Bickerstaff seems fairly pleased to get Okoro. On the plane flight back to Cleveland after watching his workout JBB was already working on lineups including the young fella. Here are his latest comments.
He’s all about the right things. He’s all about winning, and doing whatever it takes to win. You watch him sacrifice his body, getting on the floor, guarding the other team’s best player, while still trying to be the best player on the team. ... A lot of people, they have to score, score, score, so they save their energy for offense. But Isaac was willing to do both. And that was extremely important to us.
We have our young core guys, our veteran players and Isaac fits with them on the floor. He makes them better, and they can make him better.
We wanted high character people. We wanted people who were good teammates that were good in the locker room and cared about something larger than themselves. And when you watch Isaac play, and you look at his history, that’s who he is.
I think that’s huge and that’s where it has to start. On the perimeter, you look at the league, that’s where the league is based. It’s a perimeter-oriented league. Every single night -- 1, 2 and 3 -- you expect some challenges. You’re going to get tested and he’s going to be playing the best players on the planet every single night. A guy who accepts that challenge is who you want. He’s a competitor. He’s a scrapper. Doesn’t back down from anything.
Like JBB says, it's a perimeter-oriented league and we have little if any defense on the perimeter, so this is a great fit of need plus best talent on the board. Every team in the league has a scorer at 1, 2, or 3, usually their leading scorers, guys like Bradley Beal, Trae Young, Jaylen Brown, and Zack LeVine, just to name a few. Looking at the teams other than the Cavs, their leading scorers played the following positions last year:
Point guard (10 teams)
Shooting guard (6)
Small forward (7)
Power forward (3)
Center (3)
So that's 23 of 29 teams where a perimeter player was their leading scorer. Of the three centers who led their teams in scoring, only one, Joel Embiid, plays in the Eastern Conference. Two of the three power forwards, Siakam and Tatum, are in the East. So only three Eastern Conference teams had a PF or C as their leading scorer.
The question I have is if Okoro is checking a high scoring shooting guard then Sexton would have to guard the opponent's small forward. It would be OK if Garland and Porter were on the floor because Porter could take the small forward if the shooting guard was the bigger threat. But if Garland, Sexton, and Okoro are on the floor together I don't see Okoro guarding a 2 and putting Collin on the 3.