The Cleveland Cavaliers introduced their newest member on Thursday. As Payton Watson arrives in Northeast Ohio, he isn't letting cliché labels define who he is as a player
It was a mostly quiet offseason for the Cleveland Cavaliers up until August 20, when President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman pulled the trigger on a notable trade with the Denver Nuggets to land 6-foot-8 wing Peyton Watson.
The move officially ended what Watson admitted during his introductory press conference on Thursday was an unpredictable restricted free agency. But also marked a new beginning for the UCLA product and the Cavs.
For years, Cleveland had mostly neglected to add players with Watson's archetype. Lengthy, athletic wings who can contribute on both ends of the floor. The closest player they had to that in recent years was Dean Wade, who was much too streaky on the offensive end of the floor to contribute the way elite wings do in this league, which is why the Cavs let him walk this offseason.
But don't force the cliché "three-and-D" label onto Watson. He doesn't want to be put in a box.
"I think that's the category that I've fallen under as I've made my way up in this league, but I also, I don't define myself by that term," Watson said during his introductory press conference on Thursday. "I think that it doesn't encompass enough about me just as a person and as a player. I think that I strive to be somebody who can do a lot of different things well."
The fact that Watson has even reached a level where the three-and-D label is being thrown around is a testament to him as a player. Entering the league out of UCLA in 2022, he wasn't considered a prolific three-point shooter, knocking down just 22.6% of his long-range shots in college.
Over the course of his four years in the NBA, he's slowly transformed himself into a player who, last season, knocked down 41% of his three-point attempts, lifting his career three-point percentage to 36.1% in the process. It's all thanks to his own work ethic.
"I knew that my three point acumen wasn't where it needed to be," Watson admitted. "So that's something that I've worked tirelessly on since I've been in the league and I've grinded my way to a 40% three-point shooter, which nobody ever though that that would happen. And I believed in myself. I knew it would happen and I'm striving every day to make it 45%."
The next step in Watson's evolution, as he explained, is consistency, which is something the Cavaliers were banking on as well when they traded their only movable first-round pick as part of a three-team trade that also saw Cleveland ship Max Strus to the LA Clippers.
In an offseason that saw the Wine and Gold strike out on landing LeBron James and had left much to be desired in terms of roster improvements to help the team advance beyond the Eastern Conference Finals, where their 2025-26 campaign crashed and burned, Watson quickly came into focus as the summer wore on.
As the 24-year-old described it, the Cavaliers weren't in right away, but once they were, they became highly invested in him as a player and a person. Now, he'll instantly be inserted into the starting lineup alongside Donovan Mitchell, James Harden – who was re-signed this offseason – Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, and be expected to raise the team's overall ceiling.
Watson can't wait to make a major impact.
"I think obviously we have such a talented group of guys already coming off the Eastern Conference final appearance," said Watson. "Obviously you don't got to change much about that team. That team is successful and they have the DNA and the makeup to win games. But like Kobe said, I feel like I could be a great addition to this team. Not only as a locker room presence and the person that I am, but defensively and offensively, I want to be somebody who can affect the games in a lot of different ways."
