Craig Porter Jr. spent his summer checking off life milestones and chasing the one basketball breakthrough he’s wanted since he got to Cleveland.
On July 26, Porter married his high school sweetheart, Chloe, in an outdoor ceremony at Bratenahl’s Shoreby Club. Then, just under a month later, the Cavaliers’ roster shuffle cracked open a lane for him to finally grab the backup point guard job he’s been after his whole career.
“It’s another step in my journey,” Porter said. “They’re giving me an opportunity to showcase the things I can do and things I’ve worked on the last two or three years. I want to set the tone and let everybody know I can be the leader of the second unit and impact winning basketball, whether it be scoring or doing a lot of the little things I do.”
That opening didn’t appear out of nowhere. It came after Cleveland’s five-team trade for swingman Peyton Watson, a deal that sent veterans Max Strus and Dennis Schröder out the door. Schröder’s departure left a void at backup point guard, and the Cavs weren’t in position financially to bring in another replacement.
Now Porter is in the mix with second-year guard Tyrese Proctor and rookie Meleek Thomas for the job behind James Harden. Proctor bulked up after spending part of the summer with the Australian National Team, while Thomas, the No. 34 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, made noise at summer league and kept it going in training camp.
For Porter, this is familiar territory. He came into the league as an undrafted free agent, turned himself into a full-time roster player, and still has never quite locked down a consistent role. His minutes have usually come when someone else was unavailable.
That was true last season, too, when Darius Garland was still working back from offseason toe surgery and Ty Jerome had left for Memphis after unsuccessful free agency talks. But as the year went on, Cleveland started to question whether Porter was ready for playoff minutes every night.
The front office explored the trade market, landed Schröder, and later added James Harden. By the time the postseason arrived, Porter had been squeezed out of the rotation, appearing in just seven of Cleveland’s 18 games and playing only 21 minutes.
Now the script has flipped again.
Porter says the challenge from the Cavaliers has been clear: be more assertive, bring fire, and show commitment. Coaches, teammates and executives also want him to be louder, more commanding and more willing to direct the group the way Schröder did during his four-month stay.
“Everybody realizes that you can do all the little things,” Porter explained. “But what are you going to do when put in position to be that head guy in the group?
Can you lead these guys? Can you call a play when something else is happening?
Can you run this group? I feel like I have done a great job of understanding how to do those things.”
Porter has studied Harden, Schröder and Donovan Mitchell, picking apart how each one carries himself. He said he wants to be the “Donovan Mitchell of the second unit” - with his own twist.
The job description is straightforward: defend hard, pressure the ball full-court, disrupt rhythm, and then provide enough creation and scoring on the other end to keep the offense moving. Porter has also kept working on the perimeter shot that he began sharpening as a rookie in 2023-24.
“I feel like being that backup point guard is big because it gives those guys pressure relief,” Porter said. “We all know when the playoffs come, James is going to get double-teamed, Don is going to get double-teamed, that’s going to be every team’s main focus.
Just being able to give teams a different look. To give our team more lift, it’s big.”
Kenny Atkinson has kept the rotation picture deliberately fuzzy through camp and preseason, using the uncertainty to force competition. He has been clear that jobs need to be earned, even if Watson looks like the favorite for the fifth starter spot. Beyond mainstays Sam Merrill and Jaylon Tyson, the rest of the bench picture remains unsettled.
“My biggest worry is who’s going to be in that top 10 rotation? Probably list 13 right now that could be in that top 10,” Atkinson said at media day.
“As far as our depth, I couldn’t be more pleased. We’ve got a lot of pieces we can go to.
Just got to figure out how that all fits together.”
That list includes Porter, Proctor, Thomas, Nae’Qwan Tomlin and Mario Hezonja, all trying to show they belong.
Over three seasons, Porter has averaged 4.6 points on 48.6% shooting from the field and 37.7% from 3-point range, along with 2.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 17.9 minutes per game.
“We think the world of him and his work ethic and who he is as a person,” president of basketball operations Koby Altman said. “He has a great opportunity in front of him, but we can’t promise anything.
This is the NBA. It’s such a competitive league and it’s really competitive in that gym and in-house as we continue to add more talent to that group.”
Porter has spent enough time waiting for the door to open. This summer, with a new marriage behind him and a real opportunity in front of him, he finally gets a chance to make the role his own.
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Evan Mobley Debate Just Got Uncomfortable For The Cavs
A speculative Evan Mobley-for-Matas Buzelis trade idea has surfaced in the kind of offseason chatter that always lands a little harder when it involves a cornerstone player. For Cleveland, the premise is uncomfortable because Mobley remains one of the leagues most valuable young defenders, the sort of player who changes the floor on that end even when the offense is still evolving. For Chicago, Buzelis is the more theoretical piece, a young forward whose appeal rests on the belief that his scoring upside can keep growing into something bigger.
The debate gets interesting because both sides can talk themselves into the basketball fit, even if the idea lives entirely in hypotheticals. Cleveland would be weighing whether to move off a proven defensive anchor for a higher-variance offensive swing, while the Bulls would be asking how much patience they have for Buzelis to reach his ceiling. Nothing about this points to real negotiations, but it is the kind of thought experiment that exposes just how delicate the balance is when a team starts wondering whether its best long-term answer is already in hand. [Read more 🡒]
Three Young Cavs Suddenly Have A Real Shot To Matter
Craig Porter Jr., Tyrese Proctor and reserve forward Jaylon Tyson are all at a stage where the Cavaliers can still reasonably imagine more coming from them. For a team trying to keep building around established pieces, young depth matters, and Cleveland has a few players who fit the kind of long-view conversation coaches and front offices like to have in-season. The appeal here is not just age, but the chance that each can sharpen a specific part of his game enough to stop being a developmental name and start becoming a dependable rotation option.
Proctor has already drawn some attention from Kenny Atkinson, who recently pointed to the guards physical development as part of his progress, and that only adds to the sense that his timeline is moving in the right direction. Porter and Tyson, meanwhile, are still in the category of players whose next step could come from simple but important growth, including greater shooting aggression and more consistency. None of it is finished, but for Cleveland, the possibility that a few young players might meaningfully matter by 2026-27 is the kind of internal upside that can shape a roster more than any outside rumor. [Read more 🡒]
LeBrons Latest Health Concern Changes Clevelands Biggest What-If
LeBron James latest health update has added another layer to the long-running conversation about what might have been in Cleveland. After leaving for Philadelphia for what is expected to be the final two seasons of his career, James is now dealing with chronic arthritis in his left foot and lower-back issues, according to an ESPN report. It is the kind of news that resonates far beyond his current team, because for Cavaliers fans it brings back the familiar mix of admiration and regret that has followed every twist in his late-career arc.
James reportedly monitors the problems daily as part of his training, and last season he missed about a month because of sciatica. For Philadelphia, the concern is obvious: availability always shapes everything around a player at this stage, from rhythm to lineup stability to the larger ceiling of the season. For Cleveland, it only sharpens the old question of how different things might have looked if this version of James, with all the wear and tear that comes with the miles, had been part of the present instead of another teams future. [Read more 🡒]