Cavaliers Trade for Donovan Mitchell!

   The rumored suitors for Utah Jazz star guard Donovan Mitchell over the last few months were plentiful with the most prominent and likely contender in the New York Knicks supposedly close to a swap until earlier this week, the Knicks puzzled observers with a massive contract extension with R.J. Barrett that seemed to remove them from any hopes of obtaining Mitchell unless Utah had agreed to the extension before a potential trade.

Still, few saw Donovan Mitchell starting the season in October wearing a uniform other than the Utah Jazz or the New York Knicks but he will not be with either team as Koby Altman and the Cleveland Cavaliers swooped in to take advantage of the Knicks poker game with Utah to make the deal for themselves to land the three-time All-Star for their lineup.

The trade bolsters the Cavaliers a great deal and makes them contenders in the Eastern Conference as soon as next season.

Donovan Mitchell averaged just under twenty-six points per game last season in sixty-seven games and turns twenty-six next week along with being under his current contract for the next three years with a player option for a fourth campaign.

Mitchell shoots well (forty-five percent total, thirty-five from three-point range), can handle the ball and create his own shot, and isn't completely offensively devoted to himself as a good passer with over five assists per game last season.

Mitchell's best position is shooting guard and the hope is that Mitchell and Darius Garland can mesh together in the backcourt where Garland and the departed (in this trade) Collin Sexton never did.

Mitchell can play the point, so should a situation such as an injury to Garland occur, Mitchell is more than capable of running the team from the point.

The main deficiency in Mitchell's game is that he is well below average as a defender and while Darius Garland has made some defensive strides, Garland couldn't be considered a strong defender either.

Both Mitchell and Garland are only 6'1 and some of the issues with the backcourt of Garland and Sexton was playing two small guards together as a regular pair and size-wise, the Cavaliers didn't get bigger, so it's reasonable to wonder about the size issue and the defensive problems that are sure to come with a smaller backcourt.

Cleveland will hope that with solid defenders at forward in Evan Mobley and Isaac Okoro and a rim protector in Jarrett Allen that with work, tutoring, and trying to funnel opposing offenses towards their waiting their better and larger defenders that they can camouflage some of the defensive weaknesses.

If Garland and Mitchell can improve even a little bit defensively to even a little below average to average, Cleveland should be thrilled with that result.

The cost was high for a player of Mitchell's caliber and Cleveland was willing to pay the tab with a package of Lauri Markkanen, Collin Sexton (Sexton signed a contract with Cleveland so he could be included in the trade). recent first-round draft pick Ochai Agbaji, unprotected first-round selections in 2025,2027, and 2029 as well as giving the Jazz the option to flip first-rounders with Cleveland in 2026 and 2028.

It is difficult to look at such a package and not think that the cost was prohibitive but the cost of acquiring stars has become more expensive of late compared to the cost that Minnesota paid for Rudy Gobert (Also with Utah, Minnesota trading five players, four first-rounders and one option to swap first rounders for Gobert), Cleveland paid less for a better player.

I liked Lauri Markkanen and trading him away will move the team away from the "Big" lineup that helped the Cavaliers to their success that didn't go by the wayside until injuries at various times to Markkanen, Mobley, and Allen but Cleveland could be on the lookout for a similar player in the next season or and while Markkanen is a nice player, I think he could be replaced fairly easily especially when Cleveland gains cap space after next season when the contracts of Kevin Love and Caris LeVert could (should they decide to move on from both) open up almost forty-eight million dollars on the salary cap.

I was never as big of a fan of Collin Sexton as many Cavaliers fans have been and while I liked his scoring. Sexton was always a high-effort player, Sexton didn't appeal to me as a building block player and made me think of him as a player that would be a sixth or seventh man/instant offense performer on a good team or if you had to rely on him as one of your two top scorers that the odds were that your team wasn't a very good one.

Still, Sexton can score and there is always a spot in the league for a player that has a career scoring average of twenty points a game on the mark.

Ochai Agbaji was the Cavaliers first-round pick from Kansas, who Cleveland hoped could give them some help on the wing with some improved outside shooting but Koby Altman never seemed thrilled with owning a first-rounder after the Cavaliers late-season swoon (had Cleveland made the playoffs, the pick would have been shipped to Indiana as part of the Caris LeVert trade) and Agbaji doesn't appear to have the upside to be more than a situational player, so I don't think Altman was overly concerned about his inclusion in the trade.

