Kevin Porter Jr. should have an expanded role next season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and I have two key goals for him in 2020-21.
Throughout much of the 2019-20 season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, rookie Kevin Porter Jr. demonstrated big-time potential as an on-ball creator.
Porter, to a large degree, took on a bigger role on-ball after the Cavs traded bench scoring extraordinaire Jordan Clarkson to the Utah Jazz in late December, and while Clarkson was definitely missed, KPJ did step up.
It was rough that Porter missed a 10-game span in January due to a left knee sprain, and the Cavs’ last three games going then into the novel coronavirus-induced hiatus due to a concussion. Even so, he proved to be one of the Cavs’ most promising young players.
It is somewhat unfortunate that we won’t see Porter in action more in the 2019-20 campaign, as that officially ended on Thursday for Cleveland.
As was expected, the NBA Board of Governors approved the league’s proposal to have the NBA’s top 22 teams be invited to a season resumption at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney World. As far as formatting details for the current season’s resumption, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, you can view those here and also here.
Again, though, in terms of the Cavs’ perspective, their 2019-20 season is in the books, and while it wasn’t a memorable one overall, it was nice to see Collin Sexton, Larry Nance Jr. and Porter, in particular, have productive seasons.
In just 23.2 minutes per game as a first-year reserve, Porter made quite an impact. He had 10.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 0.9 steals per outing, which was a big positive from the season.
Here, we’ll highlight two key goals for 2020-21 for Porter for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and we’ll hit on those now.
The first key goal I have for KPJ is along the lines of him improving his efficiency on pull-ups in his second season.
2020-21 key goal #1 for KPJ for the Cleveland Cavaliers: Having an effective field goal shooting clip of 45.0 percent on pull-ups
Porter showcased impressive finishing ability throughout his rookie season, both in terms of touch with both hands, getting it done with power/ability to finish through contact and due to great body control.
In the restricted area, KPJ was very good for a guard, as he hit 68.7 percent of those shot attempts, per NBA.com’s shooting data.
Clearly as a driver, he can get where he wants the vast majority of the time with his polished handle, and especially in the pick-and-roll game, Porter’s ability to change speeds is invaluable for him.
As the year progressed, Porter’s cutting feel both in settled offense and in transition played a bigger role in him getting quality looks near the goal as well, and hopefully, his growth continues next season in that realm.
Looking at 2020-21 and moving forward, though, KPJ needs to hit his jumpers off-the-bounce more, and whether or not he can improve his pull-up shooting efficiency is the burning question I have for him next season. Granted, I firmly believe he will with more experience.
The first key goal I have for KPJ for 2020-21 is having a 45.0 percent effective field goal shooting clip on pull-ups.
Porter demonstrated even as a rookie he can naturally create space off-the-bounce, seemingly at will, with his handle, and next season, he’d prove to be more dangerous if he’d be able to hit more on his pull-ups.
In 2019-20, KPJ had an effective field goal shooting clip of just 34.0 percent, and that was on a healthy 37.0 percent frequency, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.
Looking at next season, though, considering KPJ hit an encouraging 40.7 percent of his catch-and-shoot three-point attempts, also factoring in his tight handle and being able to generate space consistently, it’d be good to see him more efficient on his pull-ups.
To me, that suggested 45.0 percent effective field goal shooting clip on pull-up attempts seems attainable with him more comfortable, and with feasibly more minutes-share in 2020-21, I’d expect Porter to hit more of those.
That is coincided with the constant threat of him as a driver that is so explosive, too, and with more minutes alongside Sexton, the inside-out threat of Kevin Love and/or feasibly the ever-improving Nance, this goal seems reasonable for KPJ.
It’d prove he’s well on his way, too, and hopefully Porter can hit more than the 25.7 percent of the pull-up triples he hit as a rookie with him more adjusted to the NBA game.
Moving on, the second key 2020-21 goal I have for Porter relates to his passing feel.
2020-21 key goal #2 for KPJ for the Cleveland Cavaliers: Having an assist rate of 17.0 percent
Despite KPJ being a score-first player, his passing feel and ability to hit dump-offs to Nance, Love and later on in the season, Drummond, was really great to see, from my perspective.
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Furthermore, early on after J.B. Bickerstaff took over as Cavs head coach post-All-Star break and before the season’s suspension, Bickerstaff hit on how he wanted to see if KPJ could run some point as the season was set to move along.
With how Porter flashed quality feel for hitting said dump-offs to bigs and cutters, and is capable of hitting spray-outs to shooters, it’d be ideal for him to build on that more next season, and be one of the Cavs’ key playmakers when he’s in there.
Now I’m not suggesting we’ll see KPJ have 6.0-plus assists per game, but with the attention he’ll draw as a driver, it seems feasible for him to have near the 17.1 percent assist rate he had in his last 12 games active, per NBA.com.
So, the second key goal I have for Porter for next season is him having an assist rate of 17.0 percent.
As the season progressed, KPJ’s timing improved to a large degree as a playmaker in terms of his patience in letting cutters come free when operating in the pick-and-roll when helpers came to him, and I’d expect him to continue to build on that next year.
The same also goes for him in terms of finding passes to the strong and weak side corners to pieces such as Cedi Osman, Love/Nance and feasibly Dylan Windler, who did not play at all in 2019-20 due to complications with a stress reaction in his left leg.
Windler, who hit 40.6 percent of his career three-point attempts at Belmont over four years and is a good cutter/pull-up shooter, should mesh well with KPJ next year as the former gets his legs under him I’d imagine, too.
Anyhow, while I still believe the Cleveland Cavaliers seemingly have a strong chance of re-signing the expiring Matthew Dellavedova via team-friendly deal, and I’d expect him to still run things a bunch when on the floor, and Garland/Love/Nance will have their playmaking share, this goal for KPJ is not far-fetched.
It would indicate that KPJ is showing more progression as a playmaker/ball-mover, though, and with what he was showing pre-hiatus in that regard, I don’t see it as being unrealistic.
In addition, Porter had a solid 14.7 percent assist rate overall as a rookie, and while his turnover rate was a bit high at 14.0 percent, he did show improvement when playing more as the year progressed, and in his last 12 games, he only had a turnover rate of 10.2 percent.
In that span, he had 3.2 assists per game, for context, and next season, a similar/bit higher assist total on average would be just fine, if he can hit on his jumpers more, even more so.
Albeit I could see Windler, a solid ball-mover, though, capping KPJ’s assist total to near that 3.2 more, but again, with Porter’s scoring presence, that’d be quite alright.