Tristan Thompson is embracing his bench role and will aim for the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award, as he told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin and other media members. Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue has opted to move Thompson to the bench and insert Kevin Love at center with LeBron James and Jae Crowder at the forward spots. Thompson started all 78 regular-season games he played in last season.
“I’m going to go for Sixth Man of the Year, put myself in position to do that,” Thompson said. “I’m not going to look too much into it, but if you’re going to come off the bench, might as well have a little goal — and I feel like with the second unit we have and the energy that I bring off the bench, I’ll put myself in pretty good position. Especially when you win.”
Lue already sees the benefits of having the offensively-gifted Love in the post, as he expressed to McMenamin and the assembled media.
“Just gives us spacing on the floor,” Lue said. “[Love] is a great passer; 5s have to get out and try to guard him on the pick-and-roll with LeBron and D-Rose (Derrick Rose) and those guys making plays, so it’s going to be tough for those guys.”
The Athletic’s Jason Lloyd also notes that Love’s ability to stretch the floor will pose matchup problems for many centers. Crowder will improve the Cavs’ defense, according to Lloyd, not only with his man-to-man prowess but also by allowing them to switch on most pick-and-rolls.
Very smart decision to move Love to center and Crowder into the starting lineup. Brings a lot of defensive versatility, however you lose somewhat of a rim protector and defenses will have a very easy time scoring in the paint against the Cavs. It’s great for Love because we may see him more in the post, something we haven’t seen in a couple years. Defensively, I’m not sure how they protect the rim.
As I said when I speculated this decision previously, Thompson isn’t a good defender anyway, and they already had rim protection issues. At least this helps their lack of depth at the 5, and puts him in a better position to succeed, while also improving their versatility and spacing.
Thompson has provided suspect defense and almost no rim protection, great rebounder though
The best rim protection comes from the perimeter
… and the perimeter is manned by NOT elite defenders. I reiterate, the Cavs need a legit center.
Zizic
Charlotte will give them Dwight lol
If you’re relying on Zizic as your rim protector, be ready to win games 111-108.
Gimicky lineup.
Be serious…, any Center that rolls to the basket is going to have a field day with layup after layup after layup. Love supplies zero resistance.
On the other side of the ball, teams switch all the time on the perimeter, and you’ll have a power forward or small forward getting up in Love’s grill at the three point line.
Lineup might last 10-15 games.
You must not be aware of the new NBA
I’m a Warriors fan since 1988. Totally aware. But you don’t just play a certain way because everyone else is doing it. You have to have the Personnel to do so.
And they don’t have rim protection anyway, and Thompson can’t defend pick and roll anyway, so it makes the most sense to improve their spacing and versatility, and help their depth issue at the 5 by bringing him off the bench. Also, Love looked surprisingly decent at the 5 in the finals
Okay, great points. We’ll see. I’m skeptical and give it 10-15 games. I just think that the dozen or so big men that are capable of this, will be rolling to the basket or catching the alley-oops or posting up and having field days. Not every team has guys like that, but enough do. I just don’t think that lineup will work…..we’ll see.
I think you have to remember that LeBron will be at the 4, which obviously helps. Their defense is 100% still an issue, possibly even worse somehow, even with Crowder, but I think every other east team has flaws as well
Having love being the sixth man would be the best case scenario but he prob wouldn’t be open to it. Imagine having a 20 ppg star coming off ur bench and having the entire offense revolve around him
Now you’re talking. That’s how it works.
A good idea in theory but it doesn’t work like that. Coming off the bench is something that takes getting used to and even then some starters won’t do well in that situation. Ex. Brandon Knight went from a 20 ppg scorer the someone whose trade value is negative just based on changing between starting and coming off the bench
BK’s points dropping was mostly because of recused minutes. His per 36 points is pretty much the same.
Should have traded Thompson this off-season, he’s young enough you may find a taker. Very limited for this roster.
Love and Crowder both will wear down over the course of a season. It’s more of a GSW thing, but it will be beneficial to put some time in on this format. And other teams will also be trying their small lineups to work against.
Freindly reminder, GSW spends most of the game sporting a traditional center.