INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- LeBron James prides himself on knowing his teammates, everything from their favorite spots on the floor to how they want the ball off passes -- if they like laces or no laces or laces out.

But when it comes to Isaiah Thomas, who will make his Cavaliers debut Tuesday night against the Portland Trail Blazers, James' approach is pretty simple.

"It doesn't matter," James said. "Just give him the ball."

The Cavs are hoping Thomas can provide a scoring boost, especially at a time when the offense has started to flail, averaging 96.0 points during a three-game losing skid.

During his recent scrimmages, teammates -- including James -- have been urging Thomas to stop passing so much and just play his usual game. As Thomas said Monday afternoon, he's a scoring guard, finishing third in points per game during his final season with the Boston Celtics in 2016-17.

Beyond that it's tough to know what to expect from Thomas. He hasn't played in an NBA game in a little more than seven months and is trying to regain his form after a significant hip injury that concerned Cleveland enough to ask the Boston Celtics to sweeten their trade offer as insurance.

"We really don't know. We know he's excited to once again grace an NBA floor and actually play. We're excited for him as teammates as well," James said. "We expect him to be gassed. We expect him to just be very emotional about the whole, just his journey, just getting back. As far as his performance, that's the last thing that we're thinking about."

Thomas will come off the bench Tuesday night. He will be under a minutes restriction. He won't play in Wednesday's game against Boston, the second of a back-to-back to open a lengthy five-game road trip. On the practice floor, James even admitted Thomas looked a little out of rhythm.

"Obviously, the man hasn't played in a game in seven months. I think anybody would be out of rhythm no matter what you're doing in life, taking seven months off of doing what you do best," James said. "But I think just his excitement to actually be out there on the floor and be able to scrimmage full-go against us, that means a lot for him in this process."

Already this season, the Cavs have had to integrate some new faces -- Dwyane Wade, Jae Crowder, Derrick Rose, Jeff Green, Cedi Osman and Jose Calderon. It took time for the new guys to figure out roles, as the Cavaliers opened 5-7 in the first 12 games.

Recently they welcomed back Tristan Thompson after a one-month hiatus while he was recovering from a calf injury. Thompson's return has disrupted Cleveland's second unit, leading to some slippage. It has also caused head coach Tyronn Lue to tweak his rotation.

In Thomas' case it's a different dynamic. It's not re-integrating an injured player who already has familiarity with the system like Thompson. It's starting fresh. Thomas couldn't participate in the James-led Santa Barbara preseason workouts, and he obviously wasn't able to take part in training camp or preseason either. The most experience teammates have with Thomas in a Cavaliers jersey comes from a video game.

"It's for us to figure it out. We don't know," James said. "Obviously, he's been around for the last few months, recovering and things of that nature, but we don't know until we get out there and know what he loves to do.

"I've watched a lot of film on him, obviously. I played against him a lot over the last couple years so I know what he's good at. I know what he does best, so it's very important for myself and us to see how he can be best for our team."