The Cleveland Cavaliers have twice in their history employed the greatest small forward of all time in LeBron James. As they seek to emerge from their second “post-LeBron” rebuild, replacing the franchise icon is yet again proving to be a difficult proposition.
Every year forward-sized players come out in the NBA Draft, but sifting through the physical characteristics to determine who has the true potential to become a starter or more at the position is difficult and results in a lot of whiffs.
Small forward is probably the most important position in the NBA. The Cleveland Cavaliers have to find a way to improve this position in the NBA Draft and free agency.
Armed yet again with a top-5 pick, the Cleveland Cavaliers will need to decide if they want to go back to the well with shorter players (three straight lottery picks 6’5″ or shorter) or try to add a larger forward to shore up the small forward position.
With combo guard Collin Sexton reportedly on the market, the Cavaliers could also make a decision to upgrade the small forward position via a trade, although given the value of forwards leaguewide it seems unlikely they could get no-doubt option in return.
What is the current state of the SF position on the Cavaliers, and what steps could the franchise take this offseason to improve? We continue our weeklong series breaking down the Cavaliers’ roster (look here for the PG position, and here for SG).
Evaluating the state of the SF position: Who is on the roster?
After taking Isaac Okoro fifth overall in last November’s NBA Draft, the Cavaliers immediately inserted him into the starting lineup. With a handful of exceptions when a player was out Okoro started at the 3 all season, although he slid to the 2 in lineups with Collin Sexton or Darius Garland off the floor.
Okoro is just 6’5″, small for a small forward, but he is strong and fights on the perimeter no matter who he is guarding. Entering his second season the former Auburn wing is owed $6.72 million as part of his rookie scale contract.
Cedi Osman was the starter at the 3 for this team before Okoro was drafted, and started 26 games filling in for injured players and otherwise backed Okoro up at the position. Per Cleaning the Glass’s position estimates Osman played 72 percent of his minutes at small forward. The 26 year-old is owed $8.05 million next season in the second year of the four-year extension he signed in October of 2019.
Behind those two players things are less clear. The Cavaliers have at times played some of their power forwards up a position at the 3. Larry Nance Jr. has the defensive versatility to defend small forwards, but offensively he pinches the team’s spacing. Taurean Prince does that even more, but he is simply on the roster because he was matching salary in the trade that brought in Jarrett Allen.
Cedi Osman has been serviceable but not great, and Dylan Windler has been injured nearly his entire two-season career. If the 6’5″ Okoro is the team’s long-term shooting guard, too small to be a ceiling-raising 3, then this team is currently without its small forward of the future.
Evaluating the state of the SF position: Strengths
This is a difficult question to answer when evaluating the current small forward position for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Every one of the team’s options come with major problems moving forward, problems that tend to mask the strengths those players bring.
One strength that can be expected, if not so much banked on, is defensive ability and effort. Okoro struggled to defend forwards this past season but he certainly tried hard, and he has the defensive talent and upside to be an elite perimeter defender. He was asked to be a stopper on the league’s best offensive players as a teenager; his struggles are both more understandable and less likely to define what he grows into.
Another frequent contributor at small forward, perhaps more so in 2019-20 than last season, was Larry Nance Jr. While strong enough to play some minutes at the 5, he is also smart enough defensively to check many 3s. That brings offensive problems as the team is effectively playing 3 bigs, but it shores up the defense to an extent.
The other, somewhat roundabout strength of the position is that the team isn’t locked into an expensive option who isn’t working. Osman’s contract descends every season, and the final season contains just $6.65 million completely non-guaranteed. Otherwise the team is dealing with rookie scale contracts for its primary wing options. Even Nance, primarily a power forward, is on a reasonable and descending contract of his own.
Strengths: Defensive upside, long-term financial flexibility
Evaluating the state of the SF position: Needs
The small forward position has received the smallest amount of resource allocation, which accordingly has led to it being the team’s largest overall area of need.
The largest need is simply a long-term answer at the position. What player is the team hoping will be their small forward of the future? If it’s Isaac Okoro, can he demonstrate growth on both sides of the ball to become a reliable player? At 6’5″ with just a +3 wingspan, can he realistically take on opposing forwards?
Offense is the clear area where even Okoro at his best falls short (and he was not at his best as a rookie). They don’t have a knockdown shooter as an option at the position unless Dylan Windler can stay healthy and develop significantly. Assuming the team does commit to a non-shooting center that becomes a glaring need. They also don’t have any wing options who can create their own shot; big picture they don’t have a single frontcourt player at all who can do so.
Given the current state of their backcourt, they also need the long-term small forward option to be passable on defense. This team has shoe-horned itself into a difficult position, with a likely capped-out team going into next season having committed large amounts of money and draft capital into bigs and small, when the wing is the most valuable category of players in the league.
Needs: Offense, defense, options, a plan
Evaluating the state of the SF position: Offseason Plan
We have established that the small forward position is the Cleveland Cavaliers’ biggest area of need, with poor short-term options and no reliable long-term option. What steps could the Cavaliers take this offseason to address it?
The best way to add a blue-chip talent to a rebuilding team is to do so with a lottery pick, and the Cavaliers have a good one — third overall, the highest they have chosen since taking Andrew Wiggins first overall in 2014. Unfortunately for the Cavs, this year’s crop of players don’t fall perfectly into the Cavaliers’ need at the forward positions.
Cade Cunningham would be the perfect fit for what the Cavaliers need, but he is expected to go first overall. The next tier of players is thought to be, in some order, Evan Mobley, Jalen Green and Jalen Suggs; that’s a 4.5, a 2 and a 1 respectively when it comes to positions. The next couple of players that some draft analysts have potentially in the mix at 3 are a pair of power forwards in Scottie Barnes and Jonathan Kuminga.
Barnes is probably the closest thing the Cavaliers could get to a small forward, but today’s NBA is flexible enough to make it work. He is an incredible defender, with even more upside than Isaac Okoro, and stands 6’8″ tall with a 7’3″ wingspan and massive hands. He has major offensive question marks, and comes with a bit of risk, but he also brings something this team’s young core doesn’t have.
If the Cavaliers go in another direction with the third overall pick, they could instead look to trade for a small forward. Given their value leaguewide there aren’t likely to be a plethora of options, but in the right situation perhaps sending out Collin Sexton and draft capital could bring back a player such as Brandon Ingram, or Sexton straight up for a player such as TJ Warren with a pick.
Finally, Cleveland could look to free agency to add a lower-tier option with the full midlevel exception; depending on how much it costs to re-sign Jarrett Allen, they should have room under the tax to make a full offer. Last season Jae Crowder went to the Phoenix Suns on the midlevel and is still playing in the NBA Finals.
Would Kelly Oubre Jr. accept a contract starting around $9.5 million per season? Perhaps Doug McDermott could goose this team’s spacing and give decent size on the wing. If Josh Richardson opts out of his contract he could be in the midlevel market with some size and strength to play the 3 at times.
Next season features a draft loaded with prospects, including a number of combo forwards such as Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Adrian Griffin. The Cavaliers could look to maximize next year’s draft slot as they build out the roster with an eye towards tomorrow.
However the Cavaliers elect to address the position, they need to find some answers — this offseason preferably, but no later than next year. In a league where your wing talent matters, the Cavaliers have some major question marks about how they’re going to build the next great Cleveland team given the current hole at the 3 on their current roster.