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54 minutes ago
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By this point, everyone has an opinion on whether the Cleveland Cavaliers should be playing Jaylon Tyson more in the playoffs.
Some think his regular season success warrants minutes now, too. Others are worried about the erratic play he had early in the postseason being something that is too risky for the Cavs and head coach Kenny Atkinson to count on against the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Final.
On Thursday night, Tyson played 10 minutes, split into one stint in each half, and scored four points.
It's a far cry from the level of play he found during the regular season.
Jaylon Tyson was literally SO good for the Cavs this season. 44.6% (!!!!) from 3 on 4.5 attempts per game, holds his own on defense, can create his own shot, brings energy etc...
Kenny is citing fatigue as an issue but also is giving a perfectly capable player 0 minutes.
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The problem is bigger than just not using Tyson, though.
It's that now that Atkinson has mostly removed Tyson from the rotation, it's hard to get him back into it.
Tyson has lost the rhythm he had when he was shining during the regular season. A quick stint in each half of a game isn't enough for him to find his full game again.
It's also tough to maintain the best game shape when not actually playing much in games, so even if Atkinson wanted to play Tyson for huge minutes in Game 3, it's not clear if Tyson would be able to handle that.
Atkinson has essentially picked a path in which Tyson isn't an option he can really turn to. Given that Tyson had stretches of being great during the regular season, it's not clear at all that the Cavs have made the right move now.
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