{"id":667485,"date":"2026-03-19T20:36:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/667485\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T20:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:36:25","slug":"cavaliers-reacts-survey-fans-pick-their-fifth-starter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/667485\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavaliers Reacts Survey: Fans pick their fifth starter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Cavs fans and fans across the country. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartsurvey.co.uk\/s\/8SCRL8\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up here<\/a> to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Earlier this week, we asked Cleveland Cavaliers fans to participate in another one of our SB Nation Reacts Surveys. Now let\u2019s get to the results.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">First, we asked about the starting small forward position. Something that\u2019s long been a point of discussion for this Cavalier team. It turns out, as much as things change, they stay the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">A meme-worthy 67% of fans voted that Max Strus should remain the starter, once he\u2019s fully healthy, of course. Strus made his season debut last Sunday and was already featured in Kenny Atkinson\u2019s closing lineup against the Milwaukee Bucks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Strus is still on a minutes restriction, seemingly in the early-20s range. But as we move forward, those minutes should increase, and Strus\u2019 spot in the rotation should upgrade with it. I\u2019d say it\u2019s a safe bet to assume Strus will become the starter by the end of the season. It seems like you do too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Cavs currently hold the fifth-highest odds on <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsbook.fanduel.com\/navigation\/nba?tab=nba-finals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FanDuel<\/a> to win the championship this season. Strus returning should work in their favor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Our other question was more fun. Whoever finishes with a higher three-point percentage between Sam Merrill and Jaylon Tyson is irrelevant. Still, fans chose to stick with Money Merrill for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Reputation is definitely carrying Merrill here, considering Tyson is shooting nearly 1% better from downtown with only 13 games remaining. I\u2019m surprised the results weren\u2019t closer to 50\/50 as this feels like a total coin toss to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,64205,3846,37642,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-667485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavaliers","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers-discussion","13":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","14":"tag-fear-the-sword-community","15":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116257763712122627","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}