toooskies wrote:It's unclear whether Rubio would prevent Sexton from being signed, or if Sexton would prevent Rubio from being signed.
But even at the beginning of last year, the guard rotation was pretty full just with Garland/Sexton/Rubio/Okoro. If we don't make another move we're adding LeVert to that mix, and possibly adding #14.
But we are headed towards a minutes crunch with Sexton/LaVert/Okoro/Markkanen/Osman/Stevens/Wade/Windler all wanting minutes at the 2 or the 3, and adding Rubio back means there won't be many minutes at the 1 for LeVert or Sexton. I guess you could shift LeVert or Okoro to the 3, or Markannen back to the 4/5 while cutting Love's minutes. But Osman/Stevens/Wade all proved to be capable of filling rotation minutes too, at least when they're playing well.
And that's before we get to adding draft picks.
It's easy to see that bringing Sexton and Rubio back means that another move could and probably should be made to prune the wing position. The problem being that you can't really consolidate those guys, it's mostly a bunch of neutral-ish value contracts that currently add up to not much. At best, to get a better player, they will probably be overpaid.
And being confronted with that, I'm pretty open to trading for an overpaid player, or trading to acquire Rubio or a backup C rather than signing them both with the MLE/BAE.
I don't know that a minutes crunch is going to be an issue at the beginning of the season as Rubio likely won't be on the court. I think the bigger issue might be who the primary ball handler is in that second unit once Rubio comes back. Rubio averaged 6.6 assists off the bench last year which went a long way in explaining his on/off numbers. It kind of gets to the whole for what role are they bringing Sexton back in issue in a fundamental way. If you're bringing back Sexton to be a sixth man, then he's going to need a certain number of FGAs to provide net positive value. If he's the lead guard, then is Rubio insurance? I mean Rubio and Garland played pretty well together but Mobley's going to have to start hitting jumpers for that to be your starting unit.
Conversely, if Sexton doesn't work out as the lead guard off the bench, and the team plays better with Rubio in that role, Sexton's trade value will plummet on any deal that has him over $15M per. This is complicated by the fact there are additional trade restrictions on RFAs so it may not be easy to get ahead of a developing trend. If the Cavs are as good as they were last season, then they're not really going to be in a position to burn a dozen games auditioning trade candidates at the expense of overall performance (like the Pacers did with LeVert).
If they want, the Cavs could get by with a TJ McConnell type who could defend the position and run basic sets so the other guys on the bench unit actually get to touch the ball. I think it was Jon who said Sexton's best advanced numbers were with Delly, when Delly ran the offense (small sample size though). The truth is the Cavs probably don't NEED a backup PG as good as Rubio with Sexton in the same back court, but if he's willing to come here on a reasonable number, then it's really hard, probably even stupid, to say no. So you get back to what is Sexton's role going to be and how much are you willing to pay to find out if it will work?
As far as other wings, I'm not really worried about their minutes. Obviously, LeVert and Sexton cannot play in the same back court, but LeVert's defense and length make him a viable starter. Okoro next to Sexton as backups until Ricky is healthy, which could be half a season or longer, is a really viable option if the plan is to let Sexton be Sexton off the bench. None of Cedi, Wade, Stevens, or Windler are good enough to be guaranteed regular minutes. There will be backup SF minutes they can split, but other than that, they're injury insurance (and Windler hasn't even demonstrated that tbh) or in Stevens case, a physical role player off the bench when the game gets chippy.
