Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert preferred Victor Oladipo to Anthony Bennett in the 2013 NBA Draft.
According to Jason Lloyd of The Athletic, in that ill-fated 2013 NBA Draft that led to the Cleveland Cavaliers selecting UNLV’s Anthony Bennett with the first overall pick, there was much deliberation about who that player should be.
At the time, the Cavs’ general manager was current San Antonio Spurs scout Chris Grant. Grant was hired as the Cleveland Cavaliers general manager in 2010 and fired just four seasons later. However, he was responsible for the Cleveland Cavaliers drafting Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters, two players who played crucial roles as starters in the Cavs’ lone championship-winning season and a third (Waiters) who was ultimately traded, although it would seem that he is indeed a talented player.
Grant, David Griffin (who was the Cavs’ vice president of basketball operations at the time) and owner Dan Gilbert were the triumvirate with the most caché in determining who the Cavs’ pick would be but there was a ten-person panel that deliberated on whether or not Bennett should be Cavs’ top pick (former head coach Mike Brown would support the selection of Bennett after watching him play beside his son Elijah at UNLV).
Per The Athletic:
"“Choosing between so many flawed prospects was keeping [Grant] up at night. He had to get this right. And much like with (Derrick) Williams two years earlier, Grant did not like (Anthony) Bennett… Grant was high on (Ben) McLemore, but everyone knew he wasn’t in Irving’s league in terms of talent and ability. So when the Cavs front office sat down before the draft to cast their vote on who to take, the final tally was 9-1 in favor of Bennett. The one vote against taking him? Chris Grant.”"
More from The Athletic:
"“(Victor) Oladipo, Gilbert’s favorite, went second to the Magic.”“Grant, meanwhile, hardly gushed over Bennett when he met with the media after the draft.”"
Well then.
While Bennett was ultimately the Cavs’ draft selection, it was a pick no doubt borne in part from a desire for him to be the bruising point-forward that they were missing since LeBron James left. Not for him to replicate what James could do in terms of volume, just role.
Meanwhile, the Cavs already had Waiters at shooting guard and while moving Waiters into a sixth man-role could have worked (it’s the one he had in college), it seemed more prudent for the Cavs to finally address their forward position.
In the absence of James, it always seemed like the Cleveland Cavaliers purposely never brought in a great small forward on purpose, as if they wanted to make it known that they were saving his spot for him. Just think, it wasn’t until 2014 that the Cavs made a run at one of the top small forward’s (Gordon Hayward) and in the 2013 NBA Draft, selecting Otto Porter would have made perfect sense (after Nerlens Noel’s injury removed him from top pick consideration).
However, by selecting Bennett the Cavs were selecting a player with combo forward potential. A player who, no matter how talented, wouldn’t take James’ spot in the lineup. Unfortunately, Bennett showed up to camp out-of-shape, struggled in the NBA and in the NBA’s Development League (currently the NBA G-League) and ultimately traded along with Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love as James returned to The Land.
After being traded, Bennett would go from team to team, earning sympathy but failing to give a team a reason to keep him on their roster. Just this season, Bennett was cut from the Phoenix Suns’ roster prior to the start of the regular season.
The same Suns who lost two games this season by a combined 90 points.
McLemore, Grant’s favorite, has also struggled in his NBA career although that was in part due to the organization he was playing for: the Sacramento Kings. Though the Kings have changed their culture in the offseason, McLemore was playing for a team that lacked an environment conducive to the success of a young player. A team full of ego and drama but lacking focus and a winning culture. A big change from what he had at the University of Kansas.
Nonetheless, McLemore found a niche in the league as a catch-and-shoot player, as was expected. He’s not the next Ray Allen perhaps but he made 36.5 percent of his three-point attempts since his rookie season. He made a career-high 38.2 percent of his threes last season.
What’s interesting is that Oladipo (from Indiana University) was Griffin’s favorite player though. The same Griffin who is always talked about like he doesn’t know how to make the right basketball moves but has been a part of all of the Cavs’ successes (and failures) since LeBron James came into the league. He even played a pivotal role in the stunning trade package the Cleveland Cavaliers received for Kyrie Irving after the Indiana Pacers pulled out of a trade (that he set up) that would have resulted in Paul George and Carmelo Anthony donning the Wine and Gold.
Oladipo was actually the centerpiece in the Pacers’ return for George and though he’s already been traded twice in his short career, he’s an above-average player on both ends of the floor with averages of 15.9 points, 3.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 43.3 percent from the field and 35.3 percent from three-point range. He has a career PER of 15.1 and 9.8 career defensive win shares.
This season Oladipo is averaging 22.3 points, 3.7 assists and 2.7 steals per game while shooting 40.4 percent from the field and 35.3 percent from three-point range. He’s an athletic player that can lock down his man on the opposing end, burst into the lane on a dribble-drive and now a solid catch-and-shoot threat (36.9 percent on 4.4 three-point attempts per game).
Although Giannis Antetokounmpo (an athletic specimen who uses his physique and growing court vision to dominate opponents) and C.J. McCollum (a masterful scorer with combo guard abilities) turned out to be the best players in that draft class, nobody would have selected either one with the top pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. There simply wasn’t enough known about Antetokounmpo and McCollum, who was already 22-years-old, played for little-known Lehigh University.
Nonetheless, had the Cavs selected Oladipo, they could have traded Wiggins and Dion Waiters to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Kevin Love and had a starting lineup of Irving – Oladipo – James – Love – Thompson. That’s a lineup that should be able to excel on both ends of the floor and one that was, more or less, organically grown. It’s possible there would be no J.R. Smith (Waiters was used to trade for Smith and Iman Shumpert), a travesty in and of itself, but with the deteriorating relationship between Smith and the Knicks and what would have still been a need for a catch-and-shoot guard, Smith could have still wound up playing in Cleveland.
If only Gilbert had got his wish in 2013.
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*All stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com