No Luck, Neither Good Nor Bad, Involved In Lottery For Cavs

The NBA’s Draft Lottery was Tuesday night, and this year, for the Cleveland Cavaliers, there wasn’t any luck involved, neither good or bad.

The biggest percentage chance for Cleveland to end up was fifth, and that’s exactly where they wound up.

So, save the gripes about how the Cavs got screwed. In fact, we laughed all spring at media folks who said the wine and gold had to get the first pick, when the percentages said it was a 14% chance.

Now, by consensus, the first three picks in the draft will be Zion Williamson, who was the prize of the lottery, and will no doubt be the choice of the New Orleans Pelicans. And most agree the next two picks will be Ja Morant of Murray State, and another Dukie, R.J. Barrett.

That would seem to leave GM Koby Altman with a choice of Texas Tech guard Jarrett Culver, Duke shooter Cam Reddish, Vanderbilt point guard Darius Garland, and Virginia swingman De’Andre Hunter at the 5th spot.

And don’t forget, the Cavs have a second first round pick, the 26th selection, obtained from Houston in the deal where Cleveland took Brandon Knight’s high salary off the Rockets’ hands.

The biggest need for Altman and new coach, John Beilein is talent. Right now, the Cavs have one All Star caliber player in Kevin Love, and some other “nice pieces” in Collin Sexton, Larry Nance Jr., Cedi Osman, and Ante Zizic.

Sexton could develop into an all star type, and perhaps Osman can too, but if those two wind up being solid starters, that would be fine. There will always be a place on a team for someone with Nance’s skill set, and Zizic is still raw, but has ability.

Former Cavs’ GM Chris Grant used to say there are a few very good players in every draft, and his job was to find one of those players each year.

For what it’s worth, based on what we’ve seen and read about each of the prospects listed above, we would lean toward Culver, who is a student of the game, played in a great defensive scheme at Texas Tech, and whose weaknesses could be overcome with work, and he seems willing to do that.

The 26th overall pick could be important too, because don’t forget Altman could package that choice with a player, probably an expiring contract to move up from that spot.

Remember, the JR Smith contract is a very large asset as a trade chip. Maybe he brings back a higher pick and maybe even a third first rounder this season.

More likely though, Altman would be looking for another first round pick in the 2020 draft, to give him two next year.

Regardless, the Cavaliers have a very good chance to get a good piece this summer. And Altman will be moving at least one or two higher priced veterans (Tristan Thompson?) to accumulate more assets.

Remember, the best players on three of the remaining teams in the NBA playoffs were drafted 15th (Kawhi Leonard and Giannis Antetokounmpo), 6th (Damian Lillard) and Stephen Curry was picked 7th overall.

We will read a lot about the players who will be taken with the 5th pick between now and the draft at the end of June.

There is talent available in the draft, it’s up to Altman to find someone who can help.

Beilein Hire Gets A Solid A

The Cleveland Cavaliers have a new head coach, and it was a shocker. Hiring a 66-year-old John Beilein from the University of Michigan was not expected at all.

And the narrative about this hire having Dan Gilbert’s imprints all over it overlooks the fact that Beilein is an excellent coach.

Beilein has a .650 winning percentage at U of M, and has coached in two Final Fours. And he has a Cavs’ connection in Mike Gansey, one of his former players at West Virginia, who is now Cleveland’s assistant GM.

The wine and gold were looking for someone who could develop talent, and the new coach certainly fills that bill. For the most part, Beilein wasn’t getting the “one and done” highly recruited players, and yet was cranking out top 20 teams on a yearly basis.

As for Beilein’s age, it has been rumored that one of the young, up and coming assistant coaches the Cavaliers have been interviewing will be named as the new coach’s chief assistant, sort of a grooming period for whoever gets the gig.

We understand this is Beilein’s first coaching job in the NBA, but learning from a guy with that kind of experience can’t be a bad thing, can it?

Plus, the veteran college head man isn’t coming into the league like a Rick Pitino or John Calipari, coming in looking to take the league by storm. He’s not a boisterous, overwhelming personality.

He’s just a very good basketball coach.

