One of the most encouraging developments for the Cleveland Cavaliers thus far in the first near-quarter of the 2023-24 season has been the play of Craig Porter Jr.
Porter, who is on a two-way contract, and went undrafted, has looked like a heck of a steal by Cleveland. While there have been a couple of tough outings for Porter, by and large, his contributions have been nothing short of impressive for the most part, when the opportunities have been there for the Wichita State product.
In what's amounted to 11 appearances to this point for him, Porter has averaged 8.3 points and 2.7 assists in 15.5 minutes per outing. He's converted on 56.3 percent of his shot attempts with the Cavaliers.
More recently, Porter has had more chances in meaningful minutes with the Cavaliers, though, and while backcourt/wing injuries have factored into it, his splits have seen an uptick. Porter did register a DNP in Cleveland's last win over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday night, but in his last six appearances with the Cavs, he's averaged 12.7 points and 4.0 assists in 21.5 minutes per game.
When he's had the opportunities to make things happen, there's also been two aspects of the game where Porter's really made a difference. And on both ends of the floor, the rookie has proven to be a player already more than capable of contributing.
Porter has made his presence felt in two key areas for the Cavaliers, and he's steadily improved.
Let's begin with how Porter has made an impact for the Wine and Gold on offense, where his craftiness and paint play has paid dividends.
No. 1: Driving prowess/paint pressure as scorer/playmaker
Though deep balls are not going to be a sizeable part of his shot diet, at least not early on in his career, Porter has proven to be well-versed as an on-ball player with his change of pace and driving prowess.
Whether he's been in games for stretches either functioning as a true lead guard or as essentially a combo guard, Porter has found ways to make plays from getting downhill and getting to the rim to finish, or with shots inside of 10 or so feet.
So far, he has connected on 74.1 percent of his restricted area shot attempts, and 47.4 percent of his non-restricted area paint shot attempts, per NBA.com's shooting data. Those zones have constituted 42.2 and 29.7 percent of Porter's shot attempts with the Cavaliers early on.
His change of speeds, both acceleration in quick bursts, and deceleration to counter that have led to Porter putting himself in advantageous positions either from creating from the wings, or from pick-and-roll chances. Even with him being a player that's on a two-way deal, with Porter having been a five-year collegiate player (with him originally a JUCO guy), it's apparent that ahe's polished when it comes to finding ways to attack the paint. He's been able to pair that with mixing in pull-ups as well.
There still have been still some bad turnovers here and there from Porter, but the rookie still has seemed to gradually get more comfortable as a playmaker for himself and others, too. And while it's not the simplest task to find him minutes as the Cavaliers get healthier, with how Porter has created quality looks for bigs and seemingly should improve in finding shooters off of his penetration, it's clear he can make an consistent mpact off the bench from his paint pressure.
No. 2: His defensive playmaking, veteran-type of feel as helper
Defensively, Porter has given Cleveland some quality minutes as a point-of-attack option, and with Isaac Okoro out for an extended period because of knee soreness (he's since returned), that helped the Cavaliers for stretches in Porter's minutes. He's not necessarily going to have the versatility of Okoro on-ball on that end, but to a large extent, Porter did a commendable job in that aspect.
Porter's defensive playmaking has been an aspect of his game that has definitely caught Wine and Gold's fans eyes, though, and that's something that has translated from his time at Wichita State.
Porter had remarkable splits in that regard in recent seasons with the Shockers, and so far with the Cavs, he's had 0.6 steals and 0.5 blocks per contest, on robust steal and block rates of 2.0 and 2.5 percent. And extrapolated out on a per-36 minute basis, he's averaged 1.5 steals and 1.1 blocks.
Though he's 6-foot-1, Porter has been a disruptor in passing lanes as a rotator, has shown the ability to come over the top to block shots, even at his size, and his efforts have helped generate transition looks. He can take some fouls at times trying to make plays, but one can appreciate the effort and aggression he's played with on defense.
Porter is again on a two-way deal, and there's a number of others involved, so there's going to be variance in his minutes. However, if he keeps making plays when he's given ample opportunities and helps the Cavs bench, he'd seem to be a realistic candidate to have his two-way eventually converted to a standard deal, especially with the uncertainty in relation to Ricky Rubio.