Cavs Roll Out Video Game Lineup with Harden and Mitchell
Lineup alert: Cavs will start Harden, Mitchell, Watson, Mobley, Allen on Thursday.
The are officially rolling out a starting five of James Harden, , , , and Jarrett Allen this Thursday against the .
This is the exact kind of lineup that sounds like a late-night video game simulation where the salary cap is turned off and the user just starts mashing the trade override button.
Seeing Harden and share a backcourt is going to be a fascinating social experiment in usage rates. Mitchell is already coming off a stretch where he posted career highs with 6.1 assists and 5.1 rebounds, proving he needs the ball to dictate the offense.
Now you add Harden, a guy whose entire 17-year career is built on dominating possession, into the mix. Figuring out the prop markets for these two is going to require a whiteboard, an abacus, and a deep understanding of body language.
The frontcourt is where this gets terrifying for the rest of the Eastern Conference. is bringing his 18.6 points and 9.3 boards per game to the table, while Allen remains a walking double-double waiting at the rim.
Slotting in at small forward gives them a glue guy who quietly boasts a 56 percent effective field goal rate. He does not need to demand touches, which is a minor miracle given the backcourt pairing.
The real test comes Thursday night in . If this group figures out how to share the basketball, the Cavaliers are going to be an absolute nightmare to defend.