David Nwaba should have a carved out role for Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers got a solid bench perimeter player in David Nwaba and fans will love him.

Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports’ NBA coverage first reported the Cleveland Cavaliers signing of shooting guard David Nwaba (the financials are still undisclosed).

Previously with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Chicago Bulls, Nwaba is a defensive-stopper by trade, as KJG’s Quenton Albertie broke down recently.

Unlike Cleveland’s other core young pieces, he shouldn’t have to be counted on as much as a two-way player.

Rookie point guard Collin Sexton (under tutelage from veteran George Hill), second-year small forward Cedi Osman and restricted free agent Rodney Hood will need to be Cleveland’s primary perimeter creators as the year moves along.

On the other hand, Nwaba’s defensive tenacity should be enough to warrant significant minutes. His lunchpail mentality in coverage of opposing primary ball-handlers (including guards and some wings) is infectious.

Nwaba averaged 7.9 points and 1.5 assists in his first full season in the NBA in 23.5 minutes per game. He’s a non-shooter, and gets a significant amount of his offensive production from transition run-outs after rebounds or opponent mistakes.

He’s not going to contribute a whole lot of production via isolation or pick-and-roll acumen (a la Sexton, Hood, or Kevin Love). Nor is he a spot-up threat, due to a lack of shooting volume from the perimeter.

However, he’s an instinctive scoring cutter, though (like Osman); he graded out in the 72nd percentile, per Synergy. That, coupled with very good leaping ability, is the reason he had a respectable 35 dunks last season, per Basketball-Reference.

As a low-usage rotational piece, he’ll be effective and he’s a good rebounding guard (with 7.1 rebounds per 36 minutes) as well.

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Playing next to a point guard that can make things happen, wing snipers in Kyle Korver and Hood, along with capable shooters in Osman, Channing Frye and Love, should provide cutting lanes for Nwaba.

Nobody on the Bulls had the gravity Love has and a few buckets per game will come if Nwaba is in the right place at the right time.

On the defensive end, he could be a cornerstone for the Cavs and head coach Tyronn Lue.

Nwaba is a sturdy 209 pounds, possesses a seven-foot wingspan and has elite help-side instincts. Cleveland has not had a perimeter defender of his caliber in recent memory.

His length allows him to recover if beaten off the bounce both in isolation and in pick-and-roll coverage. Furthermore, he can make up for missed rotation assignments by teammates and get out to contest hard in the corner.

To that point, he gets his fair share of hustle blocks for (predominantly) a bench player.

In theory, Cleveland could have had this sort of perimeter defender in ex-Cavalier Iman Shumpert but injuries effected his consistency. If Nwaba is healthy (and there’s no evidence that he’s an injury-prone player), he should be a quality defensive piece Lue can deploy to lessen the burden on Cleveland’s scorers and interior defenders.

That’s his clear role in this league: to utilize his athleticism to make it difficult for perimeter players and help the bigs contest interior looks help-side.

He could really excel with not being counted on to do other things, realistically.

For Hood and Osman (guarding 1-3 in spurts and being relied on to score and playmake), they need to produce on both ends.

Sexton and Clarkson have to guard 1’s and 2’s and, like Hood and Osman, be effective on offense for Cleveland for the foreseeable future.

Lastly, Nance and Love (not including the older veterans in Smith and Korver) need to be quality pick-and-roll and post-up defenders in spurts and score as rollers, post-up and spot-up threats.

If Cleveland can improve Nwaba’s offensive game at all, he’d far exceed expectations and could be a huge bonus to a roster getting younger.

With his hustle, particularly on defense, he can set the tone for a new-look Cleveland bench and perhaps show he can have a long career in the NBA.

That would be a great story in itself.