In watching his teams play over the years, the one thing we feel confident about, is the Cavs will be much better on the defensive end of the floor. The Cavs haven’t really been good on that end since the championship season of 2016, so that is something to look forward to.

He also prefers a motion offense, but he will have to adjust to the NBA game in that regard. It’s fine to run that type of attack, but he will have to put some pick-and-roll principles in because that’s a staple in the professional ranks.

Mostly though, Beilein has worked well with young players and let’s face it, the Cleveland Cavaliers are a young team. Outside of Kevin Love (30) and Larry Nance Jr. (26), the building blocks of the franchise are 24 and younger. Guys like Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, and Ante Zizic.

And they will add two more youngsters in the first round of next month’s NBA draft. The Cavs need someone who can communicate and teach these guys, and at his core, Beilein is a professor in the class of hoops.

Any criticism of this hire comes from those who see Gilbert as someone who thinks he knows the game more than the trained professionals. While we understand this, if Gilbert was the driving force behind bringing in a college coach, he brought in a very good one.

Remember, Beilein was also in consideration for the Pistons head coaching job a year ago.

Also, it isn’t like the owner and the front office interviewed Beilein first, fell in love and didn’t talk to anyone else. They talked to several young assistant coaches around the league who dealt in player development.

If you take the hire on merit, and figure in the hiring of a younger coach as the lead assistant, we don’t see how anyone could think this is a bad hire.

Of course, as with any hire, the proof will come when the Cavs start playing games that count again in October.

Our View Of Winning And Leading In Hoops.

Basketball can be viewed differently by a lot of people, it’s a very subjective sport.

Many people view it from a numbers perspective only, meaning players who score a lot are good players, although there are some guys who do that at the expense of everything else, so they aren’t really important to winning teams.

We hear it all the time in conversations about basketball, and we can cite examples right on our own Cleveland Cavaliers.

We believe people undervalue Larry Nance Jr. because he’s not a scorer, his career high in points per game is the 9.4 he tallied this season.

But Nance does a lot of good things on a basketball court. First, he makes 52% of his shots, meaning he understands his limitations in that area. He also grabbed 8.2 rebounds and dished out a career high 3.2 assists.

A big man who can pass is very valuable. Look at Nikola Jokic for the Denver Nuggets, who averaged over seven assists a game for the team with the second best record in the Western Conference.

Conversely, we aren’t big fans of Jordan Clarkson, who we believe is nothing more than a scorer for bad teams. Think about it, the Cavs averaged 104.5 points per game, and they were one of the worst teams in the NBA.

Someone has to score those points. When Clarkson did play for a good team, the second half of the 2017-18 season with Cleveland, he was invisible much of the time, particularly in the playoffs.

He doesn’t do much else to help a team win, and in our view, that’s why he is very replaceable.

Another thing that irritates us is talk of a players’ legacy, or determining who is the leader of a team.

Leadership is a very difficult thing, getting people to follow you isn’t easy. One thing we believe is that leaders don’t have to tell you they are the leader. Everybody just knows.

LeBron James did inform the media all the time he was the Cavs’ leader, but the players seemed to understand that as well. The holdovers from last year’s roster talked a lot this season on the work ethic that carried on even though James was in Los Angeles.

James led by being prepared for every season and every game. He is talented enough that he didn’t have to be, but he was. His teammates saw that.

And sometimes, players thrive when they aren’t a featured performer.

For example, Kyrie Irving wanted badly to have “his own team”. Right now, the phrase “be careful what you wish for” comes to mind.

Irving is having a problem with the leadership role, and really, there’s nothing wrong with being the second best player on a team that wins a title.

Look at how people view Klay Thompson or Scottie Pippen. They are thought of as great, even though they played with better players. They are important reasons as to why their teams are champions.

There seems to be too much self awareness in the game today. Why not win as many titles as you can? We understand that players can be free agents and can play where they want, and we don’t begrudge that. They’ve earned that right.

But shouldn’t the goal be to win? And win as much as you can?

It may be a generational thing, we guess.

Basketball is a beautiful game when played well. And as we said, it is a very subjective sport. This was our view.

