Kenny Atkinson plans to stick with Ty Jerome in rotation despite struggles: ‘We need him in this series’

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Ty Jerome was one of the premier bench players in the league during the 2024-25 regular season, but he’s had a rough go of things in the team’s second-round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers.

In Games 2 and 3 of the series, he scored just four points combined while shooting an abysmal 2-of-22 from the field. Through three games in the series, he’s averaging 8.3 points per contest on 23.8 percent accuracy from the floor.

Despite Jerome’s subpar play against the Pacers, Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson plans to keep him in the team’s rotation and is adamant that his presence is needed in this series with guard Darius Garland dealing with an injury.

“He’s struggling, but this is the playoffs — you go through these stretches,” Atkinson said. “I love Ty. I know what he can bring. We need him. We need him in this series, especially with (Garland) hobbled. … He’ll get it back because he’s got extreme mental toughness. He’s gonna go down swinging if he’s going down. So that’s … we’re going to keep rolling with him.”

Part of what makes Jerome’s level of play in the second round so puzzling is that he’s on the heels of a highly productive series against the Miami Heat in the opening round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs. He averaged 16.3 points and 4.8 assists per game in a series the Cavaliers won in a sweep.

In Cleveland’s most recent matchup against the Pacers on Friday, Jerome scored just two points and misfired on all but one of his eight shot attempts. He also finished with zero assists compared to three turnovers.

On the bright side for the Cavaliers, they still won Game 3 handily even though Jerome was clearly off his game. Cleveland won by more than 20 points on the road and is now seemingly back in the series after it dropped Games 1 and 2 at Rocket Arena.

Hopefully, Jerome can regain his scoring mojo in a pivotal Game 4. The Cavaliers can tie up the series at two games apiece with a victory, and Game 5 will be a home game for Cleveland. Conversely, a loss would put the Cavaliers in a 3-1 series deficit.

Fans won’t have to wait much longer to find out whether Atkinson made the right move by keeping the faith in Jerome, as Game 4 between the Cavaliers and Pacers will be on Sunday night. The East’s No. 1 seed will look for its second consecutive win against point guard Tyrese Haliburton and company.