Cleveland Cavaliers rookie Tyrese Proctor sounds off after promising NBA debut

The Cleveland Cavaliers are missing an awful lot of key contributors due to injury.

And it showed in the team's season-opening loss to the New York Knicks, 119-111, from Madison Square Garden.

The Cavaliers were drastically out-rebounded, 48-32, were dominated in the paint and struggled to keep any momentum in their favor. Missing guards Darius Garland and Max Strus, and forward De'Andre Hunter due to injury, the team had to rely on a lot of rotation pieces to fill in the gaps.

One player who was dealt heavy time off the bench was rookie Tyrese Proctor, who played in a whopping 16 minutes in his debut. That's a large chunk of time for a second-round draft pick who is still trying to carve out a role on the team and adapt to the professional game.

In his college days at Duke University, he was an all-around help on both sides of the court. He averaged 10.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists a game to go along with nearly an assist a night as well. Prior to the year beginning, he talked about how his time as a Blue Devil helped him get up to speed faster with the Cavaliers.

“A lot of guys talk about how similar (Duke) is to the NBA, but you’re obviously in college and you don't know,” said the sharpshooter. “But once you're here, it’s very similar. They’ve got a great setup at Duke. It's all business – like you're damn near a professional in college. You’ve got 17-, 18-, 19-year-olds there, and thankfully, I was able to do it for three years. So being one of the vets on the team last year sort of gave me a boost of confidence and in a sense just carrying that over into this year.”

Being the only rookie on the team this season, Proctor is going to have to a larger spotlight on himself. Fortunately, it was only the first game of the season and he has time to still become more efficient as the team awaits for players to return from the injured list.

“I think the biggest thing is just to learn as much as I can,” he concluded.

“Obviously, being the only rookie on the team, I think it’s just embracing that you're only a rookie one time in your life. And I think just with the talent and group that we have, obviously, the core guys have been here for a few years now together. So, I think really just learning as much as I can, no matter if I play 40 games, two games, three games, just attacking it with the same mindset every day. And I understand that if I put the work in behind the scenes, it's going to come eventually.”

Along with Proctor, the team opted to play second-year guard Jaylon Tyson a good bit more than expected. He played in 20 minutes of game time, adding five points, two rebounds and one assist on 2-of-4 from the field.

It's obvious neither one of these players made too drastic an impact in the stat sheet, but both are still trying to grow and develop as players. Neither have gotten much time on an NBA court, especially one as grand as Madison Square Garden.

However, even while growing through the kinks, they still didn't perform as bad as others on the team.

One of the most lackluster performances of the night for Cleveland was from center Jarrett Allen, who finished the game with a pitiful four points, four rebounds and one assist on 1-of-4 from the field in 28 minutes of action. His time on the court was tied for the third-most behind stars Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley.

Even if Proctor, Tyson and the rest of the young contributors for the Cavaliers sharpen up over the coming weeks, the team still need's their starting center to make a bigger impact.

Cleveland will look to bounce back in a game against the Brooklyn Nets on Friday, Oct. 24, with game time slated for 7:30 p.m.