3 Cavaliers Primed to Disappoint in 2023-24 Season

2. Caris LeVert

Speaking of Caris LeVert, he settled into his sixth man role nicely last year — something that was far from a given considering his tendency to be a black hole on offense in the past. That really impressed me.

But fans are talking about Sixth Man of the Year potential from LeVert, and that's just setting yourselves up for disappointment. LeVert is a good fit and will be a plus contributor off the bench, but he's not 6MOTY material.

There aren’t many advanced metrics LeVert stood out in last year. He was ninth on the team in box plus-minus (-0.2), including 10th offensively (-1.0) and 11th defensively (1.1). He was fifth on the roster in win shares (4.4), but on a per-48-minute basis he ranked 14th (.095). Removing small-sample players, that was still just good for 10th among 12 players who had 500-plus minutes played. His 12.4 PER ranked seventh among our 500-plus minute players.

Those stats obviously don't capture anything, but it's telling when a guy doesn't stand out in any of them.

Are there ways LeVert can impact the game that don't show up on the stat-sheet? For sure. Those metrics don't capture defense well, and that was probably his biggest contribution last year.

But if we get "doesn't do a whole lot offensively, but at least he plays solid defense" production from LeVert this season you better believe fans are going to be disappointed.