Once Again, The Cavs Have To Dig Deep.

The Cleveland Cavaliers seem to relish a challenge, especially in their first-round playoff series against the New York Knicks.

They blew the home court advantage they gained with their 51 regular season wins by losing game one at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, and after a win to even the series, they put the pressure firmly on themselves this afternoon by getting smoked at Madison Square Garden Friday night, losing 99-79.

It was the lowest point total of the year for any NBA team.

Both teams struggled in the first quarter which ended tied at 17. Jarrett Allen was outstanding, making all three of his shots, grabbing three rebounds, and blocking a shot. On the negative, Darius Garland was awful, missing eight shots, including four three-pointers.

That was followed by a 15 point second quarter. Cleveland was 2 for 19 from beyond the arc at the half, and to us, the crazy stat was that those 19 attempts were almost one-half of their field goal attempts (43).

The Knicks started knocking down closer shots and led by 13 at the half. The wine and gold actually outrebounded New York before intermission26-24.

In the second half, only Caris LeVert (7 of 11, 3 of 7 from three) and Donovan Mitchell, who was 5 of 11 in the first half, and made half of his eight shots in the second, were able to put the ball in the basket.

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff did change the starting lineup, moving LeVert in, replacing Isaac Okoro, but that left the bench with no weapons. The non-starters, excluding garbage time, took just seven shots, making two.

We said (before the game) we would have started Danny Green if he was going to make a change, but frankly, we would have just stayed with Okoro. And although we are usually critical of Okoro, we thought Bickerstaff didn’t play him enough. He was making an impact when he came in during the first half, but only played seven minutes until the game was decided.

Before the series started, we noted Cleveland needed at least one reserve to play well. In game two, LeVert did. With him starting, they need all five starters to produce. They didn’t.

We mentioned earlier that Allen took three shots in the first quarter, making all of them. Unfortunately, those were the only three he took all night, as the Cavs decided to ignore going inside.

Why is that a problem? If you aren’t going to look inside, Evan Mobley only had 10 shot attempts as well, it allows the Knicks’ big men, mostly Mitchell Robinson to have no real defensive responsibility. Robinson was able to block a Mitchell jumper in the first half.

After the game, Bickerstaff said the Cavs had open looks, they just didn’t make them. To us, that’s a rather simplistic view of the game of basketball. True, the wine and gold shot just 38.8% from the floor. But if a team takes a lot of poor shots, they will probably shoot a poor percentage.

Bickerstaff keeps talking about his team’s inexperience, and they haven’t grasped that in the playoffs, every possession is important. You cannot have 20 turnovers, and bad shots are pretty much the same as a turnover.

Here’s what we mean by a bad shot. At the end of the first half, the Cavs were down 40-32 with :40 remaining. They had a chance to keep it close going into the half.

Instead, Mitchell took a three with plenty of time on the shot clock, missed it, and New York came down and hit a three. Then another turnover and a Knick hoop and the Cavaliers were down 13 at the half.

In our mind, Mitchell’s shot is only good if he makes it.Today’s game is the turning point. If Cleveland wins, they regain homecourt advantage and come home with two of the remaining three in downtown Cleveland.

Can the Cavs adjust? Can they get someone out of their bench? Can Garland rebound from a terrible game? The answer to those questions has to be yes.

Cavs Still Have Work To Do In Last Week Of Season

We have reached the last week of the NBA regular season and the Cleveland Cavaliers have just four games remaining.

Their “magic number” to clinch home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs is two, and the four games they have left are against the teams currently in 12th, 13th, and 14th place in the Eastern Conference.

The Knicks are in the fifth position and they play a pair against Indiana (the Cavs’ opponent tonight), the Wizards (11th place), but they have a tough one at New Orleans, who is fighting for their playoff position in the west.

We aren’t putting too much stock Friday night’s loss to New York at home, as we are hoping J.B. Bickerstaff wasn’t about to show Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks’ coach, how he was going to defend G Jalen Brunson.

That’s the only explanation we can come up with because Brunson lit up Cleveland for 48 points.

Bickerstaff went with Donovan Mitchell on Brunson and really didn’t waver from that, but again, in a seven game situation we are sure the Cavs would blitz the Knicks’ point guard and force the ball out of his hands.

Of course, two of the Cavs’ better defenders, Jarrett Allen and Isaac Okoro, did not play but both will be ready when the playoffs start in two weeks. Still, because the Cavs are a team that hangs its hat on the defensive end of the floor, it was a bit startling to see Brunson get 48 points, even though he did take 32 shots.

New York didn’t have Julius Randle, out at least two weeks with an ankle sprain, and we bring this up because we would love to see the Cavs clinch the fourth spot sooner than later because then Bickerstaff can start giving some of his regulars some time off.

