Another Las Vegas Summer League game was in the books as of Wednesday for the Cleveland Cavaliers as they evened their record at 1-1 and much like Game 1, there was a ton to takeaway from this one.
Evan Mobley looked a bit more comfortable taking shots and really showed his ability to facilitate, Isaac Okoro continues to reward the Cavs brass in their decision to allocate him more opportunities to show that he could possibly be a tertiary playmaker. Trevon Bluiett and Matt Ryan went 4-6 and 4-7 from three-point range respectively. While all of the Cavs listed above played well, today’s focus is on none other than Lamar Stevens.
The second-year wing went undrafted out of Penn State in 2020 before signing a two-way deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers in November of last year. He appeared in 40 games with the team last season and averaged 4.1 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.6 assists in just 12.5 minutes a game.
While the Cavs brass liked Stevens enough to convert his two-deal into a regular contract, he is still facing an uphill battle in regards to a spot in the regular season rotation. His quest towards that goal continued against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday and with that being said, here are three takeaways from Game 2 of Summer League for Stevens.
#1: Stevens could be the Cavs’ second best perimeter defender.
Listed at 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, Stevens is prototypically built for today’s switch-heavy NBA. He’s small enough to step out on the perimeter and defend guards and most wings, yet big enough to defend forwards. We’ve seen him play near-lockdown defense on occasion and when faced with a difficult matchup, we’ve seen him give his all.
Just last season, Stevens had an opponent field goal percentage of 47.0, per NBA.com. That was actually tied for the second-best among all current Cavs players who defended at least 880 attempts, just a hair behind do-it-all reserve Larry Nance Jr. at 46.8 percent.
Yes, that is only a 40-game sample size, but I’m confident that his output would remain largely the same based off of his skill set. The Penn State alum has continued to flex his defensive prowess throughout the first two games of Summer League, despite the Cavs losing their first outing against the Houston Rockets, and he could always be seen being an impediment to the Magic on defense.
That stood out on a possession around the 4:50 mark in the 1st quarter when Stevens forced Jalen Suggs to kick the ball out and although they would end up scoring, he still held his own.