CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Isaac Okoro isn’t Collin Sexton.
They’re contrasting players with unique styles. Okoro, the No. 5 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, is the brawny defensive nuisance who has spent his career guarding the opponent’s best while looking like an uncomfortable afterthought on offense. Sexton is the dependable, relentless score-first guard who is still figuring out other ways to impact the game.
But with Friday’s distressing news about Sexton missing the remainder of the season following surgery to repair a torn meniscus is his left knee, Okoro is suddenly in the spotlight.
“We won’t be the same offense. That’s point blank,” starting center Jarrett Allen said. “We are losing Collin, one of our best scorers or our best scorer. We might have to rely on our defense more. It’s tough. He brought scoring. Even for defenses, they had to make sure they stopped him and he was a threat in that way, so it’s one of those things where everyone is going to have to step up in a, let’s say, five percent way to try to make up for that loss.”
That starts with Okoro -- the guy who is going to spend most of his time in Sexton’s old starting spot.
Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff has spoken throughout the season about finding more ways for Okoro to impact the game on offense. Since Sexton’s injury on Nov. 7, Okoro has received more playmaking responsibilities -- a throwback to his prep days. The 20-year-old swingman has also been active away from the ball -- screening, cutting and racing out in transition where he can capitalize on his speed, strength and athleticism.
To this point, the results haven’t been encouraging. Okoro’s offensive struggles have become more glaring, with opponents sagging off him, closing out short or not even contesting shots. That strategy has made it more difficult for Okoro to attack the rim. The best counter to that: hit a few open perimeter jumpers, something Okoro has struggled with since entering the league.
“I don’t put pressure on myself,” Okoro said. “I just go out there and play my game, doing anything to help the team win. I got to start making shots, finish more in transition and just become more aggressive offensively.”
In 10 games this season, Okoro is averaging 7.1 points on 36% from the field and a ghastly 11.1% from 3-point range.
“You just got to keep going,” Bickerstaff said. “The best players in this league have stretches where they’re off or where the ball is not going in the basket. How do you figure out how to help your team win when that’s happening? And then having the self-confidence to keep making the right basketball play. If the right basketball play is for you to shoot it, then you got to shoot it. If the right basketball play is for you to drive it, you got to drive it. But you got to have the confidence in yourself to do that. Because if you lose that confidence, it’s over with for you. We can’t allow that to happen and it’s our job to keep support and propping guys up. And then try to help guys put them in position where they can be successful.”
Okoro has been working with Cleveland’s shooting coaches on his mechanics.
“My old form was all over the place,” he admitted. “I feel like I’ve made huge progress. Now I just got to be more consistent.”
Hand placement. Release point. Follow through. Okoro, whose hand used to go around the ball, is trying to flick his wrist and get the ball up higher, putting more arc on his shots.
“It’s hard when you’re shooting a flat shot to be consistent,” Bickerstaff said. “It’s geometry.”
But taking those tweaks from the practice court to the game -- and creating new muscle memory -- isn’t easy.
Okoro is 23-of-40 (57.5%) on attempts within five feet of the basket. He’s 4-of-35 (11.4%) on shots outside that range, including only three made triples despite all 27 attempts being classified as open or wide open -- a defender no closer than four feet. He is 2-of-22 on catch-and-shoots and 0-for-3 on pullups. He has scored double figures twice in 10 games.
If those struggles continue, opposing defenses will keep exaggerating their schemes, squeezing in and taking driving lanes away from point guards Darius Garland and Ricky Rubio. That could force Bickerstaff into a give-and-take decision, sacrificing improved defense for a more reliable offensive threat who can space the floor and knock down open shots.
“Not yet is there a level of concern,” Bickerstaff said when asked about Okoro recently. “We have to figure out how to help him. How do we put him in positions to be successful and what does he need to do to help this team? That’s the most important thing. We all need to make open shots. I think we have had open shots out there that we can knock down. But each guy has a different role. He has to make himself more difficult to guard. That’s something that we have been talking to him about. He is a really good mover, he’s a really good runner, he can catch and finish at the rim, he’s a good offensive rebounder. We have to get him to do more of those things. He just needs to impact the game the way he impacts the game. We don’t need him to score 20 points a night. We need to help this team win.
“Each of these guys are unique and his impact will be Isaac’s impact and not the impact of Collin or Darius or Ricky, but he’s got the offensive skill set, you know what I mean?
Okoro flashed that potential in the final weeks of 2020-21, helping him earn Second Team All-Rookie. He scored double figures in 12 of the final 13 games, including a career-high 32 points on May 4.
During that stretch in which he averaged 16.5 points, Okoro buried multiple 3s in five of those games. He hasn’t done that yet this season.
“He showed it at the end of last year,” Allen said. “He was aggressive on the offensive end. He was hitting shots, attacking the rim, getting fouled. We want to see that from him. We know it’s in him.”
Replacing Sexton can’t fall entirely on Okoro.
Rubio, who has become Bickerstaff’s security blanket, will keep getting an uptick in minutes. A surprisingly reliable source of scoring, averaging a career-best 15.0 points while shooting 37.1% from beyond the arc, Rubio becomes even more critical. Since Sexton went down, Rubio ranks second on the team in minutes (32.6) and scoring (17.3).
Garland will need to keep stepping forward. The third-year point guard is averaging 21.3 points and 5.0 assists over the last six. He’s become the team’s leading scorer.
Lauri Markkanen, who has been out nine consecutive games because of the league’s health and safety protocols, practiced over the weekend and is set to return Monday night. There are more scoring opportunities awaiting. Cedi Osman, listed as doubtful because of lower back spasms, has enjoyed a bounce-back season but will need to remain consistent -- a problem throughout his career. Even though Dylan Windler has shot well, there are other glaring flaws that keep his minutes down. Denzel Valentine? Lamar Stevens?
Temporarily replacing Sexton has been hard enough. Now they’ve got to figure out how to cope the rest of the way.
The Cavs have yet to reach the 100-point mark without him -- and are averaging 93.8 points. In the 11 games with him in the lineup, they hit the century mark eight times while averaging 106 points.
Cleveland has been hampered by other injuries over that span. Love and Markkanen tested positive for COVID-19 in early November. Markkanen’s absence overlapped entirely with Sexton’s. Love missed four of those six games. Allen, who is feeling much better, was hit hard by a cold that sidelined him for three straight games. Evan Mobley has been out the last two with a sprained elbow that seems to be progressing well.
Still, playing without someone who ranked 18th in the NBA in scoring last year and was the early-season go-to guy has played a substantial role in the offensive regression.
“He means so much to this team,” Love said of Sexton. “You look at games like the other night where we couldn’t score the ball in the first however many minutes, they went on a big run, the Warriors did, he bails us out of those types of situations. Collin is a guy that puts up 20-plus every single night, 25-30 points. But I also think having our numbers back will help us get over that 100-point mark.”
The Cavs have adopted a next man up mentality. Perimeter depth will be tested. The offense will be different stylistically. For all the criticisms, the Cavs don’t have anyone else like Sexton.
“We can’t expect one guy to pick up where Collin left off,” Bickerstaff said. “We’ll have to generate it different ways, but in order for us to have any success, you’ve got to score the ball. I feel confident in the pieces that we have.”
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