The Cavaliers don’t need a new frontcourt. They need a better way to feed the one they already have.
Through 11 games, Cleveland’s offense has too often turned into a guard-heavy slog, with Donovan Mitchell and James Harden working in isolation while Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen are left waiting on the edges of the action. That’s a problem for a team that has spent years talking about its “Core Four” as the foundation of everything it wants to build.
Since Mitchell arrived in Cleveland, the idea was never supposed to be just about him and his All-Star backcourt partner. Mobley and Allen were meant to be pillars too. Instead, the offense has frequently reduced them to bystanders.
Ethan Sands, host of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, put the issue in plain terms: “James Harden and Donovan Mitchell need to be better about involving Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen in the offense consistently because they can’t be the ones to get themselves the ball.”
That’s the heart of it. Mobley and Allen aren’t the kind of bigs who can create their own touches whenever they want.
They need the guards to bring them into the flow. When the ball sticks with Mitchell and Harden, the two big men are left watching possessions drift away.
Mike Lucas, senior producer of the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show and a guest on the podcast, argued the answer starts with the way Cleveland is drawing things up. One of his first suggestions was more Horns action, a set that puts Evan Mobley at the free throw line extended while two guards cross off and dive into down screens at the same time. Instead of treating Mobley like a stationary screener, it puts him in the middle of the floor as a decision-maker with options unfolding around him.
The point is movement. Too often, the Cavaliers’ half-court offense gives defenses time to settle in and crowd the paint before anything really develops. Horns, and sets like it, force defenses to talk, switch and react all at once.
Lucas also pointed to the flex screen, something Kenny Atkinson had recently mentioned in a press conference. On the surface, it sounds old-school. Lucas made the case that it actually fits this group well.
His high school coach used to explain the flex with a line that stuck with him: “We don’t have enough skilled shot creators to run anything other than the flex.”
Cleveland obviously does have creators. But Lucas sees the flex as a way to use the bigs as the engine of the offense instead of parking them near the basket and hoping the guards eventually look their way.
“Which teams can run the flex pretty effectively? Teams with two bigs that can make passes,” Lucas said.
“As basic and as elementary as that sounds, I don’t hate the idea of mixing in a little flex action here and there to get the Cavs more post up opportunities because I still think that’s an area that they don’t utilize or maximize. They got two good bigs.
Two of their three best players might be their bigs. Use them.”
The numbers from Charlotte only sharpen the point. Allen went 5-for-5 from the field and still never got a sixth shot attempt.
That isn’t about skill or matchup. It’s about distribution.
The plays are there. The personnel is there. What Cleveland still needs is a real commitment from its guards to trust the structure and stop defaulting to their own isolation habits.
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James Harden has been part of that conversation, and so has Peyton Watson, whose play has slipped from what he gave last season. When the production from important additions and veterans falls off at the same time, the pressure inevitably rolls uphill, and Atkinsons margin for error may not stay wide for long if Cleveland cannot find some traction soon. [Read more 🡒]