Georges Niang thinks Cleveland Cavaliers rookie Jaylon Tyson should have let loose a bit more after he was drafted with the No. 20 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
“Did you get drunk before the draft?” Niang asked Tyson.
Tyson said no and also explained that he didn’t get drunk after he got drafted because he had to get on a flight to Cleveland the next morning. Niang then expressed disappointment in the neophyte.
“The Cavs messed that one up,” Niang said.
The 21-year-old played for three different programs during his college basketball career, and he spent the 2023-24 campaign with the University of California, Berkeley. In 31 games played with the Golden Bears (30 starts), he averaged 19.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.2 steals per contest.
Tyson also converted 46.5 percent of his shots from the floor and 36.0 percent of his looks from deep in his last season of college basketball, and he parlayed his impressive scoring efficiency into the Cavaliers’ stint in Las Vegas Summer League. Across five games in Las Vegas, he held shooting splits of 58.8 percent from the field, 40.0 percent from deep and 91.7 percent from the charity stripe.
Fast forward to the start of Cleveland’s preseason slate, and Tyson made his presence felt in limited minutes against the Chicago Bulls on Oct. 8. Off the bench, he totaled eight points on 2-of-6 shooting from the field while also pulling down seven rebounds.
After a solid preseason debut, Tyson’s next chance to take the court for the Cavaliers in a preseason contest will come when the team hosts the Indiana Pacers at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Thursday night.
If Tyson can continue to be a spark off the bench for the Cavaliers for the remainder of their preseason tenure, perhaps he will receive more playing time in the 2024-25 campaign than some folks anticipate.
It’s too early to tell whether the Cavaliers made the right choice by using a top-20 pick on Tyson, but all early signs point to the idea that he could be a serviceable NBA player in due time. The 21-year-old seems to be particularly chock-full of potential on the offensive end of the floor.
