Cavs get run off the floor in Summer League opener

Jaylon Tyson was underwhelming in the lopsided loss.

First impressions aren’t always accurate to who a person is, but they can be hard to forget. Jaylon Tyson had some good moments, but he likely hopes his first impression in a Cleveland Cavaliers uniform isn’t indicative of who he’ll be as a player. The Orlando Magic ran away with a 106-79 win in their first Las Vegas Summer League game.

Tyson struggled to find a rhythm early on after he assisted on the team’s first field goal and cleaned up an Emoni Bates miss for his first professional basket. From there, Tyson was blocked on a layup attempt, committed a bad shooting foul, and turned the ball over before being subbed out.

The game momentarily slowed down some for Tyson from there. He contributed six points in the second quarter which included this basket off of a nice, quick cut after setting an on-ball screen. This is the type of off-ball movement he flashed in college that the Cavs are hoping translates over.

Tyson finished his pro debut with 15 points on 7-14 shooting with eight boards, two assists, and four turnovers. Those numbers aren’t good, especially the turnovers, but not at all why the Cavs were blown out like they were. This was a typical rookie performance in Summer League. Especially in a game the Cavaliers had no structure.

The returning players are why the Cavs were embarrassed. They didn’t provide the foundation of a competent team.

Pete Nance offered little to no resistance inside. The Magic were able to get whatever they wanted in the paint once they got him moving with a simple pick-and-roll or just swinging the ball on the perimeter. Craig Porter Jr. wasn’t the stabilizing force you’d hope to see from someone expected to be fighting for backup point guard minutes. He finished with as many assists as he did turnovers (two). Lastly, Emoni Bates led the team in scoring with 20, but he struggled to do so within the flow of the offense as most of his buckets came off of multiple dribbles.

Luke Travers was held out of the game due to a hamstring injury. His presence as a stabilizing force could’ve been helpful.

This was an uncompetitive performance. It’s dangerous to make too many sweeping declarations about individual players in an exhibition that gets this lopsided this quickly.

It’s also easy to see what you want in a game like this. If you believe in someone like Bates, you can reasonably say he had no choice but to play like that given how bad the game was going. If you don’t believe in him, you can point to this being another inefficient performance in a style that won’t translate to winning in the NBA. Similar variations of this could be said about anyone who suited up for Cleveland.

Summer League doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. However, this was a disappointing way for Cleveland to open up their title defense. The Cavs will be back in action Sunday at 3:30 PM as they look to right the ship against the Milwaukee Bucks.