Who May Not Be Back For The Cavs Next Fall.

The NBA playoffs have started over the past weekend and for the first time in five seasons, the Cleveland Cavaliers are not participants.

That’s not really a surprise to many who figured the wine and gold’s contending days ended when LeBron James departed for Los Angeles.

As expected, Larry Drew and the Cleveland front office parted ways. Drew would like to catch on with a contending team as an assistant, while GM Koby Altman’s preference for head coach would be a younger man with a background in player development.

We have already talked about who would be our core group heading into the 2019-20 campaign, the 50th season for the Cavs.

We would build around Kevin Love, Larry Nance Jr., Cedi Osman, and David Nwaba. Collin Sexton showed enough in the second half of the season to be here as well, although if Cleveland happened to draft Ja Morant, we could see pursuing a deal for the rookie guard. (Notice we didn’t say point guard).

And our preference would be for Ante Zizic to be on the roster too, although we question whether or not we will ever be a solid interior defender. You can learn to position yourself properly to minimize your lack of quickness with experience.

We all are aware of J.R. Smith’s situation, his contract, because it is not fully guaranteed is a much better asset for teams if he is moved prior to the end of June. Because of that, he will likely be moved prior to the NBA Draft.

Notice we have not mentioned two key members of this year’s roster, including someone who was a key piece of the championship team.

We would bet Tristan Thompson will be moved before the next season begins. Thompson’s contract expires after the ’19-’20 schedule ends, which makes him a valuable piece.

Plus, his skills fit much better with a team contending for a title. He’s a solid defender inside, a tireless rebounder, particularly at the offensive end, and he has a lot of playoff experience.

Besides, the Cavs have Love, Nance, and Zizic who we are sure they would rather give more minutes to going forward, and don’t forget John Henson as well. And we would bring Marquese Chriss back on a smaller contract if he is amenable.

The other member who received a lot of playing time this season is Jordan Clarkson.

Clarkson provided scoring (16.8 PPG) for a team that at times needed it badly. But we still don’t know if he is anything more than a guy who can score points for bad teams.

He’s been in the association for six years, and made one playoff appearance, last season with the Cavs, where he was frankly, terrible.

His shooting numbers this season weren’t anything out of his norm, and he’s not a great passer or defender.

His contract also expires at the end of next season.

Our guess is Altman would be willing to move either and take back a bad contract with perhaps two years remaining if first round draft picks were included.

Nick Stauskas is also a free agent, but we believe the organization picked him up after he was waived to fill a roster spot, and they don’t have plans for him next season.

We believe the Cavs will be very active before the draft and when the free agency period kicks off, looking to make more moves like they did in getting Brandon Knight.

And of course, they will have a high draft choice as well. The floor is all yours, Koby Altman.

Drew Deserves Credit For A Job Well Done

More than likely, the Cleveland Cavaliers will be looking for a new head coach after the season ending loss to the Charlotte Hornets.

Our guess is Koby Altman will want a head coach who will work side by side with him for several years, meaning someone younger and with a strong player development background.

That’s not to say Larry Drew didn’t do a good job though. With Kevin Love missing more than 50 games, let alone taking over the squad after six games into the season, Drew held the team together and had them playing hard all year long.

We have said through much of the season the front office deserves credit for this as well. There were no knuckleheads on this roster. All of the losing can lead to players wanting to better their statistics, but the Cavs pulled together and played as a team.

That’s the legacy of the players remaining from the LeBron James era, guys like Love, Tristan Thompson, and Channing Frye, who is a first class person, and we wish him well for the future.

Besides creating a good atmosphere on the floor and in the locker room, Drew developed the team’s young players. particularly rookie first round pick Collin Sexton.

Look at these numbers–

Sexton (Pre All Star Game): 15.1 PPG, 2.9 assists, 40.8% from the floor, 39.2% from three
Sexton (After the ASG): 20.8 PPG, 3.2 assists, 47.7% from the floor, 41.3% from three.

Sexton will regarded by people not in the know as a bust before the All Star contest, but showed you can’t judge most 19-20 year olds by how they start their career.

