Cavs Draft recap

Good news everyone!  The Cavs did not draft Z Jr.  Bad news everyone!  The Cavs promised trading for more picks in the first round... and they didn't!  Bad news everyone!  The Cavs had the thirty-second pick, and gave it to Orlando for two second round picks (starting in two years)!  Bad news everyone!  The Cavs picked some Serbian power forward (because that's an obvious need) with their last pick, but he won't be able to play over here for at least three years... if ever at all!

Good news everyone.  The Cavs drafted Kyrie Irving, and paired him with a finesse power forward (Tristan Thompson) with shot blocking ability with strong offensive rebounding skills.  I like this.  I would have preferred Enes Kanter, but he wasn't available.  You can argue that maybe we should have gotten Jan Vesely, a supposedly athletic (they tried to force this down our throats, but he's 6'11" and his dunks on video were not overly impressive, at all) power forward.  But Vesely is weak, and plays no defense, and oh by the way, he's foreign.  There have been exactly three good (sorry Z) big men from Europe in the NBA in the past, oh, ten years.  Their names are Gasol and Nowitzki (there's two Gasol's).  I'm tired of those players.  This is the NBA, not the IBA.  Once they start coming over here to develop their game in college (like Kanter tried to do, he'll be good), I don't want to hear from them.  But Tristan Thompson is a tough player, who, combined with Anderson Verajoa, is a pretty above average front-line.  I'm okay with it.  You don't have to be able to score with your big men, but you need to at least be able to stop the other guys' big men.  The league is shrinking (in physical size of players).  6'9" is an acceptable size for a power forward, and I'm okay with it.

Kyrie Irving is going to fit in well.  Byron Scott likes young point guards.  He helped develop Jason Kidd (remember when the Nets made it to the NBA Finals?   How did that happen?) and Chris Paul (let's hope for that kind of development).  He's a natural leader.  He stepped into Duke University (ugh) and took over a team that had won a national championship the year before.  (Gruden voice) "This guy right here, he can play."  I'm relatively excited to buy NBA 2k12 this year, just so I can develop Kyrie Irving into an all-star.  I don't think he'll be an all-star, at least not for a long time (we're in Cleveland, and look at the point guards in the East, and remember Chris Paul might be coming too).  But since when did fan popularity put points on the scoreboard?  He's going to average near double-digit assists, and well over double-digit points.  Count on it.  He's a good starting block for our rebuilding of the Cavs.  Be excited for him.

Now, I may or may not speak for everyone, when I ask Chris Grant (again, because he obviously follows this blog closely) "What happened?"  Feel free to fill in any expletives you would like in and around those words, but this is a family friendly blog.  For the past two weeks, all we've heard is that the Cavs want to acquire more picks.  We were going to be very aggressive with our trades.  Now, this time period still has another week left in which Chris Grant could make some moves.  But here's my biggest problem:  We had two second round picks that we did absolutely nothing with.  We gave away our 32nd pick for nothing.  There is still value to be had at that pick, even in this weak of a draft.  Or trade it to go up!  Use both second rounders to jump into the end of the first and get, say, Marshon Brooks?  A guy who can put the ball in the basket.  A guy that could end up being a good second option off the bench once the roster is complete.  Instead, we got the 2013 second round and 2014 second round picks from Orlando.  Those picks are likely to be at the end of the second round both years.  Sweet.  And then we used our last pick on a Serbian power forward who won't be available to play in the US for a long time.  And he's a power forward.  Here's the breakdown of the Cavs Roster, as it stands now, with only Anthony Parker coming off the books:

PG: Baron Davis, Ramon Sessions, Daniel Gibson, and Kyrie Irving
SG: Alonzo Gee, Christian Eyenga, Manny Harris
SF:  Joey Graham
PF: Luke Harangody, JJ Hickson, Antawn Jamison, Samardo Samuels, Tristan Thompson, Anderson Verejao
C: Semih Erden, and Ryan Hollins (has a player option, so he can decide to stay and we can't do anything about it)

That's no good.  Remember when I said the Cavs aren't going to be very good next year?  That's why.

The Silver lining?  Here's the list of current players who will either be restricted free agents (meaning Cavs get first choice to bring them back) or unrestricted free agents in 2012:

Semih Erden
Alonzo Gee
Luke Harangody
Manny Harris
JJ Hickson
Baron Davis
Joey Graham
Antawn Jamison
Ramon Sessions (has a player option to decide on his own to come back)

That's a lot of players.  That opens up a lot of room to bring in new talent, and draft new talent.  That also means the Cavs can be very active in trades this season to acquire players under contract, because that's the best way to get new quality players to Cleveland (nobody really wants to willingly sign here).  The future is bright for the Cavs, but it's still at least one year away.


*Note: Baron Davis has an early termination, so he could be an unrestricted free agent.  See comments below.