Time For Cavs’ Bench To Step Up

On February 13th, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the San Antonio Spurs to extend their winning streak to seven games and raise their record to 38-22.

Since then, the Cavs have played six halves of basketball and of those six, one-third of them have bee ghastly.

The last game before the all-star break was against another Eastern Conference contender for a home court advantage spot in the first round of the playoffs in the Philadelphia 76ers, and the wine and gold were overmatched in the first half, trailing 63-38 at intermission.

The Sixers hit 8 of 15 three point shots, and the Cleveland bench plus Isaac Okoro shot 4 of 13 from the floor and hit a lone shot from behind the arc in seven attempts.

Cleveland rebounded to outscore the Sixers 74-55 in the second half, but Philly shot 5 of 12 in the second half from three-point range. The Cavaliers not named Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen, and Evan Mobley scored six points on two of six shooting.

J.B. Bickerstaff’s squad played a more complete game at home against Denver in the first game after the break, but still dropped a game to the Western Conference leaders. But the Nuggets torched the Cavs from long range, hitting 17 of 36 threes, including 10 of 18 in the second half.

For the game, Cleveland hit just 6 of 26 long-range shots. The Cavs’ bench plus Okoro made just one three-point shots in nine attempts.

The Cavaliers went to Atlanta on Friday and laid another egg on the road, getting overmatched by the Hawks in the first half, heading into the locker room down 81-57. The bench bunch contributed just 10 points in the first half on 3 of 14 shooting and the Hawks made seven of their dozen three-point attempts.

For the game, Atlanta hit 15 of 28 from beyond the arc.

The Cavs have prided themselves on their defense over the past two years, but in the last three games, they’ve allowed 123 points per game and created a huge halftime hole for themselves in the two of those contests.

We have pointed out all season long that the Cavs’ recipe for victory is the “Big Four” to play well and have at least two players from the second unit have solid games. Over the last three games, they have gotten little from the substitutes.

Caris LeVert is the #1 reserve for Cleveland, but in the last three games, he has scored just 11 points total on 5 of 10 (1 for 6 from three) shooting. He has to score for the Cavs to be successful.

Dean Wade has five points taking just five shots. Okoro, who starts but isn’t one of the four principal players has 13 points on 4 of 12 shooting (2 of 7 from distance).

The best reserve has been Cedi Osman, who missed the Sixers’ game, but has averaged 7.5 points in the two others.

Somebody simply has to step up for Cleveland to win.

Another issue has been Mitchell’s long-distance shooting. Cleveland’s lone all-star shot 41% from distance through December but has hit just 33.5% since the calendar changed to 2023. We know he’s been bothered by a sore groin, but his three ball isn’t falling, he has to get to the basket more.

We understand how the regular season has very few games, but tonight’s is a big one for Bickerstaff’s club. They need a win and they’ve lost to the Raptors in all three games between the two teams.

The bench bunch has to get it going starting tonight. And the point guards need to get LeVert going early. The team needs his scoring and ability to create shots to be successful.

Love’s Time Here = Sacrifice

We discussed the Cavaliers’ decision to let Kevin Love go previously and wanted to take the time today to discuss his tenure with the wine and gold.

By now everyone knows Love has signed with the Miami Heat, meaning he is also taking his talents to South Beach, only he didn’t have a primetime special to announce it.

The Cavs have a back-to-back coming up in a couple of weeks (March 8th and 10th) in Miami, and hopefully Love doesn’t play a factor if Cleveland loses either of the two contests.

Time really flies because Love has been with the Cavaliers for nine seasons. It just seems hard to believe.

We would maintain no player ever sacrificed more than Kevin Love. We aren’t talking about money here, because as we all know, Love was paid very handsomely to stay in Cleveland after LeBron James and Kyrie Irving departed. No, we are discussing how he sacrificed his stats in order to win.

When Love arrived in town, he was coming off a 2nd team All-NBA season with Minnesota in which he averaged 25.9 points and 12.4 rebounds per game. He averaged 18.3 shots, and the previous three years with the Timberwolves, got between 17.4 and 18.3 shots with them.

