Cavs’ largest rotation choices going through Kenny Atkinson in 2024-25 season

Managing NBA rotations could be tough and infrequently thankless for a head coach. Whether or not you play a good eight-man group or delve deep into your bench, the outcomes matter. Concerning new Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson, it seems he is leaving all his playing cards on the desk. Atkinson will lean closely on superstars like Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley. However throughout his preseason media availability, Atkinson revealed that he would go away no stone unturned concerning how deep he’d go into his bench.

“I’m going to play ten guys proper off the bat. I’d say even eleven,” Atkinson stated. “I believe by creating your bench, that prepares you for the playoffs since you by no means know, proper?

“I imply, geez, what number of rotational gamers do we’ve got,” stated Atkinson. “We’re going to play plenty of guys, and our foremost guys, we’re going to be actually strategic with how we use them. That’s a little bit of a shift, undoubtedly a part of our teaching workers’s philosophy.”

Atkinson shared that his reasoning behind deepening Cleveland’s rotation is two-fold. On the one hand, Atkinson desires to make sure that if he calls a participant’s quantity in the course of the playoffs, they’re prepared and cozy enjoying with rotation mainstays when the strain is heightened. The opposite is to make sure the Cavs are as wholesome as doable within the playoffs. Final season, Cleveland was limping into their first-round matchup with the Orlando Magic. So, the more healthy, the higher, and that is doable with minutes unfold to 10 or eleven gamers.

Who will make the Cavs rotation below Kenny Atkinson?

With that in thoughts, who will probably be in Atkinson’s rotation when Cleveland opens the season on the highway in opposition to the Toronto Raptors? The beginning unit Mitchell, Mobley, Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland, and Max Strus will stay untouched. The identical goes for sixth man Caris LeVert getting minutes together with Isaac Okoro, Georges Niang, and Dean Wade rounding out the Cavs’ common nine-man rotation. However who will get the nod from Atkinson for the ultimate two spots? Cleveland has some fairly clear choices primarily based on how he likes to run his offense and his plans on how Atkinson desires the Cavs to play.

Atkinson’s offensive scheme is a predicated motion-based offense. He desires to play with tempo and make three-pointers whereas transferring the ball and empowering his gamers to make the precise reads. With that in thoughts, sharpshooter Sam Merrill, who owns the franchise document for many bench three-pointers in a season, makes virtually an excessive amount of sense. Merrill’s three-point accuracy is such a worthwhile commodity that he might enter the record above of no-brainer bench choices.

Who else is preventing for the final rotation spot?

The identical cannot be stated for Ty Jerome, who solely performed two video games final 12 months on account of a nagging ankle damage. Nonetheless, if he is wholesome, he might push Merrill for minutes. Atkinson and Cavs President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman shared that Jerome has been stellar throughout preseason exercises. Jerome suits the mildew of a big-bodied combo guard who can slash and rating from the perimeter. Jerome turns into much less of a fringe rotation participant if he can keep wholesome. However, till he does that, Jerome will probably be battling for minutes because the eleventh man below Atkinson.

Rookie swingman Jaylon Tyson, defensive guard Craig Porter Jr., and veteran massive man Tristan Thompson are in an analogous spot to Jerome. Whereas none cope with damage issues like Jerome, they’re all on the perimeter for various causes. For Tyson, it is as a result of he is a rookie attempting to earn minutes on a longtime roster. With Porter Jr., there are official issues about his perimeter taking pictures. Lastly, for Thompson, it is a mixture of age and the Cavs leaning closely on Mobley and Allen at middle.

Whenever you break all of it down, Cleveland has a superb downside on its fingers. The Cavs have quite a few choices to play any night time, and whereas the highest ten are set, the eleventh man may give Atkinson some variance primarily based on the matchup. It is a wonderful technique to get gamers comfy with each other on the ground, particularly in a brand new offensive system. Extra importantly, it retains the Cavs’ stars recent and wholesome, making an enormous distinction come playoff time.