Ryan Hollins, who might be the Cavaliers' only true center, hopes he's found his niche with a team that values his quickness and agility.
Offense isn't really Ryan Hollins' strength, but the lanky center dunked over Cavaliers draftee Sasha Kaun during Saturday's exhibition game at The Q. Hollins believes his agility and defensive game will be a good fit with the restructured Cavaliers.INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- Chances are, Ryan Hollins started his last game at center for a while on Saturday.
It's not because the agile 7-footer did anything wrong in the Cavaliers' loss to CSKA Moscow. In fact, he had one of his better games of the preseason, knocking in five of eight attempts and finishing with 17 points, five rebounds and a blocked shot. As a defense-first big man, piling up statistics is generally not one of his strengths.
But Hollins is likely to take a backseat now that Anderson Varejao is expected to see his first preseason action Tuesday against Philadelphia in Cincinnati. That's the role Hollins expected when he came to Cleveland in a trade with Minnesota this summer. He's comfortable there, and now has the added benefit of experience and confidence gained by five starts while Varejao sat out after the death of his grandfather.
A fifth-year pro, Hollins expected a fresh start with the Cavaliers after a rocky couple years shuttling between Charlotte, Dallas and Minnesota. So far, he's happy with his niche in coach Byron Scott's Princeton offense, encouraged to be counted on defensively and eager to learn from watching Varejao, a player he calls one of the best in the league at screening, rolling and rebounding.
"Coming here, it fits my style of play as far as running, rebounding and aggression on defense," Hollins said.
Hollins has long been considered a raw talent, a long and athletic big man who still needs to learn nuances of the game. At UCLA, he averaged just 7.0 points and 4.8 rebounds his senior season, but also finished the fourth in school history with 101 blocked shots.
He also competed for UCLA's track team in the long jump, high jump and triple jump, and he still has the leaping ability to prove it, with a 37.5-inch standing vertical leap and a 41.5-inch running vertical.
"Coming here, it fits my style of play as far as running, rebounding and aggression on defense," says new Cavaliers big man Ryan Hollins.Through four NBA seasons, he's averaged 3.9 points and 2.2 rebounds. In Cleveland, however, he's nearly doubled his offensive output so far, averaging 7.6 points and 7.2 rebounds -- and adding 1.8 assists and 1.0 block per game.
"He's a guy who can get up and down the floor quick," said guard Ramon Sessions, who played in Minnesota with Hollins. "He's probably one of the quickest big men. He rebounds, hustles, takes charges. He's a guy you need on your team."
Against Moscow, Hollins said not a single offensive play was called for him. Each of his five baskets came as a result of finding an opening when rolling off a screen or snagging a rebound.
Hollins has a teammate to thank for some of his newfound attention to offense -- the player who will take his spot in the starting rotation, Varejao.
"I've been studying and watching the things he does to try to pick up some things," Hollins said. "The way he moves on the floor, the way he rolls, his passing, everything. The guy's not getting 10-plus boards a game and double-doubles by accident."
So even if he might have lost his starting position, Hollins is happy that Varejao is back, and happy to be with a Cavaliers team that values his abilities.
"He fits in the scheme of things that we're doing pretty well," Scott said. "He has a pretty good understanding of what we're doing and he understands his role on this team."
Coach Williams? During a timeout late in Saturday's game, Mo Williams pulled Scott aside and gestured to the court. The two talked intensely for several minutes before Scott turned to his assistants to begin discussing what he was going to tell the rest of the team during the break in action.
Williams still hasn't played this preseason as he nurses a right groin injury. But if the conversation is an indication, Scott is confident that the point guard will slide into the rotation naturally when he finally takes the court.
"He saw some things on the offensive end that our guys could take advantage of and our guys really weren't taking advantage of," Scott said. "I told him he was absolutely right, it's just a matter of guys reading it. That's good when you've got a point guard who sees it. He recognized some of the things they could do just from his seat."
In another role reversal, as players worked on shooting after Sunday's practice, Scott took on rookie Christian Eyenga in a game of one-on-one. Though the 49-year-old Scott is a few steps slower than his playing days, he still rattled in a handful of long-distance jumpers.