Breaking Down the Ideal New-Look Rotation for Cleveland Cavaliers

Following a pair of trades and the return of an injured superstar, the Cleveland Cavaliers must shuffle their rotation once again.

LeBron James is back after eight games. Dion Waiters is gone, with J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert looking to fill his minutes. Timofey Mozgov gives Cleveland the big man it desperately needed following starting center Anderson Varejao's season-ending Achilles injury.

Coach David Blatt faces the difficult task of balancing roles, minutes and egos. While this was a concern earlier in the year, the pressure is multiplied now that Cleveland's roster appears to be final. The Cavaliers are treading water, hovering around the .500 mark thanks to James' absence. It's up to Blatt to find the perfect rotation by playoff time, racking up as many wins as he can in the process.

This is no easy task for the first-year coach, who very much appears to be figuring things out himself. With all of the shiny, new parts, however, the (near) perfect rotation is possible.

Center

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Starter: Timofey Mozgov, 7'1", 250 pounds

Mozgov gives Cleveland the size it needed inside and is a capable, albeit not ideal, rim protector.

The 28-year-old Russian moves around the court extremely well for someone his size. Mozgov can defend the paint, set screens and knock down the occasional jumper when needed. The Cavaliers haven't had a center with his kind of build since Zydrunas Ilgauskas laced 'em up.

Tristan Thompson was very good filling in for Varejao at center, but Mozgov is a better fit alongside opposing starting 5s.

Minutes: 30

Role Player: Tristan Thompson, 6'9", 243 pounds

After coming off the bench for most of the season, Thompson averaged 13.0 points and 11.0 rebounds on 50.6 percent shooting in nine games as the team's starting center.

For Thompson, it doesn't really matter what role he plays as long as the minutes stay plentiful. Currently fifth in the NBA in offensive rebounding (3.8 per game, via RealGM.com), Thompson always brings energy, crashes the boards and defends.

"I've come off the bench most of the season," Thompson told Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. "Whatever it takes for us to win. [I'll] come out and join the bench mob again. Bring the energy with myself, Delly [Matthew Dellavedova] and all the other guys so that's a role that I embrace and I'm trying to be the X-factor."

With a limited number of quality bigs, Thompson should still see plenty of minutes at both power forward and center.

Minutes: 25

Bench: Brendan Haywood, 7'0", 263 pounds

Haywood has played in just 13 games all season, averaging 5.4 minutes per appearance.

With a healthy Mozgov and Thompson ahead of him, Haywood's minutes will continue to be few and far between. A good locker room guy with championship experience, his contributions will primarily come off the court.

Minutes: 0

Power Forward

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Starter: Kevin Love, 6'10", 243 pounds

It's crucial that the Cavaliers keep Love strictly at the 4, as he's been significantly worse when forced into center minutes.

Love has a net PER rating of minus-7.2 at center but a plus-2.5 while playing power forward, via 82games.com. Defensively, it's also important that Cleveland keeps Love away from one-on-one situations at the rim as much as possible.

Offensively, Love is still an elite player. The Cavaliers need to sync his minutes with James in order to develop as much chemistry as possible before the playoffs. In the few times we've actually gotten to see it this season, a Love-James pick-and-roll has been a beautiful sight to behold.

Minutes: 35

Role Player: Shawn Marion, 6'7", 228 pounds

To demonstrate Marion's versatility, he now becomes the team's second-best power forward after spending 22 games as the starting shooting guard.

Wherever he's been, Marion has proven to be a difference-maker on defense. Cleveland allows 4.5 fewer points per 100 possessions when Marion is on the floor, per 82games.com.

While his scoring has dropped to a career-low 5.8 points per game, the Cavaliers instead need him to stop dribble penetration, play the passing lanes and provide a defensive model for his teammates to follow.

Minutes: 15

Small Forward

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Starter: LeBron James, 6'8", 250 pounds

Despite the Cavaliers' meager record, there's a case to be had for James as league MVP.

