Oklahoma’s Trae Young brings tons of risk and possible reward for the Cavaliers

After trading away Kyrie Irving to the Celtics, the Cavaliers have been in dire need of a franchise point guard. Oklahoma’s Trae Young may fit the bill but comes with plenty of concerns.

On August 22, 2017, a job opened up in Cleveland. The position? Franchise point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

After shipping off Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics in the offseason, the Cavs tried to fill the position with some temps. They did trial runs with Derrick Rose, Jose Calderon, the shell of Isaiah Thomas and eventually George Hill.

Out of all four players, Calderon was surprisingly the best of the bunch.

That alone is a major red flag for a team that traded away the best point guard in the East.

The lack of consistency at point guard has killed the Cavaliers and fixing the position will be a top priority in the offseason. Especially when the team faces the risk of losing LeBron James.

Thankfully, there is a silver lining.

In the Irving trade, the Cavaliers were able to secure the rights to the Brooklyn Nets’ first-round draft pick. After the NBA Draft Lottery, the Cavs found out that they will have the eighth overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.

While playmaking savant Luka Doncic will be out of reach, there are two other guard prospects that could fit as feature point guards for the Cavaliers. The second and third best point guards in this year’s draft class are the University of Alabama’s Collin Sexton and the University of Oklahoma’s Trae Young.

Sexton is a scrappy defensive guard that shows a ton of heart and can finish at the rim at will. He compares a lot to Eric Bledsoe and will have a niche as a lockdown defender in the Associaton.

Unfortunately, because of the success of the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets, most NBA teams are living and dying by three-pointers and beyond-the-arc is where Sexton struggles the most to score. As a result, his draft stock is sliding towards the middle of the first round.

While defense wins championships, Sexton could struggle from the perimeter and the three-happy Cavs may take a pass on him.

So that leaves Young.

When doing a quick Google search, it’s pretty common to see Young mocked to the Cavaliers at the eighth spot. A polarizing prospect, Young does have the tools to be the Cavs’ franchise point guard of the future.

He is an offensive spark plug that thrives in the pick and roll and can hit a three-point shot from the parking lot:

He also is a stellar passer with collegiate averages of 8.7 assists per game. His combination of crafty playmaking and elite shooting from beyond the arc has given Young a ceiling similar to Steph Curry’s.

All of Young’s offensive specialties, along with the Curry comparison, certainly fit the bill for what the Cavaliers are looking for.

Plus, he is also one of James’ favorite collegiate players and may help on bringing the King back.

Still, there are a few flaws that hold Young back. The biggest red flag, especially when compared to Sexton, is the fact that Young is a sieve on defense.

The Cavs have dealt with turnstiles at point guard for a while now and with Kevin Love at center and drafting Young on top of that will be a death sentence for the defense. Young specializes in the pick-and-roll on offense and gets eaten alive in the pick-and-roll on defense.

The reason, in part, why Young is so bad on defense is that he is undersized at 6-foot-2 and a thin 180 pounds. The other red flag Young throws up is how much he dominated the ball in his one year with the Sooners.

To give fans a better idea, look at how his numbers compared to another player he is compared to, Jimmer Fredette:

Fredette was selected in the same year as Irving and saw stints with the Sacramento Kings, the Chicago Bulls, the New Orleans Pelicans, the G-League and is now playing overseas in China.

Jimmer-Mania was pretty real in his last college season and played a part in why he was drafted so high. Having Young even mentioned in the same sentence as Fredette can naturally cause alarm for NBA teams.

However, unlike Fredette, Young has less collegiate experience and there’s more potential in his developmental arc. Young put up similar numbers to Fredette in just one year and with the right organization could fix his flaws.

In sum, Young is a bonafide definition of a boom-or-bust prospect for the Cavaliers.

On one hand, he is an offensive dynamo and his three-point shooting is fairly tantalizing for modern NBA offenses. On the other, he is a sieve on defense and there are concerns about his usage rate in college.

He has the floor of Fredette and the ceiling of Curry. The NBA player he compares to most is former point guard Mike Bibby.

The ball is now entirely in Cavs general  manager Koby Altman’s court.

His career-defining trades include landing both the underperforming Hill and Thomas so getting the eighth pick right may soften the loss of Irving.

He could make the safe pick and draft Duke University’s Wendell Carter III or even Sexton. He could also take a risk and draft Young.

Altman is truly Charlie Kelly as the wildcard of the NBA Draft:

If he does draft Young, there will be plenty of debate for years to come.

Young may not be the safest pick but he certainly is the sexiest.

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