Cavaliers trade in, Draft Kevin Porter Jr.

The Cleveland Cavaliers added the shooters that the team hoped to add in the first round of the NBA draft with the selections of Vanderbilt's Darius Garland with their pick at five and Belmont's Dylan Windler with the selection obtained from the Houston Rockets at twenty-six.

Yet, as I wrote in the previous post on the selection of Dylan Windler, I felt that one player might have been worth the risk involved to take at 26 and I wished that the Cavaliers would have stepped up and gambled on potential greatness.
Apparently, someone in the Cleveland front office was thinking the same way as the Cavaliers shipped three future second rounders, possibly a fourth future second rounder and a cold hard five million dollars to the Detroit Pistons for the 30th slot in the first round.
The Cavaliers second rounders on the move are all picks that they have obtained through various trades (2020 Utah, 2021 and 2023 Portland along with 2024 Miami, if it is within 55 and 60 in the overall draft), so they still have their own second rounders for the future.

The drafting of USC guard Kevin Porter Jr is the type of "Gamble on Greatness" choice that teams in Cleveland (including the Browns and Indians) need to do more of as Cleveland will almost never be a free agency magnet for superstar athletes.
Porter has an NBA ready body, can play above the rim, runs the floor well in the transition game and is an effective scorer with both the outside shot and driving to the basket.
Add into the equation, Porter's ability to create shots ( among the top factors in young players finding success in the league) with never being mentioned to being a "me first" player and you have a player with all of the skills needed to be a success in the league.
Porter's game has been compared to that of James Harden, Porter tries to emulate Harden and as a fellow lefty, has many of the moves that make Harden arguably the best scorer in the game.
So if Porter has all of these abilities, he reads like a player in the top seven, not one available at the final pick in round one, so what's the problem?


On the court, Porter is another player that needs the ball to play best, played just 21 games at USC and averaged a little under ten points a night, while off the court Porter was suspended at both USC and high school along with a reputation for not being an easy player to coach.
The good news is that Porter's issues are more along the line of immaturity than serious problems and with his background ( This links to an excellent article by The Ringer and Porter's background), I think that can be overcome.
If you watched the ESPN piece on Porter during the draft and his interview with Maria Taylor after being selected as I did, I had the feeling that this isn't a bad guy at all, but rather a young man that with the right mentor and guidance could be helped past his problems.

As a player, Kevin Porter Jr brings all that you could hope for a first-round draft pick and even though Porter carries the potential of being a bust, I'm fully on board with taking the leap of faith.
At this place in the draft and for the cost that the Cavaliers paid to move up, Kevin Porter Jr could be a steal.
Give the Cavaliers credit for trying to make something happen rather than being content.

Tonight is the NHL Draft where the New Jersey Devils lead things off, plus DAZN boxing, so there will be two or even three posts today depending on time.

Cavaliers select Dylan Windler

The Cleveland Cavaliers added Dylan Windler with the 26th pick of the first round that was obtained by the Cavaliers in a trade deadline swap with the Houston Rockets.

The 6'8 forward averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Belmont Bruins last season on a Bruins team that won the Ohio Valley Conference regular season title and earned the rarest of all rare- a small conference non-qualifier that received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, where they defeated Maryland in the first round.

Windler shot 54 percent from the field and even more importantly over 42 percent from three-point range.
In other words, the Cavaliers, a team in desperate need of adding outside shooting, selected a player with shooting as his top skill.
Windler reminds me of Kyle Korver a bit, although Windler is only an inch taller, he's much more of a true forward than Korver, with big-time shooting range and the ability to hit the three.
On a good team, Windler would likely find a place as a designated three-point shooting specialist as Korver has been for so many teams over the course of his career, but in Cleveland, he'll be expected to do more and there is the question mark with Windler.
Is he a shooting specialist or is he a player that could develop into more than that as a more complete player to be counted on with a larger slice of playing minutes?
If I knew the latter to be true, Windler likely wouldn't have been available at 26 and the case for the former comes from Windler's statistics, which declined against Belmont's better opponents, although he did score 35 in the NCAA win over Maryland.
Windler will have to have plays set up for him to get his shots, but he's not a guy that has to have the basketball to play well.


In the end, Cleveland needed to upgrade their shooting and Dylan Windler gives them another possible upgrade in that department.
Windler proved he could shoot at Belmont, but his struggles against better and more athletic defenders have shown that it's possible that he may not be as effective without a specialized offense.
I was middle of the road with the selection of Windler.
He has some qualities that could mesh very well with what John Beilein intends to install for the Cavaliers, but there was one player available that I was hoping Cleveland would take a swing at instead.

However, the Cavaliers weren't finished yet and began to attempt to trade for another first rounder.
Were they successful? And if so, would they then select the player that I would have taken at 26?
Tune in next time for those answers. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel!

Cavaliers Draft Night

Now that I am home and things are slowing down a bit personally (I'll be writing about my trip to the South Atlantic All-Star game later in the week), things pick up in the sports world with the Cavaliers drafting tonight in the NBA Draft with the fifth and twenty-sixth (Obtained from Houston) pics and the Devils leading off tomorrow evening's NHL Draft.

The Cavaliers dropping to fifth in a draft with three blue chippers was a blow, but they still can come away with a nice player to add to the core of a rebuilding team at five or perhaps even a trade down with a team like the Atlanta Hawks, who might be persuaded in the right situation to consider trading their picks at 8 and 10 for that fifth pick.
Assuming that would not happen and the Cavaliers would stay at five, I'm hoping for Texas Tech two guard Jarrett Culver to be the choice.
Culver's all-around game may not be spectacular, but his floor (worst result possible) is higher than just about anyone else and I think he will mature into a top-notch defender.
I think his ability to create his shot will speed his development and I think he can play alongside Collin Sexton which is a plus for the Cavaliers.
The problem is that I think there is a fair chance that Culver could be the choice of the New Orleans Pelicans with their new acquired 4th overall pick from the Lakers in the trade that sent Anthony Davis to California.


