The Cleveland Cavaliers moved on from Isaac Okoro this summer after five seasons, trading him to the Chicago Bulls. While the Bulls are off to a hot start, Okoro is having one of the worst starts to the year of any player in the NBA.
Cleveland is certainly not off to the start they envisioned prior to the season, just 3-3 with losses to a couple of teams not expected to make the playoffs this year. Their problem is easy to identify, however: they have been beset with injuries. Darius Garland and Max Strus are yet to make their season debuts, while Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen and Sam Merrill have all missed time already.
While they have faltered, however, their division rivals have soared. The Chicago Bulls are 5-0 and atop the Eastern Conference, and hardly against a cupcake schedule. They have already defeated four expected playoff teams in the Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks. It has been a wildly impressive showing for Billy Donovan and company.
Yet in the midst of their early success, there has been one glaring problem, and he is sitting right in the middle of the starting lineup: Isaac Okoro has been awful to start the year.
The Bulls traded for Okoro this summer to be a defensive linchpin in their rotation. They sent Lonzo Ball to the Cavaliers, who can and has served as both a backup point guard and a 3-and-D wing alongside their other star guards. Once the Cavs are fully healthy his value should only intensify for the team.
At the time, many thought that the Bulls should have extracted a draft pick out of the Cavaliers for taking on Okoro's salary, but they clearly valued him as a player and thought the contract was fair. They valued him so much he was an immediate starter as well, slotting in alongside Josh Giddey on the wing.
The reason that the Cavaliers moved on from Okoro was that his reliably excellent defense was eroded by his offensive limitations. For a contending team like Cleveland the tradeoff wasn't worth it. For a play-in bound Chicago Bulls team it made more sense.
Isaac Okoro has been awful
Except two things have changed to start the year for Okoro. First, he hasn't been an elite defender, but rather more of a mediocre one. He isn't generating steals, he isn't locking down opponents, and overall his defensive impact has been muted.
That's a massive problem, because his offensive game has been league-worst levels of awful. He is shooting just 32.1 percent from the field and 23.1 percent from 3-point range, averaging only 4.4 points per game despite playing 22.6 minutes per contest. He has contributed next to nothing on offense.
Box Plus-Minus has Okoro rated as the 4th-worst player in the league among all qualified players. That's worse than anyone on the Washington Wizards, or the New Orleans Pelicans (barely; Derik Queen is 5th-worst) or the moribund Sacramento Kings. Below-average defense and league-worst offense is hardly a rotation player, especially not for a good team.
The Chicago Bulls have already noticed this, and his playing time dropped significantly in his last game. Head coach Billy Donovan doesn't have a plethora of options to replace Okoro, but he will find a way if Ice continues to be this awful. The Bulls look good enough to compete for a Top-6 playoff spot this year, and if that's the case, they cannot afford a black hole like Okoro in the rotation, let alone the starting lineup.
If Okoro is not careful, he could play his way right out of the Bulls' rotation and, soon thereafter, out of the league entirely. His weaknesses are stark enough that he has to work hard to prove his value to NBA teams; when he can no longer do that, his time in the league is done. Things are falling apart, and it's not unthinkable that they could spiral into disaster in a matter of weeks.