I know that three first-rounders sound like a lot to throw in and it is but Cleveland hopes that obtaining Mitchell will make those selections late first-rounders and therefore worth less in moving them along.

My concern there is Cleveland trading so many down the road, especially the 2029 first-rounder which one has no idea what type of pick that could be as it will be used by Utah three years after Donovan Mitchell's current contract expires and he could very well be long gone from Cleveland by then.

I think this trade appears to be a good return for both sides and it is not often that I can say that.

Cleveland brought in a three-time All-Star at only twenty-six and did so without disrupting the three players (Garland, Mobley, and Allen) that are the core of their rebuilding process.

Utah receives two players that can be plugged into their starting lineup in Markkanen and Sexton to either use or showcase to continue to stockpile draft choices, adds essentially another number one in Ochai Agabji to develop, and all of that draft ammunition to either use themselves or move around to help them add other assets.

I do have a few questions mainly about the defensive problems that will have to be worked around with Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland playing on the floor at the same time and wondering about how long it will take for Mitchell and Garland to develop the always-talked-about chemistry.

Still, for the various faults that Koby Altman has shown in personnel, one has to give him credit for being willing to take the big swing in making trades and he's taken a big swing with this one.

Cavaliers power past Pistons 122-107

    Collin Sexton scored 29 points and Andre Drummond notched his usual double/double of 23 points and 16 rebounds as the Cleveland Cavaliers broke a two-game losing streak with a 122-107 win over the Detroit Pistons in Cleveland.

Cleveland returns to the .500 mark at 9-9 and will be back Friday in New York at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks.

Sorry, I missed the Cavaliers' close loss to the Lakers and the Devils' loss to the Flyers on Tuesday.

Just had too much to do in an attempt to get back to normal living again!

Swashbucklings

1) Collin Sexton's 29 points was a bit of a return to normalcy after scoring 17 against the Lakers and 13 in that awful loss to Boston.

2) Sexton hit 10 of 14 shots and when you can have your shooting guard shoot that high in percentage, you'll win your share of games.

3) The difference between this team and the most recent editions of the Cavaliers, they have managed to do the first thing that rebuilding programs show that things are heading in the right direction- beating teams equal or worse than you at home regularly.

When you can begin to do that, that is the first step in creating the culture of winning.

4) The Cavaliers actually trailed in this game at the half, but outscored Detroit by seventeen in the second half.

The Pistons are a bad club, especially so when Blake Griffin isn't playing, but they are like the graveyard of draft busts- Jahil Okafor, Josh Jackson, Isaiah Stewart to name just a few.

When your best player is whatever's left of Derrick Rose, Jerami Grant (who is playing well, averaging close to 25 points a night) and Wayne Ellington, you have problems.

5) Taurean Prince continues to be a pleasant surprise as part of the trade with the Nets, Prince looks relaxed and more like the player that put up good numbers in Atlanta and not the disappointing free agent signing that played in Brooklyn.

Prince finished with a line of 16 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 blocks in thirty minutes of action and looks to be cemented as the top option on the wing off the bench.

6) Speaking of Brooklyn, the Nets are rumored to be in talks for both or one of Andre Drummond and Javale McGee.

I'm not sure what of value that can be obtained from the Nets, since their end of the three team trade involved first round picks or swaps for the next hundred years it seems, but they do seem interested in adding a big man since they had to lose Jarrett Allen to land James Harden. 

Cavaliers cut down Nets again!

  Collin Sexton scored 25 points, Jarrett Allen scored 19 points in 19 minutes. and Andre Drummond and Larry Nance Jr. each posted double-doubles as the Cleveland Cavaliers moved above .500 with a 125-113 win over the Brooklyn Nets at Rocket Fieldhouse.

The win gives Cleveland a surprising two-game sweep of the two games against the Nets and pushed the Cavaliers into third place in the Central Division.

Cleveland improves to 8-7 on the season with their next game against the Celtics in Boston Sunday night.

Swashbucklings

1) The Brooklyn Nets entered these two games in Cleveland, with tons of hype about the new "Big Three" and they left town with questions, and watchers were impressed by the surprising Cavaliers with their effort and their team play.

2) Kevin Durant didn't play for the Nets and that likely was the difference between the double-overtime game in the first of the two games and the twelve-point loss in the latter game.

Brooklyn is holding Durant's playing time down as he rebounds from the Achilles injury that caused him to miss last season and with  Durant playing fifty minutes in the double-overtime game, it made sense for the Nets to give Durant the evening off.

3) The difference in this game was the third quarter when the Cavaliers moved a one-point halftime lead to a fourteen-point margin starting the fourth.

