Cleveland Cavaliers: Paging All Role Players

By Joshua Howe | Apr 30, 2015

Dec 26, 2014; Orlando, FL, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Mike Miller (18) reacts after he made a three pointer against the Orlando Magic during the second half at Amway Center. Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Orlando Magic 98-89. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

The Cleveland Cavaliers will be without Kevin Love for the rest of the playoffs. They will also be without J.R. Smith for the first two games of the second round. During those first two games especially, and the rest of the playoffs in general, things are going to be a lot tougher for the Cavs.

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Their Big 3 is kaput. Their spacing won’t be the same. Their rotation will be different. The remaining bench unit is sparse.

If last season’s Miami versus San Antonio Finals taught us anything, it’s that one superstar alone can’t drag a decent starting lineup and weak bench to a title. The starters need to at least be good, with the bench being decent; meaning that there are at least two to three guys you can count on to produce night in and night out.

The Cavs still have a dynamic duo in LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, but now they’ll need their role players to perform at a high level more than ever before. With Smith out, Iman Shumpert will likely move into the starting five, meaning that the bench will consist of guys like Mike Miller, Shawn Marion and Kendrick Perkins who were previously playing little to no minutes.

But now they need to fill the significant holes. These veterans were only meant to provide experience and voices in the locker room. Perhaps they’d play a few big minutes or help the starters rest by jumping in during garbage time, but getting heavy minutes wasn’t in the forecast.

We’ve seen all three of the players I mentioned play well before. But that was years ago. Marion probably had the largest recent impact of the three on last season’s Mavericks club, where his versatile defense provided much help. He’ll be called upon to be a stopper again, and to guard different positions.

Thankfully, LeBron can play power forward. He can fill Love’s spot at times, though probably not for an entire game. A guy like Marion can then guard the player who James usually guards; the opposing small forward.

Miller too, can easily slip into the small forward position if LeBron is at the 4. He provides some of the spacing that the team will miss with Love off of the floor. Miller might not be able to move as well as he once could, but he’s still capable of exploding from distance if he’s not guarded closely.

Neither Marion nor Miller have had great seasons offensively, but their sample sizes are small since they’ve played so few games. Still, their limitations are pretty obvious. We saw what’s left of Marion’s game earlier in the season and we know the reason why Miller enters the game when he does.

Father Time has reduced Marion to corner threes, floaters in the lane and old man jump-hooks. Other than that, he’s not good for much on the offensive end. Miller’s just out there to nail treys. He’s great at it, but he doesn’t provide anything else of value.

When Miller drives, just watching him makes me grab my back and wince. The man looks like he needs a cane or something.

Marion (2014-15 regular season): 4.8ppg, 3.5rpg, 0.9apg, 0.5spg, 44.6 FG%, 26.1 3FG%, 19.3 minutes
Miller (2014-15 regular season): 2.1ppg, 1.8rpg, 0.9apg, 32.5 FG%, 32.7 3FG%, 13.5 minutes

These guys are going to have to step it up, plain and simple. There’s just no one else around to do it. LeBron and Kyrie will be giving their all to try and win series’ almost on their own, but they’ll need all the help they can get to compensate for Love’s and Smith’s now vanished production.

Role players can make all the difference. These dudes are wild cards. They’ve made difference before. Let’s see if they can do it one more time.

Next: The 30 Best Small Forwards of All-Time

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