Who doesn't love a good preseason overreaction? Except, in this case, it's not so much about reading too much into these tune-up games as it is a confirmation of what was already known. Isaac Okoro's offense was never going to be what the Cleveland Cavaliers needed and they were right to move on.
The Cavaliers traded Okoro to the Chicago Bulls to land their big splash of the offseason, Lonzo Ball. One would not expect any sort of buyer's remorse from that deal when it comes to Koby Altman and his front office.
Ball took a few games to ramp up, but by the end of the preseason, the new backup point guard looked every bit of the player who the Cavaliers were hoping to get in their offseason swap. Cleveland will still need to be careful managing the load of their new addition, but must otherwise be thrilled.
Meanwhile, Okoro has gotten off to a slow start with his new team. The Bulls wing should be quite thankful the statistics from his first few preseason games will not be tallied towards anything meaningful. The former Cavalier has found everything but the bottom of the bucket.
Isaac Okoro’s early struggles with Bulls show Cavaliers made the right call
Okoro has been miserable scoring the basketball in his first four outings during the preseason. The former top-five pick has averaged 6.0 points per game. That comes with him shooting 29.6 percent from the field, 20.0 percent from beyond the arc, and 55.6 percent from the free throw line.
Naturally, there is a 'figuring out' period that comes with adjusting to a new team. Likewise, these numbers will get washed away from the official record of what Okoro has done in his career.
However, the Cavaliers are only being shown how capable their offensive system was to support a struggling option on that end. Okoro's production will probably regress to the mean as time goes on. Even then, it will remain unspectacular.
There should be credit given where it is due. Okoro has always been a reliable presence on the defensive end. That is a big part of the reason the Cavaliers were willing to wait as long as they did for him to fully figure out the other side of the basketball court.
That never truly materialized in meaningful ways for Cleveland. In the process of giving up on one player's two-way impact, they actually seized another who can provide it. It was the right decision then, and it still looks that way now.