Cleveland Cavaliers rookie wing Kevin Porter Jr. praised Cleveland veteran guard Matthew Dellavedova in a big way recently, and in doing so, illustrated how Dellavedova is truly invaluable to the team.
Veteran guard Matthew Dellavedova is one of the more important players for the Cleveland Cavaliers, as KJG contributors have often talked about.
He does a good job of helping players get to the right spots in settled offense, his defensive ball pressure is crucial, and he seems to help young players in their progression.
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When Dellavedova was mostly healthy in the 2018-19 season (after he was traded back here from the Milwaukee Bucks mid-season), the Cavs were better off.
With him on the floor, the ball seems to move much better, and on the defensive end, Dellavedova does a good job of getting through off-ball screens to contest and he prevents penetration in most instances when defending on-ball against opposing guards, which helps everybody else be in better position.
Dellavedova unfortunately dealt with a reported severe concussion in the latter part of the season, and he missed significant time due to that, and also had some knee soreness issues last year, too, which limited his number of games with Cleveland last year to just 36, and for reference, he only appeared in 48 games last season, per NBA.com.
Delly was very effective in his time active with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2018-19 season, as he had 7.3 points in 19.9 minutes per game, and had he been healthier, would’ve realistically led the Cavaliers in assists per game, considering he would have led them with 4.2 helpers per game, whereas big Larry Nance Jr. led qualified Cavaliers in that category with 3.2 per game, per NBA.com.
Heading into the new season, though, it appears that Delly is back to being at full strength, and early on in training camp, which began on Tuesday for the Cavs, Dellavedova’s passing feel and overall outstanding IQ and presence seems to be really be on display, at least according to Cleveland rookie wing Kevin Porter Jr. on Wednesday.
Here’s what Porter had to say about Delly then, per the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“@matthewdelly is the smartest guy I’ve met. His (basketball) IQ is crazy. His pace is crazy, you can’t really teach that. He’s always two steps ahead at all times.” - @Kevinporterjr pic.twitter.com/W0TL8b4gP0
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) October 2, 2019
To me, this speaks volumes about Dellavedova’s impact for new Cleveland head coach John Beilein and the mostly-new coaching staff, along with the other players for Cleveland, and proves why Cleveland should try to ink Delly (who is set to have an expiring contract after the 2019-20 season) to a contract extension before the upcoming season if possible.
We’ve previously hit on how Dellavedova and fellow veteran guard Brandon Knight, who is also expiring but I believe Cleveland should eventually trade considering he could help contenders, both reportedly have helped young Cavs guard Collin Sexton in his development, and along with that, I would think they will both help Cleveland rookie guard Darius Garland in his development (at least in the earlier portion in relation to Knight), too.
I can understand fans maybe thinking Porter’s extremely high praise of Dellavedova is a bit of an overreach, but again, Dellavedova’s feel for the game, toughness, defensive aptitude on the perimeter, along with career 38.1% three-point shooting clip (per Basketball Reference) all play into how he is a really key contributor for the rebuilding Cavs from a culture-setting and leadership standpoint, and again, I hope Delly can be a member of the Wine and Gold a few more years to help Beilein and company, too.
I would think that Dellavedova could develop quality chemistry as the upcoming year progresses with Cleveland’s rookies.
That will likely come with some minutes alongside Garland (who was not able to scrimmage on Wednesday due to foot soreness, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor) on occasion, and feasibly more with rookie wing sharpshooter Dylan Windler when he is fully recovered from his lower leg ailment, which could sideline him from live action for up to six weeks as of Friday, so now about five (per the team), and Porter, as the latter two are both seemingly likely to predominantly come off the bench for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and I’d think could have plenty of minutes with Delly.
Moreover, those comments from Porter again to me highlight just how important Dellavedova is to the Cavs, and how Delly could help build a winning culture alongside Beilein and others in coming years.
Porter’s praise of Dellavedova wasn’t simply the rookie trying to get on Delly’s good side to me, either.