“I’ve always had this from a skill perspective.”
Seasons like the one we’re seeing from Cleveland Cavaliers guard Ty Jerome simply don’t happen. Guys don’t go from journeyman, end-of-the-bench roster fillers on a slightly above minimum contract to Sixth Man of the Year candidates.
“It’s an amazing story,” said Cavaliers head coach after Jerome’s 26-point showing in Sunday’s win over the Memphis Grizzlies.
It’s also a story no one saw coming.
“One of the coaches asked me, ‘Was this the same guy? Did you see any of this in Golden State? I saw none of this,” Atkinson said.
Jerome has been phenomenal this year. His 11.7 points in 19.1 minutes per game may not jump off the page as amazing, however, the volume he’s scoring it at combined with the efficiency is truly incredible.
He’s fourth on the team in points per 100 possessions (28.7) barely behind Evan Mobley (29.1). Comparing counting stats, even possession-adjusted ones, between lower-minute reserves and high-minute starters can be tricky. This does however speak to the impact Jerome is having as a scorer when he’s on the court.
The efficiency is much more impressive. Jerome is currently in the 98th percentile for points per shot attempt (1.29) and is the most on the team behind only Jarrett Allen. This is due to his incredible accuracy with his floater (100th percentile in the short midrange) and outside shooting (43.7%).
Efficient, high-volume scoring is very difficult to come by. The ones who do that best are typically stars who make things look incredibly easy and who continually get to the line. They typically aren’t chaotic guards who constantly take off-balanced floaters in traffic or 28-foot threes on a somewhat regular basis.
The list of comparable players to Jerome when he’s at his best is short.
“He has Steph [Curry] like minutes sometimes,” Atkinson said. “He’s shooting 25 footers. He’s getting steals. He’s really taking over games.”
Jerome indeed took over Sunday’s game in this fashion. His 15 fourth-quarter points came in increasingly ridiculous ways. The sort of ways that break the will of an opponent.
It was easy to write off performances like this at the beginning of the season as lightning-in-the-bottle situations. Any NBA player can have an incredibly hot few-minute stretch. Being able to consistently have those performances is the differentiator.
We’ve seen enough at this point to know that hot Jerome shooting nights aren’t that uncommon.
“He’s done this for long enough that we just have to understand that this is Ty Jerome,” said Donovan Mitchell after Sunday’s game. “There’s no looking at him like, ‘Man, that’s a shock, a surprise.’ This is him.”
That feeling hasn’t always been there, even for someone like Mitchell who grew up playing with Jerome and knew that he was good.
“He was doing this in camp and OTAs and pick-up … but he hadn’t done it in the league,” Mitchell said. “So I think it’s a different vibe when you’re doing it in the NBA environment.”
Mitchell referred to Jerome’s 29-point game against the New Orleans Pelicans in November and then his 33 points in a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers as points where he really started to believe.
Jerome has outwardly believed in his own game in an irrational, but healthy way this season. He joked in the locker room on Sunday that it was “messed up” some people hadn’t seen this in his game earlier. While it was delivered with a laugh, it wasn’t difficult to see that there could be some truth behind what he was saying.
Honestly, it’s understandable if that was the case. Jerome hasn’t had a chance to prove that he could do this on the court. His career has been defined by injuries. Jerome is finally healthy, has already played more minutes than he has at any point in his career, and the results are paying off.
“He’s overcome a lot of injuries, a lot of different things, and now he’s getting his chance, and he’s not letting it go at all,” Mitchell said.
Injuries play a large role in this, but it’s also fair to point out that this was more than just an availability issue.
Jerome had shown brief glimpses of being a good player during his 2022-23 season with the Golden State Warriors. The efficiency was there, but the splashes that we’ve seen this season weren’t. It’s why he only totaled over 15 points five times that season and had 20+ just once in 45 outings.
This season, he’s produced over 15 points on 14 occasions. All of which included him shooting 50% or better from the field.
“They just didn’t give me the freedom back in Golden State, that’s all,” Jerome said bluntly when told what Atkinson said about his development from Golden State.
That confidence that Jerome displays when asking questions about his game is shown on the court, as well. He plays like someone who knows he’s one of the best scorers in the game and that it’s our fault for not recognizing his incredible talent. Every game, that sentiment seems to become more true.
There’s a certain amount of luck and timing that need to come together to create a championship-level team. Fortune is often needed to push a team from merely very good to great. So far this season, Jerome has been one of those unexpected pieces that have helped propel Cleveland to the most wins in the league.
Although Jerome wouldn’t view this as luck or anything else. He always knew his time would come. We’re just able to finally witness it now.
“I’ve always had this from a skill perspective,” Jerome said. “It’s just getting a little stronger, taking care of my body, and you know, sometimes opportunity meets timing and it just clicks.”