I've said it before, but can it really be said enough? This season had its high point a few months back for Cavs fans, now I think its safe to say it needs to end. With playoff potential on the horizon, due to cap space that will almost certainly be thrown at someone, a probable decent draft pick, and piles of draft picks in the next few years, Cleveland may be on to something. It's all on Chris Grant. I can say I was a fan of last years draft, even if only for the picks of Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson.
Kyrie was a high school stud who unfortunately played less games than the Duke football team in college. You could argue that it was a shame but truth be told, I don't see anything being different. He still would have been the top pick, still would have impressed in his rookie season, and if nothing else, it would have eased scouts and fans alike that weren't sold on him being a franchise changer. Irving is the most important step forward for this Cavaliers team, and Grant knocked it out of the park by selecting him first overall. Not much else to say about this except, well done sir.
Then came pick number four, which was actually Cleveland's pick (Thanks Neil Olshey for that top pick, we appreciate it). At four I wanted Enes Kanter, which obviously couldn't happen because he went third. After he was taken, I wasn't sure. Although I'm still pretty sure they took Thompson to trade down to about the eighth spot, but were stuck when all three international big men were already gone by the sixth pick. Anyways I had heard nothing but good things about Jonas Valanciunas and little about Tristan Thompson. The only game I watched of Thompson's was Texas' second round match-up against Arizona, where Thompson played quite valiantly against the number two pick, Derrick Williams. He held WIlliams to 17 points, and blocked a key Williams shot towards the end in a one-point Texas loss. But he seemed more unknown to me than Valanciunas, sporting a less-than-stellar offensive game and was a bad free-throw shooter. The only thing on track to me was his defense, he may have been the best defending big man in the draft. As the 2011-2012 NBA season has come and mostly gone, I feel 10 times better about the Thompson selection. His defensive abilities show up every game (although, please quit trying to block everything, you'd be a far better rebounder), month-by-month he's getting better from the free-throw line, and he's showing flashes of an offensive game now. He still has the far too occasional head scratching game, but overall he's a great piece to have in the rebuilding process.
And then came the second-round selection of Justin Harper. I wish I could have looked at my face when this pick was called in. It was downright confusing. The Cavs were stacked at Power Forward, and hell, they just took one 28 spots before this one. I trusted the pick though, a solid role-playing bench guy. Then, when I finally warmed up to it, BAM!, shipped off to Orlando for two future second-round picks. From a talent standpoint, I doubt the Cavs get anything with those two picks that they could have with this pick. I'm looking at you Chandler Parsons. But that's to see for another day.
Then Milan Macvan was Cleveland's last selection of the draft. This was a throw away pick, he won't play in the NBA. He's got a pretty sweet name though. The cool thing about this pick was his highlight reel, this guy was a tank, 6-9 and 260. I smiled a few times watching the highlights of him playing in Serbia. But again, throw away pick. Sadly, I feel like those two Magic picks will be similar to this one. Cleveland should have taken a player of need there.
After almost a full (shortened) season I feel the same way I did about Cleveland's roster after draft night, with the exception of quite a better feeling about the Thompson pick. With eight first-round draft picks in the next four years, it'll be fun to see what this team can do.
No comments:
Post a Comment