He was also 2nd team All-NBA in 2011-12. Since Irving was 3rd team All-NBA in 2014-15, people should realize Love, not Irving, was the more accomplished player when the deal was made to send the first overall pick in Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett to the Wolves for Love.

Love had to make the difficult transition from being the best player on a mediocre team, the Wolves were 40-42 in his last season up north, to being the second or third option on a team with title aspirations. His shots per game dropped to 13.5 per game with the Cavaliers.

There were some adjustments for Love and we all remember the “fit in” of “fit out” comments by James in Love’s first year in town. But in the end, it worked out with four straight Finals appearances.

His minutes also dropped. Some of that was due to the Cavs blowing teams out and some was due to nagging injuries, but he was playing 36 minutes with Minnesota, and his high with Cleveland was his first season here at 33.8 minutes.

Ultimately, Love did make two all-star games with the Cavs, bringing his career total to five. They were in the last two years of “the LeBron era”, 2016-17 and 2017-18 when he 19.0 points (his Cavalier high) and 11.1 boards, and 17.6 and 9.3 respectively.

After he signed the extension to remain here, injuries became more prevalent, and he played just 22 games in the first year after James signed in LA, but he did play 56 of the 65 games in the pandemic season of 2019-20, scoring 17.6 points and getting 9.8 rebounds per game.

Last season, he remade himself as a sixth man, the leader of the second unit, playing in 74 games and scoring 13.6 points as well as grabbing 7.2 caroms in just 22.5 minutes a night. The reduced minutes kept him healthier and he was a key part of a resurgence for the franchise, with their first year over the .500 mark since they went to four straight NBA Finals.

If you want to remember Kevin Love as a Cavalier, remember he was the ultimate teammate. He did the things, the “little things” teams need to be done in order to be successful. He probably could have continued to put up huge numbers, but he wanted to win.

And he was a huge part of putting the only championship banner for the franchise in 2016.

Thank you and fans here will always be appreciative.

Can’t See The Wisdom In Love Buyout

We don’t like giving up on athletes who can still play.

That’s why we are having a hard time wrapping our head around the Cleveland Cavaliers’ decision to reach a buyout agreement with Kevin Love.

We do understand that Love is a defensive liability, he can no longer guard quicker guards on the perimeter. Look at the top scorers in the NBA. Nobody can guard them because mostly, you aren’t allowed to play defense in the league anymore.

Damian Lillard is averaging 31.4 points, Ja Morant 27.3, Donovan Mitchell, Kyrie Irving, and Trae Young are all averaging over 26.5 per contest. These are all talented players, but under today’s rules, they are very difficult for anybody to guard on the perimeter.

The consensus among people we know and we read is that Love can still play in the league and at a solid level. And we have an issue that J.B. Bickerstaff basically made him an outsider.

Just a little over a month ago, on New Year’s Eve and on January 2nd, in back-to-back victories over the Bulls, Love had games of 20 points and nine rebounds and followed it up with 12 points and 17 boards. We don’t think the veteran lost it in a six-week period.

That’s not a criticism of Bickerstaff either. Every coach does some things that we would do differently, it doesn’t mean we want that guy fired.

Bickerstaff is a defense-first coach. When he took over, we felt the Cavaliers as an organization didn’t have an identity, the coach established that defense was going to be the trademark of the wine and gold.

And certainly, Dean Wade gives the Cavs better perimeter defense than Love. We have said before that we believe Wade is underrated for his ability to guard and overrated for his shooting.

In the 14 games Wade has played since he returned from his shoulder injury, he’s averaging 4.4 points and 3.3 rebounds per game, shooting 44% from the floor and 35% from three. Love is shooting 35% from three, despite a hand injury that occurred early in the season.

When Love was benched on January 26th, we thought it was to give his thumb, which he fractured in mid-November, an extended rest to finally heal, and for him to get his shot back on track. In January, his three-point shooting had dropped to 22.9%.

