Inside Jaylon Tyson’s Sophomore Breakout With Cleveland Cavaliers

At the time, many agreed with Tyson’s message but didn’t love that a player of his caliber was calling out his teammates. In his rookie season, Tyson was a non-factor on a Cleveland team that was the East’s first seed. Many felt he was only getting minutes to begin with because of all the injuries Cleveland was dealing with at the start of the season.

Well, if you still believe that Tyson is only getting minutes because of injuries, you haven’t been watching him play. Jaylon Tyson put up the best game of his career Friday night, powering the Cavs to a come-from-behind, 117-115 win in Philadelphia. Tyson had a career high of 39 points and 7 three pointers. He also filled the rest of the stat sheet with 5 rebounds and 4 assists.

When Tyson was drafted, you knew you had a high-energy role player, but who would’ve guessed that he would be as great a shooter as he’s been? Since calling out his teammates, Tyson has been averaging 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists per night, shooting 55/49/78 from the field.

He’s not going to hit seven threes every night, but when a guy is shooting nearly 50% from three for two straight months, him having a breakout night like this is no fluke. On the other end, Tyson might not be the best off-ball defender, but he can cause havoc with his on-ball defense. He normally draws the other team’s best defender, and tonight he held Tyrese Maxey to 9/24 shooting. Hopefully, as the season goes on, he becomes more comfortable with his defensive rotations, as he could be one of the best three-and-D wings in the league.

It was also great to see how much the Cavs trust him. To end the game, the ball was in his hands to make a final shot. He drove into a double team and was able to dish it to Evan Mobley for the win.