Cedi Osman: (Pre ASG): 12.6 PPG, 4.6 boards, 2.3 assists, 32.7% from three
(Post ASG): 14.0 PPG, 4.8 boards, 3.2 assists, 38.8% from three

Larry Nance Jr: (Pre ASG): 9.1 PPG, 8.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 51% from the floor
(Post ASG): 10.1 PPG, 8. 2 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 54.2% from the floor.

Ante Zizic: (Pre ASG): 6.7 PPG, 5.0 rebounds, 51.9% from the floor.
(Post ASG): 10.2 PPG, 6.3 rebounds, 61.2% from the floor.

Granted, some of this extra production came as a result of more playing time because of injuries to Thompson and Love, but all four of these young players (Nance is the oldest, turning 26 on New Year’s Day) progressed as the season went on.

And we would think this quartet, along with Love and David Nwaba, who is interested in staying long term, and the Cavs should make this happen, make up a good starting point for the future.

Yes, we understand Love is 30, but he seems to embrace the leadership role here and as we all saw when he returned, he can make a big impact on this basketball team.

Ending the season with a ten game losing streak guaranteed the Cavs have a better than 50% chance of picking in the top four of the draft, where they should get another very good player to add to this group.

While it would be great to get Zion Williamson, there are some others available who will turn out being solid NBA players.

Credit goes to Drew for turning what could of been a disaster into a learning environment for the young players. We know, a 19-63 record isn’t anything to be thrilled about, but seeing guys getting better within the season is something to grab onto.

This should be a big summer for the Cleveland Cavaliers. It is likely a player or two who has been here a while will be moved before training camp starts.

Regardless of whether he stays or goes, Larry Drew should get credit for a job well done.

Cavs’ Season Ending On Upward Note

The Cleveland Cavaliers have just five games remaining in the regular season, three more on this western swing and then home for games a week from tomorrow and the following Tuesday.

And really, the season couldn’t be ending any better. The better case scenario for the Cavs is to play very competitively and then lose in the end, so their odds in getting the first overall pick do not lessen.

Outside of yesterday’s blowout loss to the Clippers, the wine and gold’s fifth straight loss, three of the other four defeats were close games until late in the fourth quarter, and were to playoff teams, the Clippers, Celtics, and the Spurs.

By the way, Monday’s game at Phoenix is a big game in the reverse standings. A loss would move Cleveland within a game of the second worst record in the league.

Despite the record, the front office and coaching staff should be commended for the effort of the squad despite the terrible record.

Larry Drew has held the team together through a series of changes to the roster and injuries. Kevin Love has missed more than 50 games, and you would have to be devoid of basketball knowledge not to see what a difference he makes to the team.

David Nwaba, another keeper for next season, has missed 30 games, and Larry Nance Jr., who continues to show what an all around talent he is, has been out of the lineup for 15 games.

Drew also deserves some kudos for the development of rookie Collin Sexton, who is going to end the year, averaging over 16 points and shooting over 40% on three pointers for his season, marks no one saw coming in November and December.

The front office deserves a shout out because they’ve assembled a roster without knuckleheads. After JR Smith was asked to stay away, there hasn’t been any complaining about playing time or frustration about losing among this group.

That said, it is doubtful Drew will return next season, and that will be a mutual decision. The Cavs want someone to guide a young team for the next two to three seasons, and at 60 years old, Drew probably wants to be somewhere winning is ready to happen.

We would want and expect the front office to bring in at least an assistant coach with a defensive mindset because that has been a huge weakness for the team over the past three seasons.

There is no reason to get into a long diatribe about Mike Longabardi, who is supposedly in charge of the defense, but the team’s inability to defend the most basic basketball play, the pick and roll, effectively, has to be addressed at some point.

If we were GM Koby Altman, we would want to find our version of the Nets’ Kenny Atkinson (20-28-39 wins in three seasons) or Orlando’s Steve Clifford (Orlando won 25 games last year, this year they have 38) to guide a young team through a growing period.