We don’t like the “per 36 minutes” statistic, but Love was still rebounding, with the second-best rate on the team, behind only Evan Mobley.

Maybe Bickerstaff could have cut Love’s minutes a bit and still kept him in the rotation, maybe giving him less minutes in the second half of games when defense is at a premium.

Again, going back to the first line in the piece, we hate giving up players who can still contribute if you don’t have to.

Also, Love’s defensive issues are due to the seemingly idiotic way the NBA plays the pick and roll these days, switching on everything. In our opinion, that’s allowing the offense to dictate your defense. It simply makes no sense. Every team wants their guard against an opposing big man, or to put it more simply a quicker player vs. someone who can move as well.

It’s also troublesome that the two teams who are most interested in securing Love’s services are teams very near the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference standings: Philadelphia and Miami.

That should tell the Cavs’ front office this wasn’t handled correctly.

No Trades For Cavs, But Green Is Coming. Anyone Else?

The Cleveland Cavaliers seemed to have found an elixir to their January malaise and have reeled off six straight victories, pushing them into fourth place in the Eastern Conference, which would give them home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

It was a bit surprising that Koby Altman and Mike Gansey did not pull off a trade at the deadline, mostly because only four teams in the league did not make a deal.

As we have been saying over the last month, we felt the Cavs needed a big more than a wing heading into the post-season, but the front office didn’t do that either, although it looks as though Cleveland will be signing veteran free agent Danny Green, recently traded from Memphis to Houston, and then bought out by the Rockets.

Green has only played three games this season, recovering from a knee injury, but he brings some length at the wing position and he’s a career 40% shooter from three-point range. Cleveland could use another reliable shooter from outside.

Green’s signing will take place after he passes through waivers, which should happen later today.

It will be interesting to see if Altman grabs another big man that comes available on the buyout market.

Right now, the Cavaliers have Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley starting at center and power forward, respectively, but they really don’t have anyone else with size that they can trust with meaningful minutes.

The team’s third big is probably 6’9″ Dean Wade, who is more of a wing to our way of thinking. He plays more offensively and defensively on the perimeter, and he is a very good defender out there. Kevin Love has fallen out of the rotation and although he still can rebound, he doesn’t match up with many opposing big men who operate in the paint.

Robin Lopez is still on the roster but doesn’t have the lateral quickness needed to defend in today’s NBA. We wondered the other night why Bickerstaff didn’t use him when the Bulls put Andre Drummond in the game. There aren’t many players he could match up against.

We were interested in Dewayne Dedmon, recently let go by Miami, but he decided to sign with the Sixers, just ahead of the wine and gold in the standing. Dedmon is a seven-footer who played in 30 games with the Heat, scoring 5.6 points and grabbing 3.7 boards. And over the past couple of years, he’s developed a little range from behind the arc, hitting 11 of 37 threes this season.

If J.B. Bickerstaff could get five minutes a game out of an added big man, that’s an extra two and a half minutes of rest for Allen and Mobley per game for the rest of the season. And if one of them has to miss a game, there’s a legitimate big man to substitute in.

It’s seems to us that this recent hot stretch has featured Mobley and Allen more on the offensive end, the Cavaliers are making a concerted effort to get them the ball early in games so they can work inside out. The pair and making 55.4% and 65.3% of their shots from the floor respectively.

The Cavs are going to need their two big men in the playoffs and getting them even a little more rest during the remaining schedule should help them in April and May. Especially because both are so active defensively.

Does the front office feel the same way?

LeVert Is A Very Important Piece For Cavs

Basketball is a different sport. It’s the only sport where you have to transition from offense to defense or vice versa on a moment’s notice. It’s also a sport where you can execute a play perfectly, and the shooter misses a shot or you can do everything wrong, and a player puts a ridiculous shot in the hoop.

It’s also a sport where too many people look at numbers and think about how the player with those statistics can fit in with their team.