J.B. Bickerstaff's preaching of a team-first, move the ball and keep scrambling system of play simply rubbed Brooklyn into submission.

Imagine in a geological fashion- rocks change their shape due to two things, constant pressure and the never-ending passing of time.

That's how the Cavaliers are winning some of these games- pressure and time.

4) Dylan Windler returned to the lineup after breaking his hand in the Cavaliers opener.

Windler missed all of last season due to injury and broke his hand in game one.

Windler hit both of his shots, each from three-point distance to finish with six points in sixteen minutes of floor time.

5) Jarrett Allen scored nineteen points in nineteen minutes off the bench and had several impressive dunks.

The most impressive was when Allen took a pass from Collin Sexton, took a step toward the basketball, and with one hand slammed the ball into the hoop over former Cavalier Joe Harris.

I think Allen is going to get even better as his familiarity with the team grows and his team may look back at his acquisition as being one of the better trades in team history.

Super Sexton cuts the Nets- Cavaliers win in Double OT!

   It was advertised as the debut of the new "Big Three" for the Brooklyn Nets.

It ended with a stunning Cleveland Cavaliers win in double overtime behind Collin Sexton's 42 points as Sexton scored twenty consecutive points for Cleveland covering the first and second overtime in their 147-135 victory.

The Nets stars put their points up on the board, but the Cavaliers rallied in the first overtime from a three-point deficit with both eighteen and twenty-three seconds remaining and tied to the game on a three-pointer by Sexton with 1.2 seconds left to force a second version, where it was all Cleveland and all Collin Sexton.

Sexton's 42 led Cleveland with Cedi Osman contributing 25 more. 

J.B. Bickerstaff used only eight players for Cleveland in the game and seven of the eight reached double-figures in points with the eighth- Isaac Okoro finishing with eight points.

Cleveland has evened their record to a surprising 7-7 and will face this same Nets team on Friday at Rocket Field House.

Swashbucklings

1)  Just wow.

Collin Sexton put this team on his shoulders and drilled shot after shot to keep the Cavaliers in a game that could have easily gotten away.

I'm still not ready to say that Collin Sexton is a number one player for a rebuilding franchise, but his game has advanced this season and he's getting closer and closer to considering him for that status.

2) What is the advancement in Sexton's game?

The improvement in the outside shot for Sexton has added an extra dimension to his game.

Sexton has always been able to beat his man off the dribble, but his outside shot had been inconsistent.

Sexton still will have his evenings where nothing falls, but this season Sexton has established himself credible enough that opponents will have to step out and contest his shot- which makes his drives to the basket even more effective.

3) The two newest Cavaliers each played over thirty and while Jarrett Allen played and gave the Cavaliers what they hoped for (12 points and 11 rebounds), the surprise was Taurean Prince, who scored 17 points and hit three three-pointers, one of those a key basket in overtime.

Prince had a lot of questions after being acquired by Cleveland, but if he's able to play closer to his time with the Hawks and less than his tenure in Brooklyn, Prince could help this team.

4) Cedi Osman played the most of anyone in the victory-fifty minutes and his twenty-five points came with nine of seventeen shooting, four of those from three-point range.

Osman can be inconsistent, but his effort is always there and I still have the feeling that there is some growth that still could come along.

Osman is only 25 and this season he's averaging fourteen points with four rebounds and assists each.

Even if this is the best that Osman ever plays, that's a pretty handy role player at least.

5) The future seems pretty clear from the first night with Jarrett Allen as a Cavalier.

Allen didn't supplant Andre Drummond at center as the starter, but Allen played more minutes (31 to 26)  and in crunch time, it was Allen on the floor, not Drummond.

6) JaVale McGee was a DNP and I would imagine trade offers will be heating up soon.

If the minutes aren't completely there for Allen and Drummond, they definitely aren't there for adding McGee to the mix.

7) I'm not a fan of the Cavaliers "City" uniforms anyway this season, but with their colors being black and white- it's not easy to keep things straight in games like tonight.

Brooklyn's colors are black and white and I had difficulties at times telling which team is which.

Hopefully, Cleveland will wear a different uniform for the rematch on Friday.

8) Kyrie Irving finished with 37 points in his return, Kevin Durant dropped 38 and James Harden popped in 21, but the Nets defense was awful and I still wonder if three guys that all seem to need the basketball can co-exist on the court.

Last night was only their first game together, but I'm not sure if this wins in the playoffs.