Don’t forget, it is very likely the Cavs will add another young, talented player through the draft, even if it isn’t Duke’s Zion Williamson. There are still players like Ja Morant, R.J. Barrett, Cam Reddish, and Jarrett Culver from Final Four participant Texas Tech, that look like they should be able to help.

It also says here that having guys like Love, Nance, and even Matthew Dellavedova, veterans who play the right way and have a good attitude will make the new coach’s job easier.

It is true the record isn’t good, but much of that has to do with injuries. If Love were available most of the year, the Cavs could have been just a notch below the 6th to 8th seeds in the East.

So, the future does look bright with the right moves. It’s up to Altman to make those moves.

Identifying Cavs Of The Future

There is no question this has been a lost season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. While you can question whether or not they could’ve been a playoff contender when the regular season started, you can’t debate having Kevin Love miss 50 games has put the wine and gold in contention for the worst team in the NBA.

Now that Love has returned, there has been progress, much to the dismay of draft lottery fans everywhere.

Yes, the most of the recent wins by the Cavs have come over fellow dreck squads in New York, Phoenix, and Memphis, remember the wine and gold lost three of four to the team immediately above them in the standings, the Chicago Bulls.

Even in the midst of a terrible season, has the organization found some players who could be a help to the team when it makes its next playoff run?

Certainly, Love has shown he not only can still be a productive player, but he seems to have embraced the leadership role he has now. He took a backseat in that regard when LeBron James was here, but he is relishing being the Cavs’ go to guy.

And you can hear other players talk about Love and fellow veteran (and a member of the ’16 title team) Matthew Dellavedova speak about ball movement and playing the right way. Both of them are praising rookie Collin Sexton publicly when he makes the correct decisions on the floor.

In fact, we would keep Love to start next season to provide leadership, and if he wants to move on, the trading deadline might be where you get the most for him.

The most improved player from day one of this season has been Cedi Osman, who we thought could be a player last year. Since January 1st, Osman has hit 50% of his shots from the floor, 43% from three point land, and is scoring 15.1 points per night.

Plus, he has an enthusiasm for the game. He wants to get better, and we feel he will continue to do so.

We have also long lauded the intangibles of Larry Nance Jr. and he hasn’t disappointed. Nance is averaging 9.1 points and 8 rebounds per game, and he and Love are unquestionably the best passers on the team.

Plus, on a bad defensive squad, he is probably the best defender, even though he plays out of position a lot, because he’s not a center.

And he’s adding range to his shooting, and we feel he will be a much better shooter in 2019-20.

An unsung player we like, although he’s missed a lot of time is David Nwaba. We understand Nwaba isn’t a starter, but we believe he can be a solid bench player for the foreseeable future.

He’s a wing defender by trade, but Larry Drew has used him to guard power forwards because of the lack of players with a defensive attitude on the team.

We wish he would shoot less threes (there’s a reason he’s open), but we would like to have him back next season. He and Dellavedova have the toughness good teams desire to have.

What may stand out is who is not on this list. Many would include Jordan Clarkson, but to us, all he’s demonstrated is he can score on a bad team. His performance during the playoffs last season causes us to doubt him.

We would like to see more of Ante Zizic, and would lean toward bringing him back, but his defensive shortcomings are a concern.

And we didn’t mention rookie Collin Sexton, who we haven’t given up on, like many of the so-called basketball people in Cleveland, but if you draft Murray State’s Ja Morant, and you think he’s better than Sexton, why wouldn’t you move him.

We would like to take a second look at guys like Marquese Chriss, and we haven’t seen John Henson at all.

It is important to have veteran leadership for young players, and we would like to see Dellavedova stay around too.

There are building blocks for the Cavs. The four we mentioned, plus a high draft pick could be part of the group that starts the climb back up the standings for the wine and gold.

Love Reminding Us How Good He Is

Especially in Cleveland, we believe everyone has forgotten what a great basketball player Kevin Love is.

The first four years Love was in Cleveland, he was the whipping boy whenever the Cavaliers didn’t perform up to expectations. If the wine and gold were not dominating opponents, the blame usually fell on him, mostly because he wasn’t putting up the gaudy numbers he did in Minnesota.

It is ridiculous that even when he was out earlier this season, there were some in the media who felt no other NBA team would be interested in this guy.

