The Cleveland Cavaliers made a mistake - but the real error came in February, not on Thursday.
With the playoffs less than two weeks away, the Cleveland Cavaliers finally filled their 15th and final roster spot by signing 6'6" forward Chuma Okeke.
The 16th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, Okeke fought to remain on the fringes of the Orlando Magic rotation before he was cut loose. He has bounced around the Eastern Conference over the past few months, spending Training Camp with the New York Knicks and signing a couple of 10-day contracts with the Philadelphia 76ers. If the injury-riddled 76ers don't need you it's hard to imagine why a contender would.
On the surface, signing Okeke is a depth move. The more warm bodies that you have at the forward position, the more depth you have in case of an injury. Forwards can mix and match at different positions, and Okeke has experience playing both the 3 and the 4. If the Cavaliers lose Dean Wade and De'Andre Hunter, for example, Okeke could at least fill some of the same role.
The difference, of course, is that Okeke is significantly worse at everything that makes Wade and Hunter valuable. He is a career 32.2 percent shooter from deep, is nothing special defensively and is undersized for a forward. He is a decent passer and rebounds well for his size, and he has shown some real juice for stretches in the G League, but he has done very little to suggest that an NBA rotation player still exists -- or frankly, ever did.
Normally, signing a forward would be the right move heading into the playoffs -- they are the most valuable position for deep bench pieces. Yet the Cavaliers have a much more glaring need -- for a third center.
The Cavaliers need a backup center
If Jarrett Allen goes down to injury, the Cleveland Cavaliers have no answer to back up Evan Mobley. Tristan Thompson has been a disaster when he has been on the court this season. Head coach Kenny Atkinson will likely go to Dean Wade as the backup center, which is fine as a change-of-pace but is not keeping Tyrese Haliburton or Jalen Brunson or Jaylen Brown away from the rim, nor is it keeping Josh Hart or Pascal Siakam or Jalen Duren or Kristaps Porzingis off the glass.
The Cavaliers need a backup center much more than a seventh forward who is behind Jaylon Tyson and Javonte Green in the "forwards already out of the rotation" pecking order. Yet the mistake the Cavaliers made was not made on Thursday, because the reality is that there were no viable centers to sign.
The mistake was made in February at the NBA Trade Deadline.
In the midst of negotiating the De'Andre Hunter trade, the Cavaliers needed to be looking around for a viable center to trade for. Not a top-tier name like Nic Claxton and not even a high-priced backup like Larry Nance Jr. or Robert Williams III. Merely anyone with a chance of holding up in the playoffs for 8 minutes per game.
Perhaps the Cavs didn't like the price tag on any of their options. Perhaps their loyalty to Tristan Thompson meant they would not cut him to bring in another center. Or perhaps they truly did think they could find a center on the buyout market or for an end-of-year contract.
By waiting this long, however, the Cavaliers were out of options. With centers going down all across the league, the collection of available veteran centers was completely tapped out. The Dallas Mavericks, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Toronto Raptors, the Philadelphia 76ers, the San Antonio Spurs, so on and so forth -- all of these teams scooped up all of the options. There was no one left for Cleveland to sign this week.
The Cavaliers must hope they do not live to regret this mistake. Yet blasting them for not signing a center this week is missing the point. They did not prepare in February, and it's possible that means they will fall short in May and June.