Grading the Cleveland Cavaliers wings so far this season
After Sunday’s game at the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Cleveland Cavaliers have reached the 20-game mark of their season. By all accounts, the Cavaliers have surpassed many expectations to this point as they currently hold a record of 9-11.
A key to the young Cavaliers’ early success is the strong and consistent play of their wings.
While there surely is room for improvement from this young core, they have each displayed their own unique skill set that helps Cleveland in all areas of the game.
In that realm, here, we’ll emphasize that sort of thing from the Cavs’ wings. So how has that position graded out thus far this season?
We’ll dive into that here for the Cavs wings at the near-quarter poll.
The first relates to Isaac Okoro.
Examining Okoro’s play for the Cavs thus far
Cleveland made the wing position a priority in this past year’s draft when they selected Isaac Okoro. The selection of Okoro was primarily based on the Cavaliers need to improve on the defensive side of the ball.
Right from the start, Okoro often found himself guarding the opposing team’s top scorer, and for the season, has more than held his own. The young defender highlighted his skill set on that side of the floor against the Brooklyn Nets’ newest star, James Harden, last month.
In their first of two meetings that week, Okoro was glued to Harden for much of the game. While no player will shut down such a dynamic scorer, Harden had to work for his 21 points in game one and 19 points in game two.
For as good as Okoro has been on defense, he still lacks an overall offensive game that strikes fear into the opposition but surely is making strides. His ability to cut to the basket and attack the rim is impressive, and he has shown the ability to make quality passes via drive-and-kicks.
While it has been nice to see Okoro not be bashful in taking outside shots, he is only hitting them at a 29.3 percent clip and is overall shooting just 41.4 percent from the floor this season. But on a team with Collin Sexton and Darius Garland as two of your primary scorers, there is no need for Okoro to score in order for the Cavaliers to win.
For now, anything on that side of the floor is a bonus. For a team toward the bottom in terms of total defense just a season ago, it has been a welcomed sight to see a young player come in and offer so much to that side of the floor.