That was the case when the Cavaliers traded for Kevin Love prior to the 2014-15 season. Many people assumed Love would put up the same 26 points and 12.5 rebounds he did for the Timberwolves, but Love was the primary offensive option on Minnesota, and he would be the third scoring option in Cleveland, after LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.

Love scored ten points less per game in his first season here and grabbed three less boards. But the Cavs went to the NBA Finals, the first of four consecutive trips.

We believe that is why fans were so critical of Love in his early tenure with the wine and gold. They expected more than the player could have produced considering he was no longer the best player on the team.

For the most part, Love understood and did his job, and was rewarded when the Cavs won a title.

We think the same is true for Caris LeVert, another player we don’t think Cavalier fans appreciate enough. When LeVert came over from Indiana last season, he was scoring 18.9 points per game and was the primary perimeter scorer (the Pacers also had Domantis Sabonis at the time) for the Pacers.

He was hurt shortly after he arrived in town and averaged 13.6 points a game with the wine and gold. Our guess is people expected him to score the same 19 points he did in Indiana, but the Pacers didn’t have a player like Darius Garland.

His role changed again when the Cavs acquired Donovan Mitchell. Coach J.B. Bickerstaff started him a small forward to start the year, but they agreed he would be better coming off the bench.

He’s not a great three-point shooter, which seems to be the fixation of all fans these days, but he still is very important for the Cavs because he is one of the few players, and the only member of the second unit, that can create his own shot. And believe us, that’s very important come playoff time.

Besides LeVert, the only players on the Cleveland roster who can create their own are Mitchell and Garland.

He’s also shooting the three ball at a career best 37.6% and he’s not just a scorer, averaging four rebounds and four assists per game. And he’s the tallest guard (6’6″) on the roster.

In short, even though his numbers aren’t where they were in Indiana (again, circumstances), he provides the Cavs with a unique set of tools. Meaning he is very important to the team.

We’ve been saying since the beginning of the year the Cavaliers have six proven players, and Caris LeVert is one of those six. Be careful about wanting to move him.

The problem all along were the expectations of what LeVert could be vs. the player he is. And he is a very good player.

Instead Of A Deal, Maybe Go With Cedi?

The Cleveland Cavaliers sit fifth in the Eastern Conference with a 32-22 record, but the way they have played recently have uncovered some roster weaknesses.

We have been saying for a few months the Cavs aren’t very deep and outside of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, they aren’t very big either.

They start two small guards, both listed a 6’1″ and their starting power forward is 6’5″ Isaac Okoro, who at best is inconsistent on the offensive end of the floor.

It recently occurred to us that the J.B. Bickerstaff has a very good option to start at the three on the roster. And that man is veteran Cedi Osman.

Let’s first say, it’s not a perfect solution because thoughout his NBA career, Osman has been the poster person for inconsistency. He started the season with 62 points in the first four games of the season. In his next 11 contests, he scored 58 points. However, in that stretch, he did have two games where he played three and seven minutes in a game, respectively.

He’s had eight games where he’s played less than 10 minutes in a game and two others where he didn’t play at all, so the commonsense feeling would be the player isn’t one of the coach’s favorites. His minutes have dropped since Bickerstaff took over as head coach. Yes, the team is also better, but you have to wonder.

But think about it. Maybe it’s time to put Osman in the starting lineup and see what happens.

First, Osman would give the Cavs a bigger player at the small forward spot, he’s listed at 6’7″. He’s not as good defensively as Okoro, but he’s a solid defender. Remember, Tyronn Lue used to use Osman when he needed a defensive stop at times early in the Turkish player’s career.

He’s a very good passer too. We think the six-year veteran has been miscast by the organization as a three-point shooter, when at Cedi’s core, he’s a slasher/playmaker. That’s the role he plays on the Turkish National Team.

And even though we said his shot was inconsistent, he’s a career 35% shooter from behind the arc, and outside of a 31% season in 2020-21, his percentage from long distance has been between 34.8 and 38.3 percent. Our point is he is a much bigger threat from the perimeter than Okoro or Lamar Stevens.

