Chase Down Podcast: Omar Cook 1-on-1 Interview
All right. And joining us today to help us get ready for the Cavs at summer league 2025 is head coach of the Cavs summer league team, Omar Cook. Coach, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to me today. Uh, thanks for having me. Uh, what are some of your first impressions of Tyrese Proctor and some of the new additions to the Cavs roster in the summer league? Uh, he’s been great. You know, uh, he’s excited. Uh, he’s motivated. He’s been getting here early. um the whole team, you know, I think we got a great group. We got a lot of switchable players, a lot of guys who can play multiple positions. So, uh I’m excited. I’m definitely excited to see how that works. Uh obviously, Tyrese is coming from uh big experience at Duke playing with a lot of NBA talent. So, I’m excited to see how that translates to summer league. when you’re dealing with a group of players that hasn’t had a lot of time together and you have a quick turnaround time to get them to play as a cohesive unit uh at summer league. What are some of the challenges involved with that? Um just not trying to put in too much at the same at one time. You know, uh being patient knowing that we don’t have to have everything in for the first game. you know, we got a couple games that we can, you know, probably stretch the offense out or stretch out what we want to put in and not try to rush and give the guys too much at once, but also just stress the importance of, you know, playing together, sharing the ball, being good teammates, being professional, like things like that to help them go a long way. When you’re giving guidance to the players on how to approach the summer league games individually, is it to are you basically empowering them to play their game, play kind of how they have traditionally or is there a bit of a focus on having them play at least the theoretical role that you would see them playing with the Cavs when they get those opportunities? Um, I think it’s a combination of both, right? you know, we got guys who are probably uh who’s going to be the best players on our summer league team, but at the same time, they’re role players on our Cav team, right? So, it’s like finding that balance of, you know, being leaders and, you know, scoring, but also doing stuff that’s going to help you get on the court come next season. So, it’s it’s about finding that balance. Yeah, that seems like the biggest challenge for a lot of guys coming from college where, you know, they’re going from an experience where they are in such a primary role to finding how to get those skills to translate to to being role players. Is is there an advantage of having a a veteran like Craig Porter Jr. on the roster to to help kind of guide those guys along the the process? Yeah. Um just him being, you know, this will be his third summer league, you know, um last year in the summer uh summer league he was hurt. he was coming off an injury. So, I think he’s motivated to, you know, prove that, you know, he’s gotten better over the years and um he’s been through the experience so he can help the other players with the rookies who’s coming out of college with their first summer league. He can help them out a lot. Yeah, I’m interested to see how he does. Uh I I remember, you know, him kind of battling through the injury last year and excited to to see what it looks like uh fully healthy. Another one of the returning vets to the summer league roster is Jaylen Tyson. Uh, obviously he had some really exciting flashes for the Cavs last season as well as impressive performances with the Charge. Where have you seen some growth in his game since the end of the season? Um, just him finding his confidence, you know, um, he’s one of those guys where he had the ball in his hands a lot in college and then coming here with, you know, Darius and Donovan and guys like that where he didn’t have the ball as much during the season when he got in. He had to adjust how he played to try to find rotation, try to find minutes. And I think right now he know that it’s summer league he can improve on things that he needed to prove on but also get back to being himself as well. Do you anticipate him having more of that offball role uh with the summer league roster or or is he going to have kind of his share of ball handling opportunities just to see where the growth is wi with that aspect? Yeah, I think it’ll be a little bit of both. Um, again, that’s that balance of him being a playmaker, but also playing off the ball, doing the uh cuts that we’ve been putting into the offense and being a uh guy who can create off the ball as well. So, it’s a balance of him having the ball in his hands and playing off the ball as well. How much of a balance is there between, hey, we we want to get the win in these summer league games versus we want you guys to explore the space. We want you to feel empowered to to make mistakes and and try things out. It do is it kind of on a game by-game basis or is it hey we’re going to be process over results and if the results are positive we’re just going to roll with that. I want us to compete, right? You know, first and foremost, be competitive, go out there and compete. But I think it’s most important that we play the right way and the road results are happening on his own. Like it’s not about wins and losses in summer league. For me, it’s about playing the right way and hopefully the guys can, you know, compete, be competitive, stay connected, be good teammates, and and I think that’ll help us out in this summer league. One of the guys I’m definitely keeping an eye on when it comes to this roster is Naquin Tomlin. Uh, I think he had a lot of impressive games with the Charge and really made an impression with a lot of the fans in his opportunities with the Cavs as well. Someone that’s really high energy that that, you know, showed off a little bit of that range. What have you seen from him so far in camp? Oh, he’s a hybrid, right? He’s a guy who was on our summer league team last year, but you probably didn’t know he was on our summer team last year, right? you know, he’s a guy that went to the G-League and got better each game, each day by day, and then he became a two-way player, you know, so it’s like a guy who was with us in some league, probably didn’t know too much about him, and he worked his way to get that two-way spot, and uh I think he’s very hungry to uh show his improvement throughout the year, and I think he’s be one of our key players. Yeah, I’m I’m excited to see how his game, you know, translates to summer league and and how he performs uh especially with the what he showed last season. One of the interesting challenges, at least to me as an outsider, is summer league is typically such a showcase for guys that have the ball in their hands. uh whether you’re a ball dominant wing or guard, it tends to, you know, kind of cater to those types of players or the challenges of keeping a big man involved like an Aquinon Tomlin, making sure that, you know, the the bigs are getting enough touches. I think back to even uh Evan Mobley’s first summer league game and or first year in summer league and he wasn’t always getting the the same number of opportunities that you’d see even in his rookie year with the Cavs. What are are the challenges of trying to make sure that the the you know usage is balanced across the rotation? I mean, I think you saw it this season like Cavs basketball. I think we were one of the most fun teams to watch. Uh we played the right way. We shared the ball obviously with Evan, you know, getting rebounds, pushing the ball, making plays. We see uh Naquon doing some of that during summer league. And we’re just a team that share the ball. You know, we take care of the ball, we share the ball, and we play the right way. And I think he’ll rebound and push as well, but you’ll see that from all our guys. Oh, that that’ll be fun to watch. I I like anytime I can see kind of those flashes of the continuity within the system of uh you know, even when I’m tuning in and watching the Charge games, it’s fun to see kind of how that is replicated with both levels. Uh before I get you out of here, I got to get you to give a bold prediction. Is this the year the one-year title drought ends for the Cavs at Summer League? Uh no. I mean, I can’t can’t give no predictions right now, but uh I hope and I know that we’re going to play good basketball. We’re going to make our city proud. We’re going to make our organization proud, and I know we’re going to play the right way. Right on. I’m really looking forward to it. Thank you again so much for uh taking the time and talking to us, and uh best of luck at Vegas.
Justin Rowan sits down with Cavs Summer League Coach Omar Cook to discuss first impressions of Tyrese Proctor, how he’s planning on getting the team to play cohesively and much more!
Please Note: The opinions expressed by The Chase Down podcast are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of the Cleveland Cavaliers or its Basketball Operations staff, parent company, or partners.
