The Cleveland Cavaliers are now on a four-game losing streak after a small road trip. Now they have an opportunity to bounce back with four straight games at home.
With the trade deadline coming up next week it’s a crazy time with the team certain to engage in talks to try improving the team and retaining some form of assets to help in the future.
And in relation to reports involving Andre Drummond, and other rumored potential trade candidates, such as Cedi Osman, Taurean Prince and JaVale McGee, you can view those here.
Circling back, though, here, we’ll take a look at a few players to watch in upcoming outings for Cleveland at home versus the Boston Celtics on Wednesday, San Antonio Spurs on Friday, Toronto Raptors on Sunday and Sacramento Kings on Monday.
Three players, in particular, are ones to keep an eye on during this upcoming home stand for the Cavs.
The first is the Isaac Okoro.
#1 Cavs player to watch in their upcoming home stand: Isaac Okoro
Okoro’s traditional box score numbers may not be great, but for someone who is a project on the offensive side, he has had his fair share of good performances on offense. The defense has typically been solid, too, and even in tough matchups often.
The Cavs are certainly throwing him out on the court to get him as much experience as possible. As long as confidence doesn’t become an issue, it will not matter that he has the second-lowest efficiency rating amongst rookies but the most minutes per game averaged.
He’s certainly still figuring out how to utilize himself in the pros and is doing a job at just that.
The last 5 games of February were a good example of that. He put up double digits in four of the five games with his best game coming against the Philadelphia 76ers when he had 15 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals.
This upcoming stretch could be a good opportunity for him to have some more productive games. And to the earlier point, let’s not gloss over the Cavs’ injury woes throughout the season, Okoro’s defensive workload playing into it some, and this having been the shortest turnaround for rookies in league history.
Okoro is starting to figure things out, and has shown more encouraging signs of late; he had 10 points on four-of-six shooting at the Miami Heat on Tuesday.
#2 Cavs player to watch in their upcoming home stand: Quinn Cook
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Quinn Cook began his 10-day contract with Cleveland at the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday. Gathering assets and players to help their future is important this upcoming deadline, but having an established backup point guard is something they’ve lacked thus far.
Cook has an opportunity to be just that in this stint. As someone who was a part of the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers championship runs, the Cavs are a good team for him to establish himself some.
His experience and ability to shoot from three-point range as a 40.9 percent career shooter can help him earn that backup job, and help fill that void the Cavs have lacked this season at backup point. We’ll have to see if Cook can end up getting a second 10-day/perhaps stick around longer.
Of course, Matthew Dellavedova has not appeared yet this season, so if he returns sooner than later, that could factor into Cook potentially sticking around more; albeit there’s no set timetable for Delly for now.
#3 Cavs player to watch in their upcoming home stand: JaVale McGee
McGee is someone who will certainly receive calls leading up to the deadline. As a veteran who was also a part of the Warriors and Lakers championship runs, similarly to Cook, JaVale brings his most value to a contender.
As much as I enjoy his personality and camaraderie with teammates, McGee belongs on a contender and us gaining an asset from a team gunning for a championship is what’s best for both parties. In terms of potential suitors for him, contenders have been said to be in on McGee, and the Brooklyn Nets reportedly are one that has interest, per Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports.
And as Sam Amico of Forty Eight Minutes and OutKick noted, for a potential trade, the Cavs would likely be looking to get back a big, and that the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks have been linked to McGee. The Cavs could reportedly just hang onto the expiring McGee through the season’s end, though, per Amico, and per Haynes’ report, the two sides would not conduct a buyout.
In any case, McGee has been playing great recently before the deadline, putting up double-digit scoring in four of his last five with his best performance coming against the Heat, finishing with 16 points on eight-of-10 shooting, to go with eight rebounds, and two blocks in only 21 minutes.
Although there’s obviously plenty of tape out on him, having him play well only drives up his value and demand even if it’s only fractional, such as seemingly perhaps a second-round pick, and it’s something to keep an eye on in the last week before the March 25 deadline.