Fedor quoting Bickerstaff on using Markkanen at small forward:
“I’m extremely comfortable now,” Bickerstaff said when asked about Markkanen playing that spot. “Watching him in practice and seeing how well he moves his feet defensively and all those things, it’s one of those things where I believe he’s one of our best players. We have to do what we can to get him on the floor so he can help us. You see the strength of our bigs and the fact that they are so versatile and they can play next to each other, you can get them out there on the floor. We were looking at it this morning at shootaround. They were covering the whole court.”
My knee jerk starting lineup after watching last night's game is Rubio, Sexton, Marky, Love, and Mobley. I'm going with a nine-man rotation. It was a toss-up between Allen and Mobley but last year Allen and Garland were an effective middle pick-and-roll combo so I'd like to play them together.
Allen, Mobley, and Love share the 96 minutes between C and PF.
Markkanen and Windler share the 48 minutes at SF.
Garland, Sexton, Rubio and Okoro share the 96 minutes between PG and SG. It's been reported that some within the Cavs organization think Okoro should be a 2 and I agree.
I'm not crazy about Allen and Mobley on the floor at the same time because neither has an outside shot. Their defenders can just slough off and hang out at the edge of the paint, clogging the middle.
The lineup that worked best last night had Rubio, Mobley, and three guys who can hit 3's; Garland, Love, and Markkanen. A high P&R combo plus three long range shooters. That makes more sense than putting two seven-footers who have no offensive game either on the perimeter or in the post on the floor together. We tried that last year with Allen and Drummond.
It will be interesting as we go through the first ten games or so to see what lineups emerge and how many minutes per game Allen and Mobley are in the game together. The team has made a huge investment in both of them, but are their games compatible?