You see, Love averaged 26 points per game twice with the Timberwolves, and in different seasons, grabbed an average of 14 rebounds two different seasons in Minnesota.

However, there is no question that no player on the Cavs sacrificed more in the four years LeBron James was the leader on the roster than Kevin Wesley Love.

In those four seasons, Love’s highest scoring season was 19.0 in 2016-17, which was his best year during those campaigns. He averaged 11.1 boards, and shot 37% from three point range.

Playing up north, Love’s lowest percentage of shots close to the basket (0-3 feet out) was 25.3% during his last season with the Wolves. In Cleveland, his highest number in the four years the Cavaliers went to The Finals was 24%.

By the way, this year? He’s back to 29%.

Love became a “stretch four” as James’ teammate, and as he has shown throughout his career, he is so much more than that.

He is one of the best 25-30 players in the sport, and because he played with James and for three of the years, Kyrie Irving too, people have forgotten what a talent he is.

He’s a five time All Star, and had he not been hurt much of this year, probably would have made a sixth.

Think of how the 2015 Finals would have been different had Love and Irving been healthy for the entire series.

Since Love has returned from his foot injury, the Cavs have gone 3-2 in the five games he has participated in. Now, while they aren’t beating the elite teams in the NBA, while the big man was out, they were 11-41.

And in one of the games they dropped, he played just six minutes in his first game back.

Last Saturday, Love scored 32 points and grabbed 12 caroms in a win over Memphis, his best night of the season. And because he is still coming off the injury, he didn’t see the court in the last six or so minutes of the game.

In the last three of those games, he’s made 12 of 23 shots from beyond the arc, showing that his shooting is returning.

He’s also averaging 11 rebounds a game in the last four contests.

Just his presence on the court, has made the other players on the roster better too. They seem to play with more confidence, and Love’s outside shooting threat has opened up the lane for others.

We all know the Cavs are in tank mode this season, but we forget that a big reason they will likely have one of the three worst records in the league (and therefore, the best chance for the first overall pick) is Love’s injury.

Had Love been healthy this season, Cleveland probably wouldn’t have been a playoff team, but they would likely be sitting around the 7th to 9th pick area.

If the Cavs are able to get one of the top three picks this June, and keep Love, they will have a ready made one-two punch to start the season.

We have said this before, if you don’t think Kevin Love isn’t one of the games’ best players, you don’t know the game.

We think he will remind everyone of this over the last six weeks of this season.

Cavs Need To See Who Is Part Of Future

When the festivities are done in Charlotte this weekend, and the NBA schedule resumes next week, the Cleveland Cavaliers will still have two dozen games to play.

What can we anticipate seeing over the last couple of months?

First, the organization realizes the new draft lottery system in which the bottom three teams pretty much the same odds to get the first pick in late June’s draft.

The wine and gold have the third worst mark, ahead of only the Knicks and Suns, both of whom have won one less game than the Cavs. Cleveland has a two game lead (?) over Chicago to hold spot #3.

With Atlanta having the fifth worst record at 19 wins, we believe it is safe to say the three worst records in the league will come from New York, Phoenix, Cleveland, and Chicago.

Larry Drew’s squad is already done against Chicago, helping their cause by losing three out of four against the Bulls, and the first game after the break has the Cavs playing the Suns at Quicken Loans Arena.

A week later, Cleveland travels to New York to take on the other team they have a better record than. And on April 1st, the wine and gold kick off a west coast trip in the Valley of the Sun.

One key factor for the Cavaliers is they are getting healthy, and it also appears GM Koby Altman picked up a couple of hungry players at the trading deadline.

Kevin Love is back, and has played two games in the last week. A glimpse into how the club will approach his return may have been revealed this past week.

Love played well in the first half of the win over New York on Monday and said he planned to play in the Wednesday contest at The Q against Brooklyn. However, it was then announced early that day that Love would not play.

Our guess is the team will claim to be very conservative with Love’s toe injury giving him plenty of rest over the last 24 games.

