Cavaliers swap Okoro for Ball, re-sign Merrill

     Two days after the conclusion of the NBA draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers made a one-for-one swap that may have given a possible hint towards the remainder of the team's offseason.

The Cavaliers acquired the talented but injury-plagued point guard Lonzo Ball from the division rival Chicago Bulls for former first-round pick Isaac Okoro in what may show the team's concern for the long-term status of the injured Darius Garland and the retention of free agent Ty Jerome. 

Ball, one of the three Ball brothers, was the second overall pick by the Los Angeles Lakers and seemed to be on the verge of being a very good player before missing two seasons with knee problems.

Ball returned to the Bulls last season, playing in thirty-five games, averaging seven points and three assists in twenty-two minutes per game.

The addition of Ball to the roster could allow the Cavaliers to save money and allow Ty Jerome to sign elsewhere rather than re-sign him at a healthy salary increase.

The Cavaliers were trying to get out of their second-tier status on the salary cap, and with Jerome and Sam Merrill both eligible for free agency, the Cavaliers had to do something with Isaac Okoro and Dean Wade to have a hope of reaching the goal of reducing their cap and keep Jerome and/or Merrill.

It looks like the decision has been made to allow Jerome to leave, as Sam Merrill signed a four-year contract to stay in Cleveland as their instant offense off the bench, and with their drafting of Tyrese Proctor and trading for Lonzo Ball, Cleveland doesn't seem to have the cap space (if they truly are making an effort to drop from the second tier) or the playing time for Ty Jerome.

Isaac Okoro averaged six points and two rebounds in fifty-five games last season, all career-lows, and he never was able to develop an outside shot that the team hoped he would after drafting him fifth overall from Auburn in 2020.

Okoro was the high-end defensive player that Cleveland hoped he would be, but his lack of shooting skill made him almost unplayable in the postseason, and I didn't see anything from Okoro that could change that.

Okoro makes slightly more than Ball (eleven to ten million) and the Cavaliers clean up some contract clutter as Okoro is signed for two years, while Ball is signed for just one followed by a friendly team option.

If Lonzo Ball is able to return to even close to his previous form, the Cavaliers could have exactly what they needed at a bargain price, which is a veteran point guard to run the offense while Darius Garland is away and allow Garland not to push his rehab too hard to return to the court, and when Garland does return, Ball is a solid option off the bench.

If Ball cannot get past his injuries, then they still moved on from Isaac Okoro, which is something, and the Cavaliers can look for a similar player next off-season.

I think it's worth the risk. 

The Grand Prize Game!

 If you are over thirty-five, you may remember the "BOZO Show" and their  Grand Prize Game, in which buckets were lined in a row, and one by one, each ball is tossed in a bucket until the player missed.

I'm going to use that premise and offer one recent nugget for each of the teams/sports that I follow closely.

I was surprised to hear that MSG Networks and the New Jersey Devils moved away from Erica Wachter as their studio host for Devils games.

I liked Wachter's work (she also appears on MLB and NHL Network), and she had good chemistry with her studio partner, Bryce Salvador.

No word on her replacement on the Devils broadcasts.

The Cleveland Browns reached out for a player from their past to help solve an injury issue when they traded a 2026 sixth-round draft choice to the Seattle Seahawks for center Nick Harris and a 2026 seventh-round draft pick.

Harris was the Browns' heir apparent at center but injured his knee in training camp in 2022, which allowed veteran Ethan Pocic to cement himself as the starter.

Cleveland drafted Luke Wypler at the position in 2023 and Harris signed with Seattle as a free agent in the past off-season but Wypler suffered an ankle injury in the preseason opener and Harris's Cleveland experience made him an attractive option to replace Wypler as the backup.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have re-signed the three core players of their franchise to contract extensions in the off-season, with the agreements with Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen, but one decision still remains- a decision involving Isaac Okoro.

Okoro is a restricted free agent, and some rumors have spread about a possible sign-and-trade with the Brooklyn Nets.

Okoro could take the Cavaliers qualifying offer and remain with the team, which would be okay with me but Okoro's skills and below-average shot make him less desirable as more than a situational player off the bench.

