Ty Jerome isn’t surprised by his start: ‘You have no choice but to believe in yourself’

Jerome continues his impressive run as he drops 29 points in win over Pelicans.

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Ty Jerome was a career ninth or tenth-man before missing nearly all of last season due to an ankle injury. This year, he’s bounced back to become one of the best bench players in the entire NBA. You couldn’t ask for a bigger turnaround in 365 days.

Jerome was quick and to the point when asked after his 29-point outburst if his recent emergence surprised him. “No” is all he said.

Frankly, that’s all that needed to be said if you can pull up from near the logo like he repeatedly did on Tuesday night. He unleashed three of the most audacious heat checks you’ll ever see en route to a 20-point second quarter.

It’s okay if he wasn’t surprised. Everyone looking on was.

“It’s a little bit out of nowhere quite honestly,” Kenny Atkinson said. “Especially for a guy that was on the shelf last year and injured.”

Jerome hasn’t just been a better version of the player he’s previously shown to be, he’s a completely different one altogether. Jerome has always had a good outside shot. You don’t luck your way into being a career 36.5% three-point shooter on decent volume. But he hasn’t weaponized it along with the rest of his game like he has here in Cleveland.

“It’s the scoring,” Atkinson said. “Ty was always a pass-first setup guy. You know, a cerebral connector, and so the aggressiveness to score, and not only the jump shot right? I don’t know what his shot distribution looks like but ... the way he’s finishing around the rim is phenomenal.”

Indeed it has been. Jerome has been deadly in the short-midrange with his floater when he’s coming downhill. He’s converting 59% of his looks there which puts him in the 96th percentile. The ability to get into the paint, set up the bigs, or just take a pull-up three that he’s converting 52.9% of the time has led to his outburst. That, combined with moving well off the ball to generate catch-and-shoot threes—that he’s casually knocking down 55% of the time—has made him one of the most lethal bench guards in the entire league.

His doing this while being shortly removed from rehabbing a season-ending injury just makes it more impressive.

“Not playing for a whole year,” Georges Niang said, “people don’t understand what type of mental toll that takes on you. And for him to come back, be prepared, and be phenomenal. He’s been phenomenal since we were doing min-camps in New York. When is he gonna cool off?”

If Wednesday’s performance was any indicator of things, it won’t be any time soon. Jerome won’t have 20-point explosions in a quarter every night, but he may just be one of the most productive reserves in the entire league. At least, that’s what he seems to believe.

“The amount of work I put in, my teammates, the coaching staff, it’s kind of the perfect storm,” Jerome said when asked why he has this level of confidence. “You believe in yourself, everyone around you believes in you, the coaches are empowering everybody. If I pass up a shot, I’ll get yelled at. [With] that type of belief from everyone around me, you have no choice but to believe in yourself.”