CLEVELAND — Beyond all the winning, something is going on with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

On Sunday morning, they signed Javonte Green for the rest of the season, filling the open roster spot created when they traded Caris LeVert and Georges Niang for De’Andre Hunter. Green is 31, was bought out from his contract by the New Orleans Pelicans and is averaging 5.8 points and 1.1 steals as a 6-foot-4 small forward.

Even splashy signings of free agents after the NBA trade deadline are often overrated. If Green plays an expanded role for the Cavs in the playoffs, it would A) be in an upset; and B) mean someone else is hurt or is struggling.

But the Green signing is part of a broader movement by the organization. Coach Kenny Atkinson calls it “stockpiling wings.” Beginning with the aforementioned big trade for Hunter, the Cavs have added three players this month who are rugged, physical defenders on the wing, either by going outside the team to get them or, in Dean Wade’s case, activating him after a month-long bout with injury.

After the Cavs gutted out a 129-123 win over Memphis on Sunday, they own the league’s best record at 47-10. They’ve won seven straight and 11 of the last 12. Players on the “wing” they can and will turn to now include not only Hunter and Wade, who returned to the lineup in Friday’s blowout win over the New York Knicks, but also Max Strus, Isaac Okoro and Green.

There are a few reasons for the stockpiling, to use Atkinson’s apt phrasing. As has been well documented here and elsewhere, when the Cavs lose this season, it is typically because they were pushed around on the wing or in the backcourt, where they have two highly talented, but (relatively speaking) vertically challenged guards in Darius Garland (6-1) and Donovan Mitchell (6-3). (Remember that for later.)

Secondly, Wade, Okoro, and to a lesser extent, Strus, have shown inconsistencies at the worst times — the playoffs. Wade has struggled with injuries late in seasons, while Okoro couldn’t shoot last postseason (36 percent from the field, 25 percent from 3) and Strus shot below 40 percent in six of Cleveland’s 12 postseason games.

But if you look around the Cavs’ roster, at virtually every position except for the two starters at guard, they’re a huge team. They figured out how to play Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley (both 6-11) together with maximum effect. Hunter is 6-8. Wade is 6-9. Strus and Okoro are 6-5. Even Ty Jerome, the backup point guard who is enjoying a career year, and who burned the Grizzlies on Sunday with 26 points off the bench, is 6-5.

Whether this was their explicit intention or not, the Cavs bulked up everywhere else, and as a result, Garland and Mitchell are more insulated from attacks by opponents on both ends of the floor.

This team is in a position to do something extremely rare in the NBA: win a title with two small starting guards. Going back to 1980 (the year I was born, and a good enough sample size as far as I’m concerned), there have been three — three — teams to win a title with both starting guards 6-3 or under. The Detroit Pistons did it twice, in 1989 and 1990, with Isiah Thomas (6-1) and Joe Dumars (6-3). The 1983 Philadelphia 76ers did it with Maurice Cheeks (6-1) and Andrew Toney (6-3). So if you’re looking for a good omen, count the fact that the only three teams to win with shorter guards started players who measured the exact same height as Garland and Mitchell.

But we should note the Sixers also had Julius Erving and league MVP Moses Malone that season — two dominant players, who combined to win three NBA MVPs in a row (Dr. J in ’81 and Moses in ’82 and ’83). This makes those two Pistons teams, some 35 years ago, the only teams to win when their top two players were small guards.

“I don’t consider Don a small guard,” Atkinson countered when I floated this to him Sunday. “He’s not in that category. He’s got a 7-foot wing span. In today’s NBA, he can play four for some teams. Now if you’re talking, I’m trying to think, Steph (Curry) and Jordan Poole … I’m trying to think of two really diminutive guards. I could be right or wrong, but I don’t look at it that way. I don’t feel like we have a physical deficit there because Donovan’s not 6-8.”

Now isn’t the time to quarrel with the coach, so, purely for context: Atkinson was an assistant on the last Golden State Warriors team to win a title in 2022, but Poole did not start next to Curry. Andrew Wiggins and Klay Thompson were the Warriors’ wings.

Anyway, I’m not sure Mitchell is even 6-3. He smirked when I asked him Friday night (he doesn’t look 5 inches taller than me, but maybe). He is, however, 215 pounds of muscle, has strong hands and long arms, and is otherwise not afraid to mix it up. In the third quarter against the Grizzlies, he tangled with Desmond Bane for a loose ball near the Cavs bench, and neither let the ball go after the whistle. Mitchell and Bane weren’t backing down and became heated, and eventually, there was a mob of players and coaches from both sides pushing and shoving. But at the heart of the fracas was Mitchell against Bane, who is 6-5. It was easy to remember two years ago, during Mitchell’s first season in Cleveland, when he got into it on the baseline with Dillon Brooks, moving the 6-6, 225-pound Brooks off his feet in that particular dust-up.

