Cavs: Chris Brickley’s post shows Kevin Porter Jr. is oozing with talent

Cleveland Cavaliers youngster Kevin Porter Jr. is poised for a big leap forward.

It’s evident that the Cleveland Cavaliers received plenty of positive signs from Kevin Porter Jr.‘s play as a rookie. In his 23.2 minutes per outing, he had 10.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 0.9 steals per contest, and got better as the season wore on.

In his last 18 games active, Porter had 12.4 points per outing also. And though him missing a 10-game stretch in January due to a knee sprain and what would ultimately be Cleveland’s last three games due to a concussion was unfortunate, post-Jordan Clarkson being traded to the Utah Jazz, Porter had more opportunities.

Looking at his second season, while we’ll have to see if he’ll eventually move to a starting role, albeit I still wouldn’t think so for a good chunk, Porter will at least be a key bench scorer.

Regardless, he should end up playing a bunch in closing stretches and/or over half of games. Him having an assist rate of 14.7 percent, and 17.1 percent in his last 12 games, jumped out to me, too. KPJ should be able to ease the burden on Darius Garland and Collin Sexton in that sense I firmly believe.

But make no mistake, Porter should be getting buckets in bunches, first and foremost, next season.

And this recent Instagram post from NBA trainer Chris Brickley, whose worked with countless NBA players, and stars even, showcased how Porter is such a talented player that’s probably just barely scratched the surface. Brickley believes Porter is “one of the best iso wings in the league.”

As Brickley’s post showed, KPJ is oozing with talent for the Cavs.

Porter needs to be more efficient as a shooter in 2020-21, as on jumpers, he had an effective field goal shooting clip of 41.8 percent on those, per NBA.com’s shooting data. But it’s clear that while his isolation efficiency wasn’t necessarily fantastic in his first season, as he placed in the 38th percentile in that metric, per Synergy Sports, the kid is oozing with talent.

Now, I took Brickley’s comments with a grain of salt, in this case, albeit they highlighted how KPJ is such a gifted on-ball creator, and his role should expand in his second year. Now again, you’d like to see Porter become more efficient with his jumper in year 2, though, but we did see plenty of flashes of impressive shooting from him off-the-bounce.

Brickley’s post hitting on KPJ’s “iso” play also led me to one particular ability of Porter that is so advanced in on-ball creation: the way the youngster changes speeds allows him to generate space so effortlessly. For a 20-year-old then-rookie, that really stood out throughout games.

Overall, Porter’s explosiveness, handle, shake, body control and ambidextrous finishing capabilites near the rim play into why Brickley and those within the Cavs seem to be so high on what the USC product can become in the near future if he keeps developing.

Moreover, though he needs to improve on his three-point shooting in a general sense, Porter hitting 40.7 percent of his catch-and-shoot three-point attempts, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data, was another key positive. And him making further strides as a catch-and-shoot player/further proving himself in that would only make him more dangerous in iso/on-ball situations on the perimeter, too.

Playing into that, Porter connected on 68.7 percent of his shots in the restricted area as a rookie guard/wing, and if he proves himself more as a shooter, that will only aid him, similarly, as a driver/finisher. That’s to drive that last point home.

But in a general sense, Chris Brickley’s post again demonstrates how KPJ is already oozing with talent for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He just needs to keep developing/steadily progressing next season/looking onward to hopefully prove to be more consistent game-to-game to eventually reach at or near his potential.

And my bet’s on that he’s barely scratched the surface of what he’ll eventually become for the Wine and Gold. It’s apparent that along with Collin Sexton, perhaps Darius Garland and I’d imagine Dylan Windler, though, that Porter is such a promising young player.

He could be the most promising on the Cavs, in the near future, even, factoring in two-way potential.