Newcastle United start their season at home against Southampton, in what is the Saints' return to the Premier League after a one-year absence.

The drama around the Magpies is about their attempted signing of Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace.

Crystal Palace was asking sixty-five million (English Pounds) and turned down three offers for Newcastle before Newcastle offered the asking price, only to have the Eagles turn down THAT offer.

I'm all for negotiations but if Newcastle felt they were willing to meet the asking price of the player, why didn't they just offer it on the second try rather than the fourth?

I'm not knowledgeable enough to say if Guehi is worth this cost or not, but Newcastle might have to go all in for him or end with no considerable additions to a team that wishes to return to Champions League play next season. 

We wrap up with this thought from boxing.

With the IBF forcing their talented welterweight champion Jaron "Boots" Ennis to fight a rematch against Karen Chukhadzhian, it started me thinking about fights that didn't deserve a second fight that were forced by sanctioning bodies.

In their first fight in January 2023, Ennis won each of the twelve rounds in a fight that managed to do the unexpected- make Ennis look ordinary.

Chukhadzhian ran, Ennis chased, and after the decision, most thought that we wouldn't hear from Chukhadzhian again.

Chukhadzhian has won three times since against middling opposition but one of those came in an IBF eliminator against England's Harry Scarff and when Cody Crowley was forced to drop out of his scheduled title try against Ennis due to an eye injury (replaced by David Avanesyan), Ennis still needed to make a mandatory defense and now that man is Chukhadzhian, leaving boxing fans with a fight that no one asked for once, let alone twice.

This made me think of Marvin Hagler being forced to fight Fulgencio Obelmejias twice by the WBA.

Obelmejias was 30-0 in January 1981 against weak opposition when the WBA mandated his title chance and Obelmejias fought fairly well in his first attempt at Hagler before being stopped in round eight.

Obelmejias rebounded with eight straight wins, with the best win as an eighth-round stoppage of future super middleweight champion Chong-Pal Park to return to the top of the WBA rankings and another mandated chance against Hagler.

Twenty-one months later, the rematch no one wanted other than the WBA and maybe Obelmejias occurred in Italy with Hagler dominating before knocking Obelmejias cold with a fifth-round left hook.

Fast forward five years, and Obelmeijas finally became a world champion when he won a unanimous decision over old rival Chong-Pal Park to win the WBA super middleweight championship in 1988.

Obelmejias lost the title in his first defense to In-Chul Baek and won his final three fights before retiring.

Murray Singes Cavaliers for 50

   The Cleveland Cavaliers needed to step their defensive game up after being blown out by the Denver Nuggets in their meeting last week.

Instead, they allowed Denver's Jamal Murray to do something that had never been accomplished in NBA history, which I'm sure wasn't what J.B. Bickerstaff had in mind for his team in a 120-103 loss to the visiting Nuggets.

Collin Sexton's 23 points led the Cavaliers with Jarrett Allen scoring 20 with ten rebounds.

Cleveland lost their ninth game in a row and fell to 10-20 on the season.

The Cavaliers will host the Oklahoma City Thunder Sunday night in Cleveland.

Swashbucklings

1) Jamal Murray did something against the Cleveland defenders that had never previously accomplished in NBA history.

2)  Murray's achievement? Never before had a player scored fifty or more points in a game and did it without one trip to the foul line.

3) Cleveland tried every defender against Murray except Moondog and C.C the Cavalier against Murray and the shots kept falling for Murray, who hit 21 of 25 shots and eight of ten from the beyond the three-point line.

4) The more I see Michael Porter play, the more that I wish that the Cavaliers had taken the risk in the
2018 draft and selected him.

I spent that day tweeting for the Cavaliers to take him and the injury gamble that came with Porter, who had missed almost all of his only year at Missouri.

I'm far from disappointed in Collin Sexton, but Porter may be very special.

5) Issac Okoro scored a career-high 14 points with a career-high three three-pointers.

6) Denver wore their conventional road uniforms rather than their "City" uniforms that the Nuggets wore when the teams first played in Denver.

