The Cavs new weapon has something to prove...

The Cavs new weapon has something to prove. The Cavs have a mix of veteran and young talent, but arguably the most important X-factor on the team is young and still has a lot to prove. The veterans have to take these youngins under their wing so Cleveland can reach its full potential next season. So the player obviously that is most crucial to the Cavs this upcoming season is Peyton Watson. We just traded for him. We basically swapped out Max Struess for Peyton Watson and that's a huge change. It's going to take an adjustment for this Cavs organization. It's going to take an adjustment for the Cavs coaching staff and it's obviously going to take an adjustment for Peyton Watson in order to make this work. It's going to be super important that he just gels together with everybody he fits in and he knows his role and that is to be determined and what I'll be talking about in this video is what role will Peyton Watson have on the 2026-2027 Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team. But first, please subscribe if you're not already. 78% of viewers who watch these videos from Cavs Digest are not subscribed. It's a quick thing to do, just hit that subscribe button and we're almost to 4,000 subscribers. So go ahead and hit that subscribe button so you can stay updated with all of the Cavs news for these last couple weeks of the offseason and going into the preseason and regular season. So for those of you who may not know, Peyton Watson has kind of this crazy story. He is originally from Long Beach, California, and he went to UCLA. He was a one and done at UCLA. He only played one season, the 2021-2022 college basketball season for the Bruins, and in that one season, he averaged three points per game, three rebounds per game, less than one assist per game, less than a block, less than a steal per game. Field goal percentage was 32%. His three-point percentage, keep this in mind, this is a number I'll bring up later on, and minutes per game was just under 13, and he played in 32 total games in his freshman year at UCLA, his only year at UCLA. So keeping those numbers I just told you in mind, where would you guess that he went in the NBA draft or even if he was drafted at all? Peyton Watson was drafted in the first round of the 2022 draft, 30th overall pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder that was later traded on to his trade rights were later given to the Denver Nuggets in a trade. But isn't that hard to believe that with those stats in one year of college basketball that he still went in the first round? It was the late first round, but he's a first round draft pick with averaging three points a game and three rebounds in college. That's wild to me, in my opinion, and what a draft pick by the Nuggets that they just drafted this guy based on solely just his potential. It's not like this was a guy averaging 15, 20 points per game in college basketball, because if you watch college ball, you know how difficult that is to do. This guy was a role player on a UCLA team. So I just find it hard to believe of where he was drafted, how far he's come since he was drafted, and now he's going to be a starter for the Cavs this season after having the best season of his career with the Denver Nuggets. He's developed so much as a player, and the stats prove it. I mean, I just rattled off some of his college stats in his one season at UCLA, and now let's take a look at his stats from last NBA season, the best NBA season of his young career. Like I said, he was drafted in 2022. He's going to be entering his fourth season now with the Cavs, and this is it. He played in 54 games last season. He averaged just under 15 points per game, which in college averaged three points in one season for UCLA. That number has ballooned, now averaging five boards last season, two assists. The true shooting percentage, 60%, very good. The field goal percentage at 50 versus, what did I say, 33, 32% from the field in college. So his shooting has gotten a lot better, specifically his three-point shooting, 41% from the three-point line in college. They said 23. So, I mean, that's a huge jump, especially when you're playing in the NBA. Number one, the three-point line is farther. The three-point line is a little bit farther back than it is in college, and he's shooting it better. So whether it's, you know, he feels more comfortable, he's getting better looks maybe, and most importantly, he's just become a better shooter since he's entered the league. He's becoming a better player, and we just hope that he can continue to develop, to continue improving with the Cavs, because that's why the Cavs traded for him. We see the potential. That's why the Nuggets drafted him, and now that's why the Cavs traded for him. We see that potential. The Nuggets saw that potential in him coming out of college. They saw what he could be, and the Cavs traded for him based on potential. We think that he can be a starter. That's why we went out and got him. We think he can be a critical piece on our roster. He can elevate our team on the defensive side of the ball and step up and be a starter in that number three wing spot for the Cavs. So I think his role is yet to be defined. I think that it can go one of three ways. He could be an offensive scorer. I think he has the