Many basketball fans in Cleveland thought draft night was going to be something monumental for the Cavaliers.
While it was an important night for the franchise, they simply used the draft picks at their disposal and apparently made one minor trade.
They used the first overall pick to draft Andrew Wiggins out of Kansas. Now, we would have picked Jabari Parker, because he is the more polished basketball player, but that doesn’t mean we don’t like the pick.
In four years, Wiggins could be one of the best players in the league. Our opinion is simply that for a team that claims to want to win now, they took a guy who could be much better down the road than he will be next season.
The newest Cavalier has a lot going for him. He’s an athletic freak and can probably play on the defensive end effectively as a rookie. He won’t be exposed when the other team has the basketball.
Another thing he has going for him is the new coach. The last head coach of the wine and gold didn’t like to play rookies and didn’t know how to handle them or develop their talent.
We have faith that David Blatt will put Wiggins in situations where he will have success. In fact, it’s almost like Blatt will have two high first round choices to coach because of the way last year’s choice, Anthony Bennett was handled.
On the second round, GM David Griffin addressed one of the team’s needs in getting a shooter, Joe Harris of Virginia. It will be interesting to see who wins the battle for playing time in training camp, Harris or Sergey Karasev, another first rounder buried on the bench by the old regime.
Remember that the latter played for the new coach on the Russian National Team a year ago, so he is well aware of his ability. Still, shooting was a big problem for the wine and gold, so the more they bring in the better. It is likely both youngster could figure into the mix as early as next season.
Harris looks like he has a quick release which is important in the NBA with defenders flying at you.
Later in the second round, it has been reported that Cleveland acquired another big man in 6’10” Dwight Powell from Stanford. The scouting report on him is he is a good defender and has a high basketball IQ, which is another thing Griffin mentioned when he was hired. He wanted smart players.
To get Powell, and veteran big man Brendan Haywood from Charlotte, the Cavs gave up Alonzo Gee, a small forward who didn’t have much of an offensive game, and had fallen out of the rotation for an extended period last season.
Haywood, originally a first round pick by Cleveland in 2001, but dealt for Michael Doleac, was probably included for salary reasons, but he’s a veteran big man. He missed all of last season with an injury. At 34 years old, it is doubtful he has anything left in the tank.
Now comes the trading season. The guess here is Griffin will deal Dion Waiters and one of his collection of power forwards, probably Tristan Thompson in the coming weeks to add more talent to this season’s roster.
Remember, Cleveland has a lot of available cap space. So, even though there was no blockbuster deal on draft night, it doesn’t mean there won’t be one when the league calendar flips the page in the next couple of weeks.
The restructuring has begun. Sit back and enjoy the excitement coming.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 