CLEVELAND -- Last season, the Cavaliers had the second-lowest bench scoring average in the league at just 28.1 points per game. Their depth, or lack thereof, became an even bigger issue in the NBA Finals, when the Golden State Warriors' reserves outscored the Cavs' substitutes 113-69 in the Warriors' four wins.
This season, with eight new players added to the Cavs' mix -- including former All-Stars Isaiah Thomas, Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose -- a weakness has become a strength.
"It's two games in, but me having the full confidence in my teammates, I think we got the best bench in the league," shooting guard JR Smith told ESPN after Cleveland's bench outscored the Milwaukee Bucks 45-23 in a 116-97 win on Friday. "I mean, you can go around from 6 through 12 or whatever and mark it up against anybody else's bench, and by far, we got the best bench. And we have more experience too."
Part of that experience comes from taking former starters Smith and Tristan Thompson and moving them to the second unit to make way for the additions of Wade and Jae Crowder with the first five. Smith and Thompson are joined by Jeff Green, Kyle Korver and Iman Shumpert in Cavs coach Tyronn Lue's bench rotation.
After initially bucking against his role change, Smith sees the benefit of being able to attack teams with different lineups, like a line shift in hockey. Four Cavs players scored seven or more points off the bench against Milwaukee, led by Korver's 17 and followed by Green (10), Thompson (8) and Smith (7). The Bucks had only one sub score seven or more points: Greg Monroe (8).
"With myself, Tristan, Jeff and whoever else comes off the bench -- I mean Kyle, obviously, shooting the s--- out of the ball tonight -- our bench is tremendous," Smith continued. "We got a lot of starters that come off the bench on our team. That's extremely valuable for us. I mean ... in the Finals, I think that's how Golden State's bench scoring was."
Smith added that when Thomas returns from a hip injury, "However we decide to shake it up, the bench is only going to be stronger. So, it definitely helps us."
Thompson adjusted to his new role by putting it out there publicly that he's going after the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award. He can help the second unit by embracing that identity.
"I think with the guys we have and how much depth we have this season, our bench can be a major strength of ours," Thompson said after the Bucks game. "You see, even tonight, we came in different waves at them. I think that's what makes our team very dangerous -- we come in different waves. And the fact that our second unit has players that are starters on a lot of other teams -- on most teams -- it's a great luxury to have."
Orlando Magic coach Frank Vogel, tasked with figuring out a way to stop the Cavs on Saturday, agreed.
"You got JR Smith coming off the bench. That changes things," Vogel said. "And I'm not sure at what point they picked up Korver last year, but he changes things. Those are guys that you have to game plan for. And obviously, what Tristan does with his rebounding and energy and rolls to the basket and defensive switching and everything he does on the defensive end, that changes things. So, I don't know if it's stronger, but it's certainly formidable."
Cavs star Kevin Love hopes that the bench can take some wear and tear off the Cavs' starters over the course of the 82-game grind, as Cleveland aims for a fourth straight trip to the NBA Finals.
"If that can be a common thread for us going forward, it's only going to help all of us a lot," Love said. "Not log as many minutes, especially with ... our veteran guys that have played a lot of minutes and gone to a lot of Finals, like Bron, or conference finals, and just played a number of minutes and gone long seasons before. It's only going to help us going forward. We're thinking big picture and we're hoping that's going to help us."
Wade, who won three championships with the Miami Heat, knows the importance of depth come playoff time.
"We had Shane Battier sometimes coming off the bench, we had Ray Allen, we had Mike Miller, and so on and so forth," Wade said. "So many names. And those guys was huge for us, and it's different times. Those guys' jobs is one of the hardest jobs to do, to sit there and wait and wait and wait, and then the opportunity comes and you have to perform.
"To be a great team and to go where we all want to go, the bench just has to be very, very good. We're going to depend on it. Yes, we depend on the starters, but we depend on everybody to come in and do their job."