INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- DeAndre Liggins earned the highest praise he could hope to get at this stage of his career from LeBron James on Wednesday.

James compared the new Cavs starting shooting guard to Matthew Dellavedova during post-practice comments as the team prepared for Thursday's home game vs. Boston.

"What Delly gave us was grit," James said. "Delly gave us a grit like 'I don't care what y'all say, I'm out on this floor to defend, I'm out on this floor to make plays and no matter what y'all say that I can't accomplish, I'm gonna try to overachieve that.'

"We lost that in Delly and rightfully so for the first part of the season, first few weeks we was missing that. Liggs gives us that. He gives us that pit bull out on the floor that's like, 'I'm here to just work. I'm going to make you work every single possession. I know you don't know my name yet, I know you don't know my game yet or what I'm about, but I'm going to make you work.'

"We've got that in Liggs. And that's huge for our team."

Whoa.

To reset, Dellavedova worked his way up from undrafted free-agent in 2013 to the Cavs' sixth man on their run to the Finals last season. He left over the summer for a four-year, $39 million deal with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Liggins, 28, was drafted in the second round by Orlando in 2012, but he's played sparsely in the NBA and is essentially getting a second lease on his basketball life with the Cavs this year.

On Sunday, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Dellavedova's absence stood out on film of the Cavs; James argued Wednesday that Liggins is providing the team with what it misses.

Prior to this season, Liggins had made just one career start. A teammate of James' for one game with the Miami Heat in 2014, Liggins was out of the NBA for the next two seasons after pleading guilty to a domestic abuse charge. The Cavs found him playing against the Canton Charge in the D-League.

With J.R. Smith out for three months with a fractured right thumb, Liggins is starting in Smith's spot until further notice. His offensive numbers are minuscule -- 2.7 points, 1.1 assists per game -- but as James says: "That's not his job.

"Right now he's doing what he's comfortable with doing and what he's comfortable with doing is picking somebody up 96 feet," James said. "The court is only 94 (feet)."

Obviously, the Cavs feel strongly about that presence. Coach Tyronn Lue said he wants Liggins to "set the tone defensively" for the team each night, picking up opposing point guards the length of the floor and forcing them to work to get into the offense.

Liggins was matched primarily with Stephen Curry Sunday against the Warriors, and Curry shot 4-of-11 for 15 points. Reggie Jackson fared better, scoring 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting primarily against Liggins in the Pistons' win Monday.

Lue has been gently nudging Liggins through his comments to the media to shoot the ball more. Privately, it sounds like it's more of a direct conversation. Lue wants Liggins to shoot when he gets it. He's averaging just 2.3 shots per game. He's 7-of-13 from 3-point range this season.

"I've been there before. Kobe and Shaq, those guys throw you the basketball and you think you have to make every shot," said Lue, who played with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal on the champion Lakers. "There's going to be pressure on you. So he, and he's probably going to be the same thing. LeBron and Kyrie (Irving) and Kevin (Love), making that pass to him, just thinking about it. 'I have to make this shot, it's a big shot.'

"He'll get better at it."

James said Liggins has surprised everyone with his overall performance.

"He's been doing more than maybe what he thought he was capable of doing, maybe what we all thought he was capable of doing and that's being a great complement to Kyrie," James said.

"It's been a diamond in the rough for us and we're happy to have him."