The Nets are going to have their nights where they just blow teams out of the arena but against good and better-rounded teams?

I'll say the jury is out.

Cavaliers comeback clips Hawks!

  The Cleveland Cavaliers appeared to be falling back into past habits against the Atlanta Hawks as they fell behind by as many as 15 points in the third quarter, and trailed by twelve at the half in Atlanta.

The battered Cavaliers appeared to be on the verge of dropping their third game in a row after a three-game winning streak to start the season before a funny thing happened- the high-scoring Hawks began to miss some shots and the Cavaliers, like a golfer grinding out pars for 60 holes and suddenly finding themselves in a position to win a tournament on the final day, began to work their way back into the game.

Cleveland finally took the lead, pushed back against a Hawks run that tied the game with under one minute remaining, and grabbed the lead back for good when Collin Sexton stepped back and drilled a three-pointer in the Cavaliers 96-91 win.

Collin Sexton led Cleveland with 27 points with JaVale McGee scoring 14 points off the bench as the top supporting scorer.

Cleveland travels to Orlando for games on Monday and Wednesday against the Magic.

Swashbucklings

1) Collin Sexton took this game over in the fourth quarter as the best player on the floor from either team. Sexton scored 14 points of his 27 points in the fourth quarter and he hit jumpers as well as drove the lane to show the value of Sexton's improved outside shot since his rookie year.

2) With Sexton's ability to beat his man off the dribble, the development of Sexton's outside shot has been key to making him a better-rounded player. 

On the basket that put the Cavaliers on top, Sexton's ability to take his man to the hoop forced the defender to bite on the fake to the basket and allowed Sexton to step back for the three.

3) The Cavaliers looked more like the team from the first three games in the second half- working hard on defense and moving the ball around on offense.

If the Cavaliers have any chance of a successful season, it's going to come through effort and hustle that wears the opponent down- not through skill, but through making the opponent expend so much energy trying to keep the Cavaliers off of them that they allow Cleveland to stay in games that they shouldn't be in.

4) With the various injuries that the team is dealing with currently, each player hit the team in a different area.

Kevin Love hits the offensive game, Isaac Okoro affects the defensive end of the floor, Kevin Porter costs an athletic scorer that can play multiple positions, and Dylan Windler the spot shooter that this lineup still needs.

How long can the Cavaliers overachieve without these players and can they keep things afloat until they all return?

I'm doubtful that this can keep going for that long, but one never knows.

5) The Hawks entered the game leading the league in scoring at 125 points a game, yet against Cleveland, they only posted 91.

Atlanta was on the second half of back to back games and was vulnerable to a close game late, but still to take a strong offensive team and turn the tap off on them is quite a feat.

6) Darius Garland finished with only eight points with a miserable three for fourteen shooting night, but Garland did help out with Atlanta's explosive scoring Trae Young, as Young was held to sixteen points on the game. Young entered the game averaging close to thirty points per game, so that's quite an achievement.

7) JaVale McGee continues his strong play off the bench with 14 points and nine rebounds and he is playing with the type of energy that makes you remember his days in Washington when he was a reliable 12 and 10 player.

McGee's signing might prove to be the quietest yet quality free agent signing of the season.

8) Cleveland has been starting a three-guard lineup with Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, and Dante Exum and while this does give them three ballhandlers, it does make them vulnerable to size, especially on the wing and it's not a strong defensive unit either.

Once teams figure that out, I wonder how long J.B. Bickerstaff will stick with that starting trio. 

Cavaliers rally twice,Push past Pistons in Double OT!

   The Cleveland Cavaliers twice rallied from deficits that seemed to have them headed for the loss column and rebounded for a 128-119 double-overtime win over the Detroit Pistons in Detroit.

Collin Sexton scored 32 points to lead the Cavaliers in the win with Andre Drummond adding 23 points and 16 rebounds in his return to Detroit for the first time since the trade that sent him to Cleveland.

Cedi Osman scored 22 points off the bench and Darius Garland scored 21 points with 12 assists to help the Cavaliers to their second win in as many games.

Cleveland returns home Sunday night to host the Philadelphia 76ers.

Swashbucklings

1) The Cavaliers scored the final eight points of regulation to force the game and into overtime and fought back from a nine point deficit in overtime to force a second overtime.

When you are drawing on the "Building a Culture" theme that rebuilding teams invariably do, these are the games that makes teams begin to buy in.

2) Andre Drummond struggled in the first half in his return to Detroit and made only one shot, but Drummond hung around, didn't sulk and finished with the stat line of 23 points, 16 rebounds, five assists, four steals, and three blocks.

