The good news is you’ve won the draft lottery for the second time in three years. The bad news is you’ve been in a position to win the draft lottery three straight years. Such is the plight of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who must watch their former star, Lebron James go for yet another NBA Championship while playing for the Miami Heat. But the Cavs have won yet another draft lottery. That’s something that would not have happened had they kept James. If they can keep winning them and one day, they will be good again.
Do the Cavaliers draft Kentucky center Nerlens Noel with the first pick? Or do they perhaps trade the pick for multiple picks? Noel is a project. He’s a defensive specialist with not much offense. Plus, he is coming off knee surgery. My advice would be to trade down.
The number one pick from two years ago was Kyrie Irving. The Cavs can’t complain about how that one worked out. Irving is a stud. The Cavs have a chance to put somebody with him if they play this right. Noel wouldn’t be a bad way to go, but they might be better off going with a guy like Mason Plumlee, Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller, or Ben McLemore. They might be able to trade down a spot or two and get one of those guys and still have another pick later in the draft.
What about the Orlando Magic with the second pick. Sure, they were awful last season. But when you look at their roster, they have some pieces there. Nik Vukevic is a decent center. Arron Afflalo is a nice shooting guard as is Tobias Harris. Moe Harkless has some potential at small forward. Big Baby Davis is a good power forward. Jameer Nelson can play the point. The problem is none of those guys are great. So if you are the Magic, you can really pick any position and upgrade it. If I was making the pick, I would take Trey Burke. But McLemore, Oladipo, Otto Porter, Zeller, you could make a case for any of them.
The Washington Wizards are in really good shape at pick number three. This team was clearly decimated by early season injuries. They are not this bad when healthy. So adding another top three pick to go with Brad Beal from last year and John Wall from three years ago, this team is on the verge of being really dangerous. Who do you go with if you are the Wizards? I’d go big. Noel if he’s still there or Zeller. Porter or Oladipo would be another way to go. Give Wall another scorer with Beal to pass to.
The thing about this draft is there is no clear cut “this guy is the number one pick” guy like Anthony Davis was last year and Andrew Wiggins will likely be next year. What this draft does have is depth. There will be some late picks that could pan out very well for somebody such as Peyton Siva and Georgui Deng from Louisville or Jeff Withey from Kansas or Kelly Olynyk from Gonzaga. Shabazz Mohammed could turn out to be a great NBA player as well. He had a rather disappointing year at UCLA, but he was rated the #1 player coming out of high school for a reason.
But next year, pay attention to the draft lottery closely. Because there will be some game changers coming out in next year’s draft. If there is a year to root for your team to stink it up, next year might be that year.