Even though he's appeared human this season, James is still far and away the Cavs' best player and only hope of even making the playoffs. Cleveland is just 1-8 in games when James does not play.

Handling James' minutes will be tricky down the stretch. He turned the big 3-0 on Dec. 30 and has suffered from a strained knee and back. Entering into a Jan. 13 contest against the Phoenix Suns, James was third in the NBA with 37.5 minutes per game.

The Cavs badly need James, but they also can't run him into more health problems, either.

Minutes: 35

Role Players: Mike Miller, 6'8", 218 pounds/James Jones, 6'8", 215 pounds

Cleveland doesn't have enough minutes to go around for both Miller and Jones, and will be forced to play the hot hand only.

Unfortunately, neither have been particularly impressive this season. Miller is knocking down 35.8 percent of his three-pointers and just 28.0 percent over the past nine games. Jones is slightly better at 37.9 percent, with 32.4 percent success over the previous nine.

Both are pure spot-up shooters who were clearly off their game without James around to create space.

Whoever proves to be the more reliable shooter down the stretch should be the one getting time off the bench.

Minutes: 10/0

Shooting Guard

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Starter: Iman Shumpert, 6'5", 220 pounds

One of the better young defenders in the league, Cleveland needs Shumpert to guard the opponents' best wing, regardless of position.

With James already taking on a heavy workload offensively, Shumpert can help ease his burden on the other end. The Cavaliers needed Waiters to play defense, which he only did occasionally. Shumpert has to bring an energy and passion to the position that Cleveland has lacked up to this point.

His defense should also allow the team to grab more misses and get out on the fast break, where Shumpert can use his athleticism to collect some easy buckets.

Minutes: 25

Sixth Man: J.R. Smith, 6'6", 225 pounds

With Waiters gone, the Cavs need Smith to provide some consistent offense off the bench.

Smith is certainly capable of providing said offense, although probably not consistently. In his first four games as a Cav, he has scoring outputs of 0, 27, 4 and 29 points.

The deciding factor with Smith will be how much he chooses to defend. Like Waiters before him, he's shown flashes of lockdown defense mixed in with obvious disinterest. Smith's minutes will fluctuate with his attitude, but he's too good to keep on the bench completely.

Minutes: 15-25

Bench: Joe Harris, 6'6", 225 pounds

On a loaded wing with James, Shumpert, Smith, Miller and Jones, Harris may struggle to find court time.

The rookie out of Virginia is shooting a solid 38.1 percent on his three-pointers this year, which is higher than veteran teammates Miller and Jones.

Harris must stay ready should the Cavaliers need him, but he ideally won't see much time on a veteran playoff team.

Minutes: 0

Point Guard

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Starter: Kyrie Irving, 6'3", 193 pounds

Irving is humming along to the tune of 21.0 points and 5.2 assists per game this season. It appears he's still discovering how to play off of James, learning when to attack and when to defer to his MVP teammate.

Like James, the Cavaliers need to do a better job of handling Irving's minutes. Only Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls (39.9) sees more court time per game than Irving (38.0). For someone with a history of injuries like Irving, this is concerning.

If the Cavaliers use their final roster spot to bring in a veteran point guard, they can do a better job of keeping Irving fresh.

Minutes: 35

Role Player: Matthew Dellavedova, 6'4", 200 pounds

Although Dellavedova is the Cavaliers' best three-point shooter at 40.6 percent, he should by no means be playing heavy minutes.

While James and Marion missed some time recently with injuries, Dellavedova was forced to start eight games. While he did a nice job moving the ball, Delly averaged a measly 6.6 points on 30.9 percent shooting from the field in 31.5 minutes. He's an offensive liability and is limited to standing at the three-point line, waiting for an open shot to manifest itself.

Minutes: 5-10

Greg Swartz has covered the Cleveland Cavaliers for Bleacher Report since 2010.

All stats provided by Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.