CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cavs entered this season believing they had finally solved a problem that had haunted them for years.
The small forward spot — long a rotating cast of maybes and stopgaps — was supposed to be settled the moment they acquired De’Andre Hunter. He was viewed internally as the missing piece next to the Core Four. A plug-and-play solution. A bet worth making.
Nearly halfway through the season, that belief has dissipated.
A Subtext subscriber didn’t hold back when posing the question that now hangs over Cleveland’s roster construction:“I think the key to everything right now is De’Andre Hunter. If he was the answer at the starting 3, they’d be in a much better spot and wouldn’t be missing \[Max\] Strus as much as they are. Can he somehow reclaim the starting spot?”
Ethan Sands, host of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, dove straight into the heart of it.
“The fact that Kenny Atkinson has not plugged De’Andre Hunter back into the starting lineup even when it’s seemed necessary should be an indication that they’re going to try and keep him in that sixth-man role as much as possible,” Sands said. “Kenny has talked about making it feel more comfortable for him when it comes to lineups and rotations. De’Andre Hunter has talked about just feeling better in that role, knowing he’s going to have the ball in his hands a little bit more, get to be more of a scorer.
“But ultimately, Kenny Atkinson not making these moves in the last couple of games when Dean Wade’s been injured should be a telltale sign that De’Andre Hunter is likely going to maintain that sixth-man role for this Cleveland Cavaliers team.”
That answer reframes the situation in a way the Cavaliers can no longer ignore.
This isn’t about a temporary lineup tweak or a short-term injury workaround. It’s about the Cavs acknowledging — through their actions — that the role they envisioned for Hunter may not be the role where he actually functions best.
The Cavs have seen enough to understand that Hunter looks more decisive when he’s not confined by the offensive limitations of the starting group or reduced to a low-usage spacer. Coming off the bench gives him more touches, cleaner reads, and fewer stretches where he fades into the background.
And that realization carries weight.
This wasn’t a low-risk flyer or a short-term patch. Cleveland paid real assets to acquire Hunter with clear expectations. He was supposed to stabilize the wing, bring physicality, defend at a playoff level and fit seamlessly alongside ball-dominant stars. Instead, Atkinson has spent much of the season managing fit rather than maximizing it, searching for lineups that minimize friction instead of unlocking upside.
The disconnect between expectation and reality traces back to the confidence Cleveland projected before the season ever tipped off.
Ahead of training camp, president of basketball operations Koby Altman was asked how the organization planned to address the small forward position. His response suggested the issue had already been handled. The Cavs have seen enough to understand that Hunter looks more decisive when he’s not confined by the offensive limitations of the starting group or reduced to a low-usage spacer.
Months later, the same conversations are resurfacing because the solution hasn’t held.
“It has been one of the worst years, one of the least productive years of De’Andre Hunter’s career,” cleveland.com Cavs beat reporter Chris Fedor said. “And the Cavs are baffled by it. Quite frankly, they are baffled by it.”
With Max Strus still sidelined due to offseason foot surgery, Dean Wade battling knee issues and Hunter not asserting himself as a starter, Atkinson has been pushed into uncomfortable choices. Lineups that feel more like damage control than design.
“If De’Andre was better, if he was having a more productive season, a lot of these questions wouldn’t exist,” Fedor said
Hunter’s struggles don’t exist in isolation, and they expose how thin the Cavs’ margin for error becomes once injuries enter the picture.
When one piece doesn’t hold, the entire structure starts to creak.
The sixth-man role may be the best way for Cleveland to extract value from Hunter right now. It may even stabilize parts of the rotation. But it also represents an unspoken admission: the player they believed would finally solve the wing problem hasn’t done so in the way they imagined.
That leaves the Cavaliers facing a difficult reckoning as the trade deadline approaches. Do they commit additional resources to fixing a problem they already thought they solved? Or do they accept that this version of the roster simply has a lower ceiling than initially believed?
For a team that entered the season with championship aspirations and now finds itself hovering in play-in territory, that reality is jarring. It reflects a miscalculation that has reshaped Cleveland’s margin for error and placed added strain on every other part of the roster.
The longer Cleveland delays reckoning with what that means, the louder the questions surrounding this team are going to become.
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Here’s the podcast for this week:
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