Cleveland Cavaliers: 2 goals for Lamar Stevens in 2021-22

Lamar Stevens turned out to be a nice undrafted free agent find after the 2020 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who then signed him to a two-way deal.

Injuries to the likes of Kevin Love and Larry Nance Jr., and to some extent Dylan Windler did play into it, but Stevens did get some playing time to show what he could do last season for Cleveland.

That turned out to be worthwhile, in my opinion, and the Cavaliers eventually signing him to a multi-year, albeit mostly non-guaranteed deal from there, mid-last season was a sound move.

Stevens did a nice job on the defensive end of the floor when he was a contributor pretty regularly in the rotation at the 3 and 4 spots, and his versatility there was a key positive takeaway. The 6-foot-6, 230-pound Penn State product was solid in his primary defense against wings and some combo forwards, and he showed some capability to defend primary playmakers as well.

Now Stevens offensively is not a player that Cleveland should be featuring, per se, and he’s not a floor spacing presence horizontally. Last season, he knocked in only four of 25 three-point attempts in 40 appearances (a 16.0 percent clip), and he shot just 27.6 percent in four years at Penn State.

On the year, he averaged 4.1 points in 12.5 minutes per contest, and next season, I can’t say for certain if he’ll stick around; we’ll see onward from there.

Stevens’ play in Las Vegas Summer League didn’t hurt his case though, and for a situational defender that can finish well and create for himself some as a driver in spurts, I believe Stevens should be on the roster heading into next season.

So with that in mind, what would mark a successful campaign for him, then?

We’ll suggest two goals for Stevens for the Cavs in 2021-22 here.

We’ll dive right in, with goal #1 for him coming up next.