Mitchell’s physicality helps, but it is also true his teams, in Utah or Cleveland, have not gotten out of the second round of the playoffs. The point guard for the Jazz in Mitchell’s last three seasons was Mike Conley, who is 6 feet. And in each of the last two springs, playing in the postseason alongside Garland, the Cavs had serious problems with the pressure — offensive and defense — pushed upon them on the perimeter after successful regular seasons. Because teams with smaller guards don’t usually get to the finals and win.

The only recent example would be the 2019 Toronto Raptors, who often played Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet, both of them 6-feet, together. But Danny Green, who is 6-6, was the Raptors’ starting shooting guard next to Lowry that season, including in the finals. The starting small forward in Toronto was Kawhi Leonard, one of the greatest on-ball wing defenders of all time.

If you want to throw the 2012 and 2013 Miami Heat into the discussion because point guard Mario Chalmers was 6-2 and Dwyane Wade was 6-4, OK, but who was behind them during those championship seasons? Oh, yes, LeBron James.

The Cavs couldn’t add a wing the caliber of Leonard or James. But they are enjoying considerable strength in numbers at the position. Mitchell is also no longer clearly Cleveland’s best player — and not because of any dip in his ability. Let’s not get carried away and compare Mobley and Allen to Erving and Malone, but they are stars and not only capable but willing and eager, to impact games on both ends of the floor.

Mobley is thriving not only in his usual roles as defensive stalwart and scoring near the rim but as a 3-point shooter. He is an All-Star, averaging 18.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, and shooting 36.5 percent from 3-point range. He affects the game as a big who can lead a fast break or initiate offense in addition to protecting the rim.

Garland is an All-Star again, after a serious drop in production last season. He didn’t play Sunday because of a hip bruise suffered against the Knicks, but Atkinson said he didn’t expect Garland to be out long. When he plays, he averages 21.3 points, 6.7 assists, and shoots 42.5 percent from 3-point range.

Mitchell led the Cavs with 33 points against the Grizzlies with Garland out. For the season, his scoring, rebounding, and assists are all down from a year ago, as are his minutes. He has more trust in his teammates and more teammates he can trust than before.

“Sometimes I think Donovan, it gets overlooked what he’s done,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “He probably sacrificed a little bit so everyone else can grow. I think the strength of the guys up front helps a lot, and Donovan is a superstar. … Garland, he’s an All-Star. Mobley is an All-Star. That’s a credit to them and every team is going to have different strengths and weaknesses. How do you cover up for your weaknesses? How do you play to your strengths? And I think that’s a big part of winning.”

Or, as Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said: “We don’t look at (Mitchell and Garland’s) size, we look at their dynamic ability and how those two guys play together. … Those guys find that balance together at the guard position, regardless of what their size is.”

Mitchell concurred that the added size around them should help him and Garland in the playoffs. His thoughts, when asked, went to the defensive side, where he said the Cavs are better “able to switch, you’re able to plug the gaps. It definitely helps, for sure. It definitely allows us to be in space.”

“My biggest thing is, what do they see,” Mitchell said. “An offensive scorer like myself, I’m not really worried about who’s on the ball. It’s more like, who’s around?”

Atkinson said that, for now at least, Strus would start next to Mitchell and Garland, instead of Hunter. Strus, who scored 11 points with eight rebounds Sunday, has a “trust” factor built over two seasons in Cleveland, Atkinson said, and the coach also pointed to the positive metrics the starters have produced with Strus a part of that group.

But the options Atkinson has on the wing has — and will — allow him to split Mitchell and Garland after those first six minutes of the first quarter, pairing them with larger, more physical defenders who can also knock down a shot.

Mitchell described the second unit he played with Friday against the Knicks, when he ran the point next to Okoro, Wade, Hunter, and Mobley — a massive, versatile lineup that is still a threat to knock down 3s. He added that Garland “got two open layups” against the Knicks because Karl-Anthony Towns was like, “Oh, (shoot), I gotta run to the corner.”

“That’s what you’re creating,” Mitchell said, of the Cavs’ size and depth. “You’re never going to be perfect, you’re going to try to be as close as you can.”

OK, so, Atkinson may not agree with the premise, but after a little back and forth he agreed that all the options he has on the wing do take some pressure off of his backcourt.

“It’s about the wings, but it’s also about their defensive prowess,” Atkinson said. “If you do have a smaller guy or weaker defender, you want to support that with bigger guys around him and better defenders.

“So maybe when DG is out there, you’re thinking, how can we help him a little? That’s definitely part of the lineup thing and understanding who you have out there, what guards you have out there. When Donovan’s out there, we switch everything. Even when Ty is out there, 6-5, I feel like, man, we switch everything. DG, we definitely need length and size around him.”

The Cavs have stockpiles of it, and they mean to deploy it, which is why they have a real chance to become a rarity in the NBA as a team with two small guards that wins the title.

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(Top photo of Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson with Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell: Jason Miller / Getty Images)