We have been saying this for some time, but the Cavaliers are not a particularly deep team and we can see by having Allen and Okoro out forces Bickerstaff to use players he probably wouldn’t want to use in a post-season situation.

And the less playing time the top players for Cleveland get going forward, it would seem to minimize an injury risk.

Our guess is the coaching staff will lean heavily on his four core players (Mitchell, Darius Garland, Allen, and Evan Mobley) a lot in the playoffs, playing each of them 35-40 minutes per night.

Behind this quartet, we would expect Caris LeVert to get the next most court time, likely between 30-35 minutes.

If he goes with the higher amount, that would be 195 minutes out of a possible 240, leaving 45 minutes remaining. Okoro likely gets the majority of the time, around 25-30, probably depending what he is doing on the offensive end.

We would expect Ricky Rubio and Cedi Osman to get what is remaining. Meaning he the Cavs will play eight, which is what most figured all along.

But there still is work to do. The Cavaliers need to win two more games, or less if the Knicks stumble. And they need to get everyone healthy and have them stay that way.

Cavs’ Needed To Make The Playoffs This Year. They Did!

Before the NBA season started, we felt the goal of the Cleveland Cavaliers should be to avoid the “play-in tournament” nonsense that the NBA put in place and get to a seven-game series.

Sunday night’s win over the hapless Houston Rockets clinched that for JB Bickerstaff’s squad. The wine and gold have won 48 games so far, and should hit the 50 win plateau in 2022-23.

How many times in franchise history have they reached that mark without LeBron James on the roster? Well remember, the Cavs did have a pretty good team in the late 80’s and early 90’s, getting 57 wins in 1988-89 and ’91-’92, and had 54 victories in ’92-’93.

It hasn’t happened often.

When Koby Altman pulled the trigger for Donovan Mitchell last summer, we were skeptical. The Cavs’ identity was the big front line last season, and trading Lauri Markkanen took away the unique style Cleveland was playing.

Also, the trade did not address the Cavaliers’ lack of size in the backcourt. They were still starting two small guards.

Watching Mitchell play night in and night out changed our mind. He will make either the second or third team All-NBA this year, and there were games this season where he willed Cleveland to victory.

He’s averaging 4.5 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game in addition to his 27.4 points. And he and Darius Garland have meshed very well. The latter is scored the same as a year ago (21.7 last year, 21.6 this season) and his assists aren’t too far off, down from 8.6 to 7.8.

Mitchell was reportedly a defensive issue in Utah, but he has bought in to Bickerstaff’s defensive mantra and gives effort each and every night.

If anyone questions the deal because of what was given up, we would say if you can get a top 15 player in the league, it would seem to be worth the price.

It will help this young group of Cavaliers, only Mitchell (26), Caris LeVert (28), and Cedi Osman (27) are over 25 among the top eight players in terms of minutes played, to get in a seven-game series to see the intensity of the games, and to make adjustments on a nightly basis.

And that goes for Bickerstaff as well.

Mitchell has played in 39 playoff games in his career, more than Jarrett Allen, LeVert (each with 9), Garland (0), Evan Mobley (0), and Osman (14) combined. No doubt, he will be leaned on heavily to guide the inexperienced guys through the grind.

It could mean a lot for the careers of Garland and Mobley in particular to be exposed to basketball’s post-season.

If the standing hold and the first-round opponent are the New York Knicks, we anticipate it will be a very tough series, and that’s a good thing. There shouldn’t be any more games against the Rockets, Hornets, or Pistons when you get to this point.

The Cavs’ style of play, defense first, controlling the pace should play well in the playoffs. However, teams will focus on Mitchell, so others are going to have to take advantage. And we would love to see Mitchell not settle for the long jump shots and attack the basket more.

He seems unstoppable at times doing that.

It’s been a long time (1997-98) since a Cavaliers’ team without James made the playoffs, so that is not anything to dismiss. They should celebrate the accomplishment. That they didn’t is a good sign for this group.

JB Seems To Want Another Big. Go Get Him One.

Since the middle of this NBA season, we have been concerned about the Cleveland Cavaliers not having enough depth of big men.

They start one of the best duos in the league with Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. But the signing of Robin Lopez is fine if he is going to play once a week for about ten minutes, but if he is pressed into service longer or more frequently than that the Cavs have a problem.

Some folks have the opinion that in the playoffs Allen and Mobley will play about 40 minutes per game, so there is no reason to bring in another player who can handle center or power forward, but we like to have our bases covered.

Allen’s recent eye injury brought the need for another decent big man into focus (no pun intended). Yes, Cleveland has won three of the four games without their starting center, but they lost to Philadelphia, who of course has MVP candidate Joel Embiid.

