2020 Draft

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In this week's episode: Cavs Radio Personalities Tim Alcorn and Jim Chones are joined by Mike Breen, the play-by-play announcer for the NBA on ABC. Also, Tim and Jim provide their thoughts on Isaac Okoro and how the Wine &amp; Gold faired in the 2020 NBA Draft.

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CavsHQ -- Talking Basketball with Mike Breen

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Introductory Press Conference: Isaac Okoro

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CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed their 2020 NBA Draft pick, guard/forward Isaac Okoro (oh-CORE-oh), General Manager Koby Altman announced today from Cleveland Clinic Courts.

Okoro (6-6, 225) was selected by the Cavaliers with the fifth overall pick in Wednesday’s draft. In his lone collegiate season at Auburn in 2019-20, Okoro played in 28 games (all starts), averaging 12.8 points on .514 shooting, 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 31.5 minutes per game. He was named to the 2019-20 All-SEC Second Team, All-Freshman Team and All-Defensive Team, becoming just the sixth player in SEC history to be named to an All-Conference Team, All-Defensive Team and All-Freshman Team in the same season, joining Kentucky’s Anthony Davis (2011-12), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (2011-12) and Nerlens Noel (2012-13), LSU’s Jordan Mickey (2013-14) and Texas A&amp;M’s Robert Williams (2016-17). Okoro is Auburn’s highest draft pick since Chris Morris was selected with the fourth overall pick in the 1988 NBA Draft.

Okoro finished the 2019-20 season ranked 10th among all NCAA Division I freshmen in field goal percentage (.514) and was named to the Auburn Athletic Director’s Honor Roll after maintaining at least a 3.5 GPA in the fall. He became just the fourth Auburn player to ever earn SEC Freshman of the Week twice in a season (Nov. 18 and Dec. 9) and was the second Auburn freshman since 1990 to score in double figures in each of his first six NCAA games. Okoro won a gold medal with USA Basketball at the 2018 FIBA Under-17 Basketball World Cup. He attended McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Georgia, where he averaged 19.7 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.7 steals as a senior in 2018-19 and led the team to a state championship.

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Cavaliers Sign 2020 NBA Draft Pick Isaac Okoro

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Two Days After Being Tabbed No. 5 Overall, Okoro Comes to Cleveland

by Joe Gabriele (@CavsJoeG)
11/20/20 | Cavs.com

The Draft class of 2020 didn’t get the much of fun and fanfare that those before them have – no Tournament tales, no taking the stage in Brooklyn, no summer off to bask in the happiness of achieving a lifelong dream.

Here’s what the 2020 Draft class will get: Right to work.

Training Camp tips off in less than two weeks and youngsters like Isaac Okoro will get thrown immediately into the fire. His victory lap for being named the Draft’s No. 5 overall pick will be learning the streets around northeast Ohio – specifically the ones that lead to Cleveland Clinic Courts.

On Friday, the collective media got their first opportunity to meet Okoro – who virtually modeled his No. 35 jersey, the one he’ll be donning on a gameday in just over a month.

Okoro didn’t meet the customary packed gym full of Cavalier staff and employees on Friday, but his parents – who he surprised with a Range Rover on Draft night – made the trip with their newly-drafted son.

”My parents played a huge role (in my growth),” said the soft-spoken Okoro. “My parents were always on me, giving me my morals and values, telling me the right and wrong things to do in life – and I feel like that’s why I’m the person I am today.”

Okoro was All-SEC Second Team as well as earning All-Freshman and All-Defensive Team honors in his single season at Auburn.
Todd Kirkland/NBAE via Getty Images

Aside from bringing, by all accounts, a low-maintenance, team-first attitude to the squad, he also comes into the Association as arguably the Draft’s best overall defender. In his single season at Auburn, he earned All-SEC Second Team honors along with being named to the Conference’s All-Freshman and All-Defensive Teams.

Growing up a LeBron James fan, Okoro – who wore James’ 23 at Auburn – talked about his excitement playing for a team he grew up watching. At least one of those players from those squads, Kevin Love, reached out to welcome him to Cleveland. He also heard from Darius Garland, Andre Drummond and his friend, teammate and fellow Atlantan, Collin Sexton.

”(Our relationship) started at a very young age,” said Okoro. “My first time playing (Sexton) was my freshman year of high school. I think he was a junior – and it got competitive. His team wound up winning but if we played again, I felt we’d have won. We’re gonna have those battles now that we’re on the same team, competing every day. We’re always gonna have those battles.”

The 6-6, 225-pound forward was regarded as one of the draft’s most explosive athletes. Although Okoro’s not a finished product offensively, he did lead the Tigers in scoring last season and lists his playmaking skills as arguably his most underrated skill. And he doesn’t turn 20 until late February.

"Our job is to make him successful; his job is to work at it. I think with the combination of those two things, we’ll get off to a great start and build him into the player we all believe he’s gonna be."

Okoro – whose last game for Bruce Pearl’s Auburn squad was March 7 – and those teammates who congratulated him will be getting to work very soon, with Camp tipping off in early December.

”What excites me is just the experience – being around my teammates here, just learning from the veterans and everybody who’s been here,” smiled the rookie wing. “I’ll need to learn the pace of the game, not rushing my shots, not rushing on the court, just slowing down and taking my time.”

J.B. Bickerstaff, who went 5-6 in his short stint after replacing John Beilein after last year’s All-Star Break, is looking forward to getting the best out of Okoro.

”We’re gonna put the time in,” said Bickerstaff. “But that won’t be new for him, the expectation of work will not be new for him. So we’re gonna lay it all out for him.

”Our job is to make him successful; his job is to work at it. I think with the combination of those two things, we’ll get off to a great start and build him into the player we all believe he’s gonna be.”

