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

[cavsfever]

The lack of a NCAA tournament, in person workouts, and combine just allowed Okoro's flaws to go unnoticed. I'm sure he would drop on teams boards if those thing had occured.

Okoro just looked bigger and more versatile in college because of the lesser competition. Okoro also was more maturely built than a typical freshman basketball player.

Team would have question how versatile he actually was once they got measurements and worked out against NBA talent level. Players also tend to shine in the tournament and there is a reshuffling of the board because of it.

If teams were able to have in person workouts, I imagine that the Cavs would have lined up players to workout against him to see his defensive versatility. My guess is the Cavs would have expected an almost TT level predraft workout and they would have walked away knowing he couldn't guard PFs for sure. They probably would have also questioned how well he could guard speedy guards and big wings.

Wait, we took a 19 year old who had achieved nothing notable in college, based on future potential, with NO IN PERSON WORKOUT? Based on what, watching TV and looking at the guesstimated height / weight in the college yearbook?

 

[inliner311]

Wait, we took a 19 year old who had achieved nothing notable in college, based on future potential, with NO IN PERSON WORKOUT? Based on what, watching TV and looking at the guesstimated height / weight in the college yearbook?

That draft no one could work out. The NCAA tournament and combine were canceled.

They probably did scout him in person before everything was shut down. The rest was probably done from game tape. I know agents would provide videos over zoom or highlight videos from player workouts during that period.

Really there wasn't reliable ways of measuring a player since they didn't have access to them. Koby might have had some old measurements from his USA basketball connections.

Whatever approach that they took didn't return the same results as the other top 8 picks but it was a one off situation. I think it was a draft that needed a real adjustment to try to hedge to get a good prospect.

Edit: I had it wrong with the workout. They did allow workouts but they were very limited. They weren't workouts against other players. Apparently the Cavs went to Auburn to watch Okoro work out. The teams were only allowed 3 people to attend the workout.

 

[Heat Check]

Edit: I had it wrong with the workout. They did allow workouts but they were very limited. They weren't workouts against other players. Apparently the Cavs went to Auburn to watch Okoro work out. The teams were only allowed 3 people to attend the workout.

I guess they had a chair defending Okoro

 

[Kizzle]

As of now it’s a bad pick. Dude was picked top 5. He’s not supposed to be a role player that can’t always see the floor. He’s supposed to be a starter by now.


I’ll never understand peoples resistance to just say he’s underachieved. He’s done worse than what most ppl said would be his floor. His best flashes aren’t even that good either. I think we drafted him to be our Marcus Smart. Big built guard, that plays D on 3 positions and scores at an efficient clip, while also being able to run some Point.

You love to see Okoro getting up to 48% shooting this year but with as worthless he is from 3 he needs to be around 55% to justify minutes.



He’s very young tho, I’d definitely let him play out his contract. He could easily turn into a star still

 

[2 For The Brew]

As of now it’s a bad pick. Dude was picked top 5. He’s not supposed to be a role player that can’t always see the floor. He’s supposed to be a starter by now.


I’ll never understand peoples resistance to just say he’s underachieved. He’s done worse than what most ppl said would be his floor. His best flashes aren’t even that good either. I think we drafted him to be our Marcus Smart. Big built guard, that plays D on 3 positions and scores at an efficient clip, while also being able to run some Point.

You love to see Okoro getting up to 48% shooting this year but with as worthless he is from 3 he needs to be around 55% to justify minutes.



He’s very young tho, I’d definitely let him play out his contract. He could easily turn into a star still

He shot 35% from 3. Not terrible given he was 29% the year before. “Pure Shooter” Windler shot 29% this past season.

Isaac also significantly improve his 2 pt and FT shooting from last season.

Our stagnant half court offense does him no favors.

 

[Blazie]

As of now it’s a bad pick. Dude was picked top 5. He’s not supposed to be a role player that can’t always see the floor. He’s supposed to be a starter by now.


I’ll never understand peoples resistance to just say he’s underachieved. He’s done worse than what most ppl said would be his floor. His best flashes aren’t even that good either. I think we drafted him to be our Marcus Smart. Big built guard, that plays D on 3 positions and scores at an efficient clip, while also being able to run some Point.

You love to see Okoro getting up to 48% shooting this year but with as worthless he is from 3 he needs to be around 55% to justify minutes.



He’s very young tho, I’d definitely let him play out his contract. He could easily turn into a star still

Agree except for that last sentence... based on what I've seen so far, I don't think his pathway to stardom will be easy at all. I think he has multiple obstacles to stardom, and I'm not sure he'll ever overcome enough of them to be in the "young nba stars" conversation.

Frankly, I think there's a wagonload of work to do just to elevate him out of bust status. And I don't know if he'll ever be worth the pick. Sure, he'll get better, but so will almost everyone else from that class...

He's in a tough spot because his development needs to be accelerated, but we simply can't afford to play him monster minutes anymore, which puts a cap on how quickly he can develop. I just hope he puts in a lot of work this off-season. A. Lot. Of. Work.

 

[Peacedog]

As of now it’s a bad pick. Dude was picked top 5. He’s not supposed to be a role player that can’t always see the floor. He’s supposed to be a starter by now.


I’ll never understand peoples resistance to just say he’s underachieved. He’s done worse than what most ppl said would be his floor. His best flashes aren’t even that good either. I think we drafted him to be our Marcus Smart. Big built guard, that plays D on 3 positions and scores at an efficient clip, while also being able to run some Point.

You love to see Okoro getting up to 48% shooting this year but with as worthless he is from 3 he needs to be around 55% to justify minutes.



He’s very young tho, I’d definitely let him play out his contract. He could easily turn into a star still

How do Okoro's Year 2 stats stack up against Smart's Year 2 numbers? I would say very favorably.

 

[Peacedog]

How do Okoro's Year 2 stats stack up against Smart's Year 2 numbers? I would say very favorably.

In Smart's 2nd season, he averaged 9.1 ppg on 35% shooting and 25% from 3s, on a 48-34 Celtic team. Seems like Isaac is way ahead of where Smart was at that point in his career.

 

[cavsfever]

He shot 35% from 3. Not terrible given he was 29% the year before. “Pure Shooter” Windler shot 29% this past season.

Isaac also significantly improve his 2 pt and FT shooting from last season.

Our stagnant half court offense does him no favors.

His shooting percentages were just fine this year, actually pretty decent. But you can’t judge him by those because his problem is that he doesn’t shoot! The shots he takes are easy shots, but he doesn’t create enough of them. Only 6.4 field goal attempts per game for a starting two guard who plays 30 mpg is totally unworkable - especially when you consider he doesn’t do much if anything else on offense either

 

[cavsfever]

In Smart's 2nd season, he averaged 9.1 ppg on 35% shooting and 25% from 3s, on a 48-34 Celtic team. Seems like Isaac is way ahead of where Smart was at that point in his career.

That’s not a bad point, I kind of thought Smart might be a bust too, but I always thought his defense was more impactful. Plus his box score numbers were somewhat better — Smarts per 36 numbers in year 2 were 12/5.5/4 and two steals, Okoro’s are 10.7/3.7/2.2 and one steal

 

[Benway]

I'm giving Kobe a pass on this draft. He was still tasked with finding the anti-LeBron.

 

[BigZ94]

He shot 35% from 3. Not terrible given he was 29% the year before. “Pure Shooter” Windler shot 29% this past season.

Isaac also significantly improve his 2 pt and FT shooting from last season.

Our stagnant half court offense does him no favors.

Take into consideration most of his 3s are wide open from the corner

 

[texascavsfan]

Take into consideration most of his 3s are wide open from the corner

I can still hear the clanks echoing in my ear....

 

[B Mac]

Im hoping he's taking 1000 threes a day, and since his work ethic is one thing we can't question, I'm sure he's doing just that.

However, just taking wide open threes in practice is only addressing part of the problem. He also needs to be doing some serious, serious work on his ball handling skills. I believe his lack of confidence in his dribbling is what led to him not being aggressive. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that a couple months of dribbling drills will offer a ton of improvement.

This looks like a long and slow process to me. Hopefully, he can pick up some more in game confidence facing off against opposing team's bench players moving forward instead of being forced into the starting lineup.

 

[inliner311]

In Smart's 2nd season, he averaged 9.1 ppg on 35% shooting and 25% from 3s, on a 48-34 Celtic team. Seems like Isaac is way ahead of where Smart was at that point in his career.

Smart was a college PG and they eased him in slowly to run the offense in Boston but he was always capable of providing ball handling and playmaking. Boston has had alot of ball handlers since Smart was there. They were using Evan Turner as their backup PG in Smarts first two season.

Smarts ability to share the point duties is a big reason why they were able to develop him and keep him on the floor. Okoro can barely dribble so his shooting numbers would need to far outpace Smarts to prove equal value.