Kevin Porter Jr. at least leading Cavs in bench scoring seems like safe bet

Kevin Porter Jr. is just getting started for the Cleveland Cavaliers and his stock will continue to rise.

The star potential is there for Cleveland Cavaliers youngster Kevin Porter Jr., who made quite an impression as a rookie. In his 2019-20 campaign, he had 10.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 0.9 steals per outing in 23.2 minutes per game.

For a rookie that only started four games in his collegiate career at USC and had 9.5 points per outing, that was impressive. That said, the talent was clearly there for Porter, and going forward, he’s one of the Cavs’ most promising young players.

KPJ could end up becoming a star down the road for the Cavaliers, considering the handle, space-creating ability, athleticism, driving/finishing package and passing feel he possesses.

Him having an assist rate of 17.1 percent in his last 12 games before the novel coronavirus-induced hiatus and what would ultimately be the end of 2019-20 for Cleveland was notable to me, too.

Granted, it is evident that for the Cavs next season, we’ll see KPJ’s scoring have an uptick, and maybe a consider one.

Moreover, Porter at least leading the Cleveland Cavaliers in bench scoring seems like a safe bet.

It would seem to be a safe bet that in 2020-21, with an expanded role, that KPJ leading the Cavs’ regular bench pieces in scoring will be the case.

Now, I could see Porter maybe overtake Cedi Osman at the starting 3 at some point, given that he more than held his own at that position as a rookie and is a much more talented player on-ball, but I can’t guarantee that. Nor could I say Porter will potentially play the starting 2 with Collin Sexton being the de facto starting 1 with Darius Garland moving to a bench lead guard role.

Garland was underwhelming in the scoring sense as a rookie with only 12.3 points per game, but with him progressing and getting more comfortable in the 2020 portion of the schedule, I believe he could very well bounce back in year two.

He should be fully ready to roll and won’t have his collegiate injury in the back of his mind, as he seemed to as a rookie, according to a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.

Regardless, I’d still expect Porter to have plenty of burn alongside Garland and/or Sexton in his next season, and seemingly play over half of games either way in a key on-ball role often. Along those lines, in his last 16 games, Porter played in an average of 26.2 minutes per contest.

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In that final stretch of his season, which unfortunately ended with him missing Cleveland’s last three games pre-stoppage due to a concussion, KPJ put up 13.1 points per game.

That was on 44.6 percent shooting, and even a 38.8 percent hit rate from three-point land on 4.2 attempts per game, per Basketball Reference. That was still in mostly off the bench, though, for context.

Anyhow, with him almost certainly having an increased workload as an on-ball initiator for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2020-21, it seems to be a safe bet that KPJ will be the Wine and Gold’s leading bench scorer.

That’s also factoring in Porter being a highly capable spot-up threat as well, as he established as a rookie.

Last season, excluding mid-season trade departure Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr., who had a career-best 10.1 points per game, led regular bench contributors for Cleveland in scoring in 2019-20.

I’d again expect Nance, who has made continued strides offensively, to keep progressing, but I would imagine we’ll see Porter take more of an on-ball scoring role, with Nance, also a highly capable passer, feeding KPJ fairly often, too.

Dylan Windler, who while he hasn’t played yet with Cleveland, could be a knockdown shooting reserve on the wing, and I’d expect him to be a key rotational piece in coming years.

Windler is a solid secondary playmaker, too, and could end up being the Cavs’ best cutter, but Windler, who missed all of 2019-20 due to complications involving a stress reaction in his left leg, will take some time to adjust.

Even with me believing he could have a growing on-ball role as next season progresses, he’s not going to have nearly the on-ball workload of Porter, either. Also, potential bench pieces such as Auburn’s Isaac Okoro, who I could see starting at the 3 due to his defense, though, or USC’s Onyeka Okongwu could factor into that.

Albeit again, with Porter’s driving ability and polished handle, to go with his catch-and-shoot prowess and likely growing pick-and-roll ball handling workload, I see him at least leading the Cavs’ more regular bench pieces in scoring in 2020-21. 13.5 points per contest or so would seemingly do so, and I’d expect KPJ to have that.

Whether or not Porter does end up taking a starting role as next season progresses is unclear to me at this point, but either way, he seems likely to play at least half of games in a combination of lineups. In those, he will always be a key scoring threat.

More importantly, with KPJ getting increased burn next season, his impact will be felt more and more game-to-game.

In coming years if he can become more consistent, though, and develop further defensively, he could end up fulfilling his star potential. In turn, he could be definitely be a high-end starter on the perimeter at the 2 or even 3 if he can fill out.

In any case, a floor of a bench bucket-getter does seem feasible for Porter, and I believe we’ll see that even next season in reasonably over half of Cleveland’s games. He’d again still get plenty of burn.