People talk about Okoro as if he and his (lack of) skills exist in a basketball vacuum. "Hey, he brings energy and hustle"? When you look at it like that, everything starts to sound like a luxury. And sure, all kinds of players have their uses in this sport. In theory.
My problem with starting him and giving him 30mpg is much more about his fit. In a basketball sense, you can't separate Okoro from the people he plays with. His flaws are such that the other guys have to work extra hard to cover for them. And by god, they are doing just that. It's a testament to the cohesion of the team that Isaac's nonexistent offense has been more or less absorbed into the fabric of our overall style of play.
My question is, why are expecting the other players to do this extra work? Why are they being put into worse positions just to keep one guy on the court? I could maybe understand it if Okoro had some truly elite skill indispensable to the team, but he doesn't.
His main "skill" is his high draft position.
I don't dislike him for still being extremely raw - everyone's raw at some point. But raw players shouldn't be getting the kinds of minutes he's getting.
That is horse shit.
Basketball
skill isn't limited to shooting and dribbling, those are
SHOOTING & BALL skills. There's a reason a guy like Tony Snell sticks around the NBA, he has shooting skills, or why Ramon Sessions had a 15 year career, he had ball skills.
The fact is, Tony Snell kind of makes bad decisions with the ball if the situation calls for anything but the shot, and he's not a plus defender, his motor is non-existent and he doesn't make the right read in the offense.. but he shoots a 3-ball at .395 clip and bounces around the NBA.
Okoro makes smart decisions with the ball quickly.
That is a basketball skill, and it's an important one that gets underrated far to often.
He has a high level motor, moves his feet, has great anticipation on defense, stays down on shot fakes, doesn't get himself into bad position and plays to the strength of the team's overall defensive plan of attack..
all basketball skills done at an extremely high level by a 20 year old (21 in 5 days).
He attacks the rim on close-outs well, he plays without the ball in the offense well when asked, makes himself available etc. he's extremely strong on the break.
Basketball skills.
Kid plays a very smart game by and large, sometimes gets himself in trouble on his drive, and the refs don't do him any favors when he creates the same kind of contact some of these other guys create, but whatever.
Cavs need another creator, and it's not going to be Ice this year by and large (they could stand to run some pick and roll with him and Mobley/Allen, though, because he does make good decisions off the read, again,
a basketball skill). None of this is an issue when Rubio is healthy, but thems the breaks, so the Cavs need a guy who can handle with the second unit and be matched at different times with the starters etc.. Caris LeVert-type etc..
As for covering his lack of shooting on offense, he's covering the lack of defense from both DG and Lauri. It's a two way street, and that's what teammates do, you pick each other up.
I'm convinced Ice's shooting will come. His form is fine, he takes the shots he's supposed to take in the flow of the game and we've seen them fall in the past. When they become consistent, he's going to be an excellent 2-way Guard for us. As it is, he's already a very good player.