The Cavaliers are still sorting themselves out seven games into the season, and Sam Merrill is one of the clearest reasons why that process feels unfinished.
Cleveland sits at 4-3 after picking up good wins over the Minnesota Timberwolves and a dominant victory against the Milwaukee Bucks, but the early picture has also included three losses that have exposed some real problems. Monday night’s defeat to the short-handed Oklahoma City Thunder fit that theme, with the Cavs again running into the same mix of defensive rebounding issues, uneven shooting, and rotation tinkering as they try to settle into the 2026-27 NBA season.
Depth was always part of the conversation, especially after the roster churn from last year. Dean Wade, Max Strus, and Keon Ellis are gone, and Cleveland has leaned more heavily on returning pieces like Jaylon Tyson and Tyrese Proctor while bringing in players such as Mario Hezonja. Merrill, though, was supposed to be one of the steady answers.
He’s built as a movement shooter with defensive value, the kind of player who can keep an offense humming without needing the ball to dominate possessions. That version of Merrill hasn’t shown up yet.
He’s a career 39% three-point shooter, but this season he’s at 32% from deep on 5.3 attempts per game. The scoring volume is there - in fact, he’s averaging the second-highest points per game of his career - but the efficiency has slipped in a way that matters for a team trying to tighten its margin.
The numbers back that up. Merrill’s effective field-goal percentage has dropped from .624 in the 2026 season to .532 so far this year.
On Monday night, he had a chance to tie the game on a shot the Cavaliers should feel comfortable giving him, but it didn’t go down. That’s the kind of miss that happens over the course of a season, but it also sharpens the spotlight on a player whose early struggles have already become part of Cleveland’s broader issues.
Defensively, opponents have also gone after him. Merrill carries a 116 defensive rating, which is tied for the third-highest mark of his career, and his defensive box plus/minus sits at -0.7. He has only posted a plus rating once in his career, and last season he finished at -1.0, so he is already trending close to that level again.
There are still positives in his game. Merrill’s effort has been there, and he’s pulling down three rebounds per game, the best rebounding mark of his career.
He’s also averaging 2.3 assists per game, one of the better passing stretches of his career and just behind last season’s 2.4. At the line, he remains reliable, shooting 90% from free throw range, even if he doesn’t get there often.
Health could be part of the story, too. He missed the final preseason game because of elbow soreness and dealt with a hand injury for much of last season.
Whatever the reason, Cleveland needs him to find his rhythm quickly. If the Cavaliers are going to hit the goals they set for themselves, Merrill has to be part of the answer.
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