The Cavaliers open the preseason Wednesday with many of the same goals they had last season under coach Tyronn Lue: Keep the rotation long, the minutes short and be healthy when the playoffs begin in April.
With that in mind, Lue is holding Kyrie Irving out of Wednesday's game against the Orlando Magic, although LeBron James will play. James won't play much in the preseason, Lue has already made that clear. But when he does play, it will likely be at home.
"For the most part, we're going to try to make sure our guys play at home, play our home games for our fans," Lue said, "and after that, we'll just have to evaluate and see how they feel."
That would seemingly rule James out of road games at Atlanta and Chicago next week. It also calls into question the Cavs' preseason finale at Ohio State on Oct. 18. James said previously he likes to play in neutral site games when it represents fans' only chance to see him play, and his adoration for Ohio State is well known. But it's the Cavs' final preseason game on the schedule.
Lue wouldn't name a starter in place of Irving, who carried a heavy summer workload that ended with a gold medal in the Olympics.
"Playing, winning the championship and then playing this summer in Brazil, winning the gold medal, we just thought [it was] a lot of wear and tear on his body, especially in the playoffs when he was playing probably 38 or 39 minutes per game," Lue said. "For the preseason, we just want to let him get his legs under him, bring him along slowly and pick it up as the season progresses, but we don't want to wear him out, get him to the point where his body is aching or different situations where something is tweaked. We just want to make sure we try to calm him down, slow him down because he wants to play and he wants to do a lot of other things. Right now, it's not the right time."
Lue said over the weekend that it's too early to make any declarations about the backup point guard spot. Rookie Kay Felder and Jordan McRae have both gotten time there, but it's not McRae's natural position.
"He's been good when he plays [shooting guard]," Lue said of McRae. "Trying to play him at the point, a new position for a guy that's never played the point before, and just making all the right reads, play calls, get into our sets. It's not fair to him, but he's been doing a good job with that. But as far as when he plays the 2 [shooting guard], he's been really good."
J.R. Smith's continued absence has created an opportunity for McRae at shooting guard, although he's not expected to get the bulk of the minutes there. Iman Shumpert is the temporary starter, but he's not the dead-eye shooter that Smith is. That has left some opportunities for Mike Dunleavy as well, although Dunleavy is more of a forward than a guard.
"No difference," Lue said of the Cavs' offense without Smith. "Still running the same plays and the same system."
