What’s fair to expect from Taurean Prince for the Cleveland Cavaliers?
Taurean Prince was acquired recently by the Cleveland Cavaliers as part of the blockbuster trade centered on James Harden heading to the Brooklyn Nets that also netted Cleveland Jarrett Allen. Both Prince and Allen are former Nets.
The Cavs didn’t get a player of Harden’s magnitude in the deal, but they looked to have gotten a nice haul.
Cavs general manager Kolby Altman managed to get a talented and ascending big in Allen and a capable wing in Prince for Dante Exum, a 2022 first-round pick via the Milwaukee Bucks (unprotected) and a 2024 seound-round pick (the lesser between theirs and the Utah Jazz).
Exum and Milwaukee’s 2022 first went to the Houston Rockets, and after a small mass in his left kidney was revealed in a Caris LeVert physical, the Cleveland future second was sent to the Indiana Pacers, of which you can view further reported details here. Let’s hope LeVert can recover in due time fully from that, by the way.
Exum, who is set to seemingly be sidelined for potentially the rest of the season’s first half because of a high grade right calf strain, was a backup guard for the team and that pick was all but guaranteed to be later in the first round.
It’s worth noting Exum looked to be a solid backup guard for Cleveland, though, regarding his defense, in particular.
On the other hand, Prince looks to be another talented wing for a team that can most certainly utilize him, especially with all of the injuries suffered recently.
In that realm, here, we’ll suggest two realistic expectations for Prince for the Cavs.
The first relates to the small-ball element.
#1: Create more Cavs small-ball opportunities
We haven’t seen much as far as small-ball to this point, given the Cavs’ injury luck, but I’d imagine we should see that possibility fairly soon.
And at 6-foot-7, Prince possesses quality defensive skills, when he’s locked-in, and is capable of guarding multiple positions while also being able to shoot from three-point range with a career average of 36.6 percent from deep. That’s when considering his days with the Atlanta Hawks before he was previously dealt to the Nets, too.
This could help with Cavs play their young, talented guards like Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and Kevin Porter Jr. more frequently. That’s when those three are back in the fold, of course; Sexton (left ankle sprain) has missed Cleveland’s past five games, Garland (right shoulder sprain) has missed the past seven and Porter (personal) is yet to appear yet. They could seemingly be back soon enough, though.
Prince could feasibly play the 3 or 4 positions, depending on matchups for the Wine and Gold, in spurts. He showed the ability to do so last season with Kevin Durant sidelined for Brooklyn.
Last season he played primarily as a power forward for Brooklyn, though, and was able to average 7.4 rebounds per-36 minutes played.
Next up, we’ll move on to #2.
#2: Make an immediate impact when he’s out there for the Cavs
Cleveland has been shorthanded the past few weeks with multiple key players not suiting up for the team.
With Larry Nance Jr. and Cedi Osman stepping up and starting, Prince can provide immediate help to a bench that is running extremely thin. That’s at least at the moment, albeit Cleveland will still be of need, with how banged up they’ve been, and key pieces will have some rust amid their return.
Prince should see plenty of playing time quickly and can help players like Osman, Nance, and Isaac Okoro who have been used heavily from the teams’ injuries. They all played around 40 minutes each in our most recent game that was a win over the Knicks.
Granted, Okoro, a big-time defender, will still be getting a lion’s share of minutes, along with Nance, anyway.
While this isn’t ideal, it will allow Prince to become more accustomed to how the team operates and get some experience with some of the players.
Prince can realistically aid Okoro in his development some, as well, one would think, as a shooter/off-ball player, too. Prince hit 35.8 percent on catch-and-shoot three-point attempts last season, which wasn’t as notable with Brooklyn, but he hit 42.8 percent of those with Atlanta in 2018-19, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data.
With Atlanta, he hit 38.0 percent from deep, so he could potentially help Okoro in his development there.
Taurean has had his ups and downs in that regard in his four-plus seasons, but the 26-year-old’s experiences/capability when he’s been on should pay dividends for Okoro.