The Cavs found their HIDDEN GEM...

If the Cavs want to be competitive in this revamped East, they're going to have to get more out of their bench. Who are some dark horses that could step up for the Cavs? Maybe a few players can make the jump from the G League to the NBA. I have three young under-the-radar players who can be an asset to the Cavs this season. In the past, I've talked about how the Cavs bench is not that great. We have a great starting lineup with Harden, Mitchell, Mobley, Allen, and now Peyton Watson, but after that there's a huge drop-off when we look at the Cavs bench. I've talked a little bit about who are going to be those regular rotational players coming off the bench, but how about some of those really under-the-radar guys? Those guys who could maybe be kind of like a Cinderella story. Somebody who worked their way through the G League and then makes it to an NBA roster. The first player that I want to talk about is somebody who has some experience playing in NBA games for the Cavs, but has mainly been a G League guy for his entire career. You might have heard of him. He had a little bit of a March Madness run, but his name is Riley Minnix. Minnix started at the NAIA level in college and then he transferred to Moorhead State. He spent four years at the NAIA level and then one season, his fifth year of eligibility at Moorhead State. He went undrafted in 2024 and then signed with the Spurs and played mainly with their G League team, the Austin Spurs, and had a really great season for them. Great statistical averages, and then the Cavs acquired him in a three-team trade early in 2026. He's only played six games so far for the Cavs, six regular season games that is. He has played a ton for the Cleveland Charge, our G League affiliate. Minnix is 6'7". He has some great length. He'd be an off-ball wing player. He brings a lot to the table offensively. He can put the ball on the floor drive. He gets other teammates involved. He's got a nice shot, but defensively is where he lacks a little bit. He's not the best defender, but offensively he adds a lot and brings a lot to the table. I know he hasn't played a ton. He's only played six games for the Cavs, nine total, combined with San Antonio and the Cavs, but this is what he's averaged in those games. Six minutes averaging four points. That's not terrible considering he's not getting a ton of run time. He knocks down the shots when he gets open looks in-game, as you can see by his true shooting percentage, 72%. It's very, very good. I know it's a small sample size, but this is just something that Riley Minnix is capable of. He doesn't have to come in off the bench and be a sixth man, but maybe when the Cavs have a spurt of injuries and they need to go deeper into their bench, pull some guys up from the G League. Minnix is a guy who has been a star at the G League level. He can make that jump very quickly to the NBA if we need him, if we're in a pinch and we need more players. Maybe Minnix just keeps developing, keeps growing that offensive game and becomes a better defender. Then he can maybe contribute for this Cavs team coming off the bench. That's the first player that I think can have an impact and probably the fastest impact out of the three players that I'm going to talk about today. The second player is Ernest Uday. Uday is a center. He's 6'10". He had a wild college career just bouncing around teams in the transfer portal era. He started at Kansas and then he transferred to TCU, then finished up at Miami. He went undrafted and signed with the Cavs this summer. He hasn't even played in an NBA game yet. He signed back in July. Like I said, he's 6'10". He doesn't bring a lot offensively, but he's a great defender. He's long. He can't teach height and length in the NBA. He's just a hustle player. He's a guy with a strong motor. He's going to set screens, roll, finish lobs. If he gets a mismatch in the post, he can go up over the top. He blocks shots defensively. He has the length to stick with some of the larger centers in the NBA. I like Uday as a player that at a position that we're kind of weak. We don't have a lot of center depth. Uday could be that third center to step up. Obviously, we're going to start him at the G League level. If he develops, then maybe we can bring him up and have him just come off the bench. Just fill in those minutes when Allen and Mobley both need a rest. Like I said, Uday hasn't played in a single NBA game yet in his career. He just joined the Cavs G League team, the Charge, this summer. I'm looking for him to take maybe a season or two at the G League level before he's actually able to provide impact minutes. Uday is a player who has a lot of experience playing at the Division I level in college. Three teams at the top level of college basketball with Kansas TCU and Miami. He just has experience playing at the top level. I think that translates well to the NBA. He's going to be set up in a better position than Riley Minnix is because Minnix played at a mid-major Morehead State for one season and spent four years at NAIA. That's not the top level in college. Uday is going to have a clear path to success, especially since big men are harder to come by than a player who plays on the wing. Uday has the potential. If he rounds out that offensive game, like I said, he's super raw offensively. He doesn't have much of a jump shot yet, but that's just a developing part of his game. He can hone that in at the G League level and then possibly contribute in