Cavs: Pressure on rim will strengthen case for Lamar Stevens

Last season, Lamar Stevens was able to get a decent chunk of playing time as an undrafted rookie for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was originally signed via two-way deal, and then in mid-season, Stevens was signed to a multi-year contract.

The years from here are non-guaranteed, but the Penn State product looks to have been a nice find by the Cavs, and did provide a defensive lift when given opportunities in Year 1. His strength, positional versatility and motor all led to him making his presence felt on that end of the floor, and I could foresee that showing next season, too.

Now, offensively, Stevens is not a floor spacing threat, as he hit only 27.6 percent of his three-point attempts in a four-year collegiate career at Penn State, and went four-of-25 from three with Cleveland last season, a 16.0 percent clip.

Stevens has reportedly been working a ton on his shot/perimeter shooting this offseason, which is at least good to know, but it’s difficult to say if he’ll be respectable in that realm next year. If Stevens can show some viability on catch-and-shoots from the corners, that’d be meaningful to me, though.

Nonetheless, even with the shooting concerns from three, I do still believe that Stevens can stick around as a depth player that is a gifted athlete and quality defender, and in spurts/some stretches, he can still be a legitimate contributor game-to-game.

And offensively, part of the case for him, generally, for rotational minutes is his rim pressure.

Cavs: Stevens’ pressure on the rim will strengthen his case.

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Stevens is not going to be a key offensive focal point necessarily when he’s in, if he sticks around; I acknowledge that. Last season he had 4.1 points per contest in 12.5 minutes per game in 40 appearances.

Although Stevens did show flashes as a shot creator in the mid-range area, of which he did show often in college at Penn State, and he can aid Cleveland at times in spurts in that way here and there.

That said, as we touched on, he did show he can get to the rim last season when he was in the rotation more regularly, which was a positive takeaway to me.

His body control, ability to finish through contact and physicality going to the basket jumped out in Year 1. That led to a healthy free throw rate of 37.5 percent for him as well.

There have been instances where that’s been on display in Las Vegas Summer League for the Cavaliers too, such as throughout Cleveland’s close loss to the Houston Rockets on Sunday, when Stevens had 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting. There was some of that in his outing in a W against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday, when he had 13 points, again on 6-of-11 shooting, too.

Granted, I’m not going to read too much into Summer League in that regard, but factoring in last season and what he demonstrated at Penn State, it’s apparent that when he’s in there, Stevens is more than capable of putting pressure on the rim.

Of course, the likes of Darius Garland, Collin Sexton/Dylan Windler and players such as Kevin Love/Dean Wade, with Evan Mobley at the 5, I’d expect to be in there with Stevens, from a spacing standpoint. A potential free agency signing such as polished shooters in Garrison Mathews or Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk could be valuable floor spacers for a guy such as Lamar, too, for what it’s worth.

But overall, Stevens can still be a good driver and cutter for Cleveland, and his rim pressure, to go with his defensive chops, are two key ways that Lamar can contribute in spurts/a few stretches off the bench if he sticks around. He converted on a superb 69.8 percent of his shot attempts from the restricted area in 2020-21, per NBA.com’s shooting data.

For a depth wing/forward piece, I don’t discount those strengths and it’s clear that the 6-foot-6, 230-pound Stevens can provide meaningful energy for the Cavs, even with him not likely an every-game type of player, objectively.