1 stud and 1 dud for Cavaliers in OT win over Wizards on Sunday

Cavaliers dud: Isaac Okoro

As for the Cavs dud from this Wizards contest, I have to go with Isaac Okoro here. It’s been a difficult start for Okoro to begin his third season, and despite some encouraging signs in preseason action, the offense has not been there early this regular season in Year 3 for him.

Okoro did reportedly work tirelessly on his shooting this offseason, and has continued to, really, and his altered shot release should help him in time. The issue is thus far, while he has seemed more confident to pull off-ball and to put the ball on the floor, to an extent, the looks haven’t gone down.

Okoro was one-of-four in this one, and was limited to only two points, and missed both of his three-point shot attempts.

He did make Beal work for his production on him in regards to Okoro’s defense, and he was in the right spots to help when there were opportunities there, however, Okoro has to realistically show something offensively in his minutes.

In a second straight start with Garland out, Okoro had two points, and in this last game, he was limited to 20 minutes, and was a minus-five. He had a team-low plus-minus in his minutes for the second consecutive outing.

Granted, plus-minus can be somewhat misleading at times, and you have to take it with context of a players’ workload. But, it’s evident that for Okoro, in a pivotal third campaign for him, he has to demonstrate some tangible offensive growth in meaningful stretches of games.

I again do give him credit for his defensive work, though.

Even still, if this sort of thing persists with Okoro, he could be out of the rotation perhaps sooner than some might think.