The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Love moving to center, Thompson to bench
The Cavaliers new-look roster will also include a new-look starting lineup. Kevin Love moves to center, and Tristan Thompson will come off the bench to start the season.
One reason the Cavaliers lost the NBA Finals to Golden State last season is the Warriors had a stronger bench, so Coach Tyronn Lue figures the best way to beat them is to join them.
Kevin Love will start at center and Tristan Thompson will come off the bench when the regular season starts on Oct. 17 in a home game against the Boston Celtics, Lue announced after the Wine and Gold scrimmage Oct. 2 in Quicken Loans Arena.
Love and Thompson have been working the same way in practice as Lue experimented to see if the idea looked as good on the floor as it did in his mind. He decided it did and then he had to tell Thompson, who started 78 of 78 games he played in last season. The thinking is the Cavaliers’ second team will be better defensively with Thompson coming off the bench.
“Tristan is a big part of what we do,” Lue said. “I hated having that conversation, but Tristan was great. He was phenomenal. He said, ‘Whatever you need for me to do, Coach. I’ll just go for Sixth Man of the Year.’ He was great about it.”
Love is better offensively than Thompson. Lue said starting Love at center will allow the Cavaliers to spread the floor.
LeBron James sat out the scrimmage because he is hobbled by a sprained ankle. He will not play Oct. 4 in a preseason game against the Hawks, Lue said before adding James will play at some point in the preseason.
James and Jae Crowder will play forward and J.R. Smith and Derrick Rose at guard in the first unit along with Love.
Thompson plus forward Jeff Green along with Dwyane Wade, Iman Shumpert and Kyle Korver are on the second team.
Lue wasn’t just spouting the company line when he said Thompson took the news well.
“It’s fine,” Thompson said. “I could definitely see where T. Lue was coming from. I told him ‘I’m one guy you don’t have to worry about. When we win, we all look good.’
“I’m not worried. The last time I came off the bench, we had a parade in June. I’ll take it.”
Thompson played in all 82 regular season games in 2015-16 but started only 34 while playing behind Timofey Mozgov most of the season. By the time the playoffs rolled around, however, Thompson was on the first team with 21 starts in 21 games. The Cavaliers beat the Warriors in seven games for their only NBA championship — so far.
“We have a lot of new faces, but a very talented team,” Thompson said. “If you match our second unit with other teams around the league, those are a bunch of starters. It’s a good problem to have. You guys saw in the scrimmage how competitive it is.
“I’m going to push to get Kevin better. Jae’s going to push to get Jeff Green better. Kyle is going to push J.R. That’s what we need.”
Unofficially, the Gold team beat the Wine team in the scrimmage — unofficial because the scoreboard and the monitors in the press area registered different scores.
According to the scoreboard, the Gold team won, 58-56. Korver had four 3-point shots and Wade had five assists for the winning team.