Zach Lowe

They've started Max Struess in that spot when Wade's not been available.

They'll throw Sam Merrill in that spot.

And they obviously are going to stagger Harden and Mitchell a lot.

they're going to stagger Mobley and Allen a lot.

It seems like they're trending in a direction where the staggering is becoming even more dramatic.

Like they play as many minutes separately as they do together, both pairings.

But some nights that's not going to be the right answer.

Some nights it is going to be the right answer.

It feels like they're trying to find themselves on a lot of different levels very late in the game.

And that makes me a little bit... Like last night, that Hawks-Cavs game, I don't know if you saw that game, but like...

Donovan Mitchell was barely involved in the offense in the first quarter.

And then in the third quarter, sharing the court with Harden to open the quarter, he kind of came out and it looked like he had just said to himself, fuck it.

This is still my team.

I'm taking over the offense when James is on the court.

And he went absolutely bananas.

And I was like, oh, that's interesting.

Their size against Atlanta, if that's the matchup, is kind of interesting.

On the flip side, Atlanta's wing size against Cleveland's army of guards is kind of an interesting leverage point.

for the Hawks, how the Cavs match up with the Hawks was interesting.

They put their centers on Dyson Daniels, like a lot of teams do and put wings on.