Lopez got eight minutes the first game Allen was out and the Cavs were a minus 9 in those minutes. He hasn’t been in a game since.

Dean Wade got the opportunity the next game, another win over the lowly Hornets, and he provided no points (on four shots) and more concerning, no rebounds in 19 minutes! The exclamation point is for someone 6’9″ playing that long without accidentally getting a rebound.

Against Philly, coach J.B. Bickerstaff dusted off two-way player Mamadi Diakite, who had played all of 16 games with the Cavs this season, and he played nine minutes, totaling two points and a rebound. He then played 12 minutes in the win over Washington, getting two points, five boards, and picking up five fouls.

We realize there is no question Allen and Mobley will play the bulk of the minutes once the playoffs start. But what if they have to miss time? If it is a long-term injury, the Cavaliers are probably screwed anyway, but what if either has to miss a game? Or one of them gets into foul trouble?

Does Bickerstaff really want to trust Diakite to play 15-18 minutes in the playoff game? And based on the Wizards’ game, could he last 15 minutes without fouling out?

After the Sixers’ game, the coach said he felt the team was short on big men, shorter than he is comfortable in being. So why don’t Koby Altman and Mike Gansey get him another player with the ability to play the #4 or #5 spot?

They used the roster spot created with the Kevin Love buyout to sign another wing, 6’4″ Sam Merrill, who has played in just two games since his arrival on March 3rd. And that was after signing Danny Green on the buyout market. He’s appeared in four games.

We understand Green’s experience may help come playoff time, but why get another wing like Merrill when there is clearly no playing time available for him.

The front office could still go out and get another big man before the playoffs, but they would have to cut someone. Maybe that’s why Diakite has played the last two games, they are seeing if he can be a contributor going forward.

The Cavs have made it a priority to get into the playoffs, the real seven game series playoffs this season. Why not go out and get an insurance policy for the post-season if Allen or Mobley have to miss some time next month?

It just makes too much sense.

Cavs Have Come A Long Way, But It’s OK To Want More

It was just two years ago that the Cleveland Cavaliers finished the shortened 2020-21 season at 22-50, and those 22 victories were the most by the franchise since LeBron James departed for the Los Angeles Lakers after four consecutive Finals appearances.

They’ve come a long way since then, winning 44 games last season and this year stand poised to make their first playoff appearance without James on the roster since 1997-98 when Mike Fratello’s squad went 47-35 and lost in the first round.

This will likely be the best non-LeBron season since 1992-93 when Cleveland went 54-28 and lost in the Eastern Conference semifinals to the Bulls, led by a guy named Michael Jordan.

So big picture, the Cavaliers have made tremendous progress over the last two seasons, going from one of the worst teams in the league to one that right now would have home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

How can anyone complain about that?

It’s a fair question to ask, especially to us, since we have been a little concerned about the play of the Cavs, particularly their bench, which obviously is still a work in progress.

When Koby Altman started the rebuild, it began around lottery pick Collin Sexton, but really made a leap when Altman was able to get Jarrett Allen from Brooklyn in the James Harden move from Houston to Brooklyn.

Since the center arrived, he has averaged 14.6 points and 10 rebounds a game, while providing excellent defense. His presence and the drafting of Darius Garland the same season gave the wine and gold three solid pieces, although Garland had some struggles in his rookie year.

The past two seasons saw the drafting of Evan Mobley and the dealing of Sexton for the more polished Donovan Mitchell, an established three time all-star, adding two more building blocks, giving the Cavs a “core four” as a foundation for success.

That success has arrived, as Cleveland will likely win 50 games this season.

There is an angst that comes with success though. There are no guarantees the Cavaliers will finish in top four of the East next season, so although we don’t want the front office to do anything that will jeopardize success down the road, because Mitchell is the oldest of the core at 26-years-old, but you have to think Altman and GM Mike Gansey could have strengthened the current roster for the stretch run.

We understand the brass wanting to see how the current members on the roster play in important games and post-season ones too, but we also think it’s fair to not expect those guys getting better with higher stakes on the line.

We’ve also been very concerned about the lack of size on the roster besides Allen and Mobley, and Allen’s eye injury brought a spotlight on that. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem he will be out long, but we don’t see Robin Lopez being effective for a long period if he was needed.

And time will tell if J.B. Bickerstaff’s plan to ramp up minutes right now to prepare the players for a heavier workload come the post-season will do just that or will the four most important Cavaliers just be worn down after the regular season.

At some point, we believe the coach will rest Mitchell, Garland, Allen, and Mobley for the playoffs, perhaps in a couple of weeks.

The Cavs have turned it around over the last two seasons and a best-of-seven series will come their way next month. But it’s alright to want more, with the expectation that the best will come in the next couple of seasons.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

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?

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.