Pros and cons of potential Caris LeVert extension for Cavs

Pros of a potential LeVert extension

Obviously, LeVert is gifted as a scorer. Even with a new team, he still put up 13.6 points a night for the Cavs. In the 2020-21 season, in 26 games for the Pacers, he put in 20.7 points per night, and that was only last season. Also, imagine a bench duo of LeVert and Kevin Love, the solid playmaking and scoring of this duo. Both players put up 13.6 points on average for Cleveland, so that makes up about 27.2 points.

With only two players off the bench, the Cavs wouldn’t even be the worst bench scoring team in the NBA, both the Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors averaged less bench points than the combined Kevin Love and Caris LeVert. So yeah, the duo of LeVert and Love would be fierce off the bench (assuming either Collin Sexton or Isaac Okoro starts at the 2).

Also, LeVert’s playmaking is solid. His assist ratio was 19.2%, ahead of players like Donovan Mitchell, Paul George, Devin Booker, and CJ McCollum.

He also ranked as the 35th-best shooting guard when it comes to assist ratio, which may not sound good, but some of these players played a lot of point guard this season on this list (such as James Harden, Josh Giddey, and Kevin Porter Jr.) Ranking 35th out of 106 capable players at shooting guard is not bad, ranking around the top 1/3 of the NBA’s shooting guards in this stat.

Additionally, I do expect LeVert to be better next season. Like I said, I think he was put into a situation he was not really ready for, and a foot sprain post-All-Star break didn’t help him establish a rhythm.

Going to a team competing for playoff contention where you are not the first scoring option right after you are the first scoring option for a lottery team is not easy, either, and I don’t blame LeVert for not being the same player he was in Indiana. There are new teammates, new coaches, new plays to run, new styles of offense and defense, to name a few.