The Cleveland Cavaliers hadn’t had the most notable offseason heading into the last couple of weeks, but they have added some players since.
Cleveland acquired then-restricted free agent Lauri Markkanen via sign-and-trade from the Chicago Bulls roughly two weeks back, and a few hours before the 2021 NBA Draft, they acquired Ricky Rubio via trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Since the Markkanen addition, they’ve signed the likes of Tacko Fall, Tre Scott and RJ Nembhard to training camp deals, and Cleveland is reportedly expected to add Mitch Ballock via camp deal.
Moving past the Markkanen move/the camp signings, Cleveland reportedly signed point guard Kevin Pangos, who has played in Europe since his last collegiate season with Gonzaga in 2015, on Wednesday. Per ESPN’s Bobby Marks, who first reported the deal, that was via two-year, $3.5 million deal, with the first season being fully guaranteed for roughly $1.7 million.
In relation to Pangos’ European career, he first was with club Herbalife Gran Canaria in Spain, then Zalgaris Kaunas in Lithuania, FC Barcelona Lassa (Spain) and most recently with Zenit St. Petersburg (Russia). He’s spent ample time playing in Euroleague competition, and has proven himself in recent seasons to be a very effective lead guard in his Euro career.
Last season, Pangos was also named First-Team All-Euroleague with Zenit St. Petersburg, as Fear The Sword’s Chris Manning pointed out. In that 2020-21 play, Pangos had 13.5 points and 6.6 assists per contest, and knocked in 39.0 percent of his three-point attempts, of which were 5.8 per game.
So what are two things that the Cavs could be getting with this Pangos add?
We’ll take a look at two that come to mind here, with the first being ability to at times run some offense in spurts if needed.
#1: Some playmaking help for the Cavs if needed/depth
Although I wouldn’t anticipate Pangos having a crucial role for the Cavaliers next season, it was rumored that they could interest in signing a third point guard.
Darius Garland looks to be Cleveland’s long-term answer at the starting 1, and I’d say that’s a reasonable outlook, considering the bounce-back season he had last year. I’d expect him to build on that in Year 3 as well, and hopefully look to be more aggressive at times.
With Rubio, even with him maybe being a potential trade piece as he is expiring, or possibly being a player that could sign elsewhere next offseason, I do believe he’ll have a key bench role.
Rubio has had 9.1 assists per-36 for his career, and while he has bounced around via trade in recent seasons, he is still a highly capable playmaker and should be able to aid in easing the playmaking burden on Garland, and to some extent, Collin Sexton.
That said, Pangos is a player that if needed, could be a guy that could help the Cavaliers in spurts/perhaps at times stretches from a primary playmaking standpoint, too.
The 28-year-old does not have any NBA experience, but he has shown in recent seasons in Euroleague play, as some have stressed, that he has good vision and has nice timing in hitting cutters and has feel for hitting lobs over-the-top.
I could foresee Pangos, in some minutes on the floor if needed from a depth perspective, having rapport with bigs such as Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, for one. And he could seemingly be more than able to hit looks to movement shooters, such as Kevin Love/Lauri Markkanen/Dylan Windler.
Secondly, while again Pangos likely won’t have a crucial role, he could provide some pick-and-roll viability off-the-bounce in spurts, scoring-wise.
#2: Some pick-and-roll scoring/a viable three-point threat for the Cavs
To reiterate, one shouldn’t expect Pangos to be getting a ton of playing time/opportunities next season with Cleveland; that’s just being objective.
In some chances though, whether that’s due to injury or Rubio potentially being dealt at some point, Pangos could provide some pick-and-roll scoring.
I’m again not suggesting that that could be on a fairly high volume, just to get that out there. However, the Gonzaga product has been a capable PnR facilitator in Europe, and in some PT, could maybe give Cleveland a lift in that way here and there.
Pangos has shown the feel for manipulating matchups in his timing of getting to looks in the pull-up game, with crossovers, and he has shown craftiness with change-of-pace in the lane to finish from PnR work. That could aid the Cavaliers, to some degree theoretically, in spot minutes and/or a bit more extended PT if injuries were to occur.
Plus, while again I wouldn’t imagine it’d be with high volume, and it wouldn’t at least for next season, Pangos could end up helping from a spacing element.
It’s unproven at the NBA level obviously, but he has shown proficiency in hitting three-point looks off-the-bounce in Europe. And overall in five seasons overseas, including those and from looks off-the-catch, he’s hit 41.7 percent of his 4.3 triple attempts per appearance across those competitions.
Moreover, we’ll have to see if he’ll receive more than spot minutes, but I do understand Cleveland’s rationale with this team-friendly, third point guard/injury insurance signing in Pangos.