Kevin Pangos

 In day 1 of training camp Darius, Ricky and Kevin Pangos had a shooting competition that Pangos won, prompting Darius to proclaim that he is coming back for his title.


This is a nice little sequence for TC, showing the competitive nature of one of the Cavs young guys, and also the skills of a newcomer.  Not laden with meaning but a nice story while we wait for the season to begin, but it also brings up one question for me.  Why the hell is Pangos on the Cavs?  


Let me make this abundantly clear, this question is not being asked - why would the Cavs sign Pangos- as those answers are obvious.  He’s cheap, he has a clear skill set that if it translates will work on or off ball and complements other players, and he was very good in a 2nd tier league making it reasonably likely that those skills will translate.  


The question also isn’t why would Pangos take less money to come to the NBA at this stage in his career as I think the drive to compete at the highest level plus the potential to more than make those losses back if he proves himself this season make it an easy to understand position.


The question here is why would he sign with the Cavs?  To prove that he can compete at this level and to earn back those lost dollars requires actually getting on the court.  If I look at the Cavs guard position vs some other potential spots in the league I note that the Cavs are entering the season deep and with the top end of the rotation locked in if healthy.  Obviously SexLand are expected to start, Rubio is a starting caliber PG as 3rd guard and they would like to get Okoro mins at the 2 as well.  That puts Pangos as the 3rd PG and also the 3rd SG going in with Windler having a shot to earn some mins at the 2, which puts him in a bind to actually get mins even if he deserves them.  Lets compare to a few other situations around the league, and keeping in mind that Pangos’ contract was easily matchable by any of these teams at some point in the offseason.


  1.  Boston.  Schroder is clearly a stop gap for this year, and both he and Smart need shooting next to them to excel (and by excel I mean be competent offensively).  The Celtics like Pritchard for good reason but after that they have flotsam on the roster and Brown finished the year injured and sizes up to the 3 a lot.  The chances of a shooter like Pangos being a better fit next to Brown and Tatum is are much higher than the chances of displacing one of Rubio, Garland or Sexton.

  2. Utah.  Behind Mitchell, Conley and Clarkson there is a decent void for another guard, especially one who could play off ball next to those guys, and Conley has a long stretch of missing time while Mitchell has missed chunks of the past two seasons as well.  They are always going to want shooting around Gobert, and need to find cheap mins somewhere with Conley/Gobert/Mitchell’s contracts.

  3. Toronto.  Has a clear long term need at guard, and have shown the willingness and ability to find older guys to slot into roles.


The thing really is that Pangos was a great shooter in Europe, and shooting is valued so much that almost any team that doesn’t have 5-6 guards on their roster should have been angling for this type of player and one would think that Pangos (again given his final contract) should have had a few options to choose from.  Perhaps other teams didn’t have their eye on him and the Cavs did, but with how Campazzo helped fill the gap for Denver last season and how the NBA is a copycat league you would think that this offseason would have ended with a couple of teams vying for a guy who has shot >41% on his last 1,800 3pt attempts (college and professionally) gets them off at a good clip, can pass and play off ball.  He’s another guy I’m happy to see on the team I follow and another story line for the year.  I hope he gets his shot at some point this season.  


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