DeAndre Liggins earned a place in the Cavaliers’ rotation with his impressive play filling in for J.R. Smith last week, according to Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal. The 28-year-old swingman landed a roster spot in Cleveland during the preseason after being out of the NBA for two years. “Shump [Iman Shumpert] and Liggs can both be on the floor together,” said Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue. “Right now, the last three games, Liggs has definitely earned a spot in the rotation with the way he’s played. His defensive presence has been great for us, his energy. We’’ll just see how it goes.”
There’s more news out of Cleveland:
- The chances that owners and players will agree to a new collective bargaining agreement by Thursday aren’t quite as bad as Carmelo Anthony stated earlier today, Lloyd writes in the same piece. Cavs veteran James Jones, who serves as secretary/treasurer of the union, said there’s not a snag in negotiations; there are just a lot of things left to agree on. “Last time we left it, there were still items that needed to be discussed and those haven’t been resolved yet,” Jones said. “Every day that a deal isn’t struck just makes it a little more tense and a little less certain that a deal will be struck.”
- Lue cautions that the Cavaliers are an incomplete team and hints that a long-awaited move could be coming soon, Lloyd notes in a separate story. “It’s going to take more than [20 games],” Lue said. “Until we get a backup point guard. When we get a backup point guard, we can understand what our rotation’s going to be. We don’t have to switch it on a night-to-night basis, so our team can get in a better flow.” Players who signed free agent contracts during the summer can be traded starting on Thursday, so the Cavaliers may be planning to deal for a backup to Kyrie Irving.
- Jordan McRae‘s playing time has been reduced lately, but it’s only because Lue is testing his options at reserve point guard, relays Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. McRae has three DNPs and just 10 minutes of court time in the past five games. “I told you we used Shumpert for four games, came back with Kay Felder, I mean Ligs [Liggins], then we did Jordan, then we came back with Kay too,” the coach said. “So, he’s not completely out of the rotation, just trying look forward and trying to figure it out right now.”
Jordan is no PG no matter how you shuffle the cards. He’s a shooting guard.
If Ty Lue were a good coach, he would know how to utilize the Cavs best roster they have EVER had. Its a versatile roster, and addressed their 2 main needs, in help on the wing, and a rim protector that can guard pick and roll and finish at the rim. Dunleavy shouldnt be seeing DNPs. Liggins can contribute defensively against multiple positions, and he can also be a facilitator off the bench, if need be. This roster, when healthy, is too good and versatile to be complaining about lack of a true backup PG. They have multiple options to facilitate and play make in the 2nd unit, even if they changeup the minutes allocation to LeBron and Kyrie to have one of them in there with that unit. AND Felder should be an option himself. For his size, he can defend at that position, which is more than fine for what else they have on the floor.
I’m sure they’re interested in Norris Cole or Rio, but it remains to be seen if Rio can still guard that position after his achilles injury, and his 3 pt percentage has been in decline the last couple of years. Meanwhile Norris has struggled from 3 himself, so he’d be a slightly upgraded version of Felder, who is older and costs more money, although he is probably even better than he is defensively