Cleveland Cavaliers: Evaluating the state of the SG position

The Cleveland Cavaliers have historically addressed their shooting guard position by committee, rotating various players through the role. Even at the peak of the LeBron James title team it was J.R. Smith playing the 2 rather than an expensive or highly-drafted option.

In the rare instances that the Cavaliers did invest more heavily in the position, the move tended not to work out. Dion Waiters was the fourth overall pick in his draft, and ended up being shipped out of town when he couldn’t survive alongside LeBron James.

Positions are fluid in the modern NBA. The Cleveland Cavaliers have to decide what they have to know what to do in the NBA Draft and free agency.

That leads the Cavaliers to an important question entering the offseason. Cleveland has built out their current shooting guard rotation almost by accident, with two thirds of their minutes at the position going to players they drafted to be a point guard and a small forward, respectively.

Is that good enough to work? Is there future of the position on the current roster? Or should the Cavaliers start to think about addressing that 48 minutes per game in a more intentional way? The Cavs are working to figure that out now, before the offseason. Let’s look into how the position played out this past year and what it would look like to make a move this summer.

Evaluating the state of the SG position: Who is on the roster?

The starter for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2019-20 was rookie Darius Garland, playing in a role shifted off-the-ball while second year guard Collin Sexton ran the point. This past season head coach J.B. Bickerstaff swapped the two players, with Garland playing all of his minutes as the point guard and Sexton starting at the 2.

In some ways that worked, as Sexton had a career year averaging 24.3 points per game on a career-best 51.9 percent effective field goal percentage (balancing his field goal percentage with what a shot is worth). In total he played around half of his total minutes at the 2, sliding to point guard when Garland was off the court. Entering his fourth season, Sexton will be extension-eligible this offseason and is under contract for $6.34 million next season.

When he did so, he was most often paired in the backcourt with Isaac Okoro. Although drafted with the hope he could become the team’s longtime small forward to play alongside Sexton and Garland, at 6’5″ Okoro is more naturally suited to play the 2 and did so for around 1,000 of his 2,000 minutes this season. As a rising second-year player, Okoro is owed $6.72 million next year.

Dylan Windler was selected 26th overall in the 2019 NBA Draft and injuries have limited him to just 31 games in his career, all this past season. He was drafted to be a sniper on the wing, and at 6’6″ could be a bigger option at the 2. As a first round pick he is guaranteed for $2.24 million next season, and the Cavaliers will need to decide by October whether to pick up his fourth year option.

Finally, the Cavaliers have a decision waiting for Damyean Dotson. The onetime New York Knicks shooting guard has a non-guaranteed contract for $2 million next season. Ideally Windler would replace him in the rotation, but with his injury history Dotson played frequently this past season, around 460 minutes at the 2, per Cleaning the Glass.