Cavs should learn from Browns and move on from Kevin Porter

The Cleveland Cavaliers have a decision to make when it comes to Kevin Porter Jr. and should take a cue from the way the Browns handled Josh Gordon.

With the season tip-off finally here for the Cleveland Cavaliers, it’s time to ask a hard question when it comes to the talented Kevin Porter, is he worth the headache to the Cavs? That’s a question that the Cleveland Browns had to ask about Josh Gordon, the now embattled Seahawks wide receiver who continues to find himself in trouble with the NFL. For The Cavs, Porter seems to be heading in that direction, a promising young player who won’t ever get out of their own way.

This of course is coming off of the heels of Porter not being formally charged by a grand-jury for weapon’s charges. Porter had been arrested on Nov. 15 after crashing his SUV. Police found weapons and marijuana on the scene but ruled that he was not impaired; despite no inclination that he was ever properly tested. State patrol claimed Porter was “fatigued” and that’s why he crashed.

Porter got off the gun charge because his mother owned the gun, and claimed she placed the weapon in the glove box when she was driving the car the previous day. A plausible, but entirely debatable premise.

Porter has also found himself in trouble yet again, after getting into a fight with two women, where his sister and he punched two other women. Porter drove away before police arrived, and despite four people giving nearly the same eye-witness account as to what happened, Porter was never charged. The victims were told they would need to follow up with the city prosecutor’s office if they wanted to file charges.

That whole situation seems botched and barely given the time the incident deserved, as the police literally gave up trying to find out what happened.

"Officers wrote in the report that they tried to access the apartment building to question more witnesses, but they were unable to get inside."

Now Porter is getting what appears to be preferential treatment, which will only exacerbate his attitude problems. Attitude problems he’s had dating back to high school, if not earlier. Those issues culminated at USC where he was suspended due to a “personal conduct violation”. Regardless of what that conduct infraction was, why is it that anyone is willing to accept it? If he broke the rules (or even the law), then he has an impulse control issue, and that will only compound more and more so.

We need to hold these athletes to the same standard as everyone else.

We have several very glaring, very troubling instances of a young-pro-player who doesn’t care about the world around him and the Cavs are now relying on him to develop into a potential starter for them; or at the very least a key cog?

Have we learned nothing from the Josh Hamilton’s and Josh Gordon’s of the sport’s world? How many times have we seen Johnny Manziel get second chance after second chance? He’s in a Twitch league now because he can’t get his life straight. The Cavs need to realize that it doesn’t matter what they can get back for Porter, the odds of him never again running afoul with anyone is way low, and what happens if next time it’s worse than a car crash and punching a woman in the face?

The team needs to move on from Porter because it’s only a matter of time before he’s in trouble again. The Cavs are not a franchise that can continue to look like fools by bringing in low-character players. The culture around the team is laughable and it’s so bad that no one respects the organization. Sure, the Cavs may have found something in Collin Sexton and Isacc Okoro, but what good will it do if you have players on the roster that destroy their image by association?

Porter fell from a high lottery pick to the 30th pick for a reason. He was compared to James Harden and didn’t go until the very end of the first round. Just because he was a good value “get” doesn’t mean the Cavs need to hold onto him.

I want him to change his ways, I’ve just seen this story play out too often to think that this one will go differently.