De’Andre Hunter has played 1,853 regular-season and playoff minutes with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Only 96 of those minutes have come alongside the core four of Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen. They’ve performed well in that limited time, outscoring their opponents by 40 points over the last two seasons. That only makes their lack of time together all the more confusing.
The Hunter trade made sense last season because of how he could ideally fit alongside the core four. But instead of giving him a chance to do so, head coach Kenny Atkinson chose to stick with Max Strus at starting small forward. That move was defensible at the time, given the familiarity of that starting lineup together. The lack of time together is less defensible now when Strus has yet to take the floor this season.
Atkinson understandably went away from Hunter in the starting lineup after the bad mid-December overtime loss to the Charlotte Hornets. It was clear that Hunter was struggling. Trying to get him back to the sixth-man role that he thrived in last season made sense. The only problem was that he only played alongside the core four in three of the 23 games he started.
We’re nearly a year into Hunter’s tenure with the Cavs, and we still don’t know how the team performs when their five most talented players share the floor. I’m not necessarily advocating for Hunter to be in the starting lineup when the team is fully healthy. I’d still prefer Dean Wade in that role because of what he can bring defensively, but you at least have to know how Hunter plays alongside your other core pieces, considering the possibility he could be dealt at the upcoming trade deadline.
If the Cavs decide to keep this group together for the remainder of the season, there will likely be a time in the playoffs when Atkinson is tempted to put his five most skilled players on the court together. It’d just be nice to know how that group performs together before then, instead of just trying to figure it out in a crucial postseason game.
It’s fine if you don’t want to start Hunter. No one is going to argue that the results were great with him in the starting lineup. That said, there’s still room to at least see what that group can provide in a season the Cavs have struggled to put winning lineups together. At the very least, that grouping should see the floor in more than just six games of the 13 games the core four have appeared in together this season.