Cavs: Isaac Okoro taking next step as driver is key

Last season, we didn’t see Isaac Okoro have a significant role offensively, by and large, for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Leading into his rookie campaign, it was evident that would be the case, as Okoro seemed pretty raw on that end coming in, and it was the quickest turnaround in league history from the draft to the beginning of the season.

In turn, it took him a while to seemingly get comfortable game-to-game on that end of the floor, and while it was not surprising, Okoro knocked in just 29.0 percent of his three-point attempts. Overall, he averaged 9.6 points in 32.4 minutes per outing, which was tearing it up on the year.

On the plus side, when he appeared to gain more confidence on-ball, particularly April-onward, at least from my perspective, it led to more success.

Injuries played into it some, sure, but it was nice to see him have 16.2 points per contest in his last 12 games, and in fairness, the defensive workload he had game-in and game-out shouldn’t have been glossed over, either. For a rookie wing, that didn’t exactly make things easier early on.

Heading into this coming season for Okoro, it does seem that he could make noticeable strides offensively, though, and basically a full offseason leading into Year 2 should have made a difference for him. I’d imagine that next year, he should be able to focus more on the offensive end, too, for what it’s worth.

Granted, to that point, I believe one particular aspect of his offensive game needs to be more impactful game-to-game for Cleveland, and that’s him taking a step forward as a driving presence.

Cavs: Okoro taking the next step as a driving presence is key.

I’m not suggesting that we’ll be seeing him with nearly the driving volume of say, Darius Garland or Collin Sexton, however, hopefully with seemingly extensive work on-ball over the offseason, that Okoro will be utilized more in that way.

It appears that that’s going to be the plan, and this relates to him set to be more of a player the Cavaliers go to for transition looks, and also as a ball movement player off of drives to hit productive sprayouts to shooters, too. That’s based on these comments from Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, via Evan Dammarell of Fear The Sword and the “Locked On Cavs” podcast.

We have to take it with a grain of salt, clearly, but it was meaningful to have seen Okoro look to be very confident on-ball in two games in Las Vegas Summer League. He had 16.0 points per contest in those outings, and it was nice to see him get some productive pick-and-roll work.

With that in mind, I imagine that we should see Cleveland looking to get Okoro going in pick-and-roll by getting him downhill more throughout games to get him in a rhythm, and with him seemingly applying more rim pressure as last season progressed. That was again, especially with what played out from April-on for Okoro, who looked more assertive then.

For further context, post-All-Star break, while there were still some rookie moments, he had 5.6 drives per contest then, leading to a shooting percentage of 46.7, per Second Spectrum’s player tracking data.

Now, injuries did factor into for Okoro, and Darius Garland was mostly out due to an ankle sprain, but Okoro having 8.0 driving points per game in May, even with him having 10.9 drives per game in those nine contests, per Second Spectrum, was encouraging.

That provided a glimpse into how this next season, hopefully with him more assertive from the jump, he could be set for a step forward in that realm, too. And based on Bickerstaff’s comments above via Dammarell, I’d think we could see Okoro help other guys such as Garland, Sexton and Lauri Markkanen, for instance, as a secondary playmaker playing off of his slashing.

I’ll be looking for that beginning in preseason action, which begins on Oct. 5 at the Chicago Bulls, when Okoro’s in there, also.