If Culver isn't available, then for me it's a mess.
Vanderbilt guard Darius Garland is currently the hot name entering the draft, but he played just five games for the Commodores before being injured and he plays the same position with similar skills as Collin Sexton.
Normally, I take the best player available, but I'm not sure in this case Garland is head and shoulders above everyone else in the draft to take the risk of him meshing with Sexton.
Duke forward Cam Reddish is the enigma of the draft- abilities that rank with the elite three, but the production doesn't match the talent and there are rumored issues with maturity.
If Reddish clicks, he's the steal of the draft, but he carries risks.
Virginia power forward DeAndre Hunter is an excellent defender and is a high character player, but I wonder about his shot and I'm thinking that he might be as good as he is going to get right now.
North Carolina's Coby White has the type of offensive game that could thrive in the league, especially in the open floor, but doesn't play a lot of defense and I'm not sure his passing is good enough yet to consider that a plus skill.
If the Cavaliers stay at five and if Culver is gone, my guess is that they take one of the above four players and I'm not sure that any of them are sure things or even players I'll be thrilled about. although I can't say that I'd be furious about any of them either.

Meanwhile at 26, who really knows who will be available.
You can always hope that a player falls more than he should and there could be an easy choice, but usually, when that happens there are reasons that you and I are unlikely to know about.
Kevin Porter Jr of USC has been rumored from anywhere from the middle of the top ten to the end of the first round.
Porter has elite potential, but there has to be a reason he averaged less than nine points a game for the Trojans.
If you are going to swing big at 26, swing BIG!
I liked what I saw of Gonzaga power forward Rui Hachimura in watching Bulldog games and Tennessee's Grant Willams at the same position.
Hachimura's game has some growth, while Williams is one of those physical players that seem to either see very little action and leave the league in a few years or develop into a role-playing banger that winning teams usually need.

The Cavaliers lack a second rounder, so unless they decide to purchase (allowed under NBA rules) one or made a deal, they will be finished after 26.
The fifth pick could go in several directions and other than wanting Jarrett Culver, I wouldn't have the slightest idea on how things could fall out.
Whomever that player is, he will be counted on as part of the rebuild to dig the Cavaliers out of their post-LeBron bunker and hopefully he will be around for a while.
I'll be here later tonight with looks at both players.

Cavaliers get little help from Ping Pong balls-Pick 5th in draft

The NBA placed new guidelines for their draft lottery that they hoped would avoid having teams "tank" seasons in order to have a better chance in the lottery.
If that was their hope, then their plan succeeded wildly.
If their hope was to get Zion Williamson, the consensus top player in the draft, to New York or Los Angeles, then their plan failed miserably as despite a Laker leap from the bottom of the lottery to 4th overall, the Knicks, Cavaliers and Suns, the three teams with the best chance of grabbing the top pick, didn't wind up with that pick and in a draft that is considered to have a huge dropoff after Williamson, Ja Morant and R.J. Barrett, only the Knicks will have the chance to pick one of them and they won't have their pick of the three in the third slot.

The big winners were New Orleans (first), Memphis (second) and the Lakers (fourth) with the Knicks (third), Cavaliers (fifth) and Suns (sixth) as the losers from the draw each dropped two (Knicks) or three (Cavaliers and Suns) spots from their positions entering the lottery.
Depending on your personal team preference might decide your opinion on the new lottery setup. but the league likely has mixed feelings.
The new lottery did exactly what the league had hoped and penalized the worst teams, which in theory would work as a deterrent from attempting to accumulate losses in order to pick higher, but even though the league would never admit this, they have to be quietly disappointed with Zion Williamson not playing in New York or even Chicago instead of New Orleans, one of the leagues smallest markets.

The effect on the Cavaliers appears simple to explain.
In a draft that appears to look as follows- Zion Williamson of Duke, drop to Ja Morant of Murray State, drop to Duke's R.J. Barrett and steep drop to everyone, the Cavaliers look at adding a good player at 5, not a franchise-changing one had the team been able to stay in the top three.

Those three off the board and one player was taken by the Lakers at four, the Cavaliers will have their choice of players that are either most talented available, best fit for the John Beilein system or even most experienced/NBA ready.
If I had my choice of the "field", I'd rate my choice in this manner.
If the Cavaliers want the steadiest and player that with the highest floor, I'd take Jarrett Culver of Texas Tech.
Culver can play small forward and shooting guard and I've really liked his ability to create his own shot, which is the most important skill for a young player in the league to have.

If the Cavaliers want to gamble on upside and roll the dice on the player that could burst out into stardom, I'd think the most talented player in Cam Reddish of Duke, a player with the talent to be among the top three that hasn't always come to play every night.
Reddish is an enigma, but should a team be able to get the best out of Reddish, the Cavaliers have a player capable of being an elite level player.

Should Cleveland decide to take a player outside the tier of expected players that would fit with John Beilein's system, I wouldn't be surprised if the Cavaliers gave some consideration to Gonzaga's Brandon Clarke, who is the type of multi-dimensional player with defenses skills, that might fit very well with Beilein.
Clarke might be a bit of a reach at five and the Cavaliers might be better suited for a trade, should Clarke be their choice, but Cleveland might have a lack of suitors for this pick.

Cavaliers fans have to be disappointed in falling out of the top three, but they still should wind up with a productive piece for their rebuild, if not an elite one.
It'll be interesting over the next few years to see, if the NBA continues with the lottery as designed or tweak it as has been done through the years, but for now, it's definitely been a success in one area-
it has fans talking.