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

[mAo_mAo]

Without his shooting we would have been blown out. I was a hater now I am slowly becoming a believer. LOL.

More of this, please.

 

[Boobie4Three]

Trade him for a 3 & D guy. Oh wait.

 

[Mcreek]

The inside story of how the Cavaliers rebuilt Isaac Okoro’s jump shot — and his confidence

Cavs small forward Isaac Okoro has spent the offseason reinventing his shot, and himself.

www.cleveland.com

A terrific article that reinforces a long-standing belief in the Cavs having some of (if not the) best player development staff and systems in the league, especially when it comes to shooting form and technique. This technology (Noah) just sounds remarkable.

I remember reading this at the time and thinking how could a player put this insane amount of work in and totally regress during his early season struggles. Okoro actually got worse so it seemed. Now that he has turned it around it reminds me of the hitting and pitching coaches doing a extreme makeover of a hitter or pitcher. Some times the process takes awhile. The coaches see the results in practice but not yet in the games. The light seems to have gone on now for Okoro. Maybe now He can be a cross between a Bobby Phills and Jimmy Butler. So where in between gives the Cavz a very solid role player at the 3

 

[Sir'Dom Pointer]

He looks good

 

[2 For The Brew]

I remember reading this at the time and thinking how could a player put this insane amount of work in and totally regress during his early season struggles. Okoro actually got worse so it seemed. Now that he has turned it around it reminds me of the hitting and pitching coaches doing a extreme makeover of a hitter or pitcher. Some times the process takes awhile. The coaches see the results in practice but not yet in the games. The light seems to have gone on now for Okoro. Maybe now He can be a cross between a Bobby Phills and Jimmy Butler. So where in between gives the Cavz a very solid role player at the 3

His role significantly changed at the start of the year as well. A starter for all but 4 games his first two years and ranked 1st and 3rd in total minutes played, he was shifted to a bench role and like everyone else had to fit into Spyda’s arrival.

He’s inconsistent but has shown his potential on occasion during his 2 1/2 years. He needs consistency. If he was Cedi’s age we’d say he’s been around enough to show that’s who he is, but he’s still young and we just don’t know.

I still worry about matchup problems if he’s on the court with Mitchell and Garland due to lack of height but he could be a formidable player down the road and we need to keep him. Nobody knows how good he will be. Nobody.

 

[I'mWithDan]

His role significantly changed at the start of the year as well. A starter for all but 4 games his first two years and ranked 1st and 3rd in total minutes played, he was shifted to a bench role and like everyone else had to fit into Spyda’s arrival.

He’s inconsistent but has shown his potential on occasion during his 2 1/2 years. He needs consistency. If he was Cedi’s age we’d say he’s been around enough to show that’s who he is, but he’s still young and we just don’t know.

I still worry about matchup problems if he’s on the court with Mitchell and Garland due to lack of height but he could be a formidable player down the road and we need to keep him. Nobody knows how good he will be. Nobody.

I think if he continues to shoot it average to above average, the important thing is just that he's a rotational mainstay......which would be a huge win relative to where we were earlier in the year and in to last year.

He's probably not a long term answer at the 3, just relative to the overwhelming size at that position but if he's a guy who can float between absorbing minutes at the 2 and 3 that is fine. With the talent we have on the roster, we want as few squeaky wheels as possible, so we can consolidate assets in to our true 1 or 2 needs......vs. trying to play whack a mole year over year.

The big thing with Isaac will be eliminating the really low lows. I don't even need him to shoot 40+% from 3......I just want to see him stack reliable production over longer stretches and when he doesn't shoot well, pushing himself to contribute in other ways......or bounce back quicker from a bad quarter, game, 2-3 games. That has been the big thing that has kind of mired his last year plus.......he seemed to completely lack confidence when things started going sideways and it would snowball. Hopefully all the work / recent success will give him a boost in that regard.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Isaac has made 13 of his last 20 three-point attempts and 9 for his last 12. He's really coming on. His 3's have a lot more loft and it's paying off big time. That's something he's been specifically working on as the column pointed out.

What impressed me the most was the last 3-pointer he made against Memphis. The shot clock was expiring and he got a pass at knee level. He had to bend down to catch the ball, then come up shooting in one motion because he was out of time and a defender was closing hard. It was a contested shot under non-ideal conditions, but he made it.

