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.
#1: Establish himself as valuable wing/forward defender for the Cavs for rotational stretches
For the first goal for Stevens for next season, it’s to establish himself as a valuable wing/forward defender for rotational stretches.
Given that there will be a number of others in the fold regarding the 3/4, it’s difficult to foresee just want kind of role Stevens will end up having early on. As we noted, he appeared in 40 games last season, with 12.5 minutes per appearance.
Even taking that into account, and players such as Cedi Osman, Dylan Windler and feasibly Larry Nance Jr./Dean Wade, Stevens did show he’s a player capable of playing quality defense against bigger wings/combo forwards last season.
When he was regularly involved in the rotation, injuries aside, Stevens did Cleveland a lift in that regard, and with his strength, ability to wall up in the post and with his feel for cutting off driving lanes, I do believe he could again contribute in spurts/stretches of games. That’s at least to give Isaac Okoro a breather, I would think, and he could seemingly play at the 4 at times with Evan Mobley/Kevin Love/Nance at the 5 for spurts.
Although Stevens is not a player that could be a floor spacer, such as Windler if healthy and/or if he can get into a rhythm early on, with Stevens’ defensive versatility, he could further establish himself as a valuable depth player.
That’s with his viability against wings/forwards with his size/frame, and additionally, the Penn State product is a very good rebounder, as evidenced by his 6.9 boards per-36 minutes in Year 1. Plus, Stevens did actually have a respectable 2.3 percent block rate, in relation to his rotational feel.
I can’t for certain what kind of opportunities Lamar will/can have game-to-game, but him meeting this goal would be meaningful for Cleveland to ease the burden on Okoro and to some degree, Nance, provided he sticks around.
#2: Apply rim pressure in spurts for the Cavs, but show some viability on corner threes/help a bit with ball movement
As we touched on, Stevens is not much of a catch-and-shoot threat at this juncture. He didn’t show much three-point shooting at Penn State, nor did he last season with the Cavaliers.
From a positive outlook though, Stevens did get through gaps as a driver fairly well, and his cutting feel improved as last season progressed.
Plus, I did think his finishing was a bright spot, both in settled situations to some extent and/or as a cutter, and in the transition game, he played through contact in that realm, which paid off. Overall, Stevens hit 69.8 percent of his shot attempts in the restricted area as a rookie, per NBA.com’s shooting data, which shouldn’t be glossed over.
But, admittedly, it would help Stevens’ case for being more so regularly in the rotation, of which is a question mark currently, as KJG’s Mack Perry expressed, if he at least knocked in corner three-point looks respectably.
I get that the volume is not expected to be a bunch of threes, and Stevens likely won’t be a crucial scoring presence when he’s in, provided he’s around. Even with that caveat, he only hit 25.0 percent of his corner three attempts, albeit the frequency of those was only 32.0 percent.
I do believe that he could potentially have a higher frequency of those looks relating to his overall three-point attempts, though, and if he can hit 34.0 percent of those, and just look more confident, that’d be notable.
Lastly, and this might be more feasible, I would like to see Stevens help the Cavs a bit more with ball movement.
That’s not something we saw much of in his rotational time last season, at only 1.8 assists per-36 minutes, but if he can show some better feel/vision at least to find some kickouts more, that could aid other guys around him in games.
Granted, I’m not suggesting that I’d look for Stevens to be a key playmaking presence each spurt/stretch he’s in there.
However, I do think with his rim pressure/interior abilities though that he could look for kickouts for others such as Sexton and Garland a bit more in on-ball opportunities when rotators come.