavaliers committed to adding size this offseason, as they re-signed Jarrett Allen in restricted free agency. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft was used on USC big man Evan Mobley. To cap it off, Lauri Markkanen was acquired from the Chicago Bulls in a three-team sign-and-trade deal that also included the Portland Trail Blazers. Veteran big man Kevin Love also comes off the bench for the team.
While everyone else in the NBA is going small, the Cavaliers veered and went big. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has done a great job, making the jumbo lineup work.
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It was a risk doing what they did, but they were confident in their plan. What made the organization feel so strongly about going big? They were confident in what they had with Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley and going big is something that has worked previously.
“People were looking at us sideways,” Bickerstaff says. “It’s one thing to be big but we felt Jarrett and Evan were big and active. It was building around that.”
Says Altman: “We watched a lot of film and we looked at the last few champions. They were great defensive teams. The Bucks had Giannis [Antetokounmpo] and [Brook] Lopez. The Lakers had LeBron, [Anthony] Davis and [Dwight] Howard. They played big and they won.
“We didn’t see Evan as a player exactly like Jarrett and thought they could play together.”
In addition to the untraditional roster configuration, the Cavaliers are also watching Darius Garland blossom into an All-Star before their eyes. His maturation is helping this plan work as he leads the show offensively.
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Where the Cavaliers have benefited from the bigger lineup is defensively. They are dominant on that end of the court, with the second-best defensive rating in the NBA according to Basketball-Reference.
That turnaround defensively, after they ranked 25th last season, is as big of a reason as any that the team is having this level of success. Their plan to go big has helped, as they funnel opponents toward the rim, where it is a challenge to score on Allen and Mobley protecting the rim.
