CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cavs are navigating a season filled with championship aspirations while fighting a frustrating reality: they’re missing two critical pieces that fueled last year’s success.
Through 25 games, the absences of Ty Jerome and Isaac Okoro have exposed glaring weaknesses that have the Wine and Gold Talk podcast crew debating which loss hurts more.
“I think obviously Ty’s the big one,” Chris Fedor, cleveland.com’s Cavs beat reporter, argued. “Ty had the ability to turn 5 point leads into 15-point leads, 20-point leads. He was responsible for so many of the Cavalanches throughout the course of last year. He was on a team friendly contract, and he was in the running for Sixth Man of the Year.”
The numbers back up Fedor’s assessment. Cleveland currently has the second-least productive bench in the entire NBA, a stark contrast to last season when Jerome’s playmaking and scoring punch helped power one of the league’s most impactful second units.
What’s particularly troubling is how the Cavs’ offseason acquisitions have failed to replicate Jerome’s impact.
The Lonzo Ball experiment has yielded mixed results at best, with his shooting becoming a liability rather than the floor-spacing asset the team envisioned.
Jimmy Watkins, cleveland.com columnist, points out this painful irony: “Isn’t it ironic that we used to have all these conversations about, well, if Isaac could just get his attempts up, you know, that might make teams \[guard him\]. With Lonzo Ball, everyone’s like, whoa, whoa, attempts down, please stop shooting.”
Watkins highlights how Okoro’s defensive intensity set a standard that elevated the entire team’s effort level.
“I think when the Cavs were out there and they would see Isaac Okoro defending his tail off possession after possession, they’d look around be like, well man, I gotta raise my energy because this guy’s bringing it,” Watkins explains.
The discussion reveals a deeper truth: both players embodied qualities the Cavs are desperately missing.
Jerome provided offensive creation, scoring punch, and what Fedor calls “swag” and “spirit.” Okoro delivered the defensive intensity and point-of-attack disruption that allowed Cleveland’s big men to thrive in their rim-protection roles.
The front office knew these departures would create voids. They gambled that Lonzo Ball could fill both roles to some degree, providing defense like Okoro and playmaking like Jerome. Instead, the team has gotten inconsistent defense and worse shooting than either departed player provided.
Jaylon Tyson has shown promise in Okoro’s role, but as Fedor notes, defense wasn’t “ingrained in him the way that it was Isaac.” Meanwhile, Craig Porter Jr. has flashed Jerome-like playmaking but hasn’t consistently delivered the scoring punch the bench desperately needs.
As the Cavs continue navigating this season with championship aspirations, these absences loom large. The Wine and Gold Talk podcast debate brings to light just how difficult it is to replace players who embodied specific, valuable traits that elevated the entire team.
Want to hear the full, heated debate about which player the Cavs miss more and what it means for their playoff hopes? Listen to the latest episode of Wine and Gold Talk for the unfiltered breakdown from Chris Fedor, Jimmy Watkins, and host Ethan Sands.
Here’s the podcast for this week: