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[JujitsuFlip]

I think we got unlucky those picks panned out for the Pacers. On the surface, a 26th and 31st overall picks are not typically rotation quality players. To get an elite defensive PG/SG (who happens to rise up during the playoffs) and a volume three and D-ish guy is kinda crazy from those spots.

I still think the LeVert trade was a good-ish idea to this day and pushed us into the timeline we are in so it was more than just LeVert, but in hindsight it looks p bad especially if we picked Nembhard and Sheppard.

The Bane trade on the surface looks much worse. However, Bane does fill a bigger niche within the Magic's offensive system and could help them climb out of the gutter. Franz, Paolo, and Bane seem like a formidable trio, especially since Bane can play off both other guys.

Magic still need a top 30 PG tho

Certain teams are really good with their picks, that's kind of the beauty of Memphis getting all those picks ... even if they're ****, they'll make the most of them. I always wished Dan would pour a ton of cash in to our drafting/scouting department.

Overall, I actually don't think we've drafted too badly (or taken undrafted guys). We have barely had any picks tho. Since LeBron left, I would consider these guys a success at their draft position:
Sexton
Garland
Kevin Porter Jr (debatable for off-court activities)
Mobley
Agbaji (not our guy ever, but still for a 15th pick looks like a quality NBA player)

So that leaves:
Windler
Okoro (debatable, but he was top 5 in a draft with much better guys taken later)
Travers
I. Mobley
Diop
Bates

I am leaving Tyson out of this because we can only speculate what he will provide moving forward

Undrafted guys that I'd say were a success:
Wade
Stevens (maybe debatable, but I say if you gave good rotational minutes then you are a successful undrafted guy or 2nd rounder)
Craig Porter Jr

OA was the 14th pick, year we lost in the play-in.

No way can KPJ be looked at as a success for the Cavs, guy was traded for a top 55 protected 2nd rounder.

Stevens probably not successful either bc we had to use a 2nd to dump him, i believe.

For being top 8 on a rebuilding squad, Sexton did not give us enough. Maybe as a NBA player you can say he was a success but losing that whole year sucked, another reason the Kyrie trade looks so bad.

[toooskies]

Certain teams are really good with their picks, that's kind of the beauty of Memphis getting all those picks ... even if they're ****, they'll make the most of them. I always wished Dan would pour a ton of cash in to our drafting/scouting department.

Overall, I actually don't think we've drafted too badly (or taken undrafted guys). We have barely had any picks tho. Since LeBron left, I would consider these guys a success at their draft position:
Sexton
Garland
Kevin Porter Jr (debatable for off-court activities)
Mobley
Agbaji (not our guy ever, but still for a 15th pick looks like a quality NBA player)

So that leaves:
Windler
Okoro (debatable, but he was top 5 in a draft with much better guys taken later)
Travers
I. Mobley
Diop
Bates

I am leaving Tyson out of this because we can only speculate what he will provide moving forward

Undrafted guys that I'd say were a success:
Wade
Stevens (maybe debatable, but I say if you gave good rotational minutes then you are a successful undrafted guy or 2nd rounder)
Craig Porter Jr

OA was the 14th pick, year we lost in the play-in.

No way can KPJ be looked at as a success for the Cavs, guy was traded for a top 55 protected 2nd rounder.

Stevens probably not successful either bc we had to use a 2nd to dump him, i believe.

For being top 8 on a rebuilding squad, Sexton did not give us enough. Maybe as a NBA player you can say he was a success but losing that whole year sucked, another reason the Kyrie trade looks so bad.

Agree on KPJ, but the talent was worth the risk at the time. Sometimes headcases can pull things together quickly, sometimes it takes them years and lots of context switches.

Stevens was salary matching in the Strus deal. San Antonio needed a 2nd to take both Stevens AND Cedi. While Stevens was immediately waived, he was only guaranteed $400k, so most of that 2nd was about eating Cedi's money.

Go look at the history of #8 picks and see how many panned out. Sexton is probably in the top 5 of #8 picks in the past 25 years. (It's Franz, Rudy Gay, Dyson Daniels, Chris Wilcox maybe, then Sexton?) The fact that Sexton was roughly half the salary match for Mitchell (and enough of the value to get the trade done) was a good outcome for the Cavs given the history of that draft position.

[JujitsuFlip]

Overall, I actually don't think we've drafted too badly (or taken undrafted guys). We have barely had any picks tho. Since LeBron left, I would consider these guys a success at their draft position:
Sexton
Garland
Kevin Porter Jr (debatable for off-court activities)
Mobley
Agbaji (not our guy ever, but still for a 15th pick looks like a quality NBA player)

So that leaves:
Windler
Okoro (debatable, but he was top 5 in a draft with much better guys taken later)
Travers
I. Mobley
Diop
Bates

I am leaving Tyson out of this because we can only speculate what he will provide moving forward

Undrafted guys that I'd say were a success:
Wade
Stevens (maybe debatable, but I say if you gave good rotational minutes then you are a successful undrafted guy or 2nd rounder)
Craig Porter Jr

OA was the 14th pick, year we lost in the play-in.

No way can KPJ be looked at as a success for the Cavs, guy was traded for a top 55 protected 2nd rounder.

Stevens probably not successful either bc we had to use a 2nd to dump him, i believe.

For being top 8 on a rebuilding squad, Sexton did not give us enough. Maybe as a NBA player you can say he was a success but losing that whole year sucked, another reason the Kyrie trade looks so bad.

Agree on KPJ, but the talent was worth the risk at the time. Sometimes headcases can pull things together quickly, sometimes it takes them years and lots of context switches.

Stevens was salary matching in the Strus deal. San Antonio needed a 2nd to take both Stevens AND Cedi. While Stevens was immediately waived, he was only guaranteed $400k, so most of that 2nd was about eating Cedi's money.

Go look at the history of #8 picks and see how many panned out. Sexton is probably in the top 5 of #8 picks in the past 25 years. (It's Franz, Rudy Gay, Dyson Daniels, Chris Wilcox maybe, then Sexton?) The fact that Sexton was roughly half the salary match for Mitchell (and enough of the value to get the trade done) was a good outcome for the Cavs given the history of that draft position.

Cedi played 72 games for the Spurs, Pop did not need a 2nd to take him. The 2nd was to dump Stevens, since as you pointed out, he was waived immediately.

Like i said, the end result for Sexton worked but it stunted the rebuild by 1 year by getting him. It's too bad SGA was so anti-Cleveland.

[toooskies]

OA was the 14th pick, year we lost in the play-in.

No way can KPJ be looked at as a success for the Cavs, guy was traded for a top 55 protected 2nd rounder.

Stevens probably not successful either bc we had to use a 2nd to dump him, i believe.

For being top 8 on a rebuilding squad, Sexton did not give us enough. Maybe as a NBA player you can say he was a success but losing that whole year sucked, another reason the Kyrie trade looks so bad.

Agree on KPJ, but the talent was worth the risk at the time. Sometimes headcases can pull things together quickly, sometimes it takes them years and lots of context switches.

Stevens was salary matching in the Strus deal. San Antonio needed a 2nd to take both Stevens AND Cedi. While Stevens was immediately waived, he was only guaranteed $400k, so most of that 2nd was about eating Cedi's money.

Go look at the history of #8 picks and see how many panned out. Sexton is probably in the top 5 of #8 picks in the past 25 years. (It's Franz, Rudy Gay, Dyson Daniels, Chris Wilcox maybe, then Sexton?) The fact that Sexton was roughly half the salary match for Mitchell (and enough of the value to get the trade done) was a good outcome for the Cavs given the history of that draft position.

Cedi played 72 games for the Spurs, Pop did not need a 2nd to take him. The 2nd was to dump Stevens, since as you pointed out, he was waived immediately.

Like i said, the end result for Sexton worked but it stunted the rebuild by 1 year by getting him. It's too bad SGA was so anti-Cleveland.

A 2nd is worth more than $400k, more like 10x that. Cedi was out of the league as soon as his contract ended.

[JujitsuFlip]

Agree on KPJ, but the talent was worth the risk at the time. Sometimes headcases can pull things together quickly, sometimes it takes them years and lots of context switches.

