Now that Jamario Moon is a Cavalier and Christian Eyenga is going to Spain for at least one year, the team’s roster depth - and potential rotation - is becoming clear. Here’s the outline with positions and contract details if applicable:
Mo Williams (1,2)
Delonte West (1,2)
LeBron James (2,3,4)
Anderson Varejao (4,5)
Shaquille O’Neal (5)
Boobie Gibson (1,2)
Anthony Parker (1,2,3)
Jamario Moon (2,3,4)
JJ Hickson (4)
Zydrunas Ilgauskus (5)
Tarence Kinsey (non-guaranteed contract) (1,2,3)
Darnell Jackson (non-guaranteed) (4)
Jawad Williams (non-guaranteed) (2,3,4)
Danny Green (yet to sign) (2,3)
That’s fourteen players. The max amount for NBA teams is 15. The Cavs will likely use the rest of the mid-level exception to sign Danny Green, leaving them with one open roster spot and the bi-annual exception to sign someone else - but only if they want.
I’m being judicious in the position outlines for the sake of thoroughness. Parker, for example, only played point guard for Toronto last year 6% of the total team minutes, averaging out between three and four minutes per game (my calculator’s broke, sorry) and largely when Jose Calderon was hurt. He also barely played small forward - but you could see it happening (Mo-Delonte-Parker-Bron-Z being one example).
So, let’s look at the depth chart in another way, by position:
PG: Mo, Delonte, Boobie
SG: Mo, Delonte, Bron, Boobie, Parker, Moon, Kinsey, Williams, Green
SF: Bron, Parker, Moon, Kinsey, Williams, Green
PF: Bron, Andy, Hickson, Jackson, Williams, Moon
C: Shaq, Z, Andy
Obviously, the Cavs have the most depth at the 2 with 9 players who could play there. Second most depth is a tie between the 3 and the 4, with 6 eligible players each. The team’s the thinnest at 1 and 5 - 3 potential players at each spot.
Sheerly looking at numbers, it would make the most sense for the Cavs to use their 15th roster spot to add a player at the point or at center. If I had to put money on it though I’d bet on Joe Smith, who can stretch the floor at the PF and play back-up 5 if one of the other guys gets hurt.
Personally, I would love to see how the Cavs offense operates with a high assist PG like Jason Kidd. Obviously, Dallas paid a lot of money for him that the Cavs didn’t have, but I’m curious about how LeBron would play within a system where he was not the top assist guy (last year 9.2 assists per 48 minutes).
Realistically, that player isn’t coming this year, especially since moving Mo to a Jason Terry-like 6th man/scorer off the bench would likely disrupt the entire rotation now that Parker and Moon are in place.
One final observation - the Cavs depth at the 2, 3, and 4 positions will allow for a lot of flexibility in line-ups and with the combination of Delonte and Moon being able to defend the other team’s best perimeter player (e.g. Delonte on Carter, Moon on Turkoglu) I’d expect to see a lot of minutes for Bron at the 4.
