Breaking Down Cleveland Cavaliers' Center Position for 2014-15 Season
After arguably the best offseason in NBA history, the Cleveland Cavaliers head into the 2014-15 season with a glaring hole in the 15-man roster: quality depth at the center position.
The Cavs dealt 7-footer Tyler Zeller to Boston in a salary dump to facilitate a max contract for LeBron James. The 26-year-old Spencer Hawes darted Cleveland for the mid-level exception with the Clippers. Anthony Bennett, hardly an interior defense specialist, was moved to Minnesota in the Kevin Love deal. Health concerns pushed likely No. 1 pick Joel Embiid down Cleveland’s draft board. And Andrew Bynum, last summer’s prized acquisition, flamed out months ago.
Cleveland’s 18-man training camp roster lists two centers, Brendan Haywood and Alex Kirk. Haywood (7'0", 260 lbs) missed all of last year with a foot injury. Kirk (7'0", 245 lbs), barring a major injury to a teammate and/or a complete 180 from summer league, will not see the floor often, if at all.
That leaves Love (6'10", 245 lbs), Tristan Thompson (6'8", 225 lbs) and Anderson Varejao (6'10", 250 lbs). Varejao is the likely starter at center, with Love at the 4. The Cavs are also likely to use the rangy Shawn Marion (6'7", 225 lbs) and James (6'8", 250 lbs) in the frontcourt in small-ball lineups. Louis Amundson (6'9", 225 lbs), a late addition, is probably just an energy guy.
In other words, depth at the center position, or a lack thereof, is a major concern.
Varejao’s health is the real issue here. An argument could be made that he’s the second-most important player on this roster after James (after all, the Cavs could use James or Marion at the 4 should Love go down, and the ball-dominant James and Dion Waiters are more than capable 1-guard options).
Since LeBron’s departure in 2010, Varejao has tallied seasons of 31, 25, 25 and 65 games played. In 2010-11, it was a torn tendon in his right foot, the following year a fractured right wrist and the year after that a torn leg muscle followed by a blood clot in his lower-right lung.Varejao turned 32 on Sunday and is probably playing for his last major NBA contract.
Head coach David Blatt will do his best to manage Varejao’s minutes. The Akron Beacon Journal’s Jason Lloyd reported recently that Blatt could consider starting Thompson over Andy, mainly as a way to limit Varejao’s exposure and protect him from injury. An NBA 2K15 trailer says otherwise.
As long as he’s on the floor, Varejao’s a factor. In the four years since LeBron left, he’s averaged a double-double per 36 minutes, according to Basketball-Reference.com. His athleticism is limited, and he’s not a rim protector, but he’s a more-than-capable rebounder and has worked diligently to develop a mid-range jumper. He’s an above-average pick-and-roll type; he shot over 57 percent from the field in the 2009-10 season.
Then again, offense isn’t the concern here. In today’s NBA, positions are only as relevant in terms of who someone guards on the defensive end.
Thankfully for the Cavs, two Eastern Conference playoff teams with established centers—Indiana (Roy Hibbert) and Brooklyn (Brook Lopez)—are unlikely to be serious challengers this year, either due to injury or free-agency departures. On the other hand, the Joakim Noah-Pau Gasol-Taj Gibson Bulls are major contenders, with the Marcin Gortat-Nene Wizards and Al Jefferson’s Bobcats not far behind.
Can a Varejao-Thompson-Love rotation at the 5 reasonably contain these types of players?
That remains to be seen. On paper, the Cavs’ defense improved mightily under Mike Brown last year. The team was just outside the top 10 in opponent’s field goal percentage, at 45.2 percent overall and tied for 10th in rebounding differential, according to ESPN.com. That was before adding Love and James.
Again, the concern goes back to rim protection. Last year, Cleveland was No. 29 in the league in blocked shots and tied for No. 23 in opponent’s blocked shots. Much of the latter is attributed to Thompson, the undersized 4 who lacks an evolved interior attack.
According to ESPN.com's Marc Stein, there were rumblings this summer that the Cavs would pursue Emeka Okafor. The former UConn center is still available, but like Varejao he turned 32 on Sunday, and like Haywood he hasn’t played since the 2012-13 season.
Denver’s Timofey Mozgov is a more intriguing option, having played for Blatt on the Russian national team in the 2012 Olympics. Mozgov is slated to earn about $4.65 million this season with a team option for just south of $5 million next year, according to ShamSports.com. This past week, Stein reported the Cavs acquired a $5.3 million trade exception but are closing in on the $78 million luxury-tax threshold, without accounting for a potential Roger Clemens-type midseason return from Ray Allen.
Then, in an alternate universe, there’s Hibbert. The Pacers center was up-and-down with his play last season but is a dominant defensive presence and would perfectly complement Cleveland’s existing core. Haywood’s $2.2 million deal for this season balloons to a fully non-guaranteed $10.5 million on July 1, a major chip for a team looking to unload salary.
The more likely scenario, though, comes from within. By all accounts, the Cavs are pleased with Haywood’s progress in training camp. Haywood, 34, missed all of last season with a stress fracture in his left foot. Then again, Haywood started 54 games for the Mavs in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season and appeared in all 18 postseason games in the preceding year’s championship run.
At the very least, Haywood proved in his Washington years he’s a bully and could amount to the most intimidating interior presence for the Cavs since Tony Parker sliced and diced his way to the rim on repeat in the 2007 NBA Finals (sorry, Ben Wallace, but you couldn’t even dunk). Blatt would be wise to keep expectations low for Haywood, with any positive output considered a bonus.
The Cavs don’t really need scoring from the 5; they’ve got three of the 10 or 15 best offensive talents in the game on this roster. The Spurs won a title in 2007 with Francisco Elson and Fabricio Oberto, the Celtics in ‘08 with Kendrick Perkins, the Heat in 2012 and ‘13 with Udonis Haslem and Chris Andersen, and the Spurs again in 2014 with Tiago Splitter. As long as there’s sufficient talent in other spots, an All-Star center is not a prerequisite for a championship.
The model for these Cavs may be LeBron’s Heat teams. Cleveland is likely to utilize similar small-ball lineups, with James at the 4 and Love replacing Chris Bosh in spurts at the 5. At this point, how a likely uptempo style contrasts with Chicago’s more deliberate pace is up for debate.
I guess that’s why they play the games.
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