And don’t forget Tristan Thompson is said to be ready to return as well. The training staff will be very careful to not give Thompson too much of a workload the remainder of the season.

Besides giving those injuries more time to heal, the Cavs have to be wanting to see more of Marquese Chriss, acquired from Houston.

In four games with Cleveland, Chriss has averaged 14 points and six rebounds, while shooting 53.7% from the floor. Now, we realize his 56.3% mark from three point range is unsustainable, but as of right now, you have to sign him as a restricted free agent this off-season.

We have said this before, he’s just 21 years old and 6’10”. You simply cannot discard that kind of size and skill.

You also need to see more of Ante Zizic, another big man in an organization that has ignored size for years. The 6’11” Croatian scored 12.6 points and grabbed 8.2 rebounds per game in January, playing 25.5 minutes a night.

Zizic just turned 22 on January 4th.

If the Cavs get one of the top three choices in the draft, undoubtedly that player will become the centerpiece of what will hopefully be the next Cleveland team to make the post-season.

But both of those big guys could be big contributors as well, and the organization has to find out what they have in Chriss and Zizic.

That’s something to watch in these last 24 games.

Cavs Get More Picks, And Gamble On A Young Big Man.

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a busy week before the NBA trading deadline, but some wish they’d have done more.

Yes, they moved their two most tradable commodities in Rodney Hood and Alec Burks, and they did gamble on some young players, but they didn’t make the big splash many hoped for.

Don’t get us wrong, we are happy with what GM Koby Altman did. He accumulated more assets. Cleveland added another first round pick in this year’s draft (from Houston) and more second rounders, which can be used to sweeten the pot in some other deals.

We have heard folks be critical of the Hood deal, but the player had approval over where he could have gone, and quite frankly, the way Hood played in the wine and gold didn’t have other GMs beating down the Cavs’ doors.

Hood is 6’8″, athletic, with a decent shooting touch. He visually looks like he should be a very good NBA player. However, he disappears when he’s on the floor a lot. He had an opportunity in Cleveland to be a primary scorer, but never embraced the role.

Perhaps he’d be a better player if he had the attitude of Jordan Clarkson, who comes in and wants to be a scorer. But that kind of aggressiveness can’t be taught.

Burks was destined to be moved as soon as he arrived, because of his expiring contract. And really, he was part of the Hood deal, because the two players received for Hood (Nik Stauskas and Wade Baldwin) were sent to Houston in the deal that moved Burks to Sacramento.

In addition to the first round pick acquired in the deal, Altman did want we wanted him to do in picking up a young player who had been a disappointment to his current team in the deal.

He did that in getting Marquese Chriss, a 21 year old, who is 6’10”, something needed for the height challenged Cavaliers.

Chriss was the 8th overall pick in 2016 by Phoenix, and played every game as a rookie, starting 75 of them. He averaged 9.2 points and 4.2 rebounds on 45% shooting.

Last year, he lost time due to the drafting of Josh Jackson, and started the year coming off the bench. When he did start (he started 49 games), he averaged 8.6 points and 5.9 rebounds per game on 44% shooting. He was traded to Houston, with Brandon Knight (familiar?) for Ryan Anderson and De’Anthony Melton.

Is Chriss a future star? Who knows, but again, he’s only 21 years old. He should be a senior in college.

The Cavaliers have 28 games to evaluate him. And he did have 13 points and 8 rebounds in his debut.

Knight, who came to Cleveland in the deal, isn’t a bad get either, and he’s an expiring contract next season, which is a valuable trade piece at the very least.

He was the 8th overall pick the year the Cavs took Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson, and averaged 18 points and five assists in his third year in the league with Milwaukee, who was being coached by Larry Drew.

He was traded three times in his first four years in the league, and we believe mostly because he’s more of a Mike Conley-style point guard than an Irving-style player.

He’s battled injuries throughout his career, but he’s only 27 years old. Perhaps if he gets healthy, he can carve out a niche in the NBA.

The rest of this season should be about auditions for Chriss, Ante Zizic, Knight, and others to see if they have a place in the Cavs’ future.

However, it is easier to accumulate assets than it is to cash them in. That’s the challenge for Altman going forward.