Sans the 2023–24 season, Isaac Okoro’s minutes and points per game have declined every year since his rookie campaign. The former fifth-overall pick has gone from a promising rookie to a middling rotation player in just half a decade. From the outside looking in, how did that happen?
Onlookers—myself included—wondered how a player who averaged 9.6 points per game as a rookie, while steadily improving his true shooting efficiency, couldn’t find more time on the floor. Especially when he remained one of the team’s most reliable defenders.
Isaac Okoro's tenure with Cleveland was full of ups and downs
It often felt as though the team that drafted Okoro, the Cleveland Cavaliers, did everything possible to move him into a reserve role.