Hopefully, when Kevin Love returns, his thumb will be better and he can provide offense off the bench, so between him, Caris LeVert and Ricky Rubio, there should be enough fire power on the second unit. And Okoro and Stephens are still there to provide a defensive boost.

Okoro is playing well as a starter, but opposing teams still ignore him when he’s outside. They couldn’t do that with Osman.

Besides, on the offensive end, what does Okoro do better than Cedi?

And moving Osman into the #3 spot might just eliminate a wing as need heading into the trading deadline, and the front office could focus on getting another big to help them.

Perhaps a move like this would shake the wine and gold out of the malaise they’ve been in since the calendar switched to 2023. It’s doubtful it could hurt.

A Week Before Trade Deadline, Will Cavs Shore Up Holes?

The NBA trading deadline is a week from today and no team may be more in need of making a move than the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Of course, Koby Altman pushed most of his chips to the center of the table this summer getting Donovan Mitchell from Utah, and Mitchell has been sensational, averaging 27.6 points per game, and providing leadership for the young Cavs.

As we have said before, over the past couple of months, the wine and gold have been a bit stagnant, they didn’t win back-to-back games in the month of January. There is no question some veteran NBA teams kind of go through the motions prior to Christmas, but they start getting a little more serious when the calendar changes to the new year.

However, the Cavaliers are not a veteran team, they still need to establish themselves as one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference. We said before the season started that making the “play-in” tournament was not good enough in 2022-23.

If the organizational goal is to finish in the top six in the East, guaranteeing a seven-game series, then Altman needs to make a move. We said before the season started that the top-heavy roster had four real good players (Mitchell, Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen, and Evan Mobley).

They have three solid bench players in Kevin Love, Caris LeVert, and Ricky Rubio. Love has struggled since injuring his thumb and Rubio is just coming off knee surgery. As for the rest of the bench, it is filled with one dimensional players.

Isaac Okoro is a very good defender with limited offensive skills. Lamar Stevens is a good defender and knows his offensive limitations and usually plays accordingly. Dean Wade is a better defender than he gets credit for and isn’t as good of an offensive player for the reputation he has gained around town.

Right now, we think Cedi Osman should be the starting three and give him an extended shot. Osman has the size to play the spot (Okoro and Stephens are undersized), is a very good passer, and although he is streaky, he can drive to the basket.

And he’s willing to shoot, something Wade is reticent to do at times.

And the only one of these players who is truly young is Okoro, who is 22. The others are 25 and older, which would seem to mean they are what they are.

So overall, this roster just isn’t deep enough to be a serious playoff contender. We would guess that Altman and Mike Gansey know this as well. The question is can the Cavs make a move prior to the trade deadline that will bring another solid, dependable player for Bickerstaff to use.

It’s a delicate balance because the Cavs are still a very young team, but they would most definitely benefit from getting in a seven game playoff series, even if they don’t survive it. Getting Mitchell would seem to be the sign the real playoffs are the goal this season.

The Cavs fast start drew notice around the league, and the better teams in the league are preparing better to play them. The front office has a week to adjust back by adding more talent to the roster.

Cavs Treading Water. Size And Shooting Need To Be Better

Former NFL coach Bill Parcells is famous for winning Super Bowls with the New York Giants and for saying “you are what your record says you are”, meaning teams and fans alike shouldn’t sit around talking about games they could’ve won with the right breaks.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are 30-21, sitting in the fifth spot in the Eastern Conference standings. However, they started the season 8-1, so in their last 42 games, a little over half the season, they are 22-20, roughly a .500 basketball team.

Now, we cannot erase that early season hot streak, but it did set the expectations high for some in both the local and national media.

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff has established a defensive mind set for the wine and gold, and even in today’s high scoring NBA, Cleveland’s 107.1 points allowed is the best in the league.

GM Koby Altman made a big swing in the off-season, trading for all-star Donovan Mitchell, and the former Louisville standout has been tremendous. He deservingly will start in the All-Star Game next month and should finish in the top ten in the league’s MVP voting.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised with the club’s record over the last 42 games, because this roster is far from complete.

