Bradley Beal: The Draft Prospectus

As the games go by that Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving sits on the sideline due to injury, the higher the Cavaliers draft stock becomes. Another ping pong ball in the hopper, as it has deemed by several Clevelanders, is the term used to describe the Cavaliers recent losing ways. Cleveland has gone 3-14 in their last seventeen games, falling to the fifth-worst team in the NBA.

So from a possible eighth-seed birth in the NBA playoffs to a team losing to win the lottery, it’s now fair to talk draft on Right Down Euclid. The Cavaliers are in need of a true center and a wingman. Tristan Thompson is developing into a great interim center, but he belongs at the power forward position. We need a big, domineering man to control the center of the lane, but Thompson will do for now.

With Anthony Parker’s evident departure at the end of the season, the Cavaliers are even more in need of a wingman. Someone for Kyrie to kick it out too when he can’t get through the lane. And that someone could be Florida’s Bradley Beal. A freshmen who averaged 14.8 points and 6.7 rebounds, Marquette coach told his team in the NCAA tournament game against Florida that Beal “is by far their most efficient player, relative to the things we study — the things that go into winning.”

So why should the Cavaliers draft, if they get a favorable lottery pick, Beal if he is only going to be 19 years old on the day of the draft and if nearly half of his shot attempts came from beyond the three-point arc? Because that is just what the Cavaliers would need in their young and developing team. Beal shot 33.9 percent from trey land and averaged 1.4 steals.

Another trait that could draw him to the Cavalier front office is his work ethic. He’s been said to be a very hard worker, so I suspect that he’s already in the gym practicing his NBA three’s. The 6-4-6-5 Beal is the perfect size for an NBA shooting guard.

He would be the perfect opposite-side to Irving, becoming a young and lethal duo in probably no time. That’s a little quick to judge because the Cavaliers might not even land a pick of five or under. With a high basketball IQ he could be the fix to the problem head coach Byron Scott is having with his players. He has said multiple times during the season that only a few players know the playbook, sighting Omri Casspi as not being one of them.

He hasn’t been sighted as much of a scorer (17 points per-40) and his efficiency isn’t the highest (50% EFG%), but he has the work ethic to become an NBA point guard by the time the 2012-13 season rolls along. It’s a mystery if the Cavaliers will have a chance to grab him, but if he’s there I think it would be a very smart pick. If they keep on losing, that could happen, but the Cavaliers have been very lucky in past drafts.

Let’s just see how the last 10 games go.