Cavs: Lack of pull-up game still hinders Isaac Okoro

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Isaac Okoro, Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images /

The Cleveland Cavaliers are going to be without Collin Sexton for the rest of the season, which was crushing news last weekend.

With that being the case, Cleveland will need to get production out of Lauri Markkanen, Kevin Love and other rotational shooters, and I’d assume Dylan Windler should inherently receive minutes for stretches.

Whether he starts or comes off the bench as a supersub more, the Cavaliers will need Ricky Rubio to make things happen to ease the burden on Darius Garland as well. Either way, heavy Rubio minutes are here to stay, assuming he sticks around; we’ll have to see how things play out in coming months pre-trade deadline.

Nonetheless, while Isaac Okoro will likely have regular minutes for defensive purposes, clearly, and he has shown positive things as a slasher, him hitting just 3-of-27 from three-point land on the year prior to Monday’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets was abysmal. To his credit, Okoro did hit three triples in that one, but even with Sexton, who was adjusting to playing much more off-ball, off to begin year three, he was still helping open other guys often with his scoring presence.

With Okoro, he is a physical player that can get to the goal when he’s attacking downhill and getting through gaps, and his cutting feel has improved. That’s led to a free throw rate of 28.0 percent, which is a fairly notable clip.

That said, Okoro doesn’t have the tightest handle still, which can lead to him getting tied up, turning it over or he can occasionally have offensive fouls unnecessarily. That didn’t happen versus Brooklyn, a game in which he had 15 points; it has popped up on other occasions, though.

And with his hesitation from three and/or lack of viability in general, to me, it’s apparent that his lack of pull-up game, or even willingness to take those looks, has been hampering him offensively regularly.

Cavs: The lack of pull-up game still hinders Okoro.

Okoro has had his share of success on the interior; that’s it thus far, prior to Monday.