The Cleveland Cavaliers are on a roll as they have won six in a row following a season opening loss to the Chicago Bulls. The Cavaliers seem to be clicking in every aspect of the game right now but there is a trend that has become a little worrisome, for one player at least, and that is the fact that Timofey Mozgov has regularly been on the bench in the fourth quarter. Mozgov is the team's starting center and has been extremely productive for them but doesn't usually play in crunch time which is something that could upset the big man but it hasn't yet, according to Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com.
Mozgov is in the final year of his three year $14 million contract he signed with the Denver Nuggets back in 2013 so he wants to have a great year heading into free agency. Because of that you would expect him to be peeved by the fact that he's not playing in fourth quarters and while he likely is, he is at least saying all of the right things.
"You have to understand, I am a player. Every player in the league wants to play 48 minutes, but us winning games works for me. But when we're winning games with me on the court, it's better for me," said Mozgov.
Mozgov is averaging just 21.4 minutes through seven games and he has only appeared in the fourth quarter in one of those games. Instead of having the seven footer on the floor at the ends of games head coach David Blatt has been either using a frontcourt of Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson or going small and playing LeBron James at the four.
The trend in the NBA now is to go small at the ends of games and Blatt has been doing just that and it has worked. The Cavaliers did the same thing last season in the NBA Finals in an effort to matchup with the Golden State Warriors and it led to Mozgov getting very little playing time. So far this season Mozgov has been productive in his limited playing time as he is averaging 8.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game but Thompson has been better and is getting more minutes because of it.
The Cavaliers have a loaded roster and while Mozgov says he just wants to win he also made it clear he wants to play more. The 29 year olds play isn't the reason for him losing minutes, it's the fact that the Cavs have had success going small and it seems like they have no plans to change that anytime soon. Mozgov will likely remain the starting center but unless the matchup dictates otherwise he will likely be relegated to the bench when the game matters most.