I can't remember the last time he made a contested 3.

I was hoping he could get to where he was hitting 40% of his uncontested 3's, but now the ceiling may be higher. Nobody thinks he's going to continue to hit 65%, but if he can keep knocking down the open shots it will force opponents to stay wider on defense, opening more space in the lane for Garland, Mitchell, and LeVert to operate. It will also force opponents to try and contest his shots, which opens up a pump fake and drive opportunity.

I'm really excited about Okoro's development as a shooter. He's even starting to attack the rim in the half court offense when he sees an opening. I don't know if he'll ever get to the level of Haliburton or Bane (who we could have had in that draft), but I'm starting to think that between him and LeVert we're in pretty decent shape at the 3. If Love gets his shot back we can also use Wade at the 3.

 

[CPK]

Isaac has made 13 of his last 20 three-point attempts and 9 for his last 12. He's really coming on. His 3's have a lot more loft and it's paying off big time. That's something he's been specifically working on as the column pointed out.

What impressed me the most was the last 3-pointer he made against Memphis. The shot clock was expiring and he got a pass at knee level. He had to bend down to catch the ball, then come up shooting in one motion because he was out of time and a defender was closing hard. It was a contested shot under non-ideal conditions, but he made it.

I can't remember the last time he made a contested 3.

I was hoping he could get to where he was hitting 40% of his uncontested 3's, but now the ceiling may be higher. Nobody thinks he's going to continue to hit 65%, but if he can keep knocking down the open shots it will force opponents to stay wider on defense, opening more space in the lane for Garland, Mitchell, and LeVert to operate. It will also force opponents to try and contest his shots, which opens up a pump fake and drive opportunity.

I'm really excited about Okoro's development as a shooter. He's even starting to attack the rim in the half court offense when he sees an opening. I don't know if he'll ever get to the level of Haliburton or Bane (who we could have had in that draft), but I'm starting to think that between him and LeVert we're in pretty decent shape at the 3. If Love gets his shot back we can also use Wade at the 3.

Austin kept talking about these two points a lot last night. His shot looks much better in terms of loft and that Isaac has been doing a ton of work in practice to get that happening. Second was that Isaac is starting to really see the court. He probably talked aboit his vision the most and seemed genuinely excited about it. If the game is starting to slow down for Isaac this is really exciting.

 

[ZooCrewDude]

By the end of the game Memphis was closing out on him HARD and the problem teams have with Okoro is that he’s always had an excellent first step and last night you saw where he has good instincts to pass on the 3 and drive hard. He doesn’t have a super quick release yet (but that might come) so he’ll likely opt to drive more frequent. His final evolution will be finding the kick out to DG or Mitch when he drives. By the time his initial defender is trying to crawl out of the bench from overcommitting, and two defenders have collapsed over to help in the paint… making the right decision when he’s going to the rim is the last step for him.

But that’s splitting hairs… he had a two way sequence in the 4th where he hit a monster 3 and shut down Morant 1 on 1 and it gave you all the glimpse you need to see how he can change a game for us in the playoffs if he can sustain this shooting. I’m thrilled for him. He so well liked by the locker room too… this kind of development can spark a team down the stretch if we could just get healthy. We’re limping and still competing against thought opponents.

 

[Jscc]

I would really really like to believe Okoro's lightbulb has come on. Last season he started looking like this and then got derailed by covid protocol. Didn't look the same when he got back.

 

[PIP]

Starting to turn into Larry Bird

 

[CardiacCavs]

He is also great at dishing to one of the bigs when he drives after a hard close-out.

 

[gambler]

I would really really like to believe Okoro's lightbulb has come on. Last season he started looking like this and then got derailed by covid protocol. Didn't look the same when he got back.

go look at his numbers after JA went out last year.....it was only 18 games.....but solid numbers for a guy coming off your bench for 12-15/game in the playoffs

 

[weepinwillow]

I like how his defense, driving and decision making seems to get better as people see his jump shot falling.

 

[Peacedog]

go look at his numbers after JA went out last year.....it was only 18 games.....but solid numbers for a guy coming off your bench for 12-15/game in the playoffs

Based on his current trajectory, he'll be 20+ min in the playoffs. But you're coming around gambler, the other day you had him at 10 lol.