3) Drummond's shot selection can be frustrating at times, mainly because he seems to be trying to show that an old school big man can change into a more modern one, but one thing about Drummond's game that is underrated was pointed out by Austin Carr- Drummond is able to contest smaller men defensively outside the paint.

Twice in the final few seconds of the first overtime, Drummond put enough pressure of ballhandler Derrick Rose to cause miscues that resulted in possession changes without the Pistons even attempting a shot.

4) Cedi Osman was tremendous coming off the bench, hitting four of six from three point land.

Osman might be a player that develops into a catalyst as part of a second unit when he can use his specific strengths in shorter minutes.

Think of it as similar to a baseball pitcher that struggles as a starter, but improves as a reliever because he can throw his best pitches all out because he doesn't have to go through the lineup multiple times.

5) It's the little things that can show how highly a player is thought of.

Isaac Okoro didn't score a point, missed all four shots, but still played forty-two minutes and it was Okoro on the court in crunch time as Okoro cut off the baseline and forced the Pistons into a 24 second violation with five seconds to play in regulation.

6) Collin Sexton continues his smoking shooting performance hitting 15 of 23 from the floor.

Sexton hit two of three from three point range as well and in his first two games, Sexton is shooting 79 percent from the distance...

7) Darius Garland hit all three of his three-point attempts and finished nine of fourteen with his thirteen assists.

Garland seems like a different player in these first two games and even though the sample size is small, Garland's chemistry with Collin Sexton is much improved.

Is it sustainable? Let's see what happens when the opponents improve as they will tonight against Philadelphia.

8) Kevin Love and Dante Exum each returned from injury after missing the opener in Cleveland.

Love scored 15 points in 38 minutes as a starter, while Exum scored four in thirteen minutes of play, mostly in the first half.

Cavaliers sting Hornets 121-114

 The Cleveland Cavaliers backcourt had been much maligned in the nine months since the Cavaliers played their last contest by basketball analytics and traditional scouting.

Perhaps the second season together for Collin Sexton and Darius Garland will show the chemistry that was missing in their first season as a pairing as Sexton scored 27 points and Garland scored 22 as the Cavaliers won their opener 121-114 over the Charlotte Hornets in Cleveland.

The Cavaliers had seven players in double-figures scoring, including all five starters.

Cleveland will be off until Saturday when they will play at Detroit as the front part of consecutive road games with the latter trip seeing the team travel to Philadelphia.

Swashbucklings

1)  Darius Garland looked like a different player in the opener as he was passing the ball well (six assists) and shooting well from three-point range as Garland hit four of eight attempts.

Should Garland continue to look like the guy that showed up last night, then Cleveland may be able to 

play Garland at the point, which has been a question in the offseason.

2) Garland also worked harder on the defensive end.

Now, Terry Dozier lit the Cavaliers up for 42 points and hit 10 (TEN!) three-pointers, many of those while being guarded by Garland (and when not Collin Sexton), so the news wasn't all good, but much of defense is having the effort to want to play defense.

Let's see if Garland can put forward that effort every night, but one has to start somewhere.

3) Collin Sexton scored points last season (twenty a night), but he did it in a way that didn't help a team in need in any way other than the stat sheet.

Sexton played better without the ball in his hands and moved without the ball to keep the offense flowing through him, not stopping with him.

4) Sexton hit his first six shots in the game, finished with three from three-point range, and added five assists.

Collin Sexton will score points in this league.

That much is a given, the bigger questions include what else will he bring to your team.
Sexton has time to be more than the top scorer on a bad team, this season is key in seeing his game begin to be more than one-dimensional.

5) J.B. Bickerstaff preaches ball movement in the offense and by keeping the ball moving, there will be more open shots.

It goes to figure that an open shot is easier to hit than a contested version and that helped Cleveland hit 14 three-pointers and shoot 46 percent from behind the arc.

It worked well in the opener and Charlotte was kept off-balance most of the evening defensively.

6) Isaac Okoro's debut showed his potential and it's not all about his 11 pts (4 for 5 with a 3 pointer) ether.

Okoro's defense was what was rated so highly entering the draft and you can see why as at one time during the game when Terry Dozier was ripping the Cavaliers raw, J.B. Bickerstaff called on Okoro to guard Dozier for a while.

Okoro didn't really do any better than anyone else, but to have the rookie in his first game be looked at as the defensive stopper makes me think that the reputation is factually based.

