Potential Cavaliers’ lineup changes, ranked

Tyronn Lue, coach of the flailing and drama-coated Cleveland Cavaliers, declared on Tuesday he would be making a change to the starting lineup. What that change would be, however, remained a secret. So we might as well look at the options and determine what would work best as the Cavs sink down the Eastern Conference standings.

1. Bring Isaiah Thomas off the bench, start Jose Calderon.

The Cavaliers’ most successful high-minutes five-man lineup this season has had the normal Cleveland starting four — LeBron, Kevin Love, Jae Crowder, and J.R. Smith — with Calderon as the point guard. It’s +8.1 per 100 possessions over 354 minutes. Isaiah isn’t going to like going to the bench in a contract year, but Dwyane Wade was already the good soldier in moving to the reserve unit earlier this season, and Isaiah would still get a ton of minutes, including with LeBron. Calderon’s no individual defensive salve, but he tries hard. The Cavs need people who try hard right now. No knock on Isaiah — he’s just hobbled.

2. Bench Jae Crowder, start Jeff Green.

Green isn’t shooting any better than Crowder. But the Crowder thing is not working right now. Green cuts and gets out in transition at least, and perhaps a change of role can snap Jae out of his funk.

3. Bench J.R. Smith and Jae Crowder, start Kyle Korver and Cedi Osman.

This would probably go poorly with Smith, though again, Wade made the sacrifice earlier this season and can perhaps soften the below. The idea here is that Korver’s gravity could help open the floor for LeBron, Love, and Isaiah, while Osman’s energy and defensive effort could at least guilt some of the other Cavs into playing hard.

4. Bench Jae Crowder, start Tristan Thompson.

This is a problem because the Cavaliers have a thin frontcourt and Channing Frye looks to be on the way out via trade. Lue has apparently wanted to stagger Thompson and Love as much as possible, especially as Frye exited the rotation. But Love and T.T. can each play 30+ minutes if needed, so Lue can afford to have them both start and still make sure at least one is on the floor at all times.

5. Start George Hill for J.R. Smith.

Brian Windhorst and others continue to believe Cleveland is close to trading Frye and Iman Shumpert (hence his lack of mention above) to the Kings for Hill. Assuming Lue is loathe to bench Isaiah, he’d fit in alongside Thomas, taking the tougher defensive assignment in the backcourt and (hopefully) balancing the floor a little.

NOP 101, CHA 96
UTA 98, DET 95 (OT)
PHX 101, IND 116
CHI 101, PHI 115
TOR 108, ATL 93
HOU 104, DAL 97
SAS 108, MEM 85
MIN 114, POR 123
BOS 113, LAC 102

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