Last season, Lamar Stevens looked to have turned a corner for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He showed flashes as a rookie as a multi-positional defender and on-ball presence, and in his second season in 2021-22, he benefited from having more meaningful opportunities.
The counting stats didn’t leap off the web page at 6.1 points and 2.6 rebounds per outing, and him hitting 27.7 percent of his three-point attempts was far from lighting it up from range. Point being, he wasn’t the most noteworthy offensive contributor last season for the Cavaliers, so his play may have been somewhat overlooked.
But, to Stevens’ credit, when the chances were there, he made his presence felt in a rotational sense defensively versus opposing forwards at various points last season, and in some spot starts, aided the team on both ends.
With him making plays on a number of occasions in 2021-22, and with him being able to play multiple positions for Cleveland, I’d have thought we’d have seen Stevens get some action at this juncture in his third year with the team. That hasn’t played out, though.
Through 12 games in the 2022-23 campaign, Stevens has only appeared in three contests for the Cavaliers, and he’s played 23 total minutes. The Cavs have to get that changed in upcoming games, given how he can provide energy in bench minutes, and function as playable depth.
Stevens needs to be getting minutes for the Cavaliers, for three reasons, of which we’ll emphasize here.
The first has to do with how he can help the team as a big wing defender for stretches.
Reason No. 1: Stevens’ big wing defense
Firstly, Stevens could give the Cavaliers some capable defensive minutes for stretches, as he demonstrated with more time to establish himself last season.
Whether it’s defending wings or forwards, Stevens does a solid job of sliding to force tough twos over length, and seems to do a quality job of taking away slot drives, and can wall up in the mid-post if needed to deter forwards from getting to desired spots.
To me, based on how he showed he can aid the team in those areas last season when the opportunities presented themselves, it’d be sensible to give Stevens a chance to make a defensive impact against wings in upcoming games.
Sure, Dean Wade and Cedi Osman have been factoring into the rotation, along with Kevin Love, but Isaac Okoro still has had some looks, and just hasn’t been very effective on either end thus far, which has been disappointing. Okoro has his moments still defensively, and has the right mindset there; he’s just had issues dictating to opposing ball-handlers, and at the moment, there’s not much rationale to play him over Stevens, for instance.
Also, while Osman gives effort defensively like Okoro, and Osman can get hot as a catch-and-shoot threat, as we’ve seen, I would like to see Stevens perhaps at times in over Osman for defensive purposes. And frankly, the same could go with Stevens in some stretches maybe taking some minutes from Caris LeVert, who has issues against bigger wings on defense, despite him being more effective on that end than I would’ve anticipated thus far.
The gist is, though, with his frame, strength and with strides seemingly made with his fluidity, Stevens has a legit argument for minutes for big wing defense, and against some drivers, he might be better-suited than Wade. Wade is currently questionable on Sunday versus the Minnesota Timberwolves with knee soreness, too, so that could be additional rationale for Stevens getting chances.
Also, while there are some untimely fouls from Stevens, who can overexert himself at times to deter shots, his team defense off-ball can lead to deflections and he can make some plays as a rotator on the interior. His steal and block rate last year of 1.5 and 1.6 percent, with his minutes variance, was respectable, in that realm.
That’s something to keep in mind to perhaps cut down on some fouls for others, too, given Cleveland’s issues with fouling of late.
Reason No. 2: Offensive flashes last season
Again, Stevens’ splits offensively last season didn’t necessarily jump out. But, when the opportunities presented themselves, he demonstrated cutting growth and his transition play off-ball and at times as a driver were areas he made an impact as the season wore on.
Now, to reiterate, Stevens is not a player that is a player teams are going to be glued to off-ball from three as a catch-and-shoot threat. He still has to improve there, clearly, and last season, had times where he was hesitant to pull the trigger.
Although on the plus side, Stevens got better when he was given more meaningful chances last season as a cutter, and as a finisher inside, his athleticism, strength and body control enabled him to be efficient there. Stevens connected on 66.9 percent of his shot attempts from five feet and in last season, per NBA.com’s shooting data; those looks equated to 45.5 percent of his shots attempts.
So, while he’s not a guy who Cleveland should be expecting to be lighting it up from deep, he can be a player that can find ways to get to the basket from catch-and-go situations and at times make plays in gaps.
Plus, Stevens is a player that can create some looks on-ball in the mid-range area and convert on short pull-ups after a few dribbles from wing catches.
He showed some of these offensive abilities near the closing stretch of last regular season, when he had 9.2 points per outing, in his last 18 appearances in that span, upon averaging 21.5 minutes. Maybe if he were to re-inserted into Cleveland’s rotation, he could build on that sort of play from last season and give the team a lift there if the chances present themselves.
Reason No. 3: Okoro’s struggles, and just a potential injection of energy
Thirdly, as we touched on previously, Okoro has struggled mightily to begin his third season. Thus far, Okoro has had some ups and downs defensively, and his screen navigation has seemingly regressed a bit, and he’s had some trouble at times with bigger matchups.
And on the other end of the floor, it’s not been pretty. Okoro has had 2.2 points in 14.7 minutes per outing, is zero-of-12 from three, and has shot nine-of-32 overall (28.1 percent). He’s had some encouraging flashes as a cutter, but has been a bit underwhelming in transition, and while there was positive signs offensively in preseason, those unfortunately have not materialized.
So, to me, Stevens should be a player that gets some burn from here, with how Okoro simply looks lost at the moment, and while Stevens is not a catch-and-shoot guy a la Wade, Stevens can create at times on-ball, and he’s shown he can finish.
Plus, generally speaking, with how he gave the team a lift last season, and with his creation flashes in his second year, Stevens could inject some new life into this Cavs team.
Like Wade, Stevens was originally an undrafted, two-way signing, but he’s demonstrated that when he’s given rotational opportunities for some chunks of games, he can make things happen and can guard multiple positions with his 6-foot-6, 230-pound size. The Cavaliers did have a 9-4 record in Stevens’ spot starts last season, too, which was pretty impressive.
He deserves a shot.