Tyrese Proctor Could Play Important Role for Cavaliers Next Season

After two seasons of postseason failures with a Donovan Mitchell led core, the 2024-2025 Cleveland Cavaliers looked poised to make a deep playoff run last season. They led the Eastern Conference with 64 wins, but fell in the second round of the playoffs, succumbing to injuries and the Indiana Pacers in five games.

Despite the disappointing result, it's clear that the Cavs can be proud of last season, and take elements from it to build off of. A major part of their success was breakout player Ty Jerome, finishing third in Sixth Man of the Year voting.

Jerome got his payday in free agency however, as the Memphis Grizzlies lured him away from Cleveland with a 3-year, $27 million contract. It appears that the Cavs will try to replace his production in the aggregate, through extending shooter Sam Merrill, trading for veteran guard Lonzo Ball and most importantly drafting Tyrese Proctor with the No. 49 overall pick.

Of the three, Proctor plays the most similarly to Jerome, as they both act as versatile combo guards able to play on or off the ball, and hold their own on defense. Merrill isn't as true of a point guard like Jerome or Proctor, and Ball has injury concerns that have hindered his career to unheard of levels in recent years, making him a hard option to rely on.

By his third and final season at Duke, Proctor developed into an uber-efficient guard, posting similar stats to Ty Jerome's 2024-2025 campaign.

Jerome: 12.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.1 steals per game, 51.6 / 43.9 / 87.2 percent shooting splits

Proctor: 12.4 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 0.8 steals per game, 45.2 / 40.5 / 68 percent shooting splits

Both possess the height to operate as both the point guard and shooting guard, an important trait to have specific to the Cavaliers, as Proctor will likely be asked to play alongside both Mitchell and Darius Garland.

Proctor's developed into a shooter capable of spacing the floor for those rotations too, rising from 32 percent from beyond the arc in his freshman season, to 40.5 in 2024-2025. He's got strong mechanics, capable of relocating and shooting off dribble while maintaining a consistent footing to nail threes. What's interesting, however, is his free throw percentage inversely declined as his 3-point percentage rose, dropping from 87.1 percent in his freshman year to 68 percent in 2024-2025.

Through his three Summer League performances, he's shot 81.3 percent from the free throw line and 41.7 percent from 3-point range. His most impressive Summer League performance came on Wednesday night's matchup with the Kings, as Proctor dropped 35 points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals on a loaded Kings defense.