Those uniforms are a sunset orange version of their 80s "Skyline" uniforms and although they are a little loud, I liked them a lot!

Cavaliers trap Grizzlies 94-90

   An undermanned Cleveland Cavaliers squad came rollin' into Mempho'-TWA and the news got worse as Cleveland's leading scorer in Collin Sexton tried to play on an injured ankle, but Sexton couldn't make it through warmups to leave the Cavaliers even lighter on the available roster.

Considering the Cavaliers had lost three of four on their current road swing and hadn't looked great in either of their losses in Orlando, one would figure that the Memphis Grizzlies would have a sizable advantage even missing their young star in Ja Morant.

One would figure wrong as the Cavaliers hung in the game all evening long, made the plays when they needed to, and squeaked out a 94-90 win over the Grizzlies at the FedEx Forum.

Andre Drummond led Cleveland with 22 points and 15 rebounds with Larry Nance Jr. dropping in 18 more points in a night that saw Jr hit all seven shots that he took from the floor.

The Cavaliers travel to Milwaukee on Saturday night for a meeting against Bango the Buck before a rematch with these Memphis Grizzlies on Monday at Rocket Mortgage Field House.

Swashbucklings

1) This game wasn't the greatest piece of art in a basketball game ever, but the game was closely contested and hard-fought with the biggest lead being seven points held by Memphis for a few minutes in the third quarter. 

2) Some of that may be that with both teams playing at far less than full strength, players that are receiving more minutes than usual are hustling around to impress coaches to grab more minutes.

It's easy to forget that every player is a competitor and in situations that Cleveland and Memphis are currently in, players like Lamar Stevens and Dean Wade are getting chances to impress that they normally would not have and trying to take advantage of that time.

3) He didn't lead on the scoring sheet, but Isaac Okoro made the two pivotal plays of the game with under a minute to play.

The first came as Memphis rolled down the floor for what would have been a layup to change the lead from Cleveland's by one to Memphis by one.

As the ball was laid up, a racing Okoro caught the play and blocked the layup.

Okoro was called for a foul, but replays showed no contact and after J.B. Bickerstaff used his coach's challenge, the play was overturned.

4) After a jump ball was won by Andre Drummond, the Cavaliers saw the clock winding down with Drummond fifteen feet from the basket.

Drummond saw Okoro cutting to the hoop and hit him with a pass for a layup that gave Cleveland a three-point lead.

Plays like these two are made hustle in the case of the former and innate basketball sense in the latter.

The Cavaliers have found themselves the type of player that may not develop into a superstar, but one that all championship teams need to have.

5) Larry Nance Jr. stepped up with his perfect shooting night at just the real-time with the Cavaliers playing with only nine players.

Nance may not be this type of offensive talent every night, but the effort that Nance gives every night is again the type of players that winning teams always seem to find.

6) I really like the colors and logo for the Grizzlies, but their jersey backs had the player name below the numbers and I don't remember that style being used other than by the Knicks in the early 80s, and for some reason, I seem to remember the Kings using it in Kansas City for a year or two.

I'm not really a fan.

Cavaliers sting Hornets 121-114

 The Cleveland Cavaliers backcourt had been much maligned in the nine months since the Cavaliers played their last contest by basketball analytics and traditional scouting.

Perhaps the second season together for Collin Sexton and Darius Garland will show the chemistry that was missing in their first season as a pairing as Sexton scored 27 points and Garland scored 22 as the Cavaliers won their opener 121-114 over the Charlotte Hornets in Cleveland.

The Cavaliers had seven players in double-figures scoring, including all five starters.

Cleveland will be off until Saturday when they will play at Detroit as the front part of consecutive road games with the latter trip seeing the team travel to Philadelphia.

Swashbucklings

1)  Darius Garland looked like a different player in the opener as he was passing the ball well (six assists) and shooting well from three-point range as Garland hit four of eight attempts.

Should Garland continue to look like the guy that showed up last night, then Cleveland may be able to 

play Garland at the point, which has been a question in the offseason.

