Cavs: Grading Kevin Porter Jr.’s start to the 2019-20 season

While the production has not come regularly yet for Cleveland Cavaliers rookie wing Kevin Porter Jr., he’s shown us flashes of big-time potential at the beginning of the 2019-20 season.

The pick, via reported trade with the Detroit Pistons, that many analysts had as a sleeper was selected 30th overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

That was Cleveland rookie wing Kevin Porter Jr., who looks to be a project, based on his relative lack of production so far in his rookie season with the Cavs. He has huge upside, and with more meaningful experience, he could develop into of Cleveland’s best players in coming years.

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Once the game starts to slow down for him, then we should start to see the 19-year-old flourish.

In his lone collegiate season at USC, Porter averaged just 9.5 points per game, but on the bright side, did shoot 41.2% from three, as noted by Sports Reference.

Thus far in the 2019-20 season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, according to NBA.com, he’s averaging 7.0 points, to go along with 2.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 20.2 minutes per game.

Porter seemingly caught the eyes of NBA scouts throughout the 2018-19 college basketball season because of his incredible athleticism and explosiveness allowing him to get separation off the dribble, combined with his ability to shoot from the perimeter.

He hasn’t had a strong start to his rookie year, though, as he’s started off a little slow to start the season.

He finally was able to get in to the starting lineup against the New York Knicks on Monday, however, which was a result of star big man Kevin Love being out due to reported back soreness, and reserve big man Larry Nance Jr. was nursing a reported thumb sprain, too. That led to Porter playing the 3 position, with Cedi Osman moving to the 4, and the Cleveland Cavaliers had a tough game, losing 123-105.

In that game, Porter had a career-high of 18 points, and though it was a rough loss, he showed plenty of promise and was able to put his offensive talents on display. He shot six-of-11 from the field, including three-of-six from three-point land, as shown by ESPN.

Coming off Monday’s game, according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, Porter said that it was ‘a moment I’ve been waiting for.'”

Anyway, that promising performance from Porter reminded us that he will be something that we can all look forward to seeing in regards to being a big piece of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ future.

Kevin, in time, can also become a stud on defense. He can sit and mirror opposing perimeter ball-handlers already when dialed in in stretches and due to his raw athleticism allowing him to recover in some instances, he can also make plays in passing lanes.

Porter does have rookie lapses, and will commit unnecessary fouls, though.

That being said, he has the gifts to become a real dangerous threat on both sides of the court, but again that all will take time for the rookie, who only played 22.1 minutes per game at USC, as noted by Sports Reference.

Kevin Porter Jr.’s grade thus far in 2019-20: D

At this point, the grade I feel Porter deserves so far in the 2019-20 season is a D.

He is a rookie and it’s understandable, but he tends to get trigger happy far too often when it comes down to having bad shot selection, and he only has a 44.0% effective field goal percentage, as noted by NBA.com. That shot selection is something he needs to work on, and he definitely will, along with being more disciplined on defense.

I feel like that will also come as the game starts to slow down for him and he learns to pick and choose his own spots that he feels comfortable in and is more sound on defense, though. The sky is truly the limit for Porter, and with him getting more reps, he’ll get better and better.

There is always more to being an NBA player than just having raw athleticism and talent alone; you also need to know all the ins and outs of the game.

Cleveland head coach John Beilein and the coaching staff will help plenty in that way, though. Plus, with the right system and right mentoring, Porter can develop into the player we all know he can be for the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is a really high quality one.