the NBA for the Cavs. The final player I want to talk about today and who I believe can have the biggest impact out of these three players that I've mentioned is Tristan Eneruno. Eneruno has the most experience playing pro ball out of these previous two players. He played pro in Amsterdam before he even got to college, so he has that under his belt. He started off at Kansas and transferred to Iowa State, where if you recognize this name, it's probably where you heard him in college playing for the Cyclones. He had a couple of 20-plus point games at Iowa State, and then he spent his last season at Cleveland State. So those of you native to the Cleveland area follow Cleveland State hoops, maybe you've heard of Eneruno. But in 2024, Eneruno went undrafted and joined the Boston Celtics, and their G League affiliate played a season there. And then we signed him at the start of this year back in January to play for the Cleveland Charge. And he had a big impact for the Charge in the short period of time that he played there. So looking at his stats, very similar to Riley Minix, that he has a lot of limited minutes, only in nine NBA games played, but the minutes total is a little bit up. And like I said, he has a lot of experience playing pro ball. Obviously, a lot different from the NBA, but playing at the top level of college and then professional basketball overseas will help him once he gets to the NBA. Average four points, and the shooting numbers are pretty decent, 50% from the field. Now, like I said, these guys are probably getting minutes in these nine games, they're in garbage time, or they're at the end of the season when we're resting our players, we got our playoff spot secured. That's when Eneruno is playing in these nine games. Eneruno has a lot of room to grow. He's also a player who's 6'7", has good length for playing out on the wing, being a 3 and D type of player, but he brings a lot more to the table than just that. He can handle the ball, he can get his teammates involved, drive and kick. Eneruno has a lot to his game. He's probably the most complete player out of Ude and Minix that I've talked about. In my eyes, I see Eneruno having the clearest impact off the bench for the Cavs this season. He has the experience playing elsewhere, and that translates really well to the NBA. So I think the Cavs, as the season goes on, we already have a thin bench as it is. So we're going to have to bring in some players who may not have the experience and just throw them out into the fire and see how they play. Because right now, if you're looking at the Cavs bench, and we go through the list of names, Sam Merrill, obviously he's going to play a huge role for us. Six man shooter coming off the bench. Craig Porter, not a lot of experience playing the point guard position. Tyrese Proctor entering his second season. Jalen Tyson, we saw growth from him last season. We just need him to take a bigger step up, and he might be the leading scorer off of the bench when you look at all these names. Mario Hezonja hasn't played in the NBA in what, eight years? So you don't know how the Europe game is going to translate. He's a lot older now, and who knows the impact that Hezonja will have. Naquan Tomlin is super raw, but very athletic. So there's a lot of upside there, but the Cavs need scoring off the bench, and Tomlin's not going to provide that in his second season. Thomas Bryant, he's probably our third center who's going to get some run this season, and Thomas Bryant is more of a stretch four than a true five who can crash the glass and block shots. And then there's Malik Thomas, our rookie draft pick, who we're really hoping it can translate from his one year at Arkansas where he averaged 14-15 points per game as the number two option there, and he's got to take a big step up in his rookie season. I see Malik Thomas after he dominated the summer league, that he can take a big step up and impact this Cavs team off the bench. But looking at all those names, we don't have a score coming off the bench, a true scorer who can, you know, spell Harden or Mitchell when they get tired. So that's going to be a problem, scoring off the bench for the Cavs this season. Our starting lineup, our starting five is really great. They're going to have to play heavy minutes, I feel like, especially down the stretch in close games when we're fighting for playoff seating. Also in the playoffs, our starting five is going to have to play heavy minutes because we don't have that experience off the bench. But I'm looking at the Cavs to maybe make some sort of in-season trade acquisition for some better depth off the bench, because right now the bench we have is not going to cut it, especially in this competitive Eastern Conference. Hopefully the player who can step up and provide scoring off the bench is within the Cavs organization right now, whether it's somebody on the team, the current roster, or somebody coming up from the G League, like the Cleveland Charge. So maybe it could be a player that I just mentioned, or maybe it's a player like Proctor, Millie Thomas, Craig Porter, somebody who's young and just hasn't reached that next level of their game yet. But we really need some help scoring off the bench. Thank you for watching. Please subscribe to the channel if you haven't yet. Cavs Digest keeps you up to date with all off-season Cavs news, and once the regular season gets underway, we'll keep you up to date by a game-by-game basis. Thanks for watching. As always, Go Cavs!