2) Garland also worked harder on the defensive end.

Now, Terry Dozier lit the Cavaliers up for 42 points and hit 10 (TEN!) three-pointers, many of those while being guarded by Garland (and when not Collin Sexton), so the news wasn't all good, but much of defense is having the effort to want to play defense.

Let's see if Garland can put forward that effort every night, but one has to start somewhere.

3) Collin Sexton scored points last season (twenty a night), but he did it in a way that didn't help a team in need in any way other than the stat sheet.

Sexton played better without the ball in his hands and moved without the ball to keep the offense flowing through him, not stopping with him.

4) Sexton hit his first six shots in the game, finished with three from three-point range, and added five assists.

Collin Sexton will score points in this league.

That much is a given, the bigger questions include what else will he bring to your team.
Sexton has time to be more than the top scorer on a bad team, this season is key in seeing his game begin to be more than one-dimensional.

5) J.B. Bickerstaff preaches ball movement in the offense and by keeping the ball moving, there will be more open shots.

It goes to figure that an open shot is easier to hit than a contested version and that helped Cleveland hit 14 three-pointers and shoot 46 percent from behind the arc.

It worked well in the opener and Charlotte was kept off-balance most of the evening defensively.

6) Isaac Okoro's debut showed his potential and it's not all about his 11 pts (4 for 5 with a 3 pointer) ether.

Okoro's defense was what was rated so highly entering the draft and you can see why as at one time during the game when Terry Dozier was ripping the Cavaliers raw, J.B. Bickerstaff called on Okoro to guard Dozier for a while.

Okoro didn't really do any better than anyone else, but to have the rookie in his first game be looked at as the defensive stopper makes me think that the reputation is factually based.

7) The defense still needs lots of work.

It seemed like Charlotte ran about fifty ( more like five) alley-oops to the rim in the second quarter with no one around to contest any of these.

It does seem that often teams don't even try to stop these because the players don't want to be "posterized" when they are actually only trying to make a play.

8) I'll be doing more Cavalier coverage this season.

I sprung (Sprang?) for the NBA on-line league pass since they offered a one team package at a reduced cost.

I realize that I'm likely paying for a lot of losing games, but I have to give myself something to do and for now, we are still playing games.

Let's get through these next few months, the light at the end of the tunnel may be dim but it is there.

Cavaliers select Isaac Okoro

  The Cleveland Cavaliers were linked to several players with the fifth pick in the first round of the NBA draft and were a main part of draft day trade rumors, but in the end, the Cavaliers returned to one of the players that they were connected to from the beginning and addressed their largest need in selecting small forward Isaac Okoro of Auburn.

The 6'6 small forward spent one season at Auburn, averaging just under thirteen points a game with 4.4 rebounds for the Tigers.

Okoro is thought of by many as the best defender in the draft, with the ability to guard any player on the floor at any time, and he has the wingspan that you love to see from defenders off the ball.

Okoro jumps well and shows the potential to be an improved player offensively attacking the rim, but the biggest question mark is an outside jumper that needs a lot of work.

Okoro was lauded by Auburn coach Bruce Pearl as a tremendous team leader and tireless worker, which are words that aren't always heard about players who have left their school after only one season, as Okoro left Auburn.

The key with Okoro will come down to the development of his outside shot.

IF Okoro can improve to an average shooter, eventually, he can be a championship-level player with the type of game that title contenders all crave from the supporting cast around their star.

And if he can't? Okoro will be a defensive stopper that can score some points in the open floor, and he will always have value with those skills alone, if as a rotational player.

I don't hate the pick, I'm not sure any of the handful of players that were rumored to be under consideration would have caused me to be angry, but I do have concerns about a team that struggles to shoot well adding another player that doesn't shoot well.

Although the Cavaliers were the worst defensive team in the league last season, Okoro does address that problem at least.

Isaac Okoro might not be the flashiest selection, but his floor is solid, and I think he'll at least have a solid NBA career, if not a spectacular one. In a draft lacking superstar-level players, Cleveland could have done worse by gambling on a higher-risk player.