Saturday, August 22, 2020

Two times Five-Cavaliers lose in lottery

For the second consecutive year. the Cleveland Cavaliers along with two other teams had the best chance of winning the NBA draft lottery.
For the second consecutive year, the Cleveland Cavaliers fell in the lottery to the fifth overall selection.
Minnesota and Golden State, the two teams that held equal odds to Cleveland for the first pick, finished with the top picks with Charlotte and Chicago leapfrogging over the Cavaliers for the third and fourth picks.

The likely first three selections in no particular order should be guards Anthony Edwards of Georgia and LaMelo Ball, who has played in Australia and center James Wiseman of Memphis with several players of interest available on the second tier for Cleveland.

I suspect that the player taken from this tier will be Israeli forward Deni Avdija, but if Avdija is available he is my choice here.
That leaves USC power forward Onyeka Okongwu, Dayton power forward Obi Toppin, Auburn
small forward/shooting guard Issac Okoro, and perhaps Florida State small forward Devin Vassell to choose from.
Toppin's offensive game would fit well with an ability to score near and away from the basket and Okongwu's ability to score in the post and he is developing into a shot-blocking threat would be attractive, Okoro is a top defender with the ability to defend against four positions and is an excellent passer while Vassell has excellent athleticism and might be the best of all of this group as far as raw talent.

Each of those players has questions- Okoro's outside shot, Vassell's ballhandling, Toppin's defense, and Okongwu possibly being a tweener stuck between playing the four or the five, but the Cavaliers may have caught one break in falling to the fifth spot.
The top three players in this draft might not be great fits for Cleveland as Wiseman has Andre Drummond ahead of him (for this year at least) and after spending their last two first-round picks on guards ( Collin Sexton and Darius Garland), Koby Altman doesn't need to be tempted into taking another guard.
I'm usually in favor of the best player available, but this year Cleveland might be better suited to take someone that can play the wing at least and small forward preferably.
Between Sexton and Garland at guard and a clog at the 4 and 5 with Andre Drummond, Kevin Love, Larry Nance Jr, and the rumored possible return of Tristan Thompson, a player that can play along the wing and small forward would have an advantage on being selected.

I'm still deciding what player I'm hoping for, but the Cavaliers have to be disappointed with a player outside the top three yet inside the top ten for the third year in a row.
They can add a piece to the puzzle, but they would have to get lucky in order to find a real impact player, although stranger things have happened.
I'm still puzzled with many of the moves that Koby Altman has made and I'm definitely unsure of Altman being able to be the architect of a successful rebuild, but I can hope for the best at least.
I don't see anyone in this draft (including the top three) that will make an immediate impact for the Cavaliers or anyone else, but the Cavaliers haven't seemed to have even a mild pinch of luck since a certain "23" left town.
At this rate, they are going to need far more than a mild pinch to turn this plan into winning basketball any time soon.


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