NBA Scout Calls Peyton Watson a 'Good Upside Play' for the Cavaliers

Peyton Watson signed a four-year, $88 million contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers as part of a five-team sign-and-trade agreed to on Aug. 19, first reported by ESPN's Shams Charania. The deal sent Max Strus to the LA Clippers and an unprotected 2031 Cleveland first-round pick to the Denver Nuggets. Watson's contract carries a player option and a trade kicker.

Cleveland also acquired Cam Whitmore from the Washington Wizards, who received Tre Mann, a 2027 second-round pick, and cash. Denver added a 2032 Sacramento Kings second-round pick and Julian Reese, whom the Nuggets waived off his two-way contract. A previously agreed deal sending Dennis Schröder to the Charlotte Hornets was folded into the transaction.

The wing rotation Watson walks into turned over almost entirely this summer. Dean Wade signed with the Philadelphia 76ers. Strus left in the Watson trade. Sam Merrill and Mario Hezonja, who agreed to a one-year contract on July 31, are the holdovers.

An NBA scout, granted anonymity by Cavaliers Roundtable to evaluate a player outside his own organization, said Watson can guard multiple positions and create off the dribble.

"He's the kind of wing that Cleveland has needed," the scout said. "He's athletic, strong, has a lot of length, and can guard multiple positions. He can make plays off the dribble. He's gotten better as a shooter. He shot over 40% from three last year. How much of that sticks on a new team? We'll see. If he can at least shoot in the high 30s, that's a win for the Cavs."

"I think it's going to be an adjustment, though, for him going from Nikola Jokić in an offense where there's a lot of flow through a world-class passer at 7 feet tall, with player movement being rewarded, playing off of a post presence who orchestrates dribble handoffs," the scout continued. "He's going to be on a team that plays a lot of high pick-and-roll and iso with superstar guards that take a lot of the usage."

"I think he can make that adjustment well, but it might take a little bit of time," the scout added. "Cleveland's going to have to be intentional about utilizing him in actions to attack mismatches, using his strengths, but it's going to be a different brand of basketball for him that I think he's very capable of thriving in."

Jokić led the NBA with 10.7 assists per game last season, along with 27.7 points and 12.9 rebounds in 65 games. Denver finished 54-28, led the NBA in offensive rating at 121.2, and lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves in six games in the first round. Cleveland went 52-30 and finished sixth in offensive rating at 118.3 and 15th in defensive rating at 114.1.

The scout's read on Watson's off-the-dribble jump shot is that it was very inefficient last season.

"He shot it really well in spot-up situations when he's just not hesitating and letting it fly on catch-and-shoot looks, but there's a lot of room for improvement when he's attacking closeouts," the scout explained. "That's something that's going to need to get better, and he'll probably have more difficult circumstances doing so because he's not playing with Jokić, but that's just something that the Cavaliers are going to have to work with him on."

Watson, who turns 24 next month, averaged 14.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 0.9 steals, and 1.1 blocks in 29.6 minutes across 54 games last season, all career highs. He shot 49.1% from the field, 41.1% from 3-point range, and 73.0% from the free-throw line.

Spot-ups accounted for 178 possessions and 23.5% of Watson's offense last season, according to Synergy Sports tracking. He scored 1.174 points per possession on them, an 82nd-percentile mark, and shot 60-of-135 from 3-point range out of spot-ups.

Inside the arc, the scout said Watson is predictable.

"He was very inefficient as an isolation player," the scout said. "He didn't do it a ton in Denver, but when he did, there wasn't a lot of success. He's not much of a shot creator from three in those situations, and he is predictable inside the three-point line and was not efficient in those situations."

"He's also got a lot of room for improvement as a pick-and-roll creator," the scout detailed. "Having Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley as pick-and-roll partners is going to help him, though, with spacing. He's going to draw weaker defensive matchups because the opposing team is going to be focused on Donovan Mitchell and James Harden more, so he can exploit favorable situations playing pick-and-roll as a third creator on the perimeter with favorable matchups."

Isolation made up 54 possessions and 7.1% of Watson's offense. He scored 0.667 points per possession there, shooting 14-of-43 overall and 0-of-7 from 3-point range. As a pick-and-roll ball handler he had 111 possessions, 14.6% of his offense, and scored 0.811 points per possession while shooting 33-of-80.

Mitchell averaged 27.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 5.7 assists in 70 games last season and made his seventh All-Star team. Harden averaged 23.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 8.0 assists last season, arriving in Cleveland from the Clippers in a Feb. 4 trade for Darius Garland. Mobley averaged 18.2 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 3.6 assists in 65 games, one season after winning the 2024-25 Defensive Player of the Year award. Allen averaged 15.4 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 1.8 assists in 56 games.

Mid-range shots went in for Watson last season in the scout's evaluation. The shots closer to the paint did not.

"This is a good upside play for Cleveland, but it's not like they're getting a finished product. There are parts of his game that have to get better," the scout said. "I think he could get better at finishing at the rim. He has the athleticism to be really good in the paint. He can make mid-range shots. He was really efficient at that last year, not necessarily as much on kind of those short-range, closer-to-the-paint type of shots. Those are probably shots, analytically, you don't want him taking as many."

On jumpers from 17 feet out to the 3-point line, Watson shot 13-of-27, an 86th-percentile mark in points per shot. On jumpers inside 17 feet he shot 25-of-63. He finished 141-of-231 at the rim and 25-of-61 on runners, and he took 198 3-pointers and made 81.

The Oklahoma City Thunder selected Watson 30th overall in the 2022 draft after one season at UCLA, and he spent his first four seasons in Denver, including the 2023 championship year. ESPN's Bobby Marks reported that the sign-and-trade hard caps the Cavaliers at the first apron.

Doing it without fouling is the condition the scout attaches to the assignment.

"Denver relied on Aaron Gordon the most defensively to take on tough assignments," the scout said. "Peyton Watson is going to have to be that for Cleveland. He's capable of it. He's going to have to embrace it, though, and use what he learned from playing next to Aaron Gordon. He at least has Evan Mobley as a dynamic defensive player to play off of, but playing with a small backcourt with Donovan Mitchell and James Harden, there's going to be a lot of pressure to handle the toughest assignments."

"He's going to have to be elite defensively taking on those challenges, and he's going to have to do it without fouling," the scout continued. "He's still going to have to be able to get his offense, and he's somebody who really thrived in transition offensively, too. So he's going to have to translate getting stops against top guys while still being a factor on the break."

Transition accounted for 146 possessions and 19.2% of Watson's offense last season, second only to spot-ups. He scored 1.322 points per possession on the break, an 86th-percentile mark, and shot 69-of-111.

On Feb. 4, Watson strained his right hamstring in a 134-127 double-overtime loss to the New York Knicks. He missed 19 games and returned March 22 in a 128-112 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. Five games later, he left an April 1 win over the Utah Jazz with tightness in the same hamstring. He did not play again for Denver, sitting out the final six games of the regular season and the entire Minnesota series. On the Game Over podcast, Paul said he told Watson not to come back for the playoffs.

Harden re-signed on Aug. 20 for three years and $97 million, fully guaranteed, with a player option in 2028-29. Mitchell agreed to a four-year, $273 million maximum extension earlier in the offseason. Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com reported that Harden recruited Watson during his restricted free agency.

Last season, Cleveland reached the Eastern Conference finals and was swept by the Knicks, the franchise's first postseason sweep since the 2018 NBA Finals.

Cleveland opens the season Oct. 22 in Philadelphia against the 76ers on ESPN. The home opener against the Brooklyn Nets follows on Oct. 24.