Just a bit past a third of the way into the 2022-23 season, the Cleveland Cavaliers have done a pretty nice job as a team. The Cavaliers are 17-11 on the campaign, and are, at the moment, third place in the Eastern Conference.
Cleveland is third in the NBA in net rating, and the Cavs are second in defensive rating and 12th in offensive rating.
There have been some inconsistencies for this group, and the Cavaliers are only 5-9 on the road on the season, and need to clean things up there. But all things considered, they’ve gotten off to a nice start, and in dealing with continual reshuffling of lineups, Cleveland has stemmed the tide and could have the makings of a club destined for a deep playoff run.
The Cavs, by and large, have been able to close the door defensively when they’ve needed to in key stretches, after some earlier season hiccups, and the guard play of the Cavaliers has been terrific.
Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell still are a duo that is going to need to finetune some stuff in games, but it’s evident that their skill level, shot creation and playmaking abilities are always going to make this Cleveland team tough to handle. In combination with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, the Cavs have four core players that are all young, and might just be getting started, too.
Nonetheless, while there have been plenty of bright spots and positives for the Cavaliers so far in an entertaining campaign, such as Dean Wade and Lamar Stevens as well as the aforementioned players, some guys have frankly, disappointed.
With that caveat, we’ll touch on three Cavs that have not lived up to expectations to this point here.
The first of those guys, not necessarily in a particular order, though, is Caris LeVert.
No. 1: Caris LeVert
Caris LeVert has had his share of struggles this season. On the year, LeVert has had 12.4 points per outing, which hasn’t been killing it, if you will, and his not nearly what he’d been in recent prior seasons when he had a legit chunk of games under his belt.
It’s not all necessarily on LeVert, as one would be reasonable to have their doubts about his outlook coming into the year, particularly with him being a questionable fit for considerable stretches with Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, too. LeVert began starting, and has been mostly coming off the bench since, with Lamar Stevens mostly stepping in for LeVert at the 3, for defensive purposes.
LeVert has had his moments, including since he returned from missing a handful of games because of an ankle sprain, and in each of Cleveland’s past two games in filling in for Mitchell (lower leg soreness), prior to Monday, LeVert had 22 points. He also was a bright spot in a frustrating loss at the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night, too, with 23 points on nine-of-13 shooting.
Those sort of outings have not been a regularity with him, though, as while LeVert has been decent from three, given his sort of role, at a hit rate of 36.6 percent, he’s hit only 41.7 percent of his twos. He’s connected on sub-40.0 percent of those for most of the season thus far, too.
As a result, he’s began the season with an effective field goal shooting clip of 46.6, which would be a career-low. His lack of touch on mid-range pull-ups has been concerning, too, as while that’s not always a quality shot, and LeVert can be prone to settling for tough looks, he can make those and be a bail-out option.
Unfortunately, even with there being some uncertainty involving him heading into the season, given the roster outlook, and the arrival of Mitchell, LeVert this amount of offensive inconsistency in finding his way is not nearly something I’d have foreseen.
He has been better defensively than one probably would’ve anticipated for stretches coming in, and on a positive note, LeVert has had 4.5 assists per outing. His secondary playmaking has been underrated, honestly, and his hustle plays shouldn’t be discounted; 4.3 rebounds per game has been decent.
But, with him being on an expiring deal, one has to objectively see him as a potential trade piece, even with him arriving via trade last season. With what’s played out this season so far, one would be in the right to have reservations about LeVert as a long-term piece for Cleveland.
He hasn’t been able to quite put it together on offense for multiple stretches of games nearly enough yet.
No. 2: Isaac Okoro
Isaac Okoro is the second Cav who hasn’t lived up to expectations. The expectations weren’t likely near that of others, per se, but Okoro having only 4.1 points per outing has been less than one probably would’ve assumed coming in, at this point.
There’s others involved, of course, even still, his minutes-share has been reduced to 18.7 per game, and Lamar Stevens being more viable offensively has feasibly played into Stevens starting over him, in the time since LeVert has moved to the bench. Now, Dean Wade being currently sidelined with an AC joint sprain is another layer to the wing situation; regardless, Okoro has had his struggles offensively, and is still very limited there, and that’s factored into his minutes reduction.
Okoro is a player that helps the Cavs often on the defensive end for stretches, and one has to acknowledge that, as he plays with such urgency there, intensity and he often does force opponents into tough shots. It’s been telling that in minutes Okoro is on the floor, opponents have had an effective field goal shooting clip of minus-1.5 percent, which has placed in the 68th percentile thus far this season, per Cleaning The Glass.
The key issue though is, while there were some signs of improvement in preseason, and he had reportedly been making progress with his shooting in the offseason, and his shot form does look more fluid, the work hasn’t materialized. The minutes reduction does matter for it, but Okoro has only shot 24.5 percent from three on the season, and though his finishing at the rim has been better, as a continued growth sign from last year, his on-ball play is still severely limited.
The fact of the matter is, while his defense is a plus, one is right to question if Okoro’s offense will ever really come along to be at a competent level, let alone for him to ever consistently play near that of starter’s minutes game-to-game again.
No. 3: Robin Lopez
As for the third Cav, while expectations were not going for him to be a crucial bench contributor, necessarily, Robin Lopez hasn’t been the playable 5 man depth that I thought he might be.
One had to acknowledge that Lopez is a player that has his limitations, and last season, he was not regularly in the rotation that often with the Orlando Magic, a rebuilding team prioritizing young guys getting the bulk of meaningful minutes.
Despite those caveats, I’d have thought that Lopez could at least be able to have viability in some stretches for Jarrett Allen/Evan Mobley, or handle work against more physical 5s for stretches instead of Mobley in that sense.
What’s instead happened is Lopez has been unplayable in a number of games, and while there are flashes, he hasn’t had the interior success offensively as a roller or tertiary post-up threat that I thought he would.
I’m aware it’s Year 15 for Lopez, and he was somewhat of a locker room presence-type signing in the offseason, anyhow, but 3.3 points per game has been telling. He’s been efficient with his shots, however, defensively, he hasn’t been much of a rim deterrent at all, with a block rate of just 1.0 percent, and he’s had a career-low 5.7 rebounds per-36 minutes.
Perhaps Lopez can turn things around a bit; it just doesn’t seem that likely, given what we’ve seen so far.