The Cleveland Cavaliers made it crystal clear to Tyrese Proctor this week: he is not a part of their current rotation. That had to come as a cold dose of reality for a player starting to catch a ride on the hype train.
Rookies are fun. Rookies are exciting. Rookies are vessels of limitless potential ready to erupt into the very best version they can be. It is natural for teams and fan bases to get excited during preseason for what the new additions to the team can provide as they enter the NBA.
The name on the lips of Cavaliers media the last few weeks has been Tyrese Proctor. A rookie second-rounder out of Duke, Proctor was signed to a full four-year contract and will be a part of Cleveland's plan over the next few seasons. The organization signaled in June and consistently since that they view the Australian guard as a valuable part of their future.
Proctor has shown some real flashes in training camp, causing the coaching staff to start raving about what he can bring. Then, in his preseason debut, he lit up the Chicago Bulls to the tune of 14 points in just 12 minutes, shooting 3-of-4 from deep. It's impossible not to get excited after that kind of debut.
All-Star point guard Darius Garland will miss the start of the season recovering from offseason toe surgery. 3-and-D wing Max Strus will likewise be out to start the regular season. Movement shooter Sam Merrill has missed both preseason games. There is real space in the backcourt carved out for a rising player like Tyrese Proctor to step into.
Is he ready to play now? Could he be one of the rare rookie guards ready to contribute positively to winning basketball games as a rookie? Jaylen Wells did just that last season for the Memphis Grizzlies as a second-round pick. Malcolm Brogdon once did for the Milwaukee Bucks. While the Cavaliers don't need Proctor to start, he was in a position to pass Craig Porter Jr. in the pecking order and be firmly in the rotation from Day One.
Tyrese Proctor got a cold dose of reality
At least, that's the station that the hype train delivered everyone to. Yet Thursday night brought a cold dose of reality to Proctor and everyone projecting a future All-Star: he is still just a second-round rookie, and his development as an NBA player will take time.
Head coach Kenny Atkinson elected to start Donovan Mitchell and Jaylon Tyson in the backcourt, eschewing a traditional point guard. Porter Jr. and Lonzo Ball were the backup guards as Atkinson ran a normal rotation for the first three quarters of the game. Proctor was nowhere to be found.
It was not until there were only 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter that Proctor subbed into the game. He would play the rest of the game, totaling seven points and four assists, but it was a clear signal from the coaching staff. Even with the injuries, the pecking order goes through Porter Jr. and Ball before it ever arrives at Tyrese Proctor.
That is hardly some sort of referendum on his future career or even that he hasn't made huge strides in training camp. This is a team that won 64 games last season and has one goal for this year: to win a championship. The Cavaliers are extremely deep, and to the extent that Proctor is ready to play as a rookie, it will only help when injuries do continue to hit this roster over the course of the season.
Is Proctor impressing the franchise? Yes. Does that mean he is now in the rotation? Absolutely not. And that was a hard but necessary truth for Proctor and Cavaliers fans to face, but it's a truth nonetheless.