After last season’s big lineup of Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, and Lauri Markkanen, the Cavs have little size on the roster this season. Markkanen went in the Mitchell trade and flourished, and we understand, he had to be moved to complete the deal, but Altman didn’t replace him.

The only big man the Cavaliers signed in the off-season was veteran Robin Lopez, who can no longer be a regular contributor at 34 years old. He doesn’t have the lateral quickness to get minutes in today’s game.

Kevin Love is really the only solid reserve big man, and despite his shooting slump, probably due to a fractured thumb suffered earlier in the year, still grabs seven a night in 20 minutes of play. Dean Wade is 6’9″, and is a solid defender, but he’s more of a three-point specialist, and gets only 3.7 caroms in more minutes per game as Love.

Cleveland still plays with a very small backcourt, both Mitchell and Darius Garland are listed at 6’1″, although Mitchell plays bigger. The players who play the small forward spot, besides Wade, are all 6’5″ (Isaac Okoro), 6’6″ (Caris LeVert and Lamar Stephens), or 6’7″ (Cedi Osman)

In Friday’s loss at Oklahoma City, yes, Cleveland had Allen and Mobley, the two best bigs on the court, but had little size available after that.

Rumors have the Cavs interested in Portland’s Josh Hart, a good player, but only 6’5″ and not a particularly great three- point shooter.

For Cleveland to head back in the right direction, we believe they need to add some size. For all the talk about “3 and D” guys, the Cavaliers need another big man to provide size when Allen or Mobley aren’t on the floor.

And they still need a wing with some size beside Osman, who has proven by now to be a streaky player. Of all the players Bickerstaff uses at the “3”, only Wade has a good three-point shooting percentage (41.8%), but he’s streaky as well. He’s 14 of 22 in his three best games this season, and 14 of 45 (31.1%) in every other contest.

We aren’t saying we wouldn’t have made the Mitchell deal, when you have a chance to get a top 10 or 15 player in the league, you do it. But it seems like Altman ignored the reason for the team’s success last season, and that is size.

If the Cavaliers can swing a deal at the deadline, that should be their focus. They continue to have a top-heavy roster, four stars and very little else.

Avoiding the play-in tournament may have to be the goal, not getting a first round home series.

Things That Worry Us About The Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost Wednesday in a close game against Memphis without Donovan Mitchell and then lost at home to Golden State, who didn’t play their starters, on Friday. Both losses really bothered us, but for different reasons.

The first loss was because of their awful final possession, down by one, with 16 seconds left. J.B. Bickerstaff had a timeout remaining, but eschewed using it, choosing to let the players make a play. Bad decision.

Darius Garland just dribbled, waiting for an opportunity to penetrate, and wound up taking a three-pointer that was blocked. To us, it was the perfect time to run some action to get someone open, perhaps an off the ball screen.

To be fair, many teams in the NBA would’ve made the same choice, but that doesn’t make it the right choice.

And Friday night, the Cavs just didn’t show up, apparently deciding before the game that they would win, and then not putting forth the effort to do so. They are outrebounded by 10 in the game. Bickerstaff was correct to be upset afterwards.

We are a bit concerned because this is when the Cavaliers kind of fell apart a year ago, although injuries were a factor. They beat Indiana on February 11th last season to raise their record to 35-21. They went 9-17 the rest of the year.

This season, Cleveland has gone 6-8 over their last 14 contests, and just this past week played two games vs. teams without multiple starters (New Orleans and Golden State) and didn’t get off to good starts. They had a strong fourth quarter to beat the Pelicans.

And although the Grizzlies game wound up close, Memphis did have a 20-0 run in the second quarter.

The Cavaliers have a good team, they probably aren’t ready to win the NBA title, but they could be good enough to get home court advantage in the first round. They might have one of the best starting lineups in the league, starting three players who have made All-Star teams (Mitchell, Garland, and Jarrett Allen) as well as Evan Mobley, a defensive force (so is Allen) in just his second year.

