cgf wrote:yoyoboy wrote:People bringing up Hunter’s weaknesses as a defender and playmaker need to consider just how dire the Cavs’ wing situation was. Hunter isn’t amazing, but he’s a good spot up three point shooter and he’s a big wing. Considering Dean Wade can never be relied upon to be healthy and Okoro lacks size plus can sometimes be played off the floor due to his offense, he’s a huge upgrade for us from having to oftentimes throw LeVert, Mitchell, Niang, and Strus at big wings like Tatum and Brown.
I just think the odds are higher that we'll be able to pick on Hunter defensively than Wade will be injured AND Okoro will be unplayable offensively. Hunter's bigger than Okoro, but he's a worse defender at every position. He's not a downgrade from Levert, so I'm not saying the move made you worse, but I'd rather you have him out there with your core 4 than Wade / Okoro.
I'm a big Wade guy, so I do think when healthy he's better than Hunter because of how awesome he is as a defender/rebounder. But he is never healthy. It's the same story every year, so it's far more likely come playoffs Hunter will be there closing games with the other four guys because Wade will either be out or he'll have recently returned from an injury and he needs more reps to return to form.
I'm just not high on Okoro. He's a good defender but he's a very limited one. He's just too small to put against guys above 6'5, as they shoot over his contests fairly easily, and he provides nothing in terms of rebounding, help rim protection, or being a threat in the passing lanes. Come playoffs, other teams will be daring him to try to make a play with the ball and they'll be willing to sag off him from the corner, and he won't be able to consistently make the defense pay in either of those scenarios.