There’s no reason to overthink it, just start De’Andre Hunter

The Cavs don’t need to make this more difficult than it needs to be.

Playoff basketball exposes flaws in your roster even if you spend the regular season burying your head in the sand and pretending they don’t exist. The Cleveland Cavaliers found this out the hard way in 2023 in their first-round matchup with the New York Knicks. They could be in line for something similar to happen again if they don’t give newly acquired wing De’Andre Hunter enough reps with the core four before the postseason starts.

Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for the Cavaliers in their series against the Knicks two years ago. One of their biggest limitations was their lack of depth at the small forward spot.

The 2022-23 Cavs excelled in the regular season with Isaac Okoro alongside their core four of Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen. That five-man unit outscored opponents by 7.8 points per 100 possessions (64th percentile) with a 122 offensive rating (71st percentile).

Okoro’s lack of a trustworthy outside shot or offensive production didn’t come back to bite them too much before the playoffs. The issues were evident late in close games, but by and large, it wasn’t a problem during the regular season.

The idea that Okoro could play alongside the starters was quickly disproved in the Cavs' first playoff game. So much so, that J.B. Bickerstaff played him less than nine minutes in the second half of Game 1 and opted to go with Cedi Osman instead.

Osman closed the game alongside the core four. It was a lineup that only saw 79 possessions together in the regular season compared with the over 900 the grouping with Okoro did. More game reps with that lineup in the regular season would’ve been useful.

Bickerstaff then opted to start his five best players with Caris LeVert in place of Okoro beginning in Game 3. While that unit played together throughout the regular season, they only started six games, all coming before mid-November.

That lineup actually faired okay together in the playoffs, but the lack of bench continuity with LeVert in the starting unit made the gamble not worth it. Anticipating the need to make this move in the regular season and experimenting with corresponding bench lineups would’ve helped them get prepared for those issues in the postseason.

The Cavs are far better suited now for the playoffs this spring. Max Strus is also conceptually and in reality a better fit alongside the core four. Still, Hunter was brought in for a reason.

The argument for keeping Strus in the starting lineup runs along the same lines as it did for Okoro two years ago. The Cavs are obliterating teams with Strus and the four other starters. They’re outscoring opponents by 32.8 points per 100 possessions (95th percentile) with a 128.6 offensive rating (84th percentile) and a 95.7 defensive rating (94th percentile) in a relatively small sample size (210 possessions).

If it isn’t broke, why fix it?

Well, deep down, we all know that running up the score on a February night in Toronto doesn’t mean anything when you’re facing the Boston Celtics in May.

What’s required to beat the best of the best when they’re prepared to take away your strengths and exploit your weaknesses isn’t close to what’s needed over an 82-game season. You need multiple pieces that can actually match up with the other team’s star players on both sides of the ball. Hunter was brought in specifically to do that.

“This [move] just gives you a chance to move stuff around the chessboard and be able to play multiple different ways in a playoff series,” said Koby Altman, President of Basketball Operations, shortly after the deadline. “[Not having Dean Wade and Okoko in the last matchup] against Boston, sort of gave me a little pause. ... Having more of those guys, those kind of switchable guys that can guard all over the floor is immensely important.”

The margin between the Cavs and Celtics in last year’s playoffs wasn’t as large as you’d expected considering Mitchell missed two games and Jarrett Allen wasn’t available for the series. The Cavaliers were in every game but the first one, but ultimately didn’t have many good options to throw onto Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

As a result, they were forced to shade their defense toward them and send multiple defenders their way. This opened up the floor for Boston’s role players to convert on wide-open looks. This is why players like Al Horford and Payton Pritchard were able to be as impactful as they were.

This is where Hunter helps.

Hunter hasn’t lived up to his defensive reputation since entering the NBA, but he’s already shown how he can be a good fit when playing around the core four in the game he did start. At 6’8” with a 7’2” wingspan, he has the ability to be a solid team defender and someone you don’t need to overly shift the defense over to help on.

Last week’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves was a good example of this. Anthony Edwards finished with 48 points but started slow converting just one of his first seven attempts. That mostly came with Hunter guarding him while sharing the floor with the starters.

Hunter’s length and the ability to stay in front of Edwards combined with having Mobley and Allen ready to help at the rim forced Edwards into difficult contested jumpers.

More importantly, the Cavs' defense didn’t have to bend too much to help which allowed them to stay connected to Minnesota’s other offensive players. This allowed the Cavs to jump out to an 18-point advantage after the first quarter.

No individual defender is going to keep players like Edwards or Tatum from getting their own. The goal is to make it difficult and not let others get going in the process. Hunter’s size makes it easier to do that with than someone like Strus who is a more natural two-guard at 6’5”.

The offensive side of the ball is where Hunter has excelled this season but will take the most adjustments to get him up to speed.

It’s easier to talk about plugging in someone with Hunter’s skillset on paper than it is in reality. Hunter fits the mold of a prototypical three-and-D wing, but the NBA at large — and more importantly the Cavs offense — has gone away from the role player archetype that simply stands in the corner and waits to shoot open threes. Everyone on the court needs to be able to play make and attack on and off-ball.

Hunter has shown he can do that. However, there’s a larger adjustment period for someone who can do more within the offense. Especially when they’re trying to fit in alongside three All-Stars.

This was seen in Hunter’s first appearance with the team and as a starter. He had a tougher time establishing a rhythm against Minnesota as his three-field goal makes came from beyond the three-point line and were assisted.

Playing with the reserves in his second outing allowed Hunter to get into a much better flow. He was able to play more on-ball and easily showcased his skills as a scorer. While that’s useful in the short term (especially when the Cavs are missing their backup four in Wade), sticking with what’s comfortable doesn’t best prepare Hunter or the team for the playoffs.

The Cavs only have 28 games left before the postseason. How many of those will have the core four plus Hunter available will inevitably be much less. We know how Hunter can perform off the bench and we know how both Strus and Wade fit into the starting lineup.

What we need to know is how Hunter fits into matchups with the league’s best. This is the perfect time to do so as well as the Cavs face the Knicks, Memphis Grizzlies, and Celtics in just over a week of returning from the break.

Is Hunter the missing starter in a matchup against the Celtics? Whether that answer is yes or no is almost secondary to knowing what that answer is at all.

What can’t happen is a repeat of two years ago. The Cavs knew the flaws at the starting small forward position would come back to bite them in the playoffs and they weren’t prepared at all for when it did.

The worst thing the Cavs could do is repeat that mistake again. Sticking with Hunter in a reserve role would inevitably do that. You have to at least see what you have with Hunter alongside the core four.