Cavaliers: Analyzing the defensive potential of Kevin Porter Jr.

With the right positioning, Porter can quickly become an impact defender

Porter’s mindset directly impacts his defensive positioning. If he is not going to be a willing defender, he will be consistently out of position, causing him to be a poor defender.

If his mindset is the right one, though, he needs to understand where he needs to be in terms of defensive positioning, in a number of different situations.

First of all, he needs to have the defensive rotations down. The Cavaliers struggled last season when needing to rotate on to open three-point shooters as they allowed opposing teams to knock in 38.0% of three-point attempts, which ranked last in the NBA (per NBA.com).

Porter can immediately improve the Cleveland Cavaliers’ team defense by being solid in closing out on three-point shooters, and when navigating through off-ball screens, though as draft pundits have noted, that is not a key strength of Porter’s at this time, but with quality coaching around him, there’s no reason that can’t improve.

Secondly, Porter needs to use great defensive positioning to continue to show good ability to get in passing lanes as a nearby rotator. If he can continuously be in the correct position on the defensive end of the floor, he can add that in with his natural instincts to get into passing lanes and cause turnovers.

The Cavaliers only forced 12.5 turnovers per game last season, according to NBA.com; only the San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers forced less.

Lastly, in regards to defensive positioning, Porter needs to be aware and be in the proper spot on the defensive end of the floor when he is a help-side defender when defending a pick-and-roll. Not only last season but over the course of the previous few seasons, the Cavaliers gave up way too many uncontested opportunities at the rim because of poor help-side rotations when defending a pick-and-roll, and hopefully mostly-new-look coaching staff can help him in that regard.

Eliminating a good amount of uncontested threes, being in sound position to force a couple of extra turnovers per game, and giving up a couple less uncontested buckets at the rim each game just by being in the proper defensive position would propel the Cleveland Cavaliers’ defense up the NBA pecking order, and Porter seems to have the ability to aid in doing so.