The Cavs Win!!!

What a great night for Cleveland sports, as the Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals and the NBA Draft Lottery took place. As many of you already know, the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Lottery last night, acquiring the right to pick #1 overall in this year's upcoming Draft, along with picking 4th. The ironic part is that the #1 pick we got was from the LA Clippers in the Baron Davis/Mo Williams trade. Obviously, this is exactly what the Cavaliers franchise needed, after suffering one of its worst seasons after the departure of LeBron James. As I have stated in numerous blog posts before, having draft picks are one of the most important assets in the NBA. They sweeten trade offers and if used correctly, it allows teams to rebuild quickly. Draft picks are especially important to a smaller market team such as Cleveland. Most free agents prefer to go to nicer destinations with lower state taxes, so it is imperative that teams such as Indiana, Cleveland, Sacramento, Toronto and Milwaukee hit their draft picks.

Obviously, Duke PG Kyrie Irving will be the selection at #1. I have always been a huge fan of Irving because he is a true PG, has good court vision, is an above average shooter for a PG, great IQ, great motor, good defender and solid size (6'2 180 lbs). Unlike previous PG's who have come out of the draft, Irving does not have one skill or attribute that jumps out at you. Take for example John Wall's speed, Chris Paul's ball handling or Derek Rose' athleticism. Irving is a player you can build your team around because he plays the deepest position in the NBA, has a great overall skill set and is committed to becoming a better player. Also, he fits in perfectly with the Cavs because Baron Davis is nearing the end of his career, Ramon Sessions is more of a backup PG and Byron Scott's offense is better run with a PG who can see the floor and distribute (watch the Cavs offense after the acquisition of Baron Davis). I believe a part of the reason the Cavs struggled so much during the season was because Mo Williams was more of a scoring/shooting PG and not as much of a facilitating/slashing PG. Scott's offense is built around backdoor cuts and drives to the basket and the Cavs simply were not executing that under Williams. Hopefully this will change with Kyrie at the helm.

Now with the #1 overall pick settled, who do the Cavs take at #4? This is historically one of the worst draft classes I have seen. Players who I thought would be coming out such as UNC's Harrison Barnes, Baylor's Perry Jones, Kentucky's Terrance Jones and Ohio State's Jared Sullinger all went back to school. All four of those players were top 10 picks, with Barnes and Sullinger being top 5. This really depleted the 2011 Draft class of a lot of the top tier talent. Some of the names I would consider at #4 include Kentucky PF/C Enes Kanter, Congo C Bismack Biyombo, Colorado SG Alec Burks, Arizona SF/PF Derrick Williams and San Diego State SF Kawhi Leonard. The Cavs have needs everywhere on this team, but I am in favor of taking a SF/SG/C at the #4 pick. I will get into more details about these players as we move closer to the Draft.

One possibility that came through my mind is a potential trade for the #2 overall pick, which is held by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Their GM, David Kahn has been prone to picking up many young players, but has no way of piecing them together. He traded for Michael Beasley and Anthony Randolph, drafted Wesley Johnson, Johnny Flynn and the rights to Ricky Rubio. The teams best player, PF Kevin Love is unhappy in Minnesota and will become a free agent soon. ESPN's Chad Ford noted that the Wolves are looking for more veteran help, are open to trading the #2 pick and I wouldn't be shocked if the Cavs tried trading an Antwan Jamison (expiring contract) or Daniel Gibson along with the #4 pick for the #2 pick. Maybe the Cavs could take on the contract of Luke Ridnour (who is on the books until the 2013/2014 season). The Wolves have mentioned that they believe PG Ricky Rubio will come over to play with the Wolves this summer. Although Ridnour's contract isn't big ($11 million left), it would allows more playing time for Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio (if he does indeed come over). Kahn knows that he has to prove that Flynn and Rubio were worth lottery picks. I don't think this is a likely scenario, but it is something to think about. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert has been very aggressive in acquiring draft picks (almost acquired Rip Hamilton for the Pistons 1st round draft pick, which would have cost around $15-20 million to buy out Hamilton) and adding young talent to the roster. This could be an opportunity to leverage the #4 pick and the trade exception to move higher in the draft or acquire more picks in the future.

In conclusion, this is a positive step forward for this franchise. The ghosts of LeBron James and the playoff teams of the last few years really made it hard to watch this team last year. We didn't have a franchise player to build around, and just had a collection of veteran, young, unproven talent. There was no excitement, no marquee player. While Kyrie Irving might not be a franchise player, he is someone who can be the face of a franchise and build a team around. The look on Dan Gilbert's face after winning the lottery was awesome. Having his son Nick represent the Cavs at the lottery was very special, especially with his fight with a rare disease. Having Josh Cribbs, Joe Haden and Bernie Kosar sitting right behind Dan Gilbert, showing their Cleveland pride made this not only a special night for the Cavs, but for the city of Cleveland.

As Dan Gilbert said "We're coming back Cleveland!"

Thats all for now. Thanks for reading. Go Cleveland!