INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- Larry Nance Jr. added 10 pounds this summer. He wanted to get bigger and stronger, preparing himself to fight centers on the block.

It might not be needed.

Head coach Tyronn Lue revealed his grand plan at center last week. In simple terms, the nightly starter will be determined by the matchup. Against the bruising bigs -- Philadelphia's Joel Embiid, Dwight Howard of the Wizards, Chicago's Robin Lopez and Detroit All-Star Andre Drummond, among others -- Thompson will get the start.

In other games where the Cavaliers play against smaller 5s, Nance will start.

"I love a good battle," Nance said following Monday's practice. "At the same time, it's one of those things where having a position battle can sometimes pull you apart a little bit and me and Tristan, since I got here he's been awesome for me and I think I've been good for him. Just bouncing ideas off each other and like, 'Hey I see what's going on. Just tough through it.'

"Having him start one night and I start the next, not having a definitive, 'You're a bench guy and you're a starter,' I think is going to be great for our team chemistry and I think we're both deserving of the position. I think it's a great idea."

Last season, Lue felt Nance wore down trying to guard burly centers for the duration of the game. There were some nights when Nance, listed on the team's official website at 6-foot-9 and 230 lbs., would be giving up around 50 pounds to opponents. That was a lot to ask for a guy labeled a power forward.

So before the start of training camp, Lue, Nance and Thompson sat down and talked about the idea. A productive conversation, Lue feels both can benefit individually while the team opens options on the defensive end.

The thought with Thompson as starter is it allows the Cavs to have him drop and ICE -- having the on-ball defender force the ball handler away from the screen -- on pick and rolls, with the Cavs switching at the other spots. This keeps starting power forward Kevin Love from getting matched up against bigger centers where he could get pushed around in a switch-everything scheme.

When Nance and Love play together against the small-ball lineups, Love can shift to center, playing Thompson's drop-and-ICE role on defense while Nance is unleashed as a long-limbed switcher.

"I'm very comfortable with it as I know most of us are and Tristan has been doing that for years now," Nance said of a switch-heavy scheme. "But probably the biggest thing is to do our best to make guys take the shots we want them to take.

"Take tomorrow for instance: If I get Kyrie, do I want to just back off and let him shoot a 3? I don't want to do that. If Al Horford decides to ISO on me and I back up a little bit and he takes a contested 3 that might be a shot we can live with. Like if I switch onto Jayson Tatum, I know he wants to go right and spin back left. You have to be able to pick and choose your battles and know your personnel."

The third big is still hard to peg. Channing Frye brings a different dimension on offense and his ability to knock down 3-pointers could be needed on a team that lost some offensive weaponry.

Then again, the Cavs liked what they saw from Ante Zizic late in the regular season and his work behind the scenes has impressed.

"Z's been good," Lue said recently. "He understands what we're looking for, what we're trying to do. When teams put smaller guys on Tristan and Larry and Big Z, when they're switching we want to punish 'em. We want to throw the ball into the post. We don't want to shoot jump hooks and fades, we want to get into the paint and get to the basket. When they put smaller guys on our guys this year, we have to be able to take advantage of it."

The Cavaliers open the preseason Tuesday night in Boston. Thompson is penciled in as the starting center.