Their bench is somewhat inconsistent, but they still have Caris LeVert, who is a good player, veteran Kevin Love, who although he has been in a shooting slump, is still a very good rebounder, and Cedi Osman has his moments. Lamar Stevens is a solid defender, and Ricky Rubio has just come back from knee surgery.

But they have become very guard reliant, which is odd because of the presence of Allen and Mobley. The teams’ leaders in shot attempts are Mitchell (20.2), Garland (16.7) and LeVert (11.0), all of whom are primarily guards.

Mobley is next at 10.6 followed by Allen at 8.9. The two starting big men, along with reserves Kevin Love, Cedi Osman, and Lamar Stevens take about as many shots combined as the trio of guards.

So, we very much liked last night when Mobley took 27 shots, making 19 in scoring a career-high 38 points. We’d like to see more of this.

This isn’t to minimize how great Mitchell has been this year, but it might open things up more for the guards, if the Cavs worked the ball inside more often for the bigs. After all, Mobley does shoot 55.7% from the floor, and Allen knocks down 63% of his attempts.

Hopefully, the Cavs get things straightened out sooner than later. Bickerstaff likes to talk about the grit of his squad, but they haven’t shown much of it in the past few weeks. It needs to come back before the same swoon that took place last year occurs again.

The On-Going Okoro Discussion

There is probably no more debated player on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ roster than Isaac Okoro. The “media influencers” who work for the Cavs are consistently telling us whenever he performs well.

It reminds us of when Danny Ferry was here, and the franchise’s PR department was fully invested in telling everyone they did not make a colossal mistake.

We are not putting Okoro in that class, but the fact remains the organization overdrafted him when he was selected fifth overall in the 2020 draft. He was a defensive player, and not a shot blocker or rim protector, and those players tend not to be picked that high.

Why? Because wings have to be able to produce offensively, and Okoro may get to be that player at some point, but his rookie contract will likely be up before that happens, and the Cavs’ front office will have to make a decision on whether or not to give him an extension, one that would be tough to justify committing big dollars.

The hype surrounding the third-year player now is his three-point shooting, which since the calendar changed to 2023, has been good, as he has made 11 of 20 from distance. However, that’s what is called a small sample size, as it includes just eight games.

Overall, for the season, Okoro is making 31.5% of his threes, which is fourth worst on the roster, ahead of only Lamar Stevens (who has taken 50, compared to 89 for Okoro), and big men Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.

And in this recent stretch, the former Auburn Tiger has made more than one long distance shot in a game just twice, making four of six in the blowout win over the Suns and two of three in Saturday’s loss to Minnesota.

We would all like Okoro to become Cleveland’s version of P.J. Tucker, a very good defender who is lethal with the corner three. Tucker, though, knocks down 38% of his long-distance shots. And for the mathematically challenged, 38% is much better than 30.6%.

Plus, it still seems to us like Okoro is a reluctant shooter, meaning he doesn’t have much confidence in his shot. That’s why defenses still have decided to ignore him when he is standing beyond the arc.

It wouldn’t be so bad if Okoro developed a reliable mid-range game, but from three to ten feet, he’s made just 9 of 27 shots from the floor, and from 16 feet to the three-point line, he’s taken just one shot.

Overall, he’s taken 103 jump shots on the season, making just 32 (31.1%). Let us ask this question…if you were the opposing team, wouldn’t you leave him open?

This is not to say Okoro doesn’t have ability. He is a very good defender, and that is valuable in today’s NBA. But it is tough to put him out there for long stretches because he becomes a burden offensively. What we mean is because opponents don’t need to guard him, they can help on Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and the big guys inside.

The way to combat that is good ball movement because a passed ball moves faster than a dribbled ball. Unfortunately, the Cavs seem to forget that sometimes.

It’s also why the wine and gold could use another shooter at the trade deadline if they can get one. And it would not be a shock if Okoro was included in the deal.