It wasn’t the most memorable rookie campaign for Isaac Okoro in the 2020-21 season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. The COVID-19-affected season and the league having the quickest turnaround from the draft to the start of the regular season didn’t aid him, but it took a while for the Auburn product to get his footing offensively.
In 32.4 minutes per outing in Year 1, Okoro didn’t exactly tear it up with 9.6 points per contest and connected on only 29.0 percent of his 3.2 three-point shots per game.
It wasn’t unexpected necessarily as he hit just 28.6 percent of his three-point attempts in his lone collegiate season at Auburn, though.
On the plus side, Okoro did make a more than respectable showing on the defensive end, even while having the toughest defensive assignments often game-to-game for Cleveland. He did have rookie moments there as all do, and I would like to see him more of a playmaker on that end in the off-ball sense, but that’s being pretty nitpicky with the burden he had.
Along with that, even with injuries to Darius Garland and some to others playing into an increased workload for Okoro in the closing batch of games to finish out, he did look more assertive from April-onward offensively. That then included him having 16.2 points per contest in his last 12 games, and we were seeing positive signs from him in the pick-and-roll and some as a playmaker.
So looking at next season for the young wing, what are a few key things that would indicate further progression from him, then?
We’ll touch on two goals for Okoro for 2021-22 for the Cavs here.
To that point, we’ll first examine the first goal, in relation to the offensive end for Ice.
#1: For Okoro to average 14.0 points per game for the Cavs
Okoro is not going to be a player that’s going to carry the Cavaliers for extended stretches on the offensive end; that’s just being objective. That’s going to be up to guys such as Garland and Collin Sexton, perhaps Kevin Love in some instances, and I could foresee Evan Mobley doing so as he gets more comfortable.
Conversely, Okoro is not going to fit that bill.
That being said, I do believe that with the encouraging signs and with the more aggressive approach he had in seemingly the last month-plus of last season, that Okoro can increase his scoring output by four or so points per game.
I understand that it is offseason work, and that doesn’t always equate to results right away, but him reportedly working extensively on his shot over the offseason thus far is a plus. That’s paid dividends for the likes of Sexton and Larry Nance Jr. in recent years with the Cavs player development staff, and that could aid him in the catch-and-shoot sense.
Also, with the Cavs reportedly looking to get Okoro some mid-post work next season, and with him set for more pick-and-roll chances in games, I don’t think this goal suggestion is outside the realm of possibility.
With Okoro’s 225-pound frame and with him seemingly set to use his physicality more as a finisher next season with more experience, and showing good signs in Summer League, I believe he’ll show plenty of growth in Year 2 on offense.
Him meeting this goal would be very meaningful for Cleveland, in turn, too.
Moving along, we’ll take a look at the second goal for him in 2021-22, examining the other end.
#2: Solidify himself as the Cavs’ best perimeter defender and average 1.7 steals per-36 minutes
Secondly, Okoro cementing himself as Cleveland’s best perimeter defender in Year 2 is the other key goal for me for him that comes to mind.
As we previously mentioned, even with the workload a particularly challenging one in Year 1 for Isaac, he held his own, despite often having to take on the games’ toughest matchups on the perimeter.
Okoro at times needs to be quicker laterally in matchups against primary playmakers, and when trying to navigate through off-ball screens to contest shooters, he did register some rookie fouls.
However, for a player that’s not 21 yet and was in his first season last year, again in a COVID-19-affected season at that, his defensive positioning was better than many would’ve expected, and he often forced opponents into high-difficulty shots. Those did fall at times, sure, and when a young player is defending against talented guards and wings, that happens, and it happens to the league’s best, even.
Okoro’s play showed so much promise on the defensive end though, and next season, with another year under his belt, I do believe he could solidify himself as Cleveland’s best perimeter defender. Lamar Stevens, for now, could be in the conversation otherwise, in regards to the on-ball sense, to echo our own Mack Perry’s projection. In terms of team defense in that realm as a rotator in those situations, I’d put Nance in that spot.
And then sticking to the team perspective for defense, while I thought Okoro’s feel there did show positive signs throughout and he did appear to improve his positioning/rotational timing as the year progressed, one would like to see more playmaking game-to-game there.
With him generally being in the right spots, Okoro having 1.0 steals per-36 minutes last season was a bit underwhelming.
I do think that having the likes of Jarrett Allen locked up long term and feasibly plenty of situations with Okoro on the floor with Evan Mobley, that Isaac can flex his muscles some more in getting to deflections/steals in passing lanes more, though.
I’d expect with more experience, and with hopefully a season with more normalcy, that Okoro could generate more than his share of takeaways this next go-round. With that being the case, I could definitely foresee him having 1.7 or so steals per-36 minutes, which would be a positive indicator of off-ball growth on defense in 2021-22.
But overall, I’m pumped to see how Ice does in Year 2 for the Wine and Gold; I do believe we could see a notable leap for him.