Okoro will get the official welcome when Training Camp tips off in a fortnight. In the meantime, the Young Bull’s been giving him some Cliff’s Notes on Cleveland.

”Our relationship goes way back from a young age. The conversations (we’ve had) are about just bringing the energy from day one, bring the competitiveness to Cleveland,” concluded Okoro. ”Atlanta and Cleveland have very different types of weather, and I didn’t come here with a lot of bubble jackets and big jackets. I came with a lot of small jackets from Atlanta weather. So, I’m gonna have to change up my wardrobe.”

From a social distance away, Coach Bickerstaff added: “It’s 75 and sunny every day in the gym.”

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Isaac Arrives

Painting the Picture with Sherwin-Williams: Koby Altman

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Painting the Picture with Sherwin-Williams: Isaac Okoro

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Cavs Tab Rugged Auburn Forward Isaac Okoro at No. 5 Overall

by Joe Gabriele (@CavsJoeG)
11/18/20 | Cavs.com

Since the 2019-20 season came to its precipitous end, the Cavaliers have been talking about getting better on the defensive end. On Wednesday night, they let the Draft do the talking.

Widely-recognized as the best all-around defender in his class, the Wine and Gold tabbed Auburn’s Isaac Okoro – a man-sized 6-6, 225-pound forward who doesn’t turn 20 until late January.

After going with guards in back-to-back drafts, the Cavaliers seriously bulked up at the wing, snagging a player whose college coach, Bruce Pearl, said could guard every position on the floor. Pearl should know; Okoro led a Tigers team rebuilding from a Final Four run the previous season to a 25-6 mark last year – pacing the squad in scoring (12.9ppg) and emerging as one of the best defenders in the conference.

The Cavaliers brass had their eye on Okoro and a meeting with the Atlanta native sealed the deal.

”I feel like I had a great workout, a great interview with (the Cavs),” said Okoro. “They also took me out to dinner. We just had a great conversation. So, I feel like throughout that day, I feel like I had a good sense that they were going to take me.”

Okoro, whose parents emigrated to the States from Nigeria, earned All-SEC Second Team honors along with being named to the Conference’s All-Freshman and All-Defensive Teams.

”I feel like I could fit alongside Sexton and Garland by just running the floor, getting in quick buckets,” said Okoro, “And I feel like I’m the best defensive player in this draft – like I'm able to switch off one through four and still hold my ground.”

The rugged forward is an above-the-rim athlete and ranked 10th in the nation with a .514 field goal percentage. He’s not considered a long-range threat just yet – shooting under 29 percent from deep – and has some room for growth at the stripe, where he shot 67 percent.

”Coach Bickerstaff is excited about using him all over the floor,” said Cavs GM Koby Altman. “His offensive game is underrated. He can really pass, he knows how to cut and score in different ways. He can post up a little bit. So you’re going to see him all over the floor doing a lot of different things.

”He has to get the basics down, in terms of catch-and-shoot – but he’s a wonderful fit with our guards, who are more ball-dominant. He’s gonna live in the gym and he’s gonna work and you’re going to see him progressively get better.”

A member of the U.S. team that won the gold in the 2018 FIBA U17 European Championship, Okoro is one of the Draft’s most explosive leapers and has a high motor on both ends – an ideal physical combination of strength and length.

And for all his impressive physical attributes, the word on Okoro is what a selfless, low-maintenance team player that he is. On the floor, that trait translates to him being effective without having the ball in his hands. Off the floor, it translates to him being named to the Auburn Athletic Director’s Honor Roll after maintaining at least a 3.5 GPA in the fall.

"My goal for this year is to help the Cavaliers get back to the Playoffs. Just do anything to help us win and get back to the Playoffs."

Okoro won’t get the normal grace period June draft picks do – time to decompress and get his feet wet at Summer League. Instead, he’ll be looking for apartments and finding his way around town while preparing for Training Camp at the end of the month.

But he prides himself on being a winning player and he’ll get a chance to get in the fire and prove himself from the jump.

“(Okoro)’s humble, but he’s not blind when he says he’s a winning player,” said Altman, referring to a comment Okoro – who went an entire calendar year spanning high school and the start of his Auburn career without losing a game – made before the Draft. “He’s all about that. He’s team first and he’s prideful about that.

”He’ll see pretty soon how tough it is to get wins in this league night to night. And what we have collectively to grow, especially this young team. But I know from Day One that’s his attitude – and we’re excited about that.”

But probably not as excited as the 19-year-old rookie who comes to Cleveland later this week.

”My goal for this year is to help the Cavaliers get back to the Playoffs,” said Okoro. “Just do anything to help us win and get back to the Playoffs.”

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Forward Thinking

CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Cavaliers have selected guard/forward Isaac Okoro (oh-CORE-oh) from Auburn University with the fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

In his lone collegiate season at Auburn in 2019-20, Okoro (6-6, 225) played in 28 games (all starts), averaging 12.8 points on .514 shooting, 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 31.5 minutes per game. He was named to the 2019-20 All-SEC Second Team, All-Freshman Team and All-Defensive Team, becoming just the sixth player in SEC history to be named to an All-Conference Team, All-Defensive Team and All-Freshman Team in the same season, joining Kentucky’s Anthony Davis (2011-12), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (2011-12) and Nerlens Noel (2012-13), LSU’s Jordan Mickey (2013-14) and Texas A&amp;M’s Robert Williams (2016-17). Okoro is Auburn’s highest draft pick since Chris Morris was selected with the fourth overall pick in the 1988 NBA Draft.

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Cavaliers Select Isaac Okoro with Fifth Overall Pick In 2020 NBA Draft

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