CLEVELAND, Ohio — When the Cavs selected Jaylon Tyson with the 20th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, they weren’t acquiring a finished product. They were investing in potential that requires significant refinement.
On a recent episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, host Ethan Sands joined cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor and Jimmy Watkins to break down the critical areas where Tyson must improve to carve out a meaningful role with the Wine and Gold.
Tyson arrived in Cleveland with impressive collegiate credentials, as Sands noted on the podcast: “Jaylon Tyson, a guy that was drafted No. 20 overall, came out of Cal with a lot of hype because he was everything for them on the offensive end.”
But the transition from college star to NBA role player requires more than just scoring ability — it demands adaptation.
The most pressing issue for Tyson? Learning to modulate his pace and control.
Sands identified this challenge directly: “I just feel like the game has to slow down for him. Everything that he does feels like it’s at 100% and it’s not necessarily always a good thing to be moving 100 miles an hour.”
This breakneck pace manifests in missed opportunities and unforced errors.
Beyond controlling his tempo, Fedor identified two technical aspects of Tyson’s game that need immediate attention.
First, his defensive awareness away from the ball: “The two things that stand out to me, his off ball defense is not very good. He gets caught ball. Watching his on-ball defense, he’s tough, he’s physical, he gets into guys, he’s tenacious, he’s got an NBA sturdy body, so he can’t really get pushed around as much. But off ball, he kind of gets lost.”
Second, and perhaps most crucial for his offensive contribution, is the speed of his jump shot release. Fedor explained: “I think they gotta quicken his shot. That thing’s got to get faster because, look, this is the NBA and contests happen quickly and what seems like an open shot, if you hesitate a little bit or if you don’t have the fastest release, suddenly it’s a contested jumper. So I think the Cavs understand that. You’ve seen Jaylon kind of work on that behind the scenes as well, but he needs to quicken his jump shot. It’s still a little bit too slow for NBA standards.”
The discussion highlighted an interesting paradox in Tyson’s development: he needs to slow down his overall game while speeding up his shot.
This duality underscores the complexity of transitioning to the NBA level, where milliseconds can determine whether a shot is clean or contested.
The podcast crew also explored potential NBA comparisons that could serve as developmental models for Tyson. “Caleb Martin and Josh Hart are two of the guys that Jaylon Tyson has been compared to that he has said that he wants to compare his game to by the end of his career,” Sand pointed out.
“I like Josh Hart as an aspirational comparison for him because it’s kind of like the mix of the two things,” Watkins elaborated. “Jaylon Tyson was dribbling the ball quite a bit in college and Josh Hart does it like, you know, Josh Hart can grab a rebound and push.”
This development journey points to a fascinating transformation: Tyson was drafted largely for his offensive prowess in college, but his NBA future may hinge on becoming a versatile, high-energy role player who contributes across multiple facets of the game.
To hear the complete breakdown of Jaylon Tyson’s development path and what it could mean for the Cavaliers’ future, check out the full episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast. You’ll gain deeper insights into how Cleveland’s coaching staff is working to mold Tyson into a valuable NBA contributor.
Here’s the link for this episode:
_Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from the Cleveland Wine and Gold Talk Podcast by cleveland.com. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions._