Isaac 3 & D Okoro - A Two Way Playing Basketball Savant

[Kouki]

Good lord that's an awfully low bar 33% after 3 years? Thats Cedi Osman territory.

I don't disagree but read the post directly above that bet proposal.

I would still be confident in the bet at 35%.

Hell i will bet 35% by end of next year, rolling two month average, let's have some fun

 

[Alec]

I don't disagree but read the post directly above that bet proposal.

I would still be confident in the bet at 35%.

Hell i will bet 35% by end of next year, rolling two month average, let's have some fun

$100. 35% by end of next year. Obvious caveats about sample size and minimum games played/shots attempted.

 

[foucault87]

Now I am expecting him to come curling off screens and nailing 40% by next year...at least somebody on this team will shoot 3s if that happened

 

[Kouki]

$100. 35% by end of next year. Obvious caveats about sample size and minimum games played/shots attempted.

Deal with a stipulation that it's 35% in a consecutive 3 month period and not his season average. Minimum average 3 attempts per game (what he's averaging now)?

Additional stipulation, if I win you have to write a minimum 100 word essay regarding his meaty thighs

 

[ryanf]

Additional stipulation, if I win you have to write a minimum 100 word essay regarding his meaty thighs

will prepare the popcorn and watch the outcome of this bet

 

[guitarguy]

I think you'd be stoked getting Okoro 5th pick second round, but for as much natural instincts he seems to have on D, he doesn't seem to have it on offense. It's weird even. Hard to imagine he gets a great handle, shot, playmaking, shot creation, any of that. He will always have a role in the NBA, but when we are starved for talent, it would be nice if he at least was a driving dunk machine.

 

[weepinwillow]

Well now we get to wait through next year on Issac thanks to you degenerates.

 

[CavsFan07]

I'm actually baffled when I see NBA athletes drafted this high that have very little actual basketball skill...

He plays like he started playing basketball when he was like 15... Did he never have a coach that could refine/teach actual ball and shooting skills?

 

[Dr. Claw]

Difference being that MKG's shot is completely broken.

Okoro doesn't have horrible form, actually it looks pretty good. I'm no shooting form expert but anecdotally he struggles with consistent arc and balance which is evident in his landing. Also looks like he's going to fall over forward on every FT attempt.

I'll make a $50 RCF bet that he is above 33% by end of year 3.

Hard agree here.
Okoro's shots look like they should go in just due to his form but like you said, he lands wrong. MKG (on the other hand, a guy at the time I wanted the Cavs to draft, but glad they didn't) never got better on the shooting front.

 

[weepinwillow]

I'm actually baffled when I see NBA athletes drafted this high that have very little actual basketball skill...

He plays like he started playing basketball when he was like 15... Did he never have a coach that could refine/teach actual ball and shooting skills?

he has the best floor game of all the Cavs save for Nance and Allen. He's clearly been coached and coached well.
Shots not broken, but his ability to eventually hit it with some consistency remains the difference between being a role player and being a front-line starting NBA wing.

 

[CavsFan07]

he has the best floor game of all the Cavs save for Nance and Allen. He's clearly been coached and coached well.
Shots not broken, but his ability to eventually hit it with some consistency remains the difference between being a role player and being a front-line starting NBA wing.

I have to respectfully disagree.

He's nowhere near an elite ball handler. I wouldn't even say he's an above average ball handler (especially not considering he's actually a 2 guard)...... He's not a good shooter whatsoever.

There's been plenty of guys near his size/athleticism that were very good shooters, or even average shooters at his age. It's not like he's some overly massive giant like Shaq with huge hands and struggles to shoot because of that..... He just flat out doesn't shoot the basketball well.

 

[weepinwillow]

He's nowhere near an elite ball handler. I wouldn't even say he's an above average ball handler (especially not considering he's actually a 2 guard)...... He's not a good shooter whatsoever.

But do you? I'm not disagreeing that he needs a better shot and better handles.
Ball handling isn't having a "floor game".
Shooting isn't having a "floor game".
Floor game is spacing, knowing when to cut, moving without the ball, knowing how to play defense to the help and to the weakness of the offensive player, how to rotate and where to rotate on defense, knowing how to move the ball in the offense. Basically everything you need to do without having the basketball in your hands.
Those skills are all BBIQ married to effort skillsets.
If Collin Sexton had Okoro's floor game he'd have been an All Star last year and in the conversation for an All NBA team this year. But, Collin is held back back his lack of court awareness and general feel for the game, just like Okoro is held back by his lack of a consistent jump shot.
Isaac is young, and adding a jumper isn't impossible. Developing court awareness is actually very hard. Many players literally never get it. So the good news on Okoro is he has one of the harder parts down.
The only criticism I see as somewhat fair right now is the lack of rebounding. We knew he needed to develop a jumper. And lo and behold, his jumper is inconsistent. If he doesn't develop one by next year or the following year, his career will turn to a solid bench player on a good team, if he does develop one, his career will be a front line starter on a good team.

 

["MVP"]

The lack of guard skills is what people miss about Okoro.

His guard skills were one of his attributes that most drew me to him as a prospect out of Auburn. He hasn't shown them off much yet this season, but there is a ton of untapped potential there for him to initiate offense. He needs to improve his handle, but he's a smart, willing and able passer that has the strength to get into the lane and make plays for others. It's why some compared him to Iguodala entering the draft.

It's far too soon to write him off. He's a 20-year-old rookie coming off a one-and-done college career being thrown into the fire in the weirdest season in NBA history with no summer league or real training camp.

 

[inliner311]

His guard skills were one of his attributes that most drew me to him as a prospect out of Auburn. He hasn't shown them off much yet this season, but there is a ton of untapped potential there for him to initiate offense. He needs to improve his handle, but he's a smart, willing and able passer that has the strength to get into the lane and make plays for others. It's why some compared him to Iguodala entering the draft.

It's far too soon to write him off. He's a 20-year-old rookie coming off a one-and-done college career being thrown into the fire in the weirdest season in NBA history with no summer league or real training camp.

Improving handles seems to be the hardest thing to get better at in the NBA without game reps as a ball handler to do so. I think it's because opposing players have no problems embarrassing a guy over and over if his handles are bad but a teammate in practice will take it easy on that guy to keep the relationship good.

There are only a handful of guys that improved their handles multiple levels in the NBA and they all either had a team that were willing to hurt the team short term to develop that players handles. Oladipo and Giannis had teams that put their development before anything else and made them the PG purely for their development. Jimmy Butler was pushed into the role of PG because Rose was hurt so often and they decided it was better to develop Butler than to give the ball to some fringe NBA PG.

I'd have alot more confidence that Okoro could improve his handles if the Cavs showed they could have done it with Cedi. They had opportunities to just give the ball to Cedi to run the point with the second unit so he could improve his handles. Instead they gave the ball to Clarkson and a bunch of backup PGs that aren't in the league.

 

[narbar32]

I think the problem is that Koby took it way too literally when everybody kept telling him he needed to draft a SMALL Forward...