CLEVELAND, Ohio — Nae’Qwan Tomlin has arrived, and the Cavs will soon show how much of an impact he’s had.
In Cleveland’s 123-112 loss to the Utah Jazz, the team admitted that it lacked energy and intensity for the full 48 minutes. Tomlin never has that problem. He’s a ball of energy that runs the floor on both ends, disrupts offenses with his length and size defensively, cuts ferociously and slams home monster dunks offensively. But he’s still just on a two-way contract.
That contrast has become harder to ignore.
On a night when Cleveland once again spoke about urgency as if it were something to be accessed later, Tomlin played like it was a part of his being. His minutes were sharp and frantic. He sprinted into space before it was obvious, attacked gaps before they closed and defended as if help rotations were a personal responsibility rather than a shared identity.
Monday’s game marked the 41st game of the season for the Cavs. Two-way players are only permitted to be active for 50 regular-season games, and Tomlin hasn’t played a single game with the Cleveland Charge, the Cavs’ G League affiliate, this season. A quiet but mounting pressure point only halfway through the year.
This should tell the average viewer about how Cleveland is already using him. Tomlin hasn’t been treated like an emergency option or a developmental luxury. He’s been trusted in real minutes, against real lineups, in moments where the Cavs needed juice. That’s necessity revealing itself.
With injuries to wings Dean Wade and Max Strus, a lack of energy across the roster for full contests and a need for depth and length defensively, it’s becoming more and more obvious how the Cavs need Tomlin — and how soon they will have to elevate him to a standard NBA contract.
“We’re talking a lot about what we need to do, but we need him right now,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “He’s playing like an excellent rotation player. He was really good tonight. So, we’re having those discussions.
“He’s in that plays really hard bucket, and man, it’s just impressive. And then he’s shooting the ball better ... feels more confident. I love how he runs the court, too. Gets us easy baskets. Really good cutter. He’s kind of fitting into that kind of perfect role player situation.”
That “bucket” is smaller than it used to be across the league.
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Tomlin belongs to a shrinking class of players who understand that minutes are earned possession by possession, not promised by pedigree.
He doesn’t hunt touches. He hunts impact. He runs the floor because that’s how he stays on it. He defends with grit because deflections and blocks lead to him getting the ball on the other end. He cuts because that’s how he scores without plays being called for him. His athleticism is elite, but it’s the effort layered on top of it that separates him.
“He’s everywhere,” Jarrett Allen said. “Defense, offense, on the bench, he’s doing it all at every point of the game. We just have to feed off of that energy, understand that when six through 15 are doing it, one through five have to do it as well.”
Too often, the Cavs’ energy hierarchy has been inverted. Role players are bringing the juice rather than the stars coming out of the gate with fire.
Tomlin leads this narrative. He forces accountability upward. When someone fighting for his NBA future is diving into plays with zero hesitation, it becomes harder for anyone else to coast through a possession.
Donovan Mitchell understands the context as well as anyone.
“He’s phenomenal, ain’t he? Every day. He just knows one speed. It’s just a blessing to watch that,” he said. “We all know the story, you know what I mean? And every night he does that for us. And it’s not always going to be perfect, right? But he’s always going to give us that, and that’s huge.”
Mitchell’s words underscore something important: perfection has never been the ask. Consistency of effort has.
Tomlin is still learning the game at this level — reading secondary actions faster, tightening closeouts, making quicker decisions when the ball swings back to him. But players with his athletic ceiling and motor don’t plateau quietly. As the reads sharpen, the impact compounds. That’s how breakout role players are born.
“You’re hoping like we discovered a real gem here,” Atkinson said earlier this season. “He’s really showing some things with his length and athleticism, and he’s tough as nails. He’s not backing down from anybody. Crazy competitive. ... this is a speed game now. It’s going like this and his profile, the way he runs the court, his length, he fits this league.”
In a postseason environment where margins shrink and energy swings series, Cleveland may not need him for 30 minutes a night. But it may need him badly for six. Or eight. Or 12. Or one critical stretch when complacency creeps in.
At 22-19, the Cavs are still searching for traction. Talent hasn’t been enough. Focus hasn’t been reliable. Tomlin doesn’t fix everything, but he exposes everything — the gaps in urgency, the moments of drift, the possessions where effort should be automatic.
And sometimes, the player fighting hardest just to stay is the one who reminds everyone else what staying actually takes.
The Cavs have seen this movie before.
They converted Craig Porter Jr. to a standard NBA contract on Feb. 13, 2024 — after the trade deadline — once the picture clarified. That has been Cleveland’s rhythm under president of basketball operations Koby Altman: evaluate in real minutes, let the league expose the need, then reward the player who made the decision unavoidable.
Tomlin is rapidly approaching that same inflection point. The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 5.
Between now and then, Cleveland can manage Tomlin’s activity carefully — slow-playing the two-way clock, preserving flexibility while surveying the market. That is the cold, calculated version of this conversation. The spreadsheet version.
The basketball version is harder to ignore. Because Tomlin is not playing like a placeholder. He’s playing like someone who understands that opportunity in this league is fleeting. He has already crossed the line from two-way experiment to playoff-relevant piece.
The Cavs can wait until after the deadline, follow precedent and make the conversion once the hard decisions around their roster are made. Or they can acknowledge what has already been happening in front of them and act sooner. Either way, the destination feels increasingly inevitable.
Tomlin has played his way out of the two-way category. And for a Cavs team searching for consistency, edge and honest energy, the truth is they need him on the floor — whether the paperwork catches up now or later.