7) The defense still needs lots of work.

It seemed like Charlotte ran about fifty ( more like five) alley-oops to the rim in the second quarter with no one around to contest any of these.

It does seem that often teams don't even try to stop these because the players don't want to be "posterized" when they are actually only trying to make a play.

8) I'll be doing more Cavalier coverage this season.

I sprung (Sprang?) for the NBA on-line league pass since they offered a one team package at a reduced cost.

I realize that I'm likely paying for a lot of losing games, but I have to give myself something to do and for now, we are still playing games.

Let's get through these next few months, the light at the end of the tunnel may be dim but it is there.

Cavaliers draft Collin Sexton

The Cleveland Cavaliers may not know if LeBron James is returning and they may not know who will actually be on the roster come October when the season starts, but they still had to make a selection in the first round of the NBA Draft and their selection made sense from a positional need but did the selection of point guard Collin Sexton of Alabama move the needle enough to bring James back or he is desirable enough to deal with another team as part of a package to land the star that the team needs to team with James in a possible return?

The 6'3 Sexton averaged 19.2 points in his only season at Alabama under former NBA player Avery Johnson and shot 44 percent from the floor ( 33 percent from the shorter college three-point area).
Sexton is very explosive to the basket, handles the ball well, is a willing passer and has the type of game that the current point guard in fashion in the league is favoring.
In other words, he's the point guard that likes the ball in his hands but isn't afraid to score himself.
Sexton is also regarded as a player that likes to play defense and isn't afraid to get rough when he defends either, neither of which is always a box that is checked when discussing draft prospects.

Of the available point guards, I thought Sexton was the best available as I graded him slightly ahead
of Trae Young of Oklahoma (Atlanta through Dallas), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Kentucky (Charlotte) and Boston College's Jerome Robinson (L.A.Clippers) as more of what the point guard challenged Cavaliers might be looking for.

I don't think Young is a playmaker, I think he may be an excellent player, but he's going to be a scoring guard that is listed as a point due to his size, Gilgeous-Alexander is more of a two-guard as well and Robinson doesn't bring the quickness and speed that Sexton brings to the table, so with the Cavaliers largest need (Other than keeping LeBron James), Sexton was the safest pick and one that made the most sense on the surface, especially if you believe the various whispers that James preferred Sexton as his choice among the available draft prospects.

The biggest question that I and others have about Collin Sexton is the outside shot.
Let's face it 44 percent isn't a great percentage and that is likely inflated by the easy drives to the hoop.
The 33 percent from three-point land is a greater concern when you consider how much the game has placed more importance on the ability to consistently connect from behind the line.
If Sexton's outside game doesn't at least improve to league average. the value of this selection dips considerably.

I must admit to preferring the 6'10 wing player Michael Porter of Missouri over Sexton.
I know that he had back issues at 19 and that often leads to bigger problems down the road, so I realize that the Cavaliers would be taking a huge risk in Porter, had they decided to go that way.
However, the Cavaliers aren't exactly stacked with future number one's as they have peddled several around to acquire various players in attempts to bolster the roster around LeBron James.
Sometimes, you gamble on greatness and sometimes you take the lower ceiling player that is more of a sure thing.
Without the back injury, Michael Porter would have been nowhere near the Cleveland pick in the eighth position, so it would have been a risk to try to land him, but his talent might have made such a risk understandably taken.

The selection of Collin Sexton also closes the book on the Kyrie Irving trade with the Cavaliers holding three role players in Jordan Clarkson, Rodney Hood, and Larry Nance Jr to go with Sexton as the return for Irving.
At this particular stage and despite the injury that ended last season to the oft-brittle Irving, I would still rate the Boston side as the better half of this swap, although Sexton could swing that pendulum more toward the Cleveland side.

Is Collin Sexton enough to retain LeBron James?
Could Sexton be involved in a trade to land a veteran that might be more of an immediate help?
I don't have the answers to those, but at best, the Cavaliers have made a major step forward, they could also have drafted a major piece of a possible rebuild without LeBron or at worst, they might regret not taking Michael Porter.

This just hasn't been my year with Cleveland drafts.
For the Browns, I preferred the safer and more prototypical passer in Sam Darnold and the Browns gambled on the risky hype train that is Baker Mayfield.
For the Cavaliers, I wanted them to take the big swing at the green with Michael Porter and they laid up with the more guarded selection of Collin Sexton.
It's funny to see how these things occur sometimes.
It'll be interesting to take a look back in a few years to see who had the better ideas.