potential, this is a big if, to score 20 points a night for us and be like a third option after Mitchell and Harden. Or he could be a three and D player. That three point percentage and his volume of three point shots continue to rise, and he becomes a threat from outside the three point arc, and obviously his defense is going to be there no matter what. He's an excellent defender, fantastic defender. That's what got him to the NBA in the first place. That's what he was known for on the Nuggets for being athletic, long, and being able to lock down the other team's best player, and we're hoping that he'll be able to do that for us in Cleveland. Or the third option is maybe, which I see this as also a possibility, his shooting numbers don't stay where they are. He's just coming off the best season of his career. He could also come back down to earth, and those numbers could dip below 40% again from the three point arc. That shooting percentage dips a little more as well, and maybe Peyton Watson just becomes a defender, which is still a critical piece that we need because we don't really have that player. It was Dean Wade, now he's gone. We don't have that player that's going to sit down on defense and shut down the other team's best player. Now, when you're able to bring a locked down defender and he has some offensive game to him as well, that's great because this is obviously an upgrade from Dean Wade. Dean Wade had negative offensive game. He couldn't knock down an open three to save his life, and Peyton Watson at 40%, he should have that ability to shoot and have defenses respect him from outside the arc as well. But Peyton Watson is now on a new team. He still has a lot to prove. He's very young in his NBA career, and he thinks that he's in a spot where he can learn. He can learn from the veterans on our roster. This is a quote from Peyton Watson that Cavs Nation posted after Cavs Media Day, and Peyton Watson said, we have two amazing basketball minds in James Harden and Donovan Mitchell, and I'm going to be learning as much as I can from them. And this is great to hear. You want to have your young players be open to learning. You want to have them be open to hearing what James Harden and Donovan Mitchell, these guys who have been around the block once or twice, and the advice that they can offer this young guy in Watson, especially since his offensive game has so much more to be desired. There's so much more to be developed. So Harden and Mitchell can give some wisdom here for Peyton Watson. I mean, if you look at what Harden and Mitchell have accomplished in their careers, it's pretty impressive. Harden especially won the MVP in 2018 when he hit the one stretch where he was averaging 60 points per game, which is ridiculous. He won sixth man of the year in 2012 early on in his career. He is an 11-time NBA all-star. He's the three-time NBA scoring champ, and two times he's led the NBA in assists. So not only is Harden a scorer, but he's a great passer as well, and he's done all that in 17 seasons. Donovan Mitchell, on the other hand, seven-time all-star, nine seasons. You've seen him perform in the playoffs, especially when he was back in Utah. We saw how clutch he was, and he still is with the Cavs. We've seen him step up in big critical moments in the playoffs. So both these guys are veterans that can just give Peyton Watson so much wisdom and help him develop his offensive game, and he can pick their brains and learn a lot from these two players. So it's going to be critical for Watson to learn as much as he can from Harden and Mitchell, even Mobley and Allen. Everybody on this team has to contribute and make him feel welcome, number one, and see how he's going to fit into this starting lineup. Like I said, I think it could go one of three ways, and I think it's going to be super fascinating to see how our team looks in the preseason, and then obviously early on in the regular season when the games start to matter. So what are we thinking, Cavs fans? Are we thinking that Watson is going to be a scorer, a guy who's going to be a third option to Mitchell and Harden and average 20 points per game? Maybe he elevates over Mobley as that third scoring option, since Mobley didn't have a great offensive season last year. Or will Watson be a defensive stopper, somebody who sits down on defense, locks down the other team's best player, and plays just fantastic defense but doesn't offer too much on the offensive end? Or will he be a little bit of both? That three-point shot continued to develop, and he becomes a sharpshooter from the outside, kind of like Max Struess was. Maybe not on Max Struess's level, but if he can be half of what Max Struess was, that will help our offense out so much more. And obviously we know what he brings defensively with his length, athleticism, and he's going to be guarding our other team's opposing player no matter what. So defensively, we know what Peyton Watson brings to the table. It's offensively where the questions start to come. But we're going to see, Cavs fans, we're going to see in this preseason how he fits into the starting lineup. I'm ready to get the season underway. Let's go Cavs. Let's do it. Let's go contend for an NBA championship and go in the East. As always, if you're not already subscribed, please hit that subscribe button, and let's go Cavs.