Cavaliers Bench Jae Crowder for Tristan Thompson for 4th Lineup in 5 Games

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue's early-season tinkering will reportedly continue.According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com, Lue will use his fourth starting lineup in five games when the Cavaliers take the floor against the New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center on Saturday.Cleveland will start Derrick Rose, JR Smith, LeBron James, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson, meaning Jae Crowder will take the bench and Love will no longer be the starting center. Lest anyone think the idea of Love's playing in small-ball lineups is over, Lue pointed out he will continue to do so just not in such heavy quantities:"Kevin's still going to play some 5 when Jae comes in early for Tristan. We just can't have him playing 35 minutes at the 5. It's wearing him down. You can kind of see that. It's affecting his shot. We tried it, we said we've got a lot of versatile lineups we can try and change, but just getting back to who we were, how we've started over the past three years."At this point, Lue is looking to find the right combination with a number of new faces on the three-time defending Eastern Conference champion's roster.The Cavaliers signed Rose and Dwyane Wade this offseason and traded for Crowder and Isaiah Thomaswho figures to provide another starting lineup switch when he returns from injury. Cleveland is still establishing its footing in the early going of the 2017-18 season with a 3-2 record, but how it looks in May and June is far more important than these October games for a team with enough talent to coast before the playoffs.While the sample size is too small to draw many meaningful conclusions at this point, the experiment of Love at center has worked in the early going. According to NBA.com, the fivesome of Rose, Smith, James, Crowder and Love has a net rating ofplus-16when on the floor together.If that continues into the playoffs, look for the grouping to see additional time togethereven if it isn't the starting lineup.
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