Stevens was salary matching in the Strus deal. San Antonio needed a 2nd to take both Stevens AND Cedi. While Stevens was immediately waived, he was only guaranteed $400k, so most of that 2nd was about eating Cedi's money.

Go look at the history of #8 picks and see how many panned out. Sexton is probably in the top 5 of #8 picks in the past 25 years. (It's Franz, Rudy Gay, Dyson Daniels, Chris Wilcox maybe, then Sexton?) The fact that Sexton was roughly half the salary match for Mitchell (and enough of the value to get the trade done) was a good outcome for the Cavs given the history of that draft position.

Cedi played 72 games for the Spurs, Pop did not need a 2nd to take him. The 2nd was to dump Stevens, since as you pointed out, he was waived immediately.

Like i said, the end result for Sexton worked but it stunted the rebuild by 1 year by getting him. It's too bad SGA was so anti-Cleveland.

A 2nd is worth more than $400k, more like 10x that. Cedi was out of the league as soon as his contract ended.

A 2nd rounder 7 years in the future is not worth $4 million lmao

For reference the Cavs paid $1.75 million for the 49th pick from the Kings, 1 day before the draft. You think a pick 2,500 days away is worth over double that? How?

[toooskies]

Cedi played 72 games for the Spurs, Pop did not need a 2nd to take him. The 2nd was to dump Stevens, since as you pointed out, he was waived immediately.

Like i said, the end result for Sexton worked but it stunted the rebuild by 1 year by getting him. It's too bad SGA was so anti-Cleveland.

A 2nd is worth more than $400k, more like 10x that. Cedi was out of the league as soon as his contract ended.

A 2nd rounder 7 years in the future is not worth $4 million lmao

For reference the Cavs paid $1.75 million for the 49th pick from the Kings, 1 day before the draft. You think a pick 2,500 days away is worth over double that? How?

How do you think a 2nd rounder is only worth $400k?

[JujitsuFlip]

A 2nd is worth more than $400k, more like 10x that. Cedi was out of the league as soon as his contract ended.

A 2nd rounder 7 years in the future is not worth $4 million lmao

For reference the Cavs paid $1.75 million for the 49th pick from the Kings, 1 day before the draft. You think a pick 2,500 days away is worth over double that? How?

How do you think a 2nd rounder is only worth $400k?

Because i just gave you an actual example, what do you mean...

Give me an example of someone paying $4 million for a 2nd rounder 7 years into the future, i am 99% sure you can't.

Heck, even find me an example of a team buying any 2nd rounder for $4 million, regardless of timing and we can start the conversation there.

[jbk1234]

Overall, I actually don't think we've drafted too badly (or taken undrafted guys). We have barely had any picks tho. Since LeBron left, I would consider these guys a success at their draft position:
Sexton
Garland
Kevin Porter Jr (debatable for off-court activities)
Mobley
Agbaji (not our guy ever, but still for a 15th pick looks like a quality NBA player)

So that leaves:
Windler
Okoro (debatable, but he was top 5 in a draft with much better guys taken later)
Travers
I. Mobley
Diop
Bates

I am leaving Tyson out of this because we can only speculate what he will provide moving forward

Undrafted guys that I'd say were a success:
Wade
Stevens (maybe debatable, but I say if you gave good rotational minutes then you are a successful undrafted guy or 2nd rounder)
Craig Porter Jr

OA was the 14th pick, year we lost in the play-in.

No way can KPJ be looked at as a success for the Cavs, guy was traded for a top 55 protected 2nd rounder.

Stevens probably not successful either bc we had to use a 2nd to dump him, i believe.

For being top 8 on a rebuilding squad, Sexton did not give us enough. Maybe as a NBA player you can say he was a success but losing that whole year sucked, another reason the Kyrie trade looks so bad.

Agree on KPJ, but the talent was worth the risk at the time. Sometimes headcases can pull things together quickly, sometimes it takes them years and lots of context switches.

Stevens was salary matching in the Strus deal. San Antonio needed a 2nd to take both Stevens AND Cedi. While Stevens was immediately waived, he was only guaranteed $400k, so most of that 2nd was about eating Cedi's money.

Go look at the history of #8 picks and see how many panned out. Sexton is probably in the top 5 of #8 picks in the past 25 years. (It's Franz, Rudy Gay, Dyson Daniels, Chris Wilcox maybe, then Sexton?) The fact that Sexton was roughly half the salary match for Mitchell (and enough of the value to get the trade done) was a good outcome for the Cavs given the history of that draft position.

The issue with Sexton is the talent that was still on board when we took him. Even if you give the Cavs a pass on SGA, since he refused to work out here, Mikal Bridges was the better pick. It's harder to find two-way wings than undersized guards.

[JonFromVA]

I think we got unlucky those picks panned out for the Pacers. On the surface, a 26th and 31st overall picks are not typically rotation quality players. To get an elite defensive PG/SG (who happens to rise up during the playoffs) and a volume three and D-ish guy is kinda crazy from those spots.

I still think the LeVert trade was a good-ish idea to this day and pushed us into the timeline we are in so it was more than just LeVert, but in hindsight it looks p bad especially if we picked Nembhard and Sheppard.

The Bane trade on the surface looks much worse. However, Bane does fill a bigger niche within the Magic's offensive system and could help them climb out of the gutter. Franz, Paolo, and Bane seem like a formidable trio, especially since Bane can play off both other guys.

Magic still need a top 30 PG tho

Certain teams are really good with their picks, that's kind of the beauty of Memphis getting all those picks ... even if they're ****, they'll make the most of them. I always wished Dan would pour a ton of cash in to our drafting/scouting department.

Overall, I actually don't think we've drafted too badly (or taken undrafted guys). We have barely had any picks tho. Since LeBron left, I would consider these guys a success at their draft position:
Sexton
Garland
Kevin Porter Jr (debatable for off-court activities)
Mobley
Agbaji (not our guy ever, but still for a 15th pick looks like a quality NBA player)

So that leaves:
Windler
Okoro (debatable, but he was top 5 in a draft with much better guys taken later)
Travers
I. Mobley
Diop
Bates

I am leaving Tyson out of this because we can only speculate what he will provide moving forward

Undrafted guys that I'd say were a success:
Wade
Stevens (maybe debatable, but I say if you gave good rotational minutes then you are a successful undrafted guy or 2nd rounder)
Craig Porter Jr

The best drafting teams don't need top-5 picks and I can't give the Cavs too much credit for taking Mobley and Garland, and if we're going to pretend we know better than the various public draft raters and mocks (which you'd hope) we should do better than Sexton and Okoro.

Agbaji is starting to look like a player in Toronto, but I can't tell you how many Cavs fans on RCF were pleading for us to draft Tari Eason - one guy in particular who has his own draft rating system was really touting the guys horn.

And this isn't just about Altman's time as POBO/GM, every year Dan has owned the Cavs was a year he could have been spending his money so we had the best of the best when it came to draft evaluation and scouting.

[jbk1234]

Certain teams are really good with their picks, that's kind of the beauty of Memphis getting all those picks ... even if they're ****, they'll make the most of them. I always wished Dan would pour a ton of cash in to our drafting/scouting department.

Overall, I actually don't think we've drafted too badly (or taken undrafted guys). We have barely had any picks tho. Since LeBron left, I would consider these guys a success at their draft position:
Sexton
Garland
Kevin Porter Jr (debatable for off-court activities)
Mobley
Agbaji (not our guy ever, but still for a 15th pick looks like a quality NBA player)

So that leaves:
Windler
Okoro (debatable, but he was top 5 in a draft with much better guys taken later)
Travers
I. Mobley
Diop
Bates

I am leaving Tyson out of this because we can only speculate what he will provide moving forward

Undrafted guys that I'd say were a success:
Wade
Stevens (maybe debatable, but I say if you gave good rotational minutes then you are a successful undrafted guy or 2nd rounder)
Craig Porter Jr

The best drafting teams don't need top-5 picks and I can't give the Cavs too much credit for taking Mobley and Garland, and if we're going to pretend we know better than the various public draft raters and mocks (which you'd hope) we should do better than Sexton and Okoro.

Agbaji is starting to look like a player in Toronto, but I can't tell you how many Cavs fans on RCF were pleading for us to draft Tari Eason - one guy in particular who has his own draft rating system was really touting the guys horn.

And this isn't just about Altman's time as POBO/GM, every year Dan has owned the Cavs was a year he could have been spending his money so we had the best of the best when it came to draft evaluation and scouting.

Haliburton had a lot of question marks in Okoro's draft and we weren't taking a PG for the third season in a row. It gets pretty thin after that unless you're a big believer in Vassell. How thrilled would you be if the Cavs used Number 5 on Toppin? That was a trade back draft. Hard to argue about Sexton though.

[toooskies]

Certain teams are really good with their picks, that's kind of the beauty of Memphis getting all those picks ... even if they're ****, they'll make the most of them. I always wished Dan would pour a ton of cash in to our drafting/scouting department.

Overall, I actually don't think we've drafted too badly (or taken undrafted guys). We have barely had any picks tho. Since LeBron left, I would consider these guys a success at their draft position:
Sexton
Garland
Kevin Porter Jr (debatable for off-court activities)
Mobley
Agbaji (not our guy ever, but still for a 15th pick looks like a quality NBA player)

So that leaves:
Windler
Okoro (debatable, but he was top 5 in a draft with much better guys taken later)
Travers
I. Mobley
Diop
Bates

I am leaving Tyson out of this because we can only speculate what he will provide moving forward

Undrafted guys that I'd say were a success:
Wade
Stevens (maybe debatable, but I say if you gave good rotational minutes then you are a successful undrafted guy or 2nd rounder)
Craig Porter Jr

The best drafting teams don't need top-5 picks and I can't give the Cavs too much credit for taking Mobley and Garland, and if we're going to pretend we know better than the various public draft raters and mocks (which you'd hope) we should do better than Sexton and Okoro.

Agbaji is starting to look like a player in Toronto, but I can't tell you how many Cavs fans on RCF were pleading for us to draft Tari Eason - one guy in particular who has his own draft rating system was really touting the guys horn.

And this isn't just about Altman's time as POBO/GM, every year Dan has owned the Cavs was a year he could have been spending his money so we had the best of the best when it came to draft evaluation and scouting.

We wanted to trade up in that draft for Jalen Williams (or possibly Ousmane Dieng) but the Knicks took a bunch of protected 1sts from OKC.

Eason was the statistically sound choice but he had big question marks. He couldn’t drive left. His 3-point shot was ugly. I wanted Eason a lot more than Agbaji but the consensus on Agbaji was high for a reason. Leader of the NCAA champs, late to playing basketball, excelled at multiple team roles. He might still fall into that Reggie Bullock/Danny Green range of 3-and-D wings.

[JonFromVA]

Overall, I actually don't think we've drafted too badly (or taken undrafted guys). We have barely had any picks tho. Since LeBron left, I would consider these guys a success at their draft position:
Sexton
Garland
Kevin Porter Jr (debatable for off-court activities)
Mobley
Agbaji (not our guy ever, but still for a 15th pick looks like a quality NBA player)

So that leaves:
Windler
Okoro (debatable, but he was top 5 in a draft with much better guys taken later)
Travers
I. Mobley
Diop
Bates

I am leaving Tyson out of this because we can only speculate what he will provide moving forward

Undrafted guys that I'd say were a success:
Wade
Stevens (maybe debatable, but I say if you gave good rotational minutes then you are a successful undrafted guy or 2nd rounder)
Craig Porter Jr

The best drafting teams don't need top-5 picks and I can't give the Cavs too much credit for taking Mobley and Garland, and if we're going to pretend we know better than the various public draft raters and mocks (which you'd hope) we should do better than Sexton and Okoro.

Agbaji is starting to look like a player in Toronto, but I can't tell you how many Cavs fans on RCF were pleading for us to draft Tari Eason - one guy in particular who has his own draft rating system was really touting the guys horn.

And this isn't just about Altman's time as POBO/GM, every year Dan has owned the Cavs was a year he could have been spending his money so we had the best of the best when it came to draft evaluation and scouting.

Haliburton had a lot of question marks in Okoro's draft and we weren't taking a PG for the third season in a row. It gets pretty thin after that unless you're a big believer in Vassell. How thrilled would you be if the Cavs used Number 5 on Toppin? That was a trade back draft. Hard to argue about Sexton though.

Just looking at who was available to us, reading the draft descriptions, and watching a few videos I liked Vassell and even talked about Nesmith some on this board as a potential wildcard because of his ridiculous 3pt shooting in his sophomore season (51%). Deni was another guy talked about a lot and I figured he'd be the pick when he was still on the board, but the Cavs decided to get clever about it.

If the Cavs were going to off script and not draft a legit SF in that draft, I would have expected them to identify someone like a Nesmith, or a Maxey, or a Bane, or yes even Haliburton who measures out close enough to Okoro in terms of height/wingspan and shot 40% from 3pt in college (with his funky shot). Playmaking is always an asset, and worst case we could have flipped him like the Kings ended up doing.

I expect the Cavs to be a whole lot smarter at this than me given the time and resources Dan Gilbert has to throw at the problem.

Oh, and if they really loved Agbaji then sell the freakin Jazz on Okoro and don't just use him as a throw in to the Mitchell deal.

[JonFromVA]

Overall, I actually don't think we've drafted too badly (or taken undrafted guys). We have barely had any picks tho. Since LeBron left, I would consider these guys a success at their draft position:
Sexton
Garland
Kevin Porter Jr (debatable for off-court activities)
Mobley
Agbaji (not our guy ever, but still for a 15th pick looks like a quality NBA player)

So that leaves:
Windler
Okoro (debatable, but he was top 5 in a draft with much better guys taken later)
Travers
I. Mobley
Diop
Bates

I am leaving Tyson out of this because we can only speculate what he will provide moving forward

Undrafted guys that I'd say were a success:
Wade
Stevens (maybe debatable, but I say if you gave good rotational minutes then you are a successful undrafted guy or 2nd rounder)
Craig Porter Jr

The best drafting teams don't need top-5 picks and I can't give the Cavs too much credit for taking Mobley and Garland, and if we're going to pretend we know better than the various public draft raters and mocks (which you'd hope) we should do better than Sexton and Okoro.

Agbaji is starting to look like a player in Toronto, but I can't tell you how many Cavs fans on RCF were pleading for us to draft Tari Eason - one guy in particular who has his own draft rating system was really touting the guys horn.

And this isn't just about Altman's time as POBO/GM, every year Dan has owned the Cavs was a year he could have been spending his money so we had the best of the best when it came to draft evaluation and scouting.

We wanted to trade up in that draft for Jalen Williams (or possibly Ousmane Dieng) but the Knicks took a bunch of protected 1sts from OKC.

Eason was the statistically sound choice but he had big question marks. He couldn’t drive left. His 3-point shot was ugly. I wanted Eason a lot more than Agbaji but the consensus on Agbaji was high for a reason. Leader of the NCAA champs, late to playing basketball, excelled at multiple team roles. He might still fall into that Reggie Bullock/Danny Green range of 3-and-D wings.

I read a lot of chatter about us wanting to trade up for Dieng specifically (not Williams) - which is also problematic.

When you dial Agbaji back to his Sophmore season there's really no comparison between him and Eason. We gambled that Agbaji's growth curve was askew and we'll see ... maybe it was and he'll keep improving, but we weren't sure enough in our conviction to keep him. And we knew even back then the potential defensively for Mobley and Eason would be off the charts.

But for some reason we draft like we expect LeBron to come back and play SF for us.

[jbk1234]

The best drafting teams don't need top-5 picks and I can't give the Cavs too much credit for taking Mobley and Garland, and if we're going to pretend we know better than the various public draft raters and mocks (which you'd hope) we should do better than Sexton and Okoro.

Agbaji is starting to look like a player in Toronto, but I can't tell you how many Cavs fans on RCF were pleading for us to draft Tari Eason - one guy in particular who has his own draft rating system was really touting the guys horn.

And this isn't just about Altman's time as POBO/GM, every year Dan has owned the Cavs was a year he could have been spending his money so we had the best of the best when it came to draft evaluation and scouting.

We wanted to trade up in that draft for Jalen Williams (or possibly Ousmane Dieng) but the Knicks took a bunch of protected 1sts from OKC.

Eason was the statistically sound choice but he had big question marks. He couldn’t drive left. His 3-point shot was ugly. I wanted Eason a lot more than Agbaji but the consensus on Agbaji was high for a reason. Leader of the NCAA champs, late to playing basketball, excelled at multiple team roles. He might still fall into that Reggie Bullock/Danny Green range of 3-and-D wings.

I read a lot of chatter about us wanting to trade up for Dieng specifically (not Williams) - which is also problematic.

When you dial Agbaji back to his Sophmore season there's really no comparison between him and Eason. We gambled that Agbaji's growth curve was askew and we'll see ... maybe it was and he'll keep improving, but we weren't sure enough in our conviction to keep him. And we knew even back then the potential defensively for Mobley and Eason would be off the charts.

But for some reason we draft like we expect LeBron to come back and play SF for us.

Eason is still pretty limited offensively. This is last year on his rookie deal. I get why people like him, but he seems like a player who is viewed as being valuable, at least in part, because he's affordable.

[JujitsuFlip]

The best drafting teams don't need top-5 picks and I can't give the Cavs too much credit for taking Mobley and Garland, and if we're going to pretend we know better than the various public draft raters and mocks (which you'd hope) we should do better than Sexton and Okoro.

Agbaji is starting to look like a player in Toronto, but I can't tell you how many Cavs fans on RCF were pleading for us to draft Tari Eason - one guy in particular who has his own draft rating system was really touting the guys horn.

And this isn't just about Altman's time as POBO/GM, every year Dan has owned the Cavs was a year he could have been spending his money so we had the best of the best when it came to draft evaluation and scouting.

We wanted to trade up in that draft for Jalen Williams (or possibly Ousmane Dieng) but the Knicks took a bunch of protected 1sts from OKC.

Eason was the statistically sound choice but he had big question marks. He couldn’t drive left. His 3-point shot was ugly. I wanted Eason a lot more than Agbaji but the consensus on Agbaji was high for a reason. Leader of the NCAA champs, late to playing basketball, excelled at multiple team roles. He might still fall into that Reggie Bullock/Danny Green range of 3-and-D wings.

I read a lot of chatter about us wanting to trade up for Dieng specifically (not Williams) - which is also problematic.

When you dial Agbaji back to his Sophmore season there's really no comparison between him and Eason. We gambled that Agbaji's growth curve was askew and we'll see ... maybe it was and he'll keep improving, but we weren't sure enough in our conviction to keep him. And we knew even back then the potential defensively for Mobley and Eason would be off the charts.

But for some reason we draft like we expect LeBron to come back and play SF for us.

Until he retires, i think the Cavs always feel they have a shot to re-sign LeBron lol

[toooskies]

We wanted to trade up in that draft for Jalen Williams (or possibly Ousmane Dieng) but the Knicks took a bunch of protected 1sts from OKC.

Eason was the statistically sound choice but he had big question marks. He couldn’t drive left. His 3-point shot was ugly. I wanted Eason a lot more than Agbaji but the consensus on Agbaji was high for a reason. Leader of the NCAA champs, late to playing basketball, excelled at multiple team roles. He might still fall into that Reggie Bullock/Danny Green range of 3-and-D wings.

I read a lot of chatter about us wanting to trade up for Dieng specifically (not Williams) - which is also problematic.

When you dial Agbaji back to his Sophmore season there's really no comparison between him and Eason. We gambled that Agbaji's growth curve was askew and we'll see ... maybe it was and he'll keep improving, but we weren't sure enough in our conviction to keep him. And we knew even back then the potential defensively for Mobley and Eason would be off the charts.

But for some reason we draft like we expect LeBron to come back and play SF for us.

Eason is still pretty limited offensively. This is last year on his rookie deal. I get why people like him, but he seems like a player who is viewed as being valuable, at least in part, because he's affordable.

While I agree, that undersells how good he is defensively. Amen Thompson stole his thunder a bit, but Eason's a big event defender-- 3.8 stocks per 36, and also very good rebounding for his position. Great glue guy to come in and swing momentum from the bench. If he played more (and he should-- he's just better than Jabari Smith) he'd be in contention for all-defense.

