Caris LeVert: Two More Years!

[Cavatt]

I am not taking much from the Raptors game. They are disruptors on purpose. They attack his handle and are usually pretty successful.

He looks better with the ball in his hands like we thought. We have to see what that is like when Rubio comes back

 

[red.]

 

[Cavatt]

2 missed blocks where Embiid gets his body and no calls. Very few and-1's last night

 

[Nphan]

LeVert dunk at 0:07 was so swagless, geez. He dunks like a 70 year old man.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

From The Athletic:

“He is more comfortable with the ball in his hands,” Bickerstaff said. “He was sacrificing a ton playing that kind of third position with those two guards, and then obviously, we throw it to Evan and J.A. So his strength needs to be a rhythm that happens through the game. It’s unfair to him to not allow him to catch a rhythm and then be on the floor at the end of games when we need him, and now he has no rhythm, and when the ball does find him, he’s disjointed.

The fact that the Cavs were 13-8 with LeVert playing the wrong position is very encouraging.

 

[Cassity14]

I think the Cavs, especially Garland, are still learning how to adjust to everyone’s games.

LeVert clearly is a guy that needs to ‘get going’ in the early part of a game. Garland needs to understand and enable this by finding a way to get him a good look or quality set once he enters.

The entire team has struggled to find a rhythm thus far because of injuries. Mitchell, Garland, and LeVert have had very few games together and even fewer in the new set of lineups.

Caris has sucked, but he’s continued to play hard and be the person the Cavs thought they were getting. I think there’s value in that. Now, if he’s valuable and can return a better fit via trade, I’d bet both he and the Cavs would be in favor of that. He’s not someone to dump just to dump thoigh imo.

 

[inliner311]

From The Athletic:

“He is more comfortable with the ball in his hands,” Bickerstaff said. “He was sacrificing a ton playing that kind of third position with those two guards, and then obviously, we throw it to Evan and J.A. So his strength needs to be a rhythm that happens through the game. It’s unfair to him to not allow him to catch a rhythm and then be on the floor at the end of games when we need him, and now he has no rhythm, and when the ball does find him, he’s disjointed.

The fact that the Cavs were 13-8 with LeVert playing the wrong position is very encouraging.

I don't think he fits into this team long term. He could play the sixth man role but we would have to dedicate too much salary to him for a limited return in that role. We probably should have traded him this summer, I'm not sure what kind of value he now has. Hopefully Koby can find someone with better off ball skills to trade for.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

The entire team has struggled to find a rhythm thus far because of injuries. Mitchell, Garland, and LeVert have had very few games together and even fewer in the new set of lineups.

I think it really goes beyond that in that we had three ball-dominant guys in the starting lineup. While it might be possible to construct a system that gives all of them "their touches", that would necessarily come at the expense of essentially freezing out Allen and Mobley. The way this team is currently constructed, we need a complementary player at the three, not a big-time scorer. LaVert is just a bad fit in that role, which is why moving him to the bench was the right move.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Donovan Mitchell on LeVert:

“One night, we need him to have 40, and he’ll do that one night, and then guard Jayson Tatum and not shoot the ball at all, and he could do that,” Mitchell said. “One night, you need him to go out there and get 12 assists on two shots. One night you need him to score. There’s so many different things that he’s done in just 10 games, and I didn’t personally know he could do, and now that I’ve seen it, I get it.”

It will be interesting because LeVert is making almost $19 million in the final year of his contract and that's starters' money, but he won't start for this team. His value to the Cavs probably will decrease when Rubio returns.

But if he keeps playing the way he did against the Sixers he will continue to have value and be productive. The Cavs are outscoring opponents by 5.1 points when he is on the floor. Take away the minutes when he was on the floor with both Garland and Mitchell and that number is probably a lot higher.

 

[B Mac]

I don't think he fits into this team long term. He could play the sixth man role but we would have to dedicate too much salary to him for a limited return in that role. We probably should have traded him this summer, I'm not sure what kind of value he now has. Hopefully Koby can find someone with better off ball skills to trade for.

Does your opinion on long term include Rubio? Obviously we arent just talking this year, but I really am curious what the bench and LeVert look like with Rubio running the show. He's the best player on the team in setting his teammates up in their best position to score. I think we are doing a disservice to evaluate the bench group without seeing how Ricky impacts them.

 

[macbdog]

Could Levert's inconsistency be explained if he has dissociative identity disorder, and his three identities are Caris, Ricky Davis, and Drew Gooden?

 

[foucault87]

Could Levert's inconsistency be explained if he has dissociative identity disorder, and his three identities are Caris, Ricky Davis, and Drew Gooden?

Id buy the first two, but his hair style is way too clean to be the third one. Also havent had any of those really bad defensive possessions yet

 

[Lee]

Could Levert's inconsistency be explained if he has dissociative identity disorder, and his three identities are Caris, Ricky Davis, and Larry Hughes?

*Fixed

 

[Bob_The_Cat]

Does your opinion on long term include Rubio? Obviously we arent just talking this year, but I really am curious what the bench and LeVert look like with Rubio running the show. He's the best player on the team in setting his teammates up in their best position to score. I think we are doing a disservice to evaluate the bench group without seeing how Ricky impacts them.

It will be interesting to see how LeVert plays with Rubio. Dinwiddie is about the closet PG to Rubio in terms of style that LeVert’s played with and they played extremely well together. I anticipate us being able to play Rubio and LeVert together and have Garland and Mitchell off the floor at the same time if we want to.

Also, I know you didn’t mention this but saw it brought up in other posts: $20M/year isn’t crazy for what someone like LeVert can do. He needs to develop more consistency in his role, but if he can average 14+ pts, 4reb, 4ast, play good-to-great defense at multiple spots, and shoot 35%+ from three, he’s definitely getting that type of money.

Salaries are going to jump when the new TV deal and collective bargaining agreement is signed. A bench player making $15M now is going to be making $20M+ in the near future.

 

[Lee]

It will be interesting to see how LeVert plays with Rubio. Dinwiddie is about the closet PG to Rubio in terms of style that LeVert’s played with and they played extremely well together. I anticipate us being able to play Rubio and LeVert together and have Garland and Mitchell off the floor at the same time if we want to.

Also, I know you didn’t mention this but saw it brought up in other posts: $20M/year isn’t crazy for what someone like LeVert can do. He needs to develop more consistency in his role, but if he can average 14+ pts, 4reb, 4ast, play good-to-great defense at multiple spots, and shoot 35%+ from three, he’s definitely getting that type of money.

Salaries are going to jump when the new TV deal and collective bargaining agreement is signed. A bench player making $15M now is going to be making $20M+ in the near future.

I dont see Dinwiddie and Rubio being similar at all, but I agree it will be interesting to see how Rubio fits in with all of our bench players. Also be interesting to see how Mitchell now plays with Rubio as an all star and not rookie sophomore. Their games should blend very well together.