So then why, as the Cavaliers entered this season, would they go away from the formula that’s been so successful in favor of a starting backcourt with two non-shooters, Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade? That was the plan, the team said, as least as long as Isaiah Thomas remains sidelined with a hip injury, with Wade replacing the quick-trigger J.R. Smith shortly before the season started.

AD

AD

Cleveland broke open a win Friday night in Milwaukee by employing a more familiar alignment during a decisive 15-5 run over the final five minutes of the third quarter — James and big man Tristan Thompson surrounded by shooters Smith, Kyle Korver and Jeff Green — but afterward the Cavaliers were still defending their new-look starting five.

“The starting lineup was good,” Cavaliers Coach Tyronn Lue said after Friday’s game. “We had a lot of great cuts early. D-Wade got a couple, [Jae] Crowder got a couple, Derrick got a couple. They’re learning how to play together.

“We’ve got to keep continuing to figure it out, which I know they will, because they’re pretty smart players. We’ve got to just keep building on this, and just keep working and see what we’ve got.”

AD

After a blowout home loss to the Orlando Magic on Saturday, things changed. Reporters arrived at practice Monday to an unexpected sight: Wade working with the second unit. After practice, both Wade and Lue confirmed that the future Hall of Famer would be coming off the bench, ceding his starting role back to Smith, the man he’d displaced during the preseason.

AD

“I just decided, earlier than later, just to get to the unit where I’d be more comfortable in and can probably [be] better with this team in that lineup,” Wade told reporters in Cleveland after Monday’s practice. “Why wait? Three games in, why wait? Wanted to get in there with those guys.”

This was the right move for the Cavaliers. Cleveland is a far better team when it is able to space the floor around James — something that was going to be impossible to do with both Rose and Wade on the court at the same time.

AD

While Wade was thrust into the starting lineup because it was the preference of James, his longtime friend and former Miami Heat teammate, the logic never made much sense.

“Listen, we have different lineups we can go to at any point in the game,” James said. “We have lineups that can pound you in the post, we’ve got guys that can spread the floor, we have guys that can get up and down the floor, speed guys, we’ve got guys that can just play in the half-court game.

AD

“That’s the luxury of our team. D-Wade and Tristan, those guys make things happen. They’re not standing out on the three-point line all the time. They just make plays, and it’s great to have them.”

AD

True, Cleveland is a deeper team this year with lot of guys that can operate in different lineups. But lineup versatility wasn’t what made the Cavaliers such a deadly team the past three seasons — it was bludgeoning opponents from beyond the three-point arc. By pairing Rose (a career 29.8 percent three-point shooter) and Wade (28.7 percent), playing that way was impossible.

Deploying Wade as the primary ballhandler with the second unit is the best fit. Although Rose has always played point guard, Wade — even at 35 — is a better distributor. He will be capable of providing a second-unit facsimile of how Cleveland uses its starters, with him operating in the pick-and-roll while surrounded by shooters.

AD

Rolling Wade out against reserves will also somewhat mask his defense — once a strong suit, now not so much. And it could still allow him the opportunity to close games, something that would likely mean more to him than starting. It’s also a position where he can still make an impact, as he did in Cleveland’s season-opening victory with a pair of key blocks in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

AD

None of that fixes the fundamentally awkward fit that Wade and Rose bring to a Cleveland team that’s primarily played one way for three seasons — both in terms of spacing the floor, which neither can do, and playing with pace, which neither enjoys. That’s too bad, because when both are done at the same time, it makes Cleveland incredibly difficult to stop.

“I think we’re better when we push,” Kevin Love said. “I think when we play like that it would allow us to get, it’s tough to say more rest, but I think we play better when we play with a heavy pace and we’re all in shape and pushing the ball. It puts a lot of pressure on defenses.”

AD

The fortunate thing for Cleveland is that it has time to figure this out. Gordon Hayward’s season-ending injury eliminated the Boston Celtics from immediate contention, and Cleveland’s only other realistic competition in the East this season — the Washington Wizards — still looks about one piece short of truly threatening the Cavs.

AD

The Rose-Wade partnership wasn’t going to work, and now it’s over after just three games. The Cavaliers can figure out the rest as they go.

More NBA:

AD

AD