Supporting cast could steal Finals spotlight

Cleveland-Cavaliers;-NBA-Finals

Role players like JR Smith, Matthew Dellavedova, and Timofey Mozgov could make the difference in the Finals. (Tony Dejak/AP)

Cleveland’s hometown hero LeBron James may dominate the spotlight, but the Cavaliers will need their supporting cast to step up if they hope to win the franchise’s first NBA title.

When James made the decision to return to Cleveland in the summer of 2014, he vowed to work tirelessly to bring a championship to a city starved for a winning team.

Things were looking bleak 39 games into the season. With the Cavaliers sitting at a mark of 19-20, James and his new ‘big three’ of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were heavily criticized, as was rookie coach David Blatt.

Sensing a move needed to be made, general manager David Griffin swung a pair of trades to bolster his roster. On January 5, the Cavaliers landed J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert from the New York Knicks – acquisitions that provided additional offence and solid perimeter defence. Two days later they swung a deal with the Denver Nuggets for traditional centre Timofey Mozgov.

With this new lineup in place, Cleveland started rolling and began to resemble the contender everyone believed they would be in the preseason. By season’s end, the team had compiled the Eastern Conference’s second-best record at 53-29.

All of a sudden the negativity ceased, especially surrounding Blatt.

“From 19-20, [Blatt] was masterful,” former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy said on a conference call Monday. “He simplified the game. When they added J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and Mozgov, they got a good roster, and you saw what he could do with a good roster. They were a dominant team from January on, and I’m really happy for him because he really faced unwarranted and unjust criticism.”

The upcoming Finals between the Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors marks the fifth consecutive year James has played into June, and the sixth time in total. No matter how dominant the four-time MVP is, he needs reliable options to knock down the open shot when he draws a double team, or grab that important rebound to complete a defensive possession. This year’s group may not be littered with superstars like the Miami Heat teams of the past four year, but the pieces they have compliment their superstar well.

However, if Smith, Shumpert, Mozgov and breakout player Matthew Dellavedova fail to show up, James and Irving likely won’t be enough to handle a Warriors team equipped with one of the deepest benches in the league.

“We know the stars,” ex-Warriors coach Mark Jackson said. “You win these series and you win these games with the supporting cast and the little things that they do defensively and offensively with timely hoops, timely plays. That’ll be the thing that tells the story. Both teams have done an outstanding job of not just winning because of LeBron James or Steph Curry. It’s been a total team effort.”

Another one of Cleveland’s key role players is Brampton Ont., native Tristan Thompson, who has endured some truly lousy seasons with the Cavaliers over his brief four-year career, but has impressed in his first sniff at the post-season, playing his way to what should be a hefty raise come free agency.

Thompson has been a workhorse in the playoffs thus far, averaging 9.4 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks while shooting nearly 60 percent from the floor. With Cleveland looking to close out the bruising Chicago Bulls in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, Thompson made sure the series would not need a seventh game, grabbing a whopping 17 boards against a team littered with rebounding machines, opening eyes as to what he can do on the court.

“You’re not asking one guy to keep Tristan Thompson off the boards, you have to do that collectively,” Jackson said. “We’ve seen bigs sometimes, like Chicago, struggle with him at times on the boards. He kept putting up offensive rebounds and putting pressure on the defence.”

The Canadian will have his hands full in the Finals, matching up with versatile Warriors forward Draymond Green, the runner-up in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Assignments are bound to change over the course of each game, but that battle is one to keep an eye on in the first and third quarters.

Whoever comes out on top in that individual matchup could go a long way in determining which team walks away with the Larry O’Brien trophy.

“I love watching Thompson work the offensive boards,” Van Gundy said. “I really admire guys that put their hardhat on every night. You know what you’re getting in him.

“Then you have Draymond Green. Everyone now knows about his defence, but the next thing they’re going to know about after this series is how well he passes the ball. When you have passing bigs, guys who can make quick decisions like Green can, you really have a chance to be special on offence. I just love watching him compete and that’s why I’m so interested in the first eight minutes of each half where they’ll be matched up for sure.”

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