[JonFromVA]

We wanted to trade up in that draft for Jalen Williams (or possibly Ousmane Dieng) but the Knicks took a bunch of protected 1sts from OKC.

Eason was the statistically sound choice but he had big question marks. He couldn’t drive left. His 3-point shot was ugly. I wanted Eason a lot more than Agbaji but the consensus on Agbaji was high for a reason. Leader of the NCAA champs, late to playing basketball, excelled at multiple team roles. He might still fall into that Reggie Bullock/Danny Green range of 3-and-D wings.

I read a lot of chatter about us wanting to trade up for Dieng specifically (not Williams) - which is also problematic.

When you dial Agbaji back to his Sophmore season there's really no comparison between him and Eason. We gambled that Agbaji's growth curve was askew and we'll see ... maybe it was and he'll keep improving, but we weren't sure enough in our conviction to keep him. And we knew even back then the potential defensively for Mobley and Eason would be off the charts.

But for some reason we draft like we expect LeBron to come back and play SF for us.

Eason is still pretty limited offensively. This is last year on his rookie deal. I get why people like him, but he seems like a player who is viewed as being valuable, at least in part, because he's affordable.

Or maybe his role has been limited as Houston has a glut of players? Eason has a +6.0 career On-Off primarily coming off the bench which is pretty rare for a young player, and has a +3.6 BPM this season which is also notable and an indication of impact and all-around contributions.

Agbaji showed signs of life this season getting his efficiency up to a good place, but his On-Off and BPM are still in the negative.

But regardless of Eason's ultimate ceiling, it's hard to argue with his length and the impact it has and we've needed wings with length. It would have made a whole lot more sense gambling on Eason developing his 3pt shot after shooting 36% in his sophomore season .vs. Okoro who shot 28.6% in his freshman season - not even taking in to account the fact we reached for Okoro at 5 while Eason fell to 17.

Of course we could have done worse with our picks too. My point here is that certain teams consistently find gems in the late first round and second round and I wish we were one of them as we head in to the second apron. There's no cap on that spending.

[JujitsuFlip]

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45561747/sources-suns-trading-kevin-durant-rockets-blockbuster-deal

KD was traded again. It says the Cavs were a late surprise suitor. I wonder what our offer was? Nothing wrong with picking up the phone and kicking the tires.

[JonFromVA]

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45561747/sources-suns-trading-kevin-durant-rockets-blockbuster-deal

KD was traded again. It says the Cavs were a late surprise suitor. I wonder what our offer was? Nothing wrong with picking up the phone and kicking the tires.

Cavs like to kick tires, plus you never know when a spare part might fall out of the deal and end up a Cav (ex: Jarrett Allen); but can't imagine we were too serious given how many players we'd have to give up to match (something like Allen, Okoro, and Hunter).

The surprising thing to me is that the Suns didn't recoup any of their future 1sts that Houston owns.

[jbk1234]

Agree on KPJ, but the talent was worth the risk at the time. Sometimes headcases can pull things together quickly, sometimes it takes them years and lots of context switches.

Stevens was salary matching in the Strus deal. San Antonio needed a 2nd to take both Stevens AND Cedi. While Stevens was immediately waived, he was only guaranteed $400k, so most of that 2nd was about eating Cedi's money.

Go look at the history of #8 picks and see how many panned out. Sexton is probably in the top 5 of #8 picks in the past 25 years. (It's Franz, Rudy Gay, Dyson Daniels, Chris Wilcox maybe, then Sexton?) The fact that Sexton was roughly half the salary match for Mitchell (and enough of the value to get the trade done) was a good outcome for the Cavs given the history of that draft position.

Cedi played 72 games for the Spurs, Pop did not need a 2nd to take him. The 2nd was to dump Stevens, since as you pointed out, he was waived immediately.

Like i said, the end result for Sexton worked but it stunted the rebuild by 1 year by getting him. It's too bad SGA was so anti-Cleveland.

A 2nd is worth more than $400k, more like 10x that. Cedi was out of the league as soon as his contract ended.

Cedi he got a second contract, which for second round pick is far from a sure thing. Gun to my head, I'm playing him over Bates.