The player who leads the Cleveland Cavaliers in minutes played through two games against the Atlanta Hawks isn't LeBron James. It's not Iman Shumpert or J.R. Smith, despite their excellent play. It's Tristan Thompson, who has played 42 and 41 minutes in back-to-back games and is averaging 38 minutes per game since the start of the series against the Chicago Bulls.
Tristan Thompson is the Cavaliers’ secret weapon
Cleveland’s young, springy big man provides a role for the Cavaliers that no one else can fill.
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Two days after posting a playoffs-high 14 points in Game 1, Thompson scored only seven points in Game 2's 94-82 win over the Hawks. However, he made up for the poor shooting (he was just 3-of-9 from the line) with his play on the glass, grabbing 16 rebounds -- five on the offensive end -- and two blocks.
Without Kevin Love for the last two rounds and now with Kyrie Irving missing Game 2 with knee tendinitis, the Cavaliers offense is inherently clunky. Defenses crowd the paint and when James can't generate an open shot for his teammates, he's often stuck throwing up a difficult mid-range jumper. Cleveland has to generate second-chance points to stay alive and Thompson's four offensive rebounds per game is at the heart of that. The Cavaliers' offensive rebounding rate of 29.6 percent in the postseason improves on their regular season number by nearly two percentage points (27.8 percent) and, in the playoffs, is better than any other team who advanced past the first round.
The Cavaliers' other big man, Timofey Mozgov, has been great in these playoffs, especially on offense. However, his defense is put to the test against teams like Atlanta, which uses two quick, mobile big men in Al Horford and Paul Millsap who can stretch out to the three-point line. Thompson has been a more natural fit and you can see it in the way he has defended Millsap, who has combined for just 17 points on 5-of-19 shooting in the two games.
Even off the ball, Cleveland doesn’t have anyone nearly as athletic or versatile. This play, wrongly called a foul, shows how quickly he adjust off an opponent to swallow up someone else driving at the rim.
Thompson took a huge risk before the season, reportedly declining an extension from the Cavaliers valued at four years, $52 million, according to Yahoo! Sports. That would have paid him more than Kenneth Faried and Kemba Walker, which seemed like a generous evaluation from Cleveland. However, Thompson knows he has the power of James on his side.
The two are close friends and James loves the way “Double T” plays. Then again, who wouldn’t love Thompson’s constant motor and perpetual effort that drives him every minute he’s on the floor?
“He really, really, really, really cares,” James said earlier in these playoffs. “He really cares about the game and his teammates. When he makes mistakes, he wants to know how he can get better the next time so it won’t happen again.”
With the cap rising and James’ influence, Thompson’s gamble should pay off this summer. Of course he’s not a perfect player: his offensive game relies solely on second chances and other players getting him involved and his free throw shooting can be streaky. But at least from a minutes perspective, he was more irreplaceable than James in Game 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. That’s a hell of a bargaining chip for the offseason.
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