Cavaliers' Tristan Thompson will get his shot in John Beilein's offense ... even if he won't take many

John Beilein's two-guard, motion offense is aided greatly if it has a center that can play inside but also shoot from the perimeter. Cavaliers big man Tristan Thompson is not that guy, but Beilein isn't overly concerned, pointing out a number of his college teams were successful with a center that was most effective down low. "We were fortunate enough to win with both shooting bigs and non-shooting bigs," said Beilein, who led Canisius, Richmond, West Virginia and Michigan to NCAA Tournament appearances in a 41-year college coaching career before jumping to the NBA at age 66. "Obviously, the ideal thing is to have a post guy that can shoot and rebound and play in the post. I don't know how often we've had that. Usually you have one or the other and you just adapt." In Thompson, the Cavs definitely have an interior — and somewhat limited — offensive player, though the 6-foot-10, 238-pounder is extremely good at switching on picks and defending smaller players on the perimeter. The ninth-year pro, who also is adept at setting high screens, rolling to the hoop and throwing down dunks off lob passes, is still adjusting to Beilein's offense, but has enjoyed training camp so far. "Coach wants us to be free," Thompson said. "Free basketball, just play and react, read and react. It's not so much X's and O's. It's just a feel for the game. Just go out and just play. "Most of the guys have played together for a year. ... We're comfortable with one another. We've just got to go out and play and read and react." Thompson is coming off a season where he played in a career-low 43 games (40 starts), which was due primarily to a sprained left foot. The University of Texas product played in just 53 games the previous season, when his streak of consecutive regular-season appearances ended at a franchise-record 447 games. Thompson is still an above-average defender and excellent offensive rebounder, but how he will fit in Beilein's offense remains to be seen. He wasn't exactly playing against the Lakers or Clippers — or even the Nets or Knicks — but the veteran looked solid Monday night in posting 14 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in 26 minutes against Argentina's San Lorenzo de Almagro. "When you have a guy like Tristan Thompson, who is still working on his shooting, you have one thing," Beilein said. "When you have one of our shooters — you've got John Henson, you've got Kevin (Love) — you play off that. It's a different element." The 28-year-old Thompson, who is in the final year of his contact, could be traded for younger players with upside and/or draft picks over the course of the season, but the man with four NBA Finals appearances still seems happy in Cleveland, which made him the No. 4 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. Thompson averaged 10.9 points and a career-high 10.2 rebounds while playing 27.9 minutes a game last season, and has shown over his career that he can make an impact as a starter or coming off the bench. He'll never be one of the focal points of any team's offense, but he's never really wanted to be and seems to derive more pleasure from rebounding and defending. The latter area is now under the direction of Cavs associate head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, and Thompson like's what he's seen. "J.B.'s been great," he said. "He's got a basketball mind and he's been around. Right now, he's keeping it very simple, which I agree with him. Keep it really basic. Let's master that and build a foundation. Start from that and move up." That's the same philosophy being used with Beilein's complex offense, and Thompson is eager to see how things look when all facets of it are installed. "It's different than the standard NBA terminology," he said. "We've just got to make those adjustments." Scrimmage stuff The Cavaliers held their annual Wine & Gold scrimmage Tuesday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, with the event consisting of some drills and a bit of basketball that looked more like an exhibition. The Wine team's starting lineup consisted of Jordan Clarkson, Darius Garland, J.P. Macura, Marques Bolden and Jarell Martin. The Gold squad featured Larry Nance Jr., Kevin Porter Jr., Dean Wade, Daniel Hamilton and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot. Rookies Garland and Porter Jr. played well again after standing out Monday in a preseason-opening 120-89 victory over San Lorenzo de Almagro, but coach John Beilein wanted to be cautious with his players. The Cavs will be off today, practice Thursday and head to Detroit for a preseason game Friday. "After (Monday's) exhibition game, we had a really good film session today. We walked through a lot of stuff," Beilein said. "We're being very protective. ... We didn't want people to play too much today." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com and follow him @RickNoland on Twitter.