Cavs meet with several top prospects at NBA Draft Combine

The Cleveland Cavaliers met with a wide array of top draft prospects during the NBA Draft Combine as they prepare for the 2018 NBA Draft.

According to cleveland.com’s Joe Vardon, the Cleveland Cavaliers met with quite a few of the 2018 NBA Drafts top prospects during the NBA Draft Combine.

Per Vardon:

"The Cavs, who have the No. 8 pick in the June draft, sat with marquee players including Trae Young of Oklahoma, Mo Bamba of Texas, and Mikal Bridges of Villanova, according to sources and media reports.The list was longer than that, as a source stressed the Cavs’ brass met with all the potential lottery picks with a chance to fall to No. 8. Duke’s Wendell Carter and Missouri’s Michael Porter Jr. are likely two of those players.Arizona’s DeAndre Ayton and European star Luka Doncic did not attend the Chicago event, and the Cavs didn’t meet with Duke’s Marvin Bagley III."

To this point, the Cavaliers are known to have either scouted or worked out University of Oklahoma point guard Trae Young, University of Alabama point guard Collin Sexton, Michigan State University swingman Miles Bridges, University of Missouri forward Michael Porter Jr., Villanova University power forward Omari Spellman, San Diego State forward Jalen McDaniels, Auburn University shooting guard Mustapha Heron, IMG Academy point guard Anfernee Simons, former USC point guard De’Anthony Melton and St. John’s University point guard Shamorie Ponds.

They’ve likely met privately with all of these players, including the prospects mentioned by Vardon (University of Texas center Mo Bamba, Villanova University small forward Mikal Bridges and Duke University’s Wendell Carter III).

If you were to list off all of the potential lottery picks that are expected to fall out of the top-3, Michigan State University center Jaren Jackson Jr., the University of Kentucky’s duo of lottery prospects (Kevin Knox and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), University of Miami shooting guard Lonnie Walker, Creighton University shooting guard Khyri Thomas and Duke University shooting guard Gary Trent Jr. would also players that the Cavaliers met with during the NBA Draft Combine.

By my count, that’s 14 out of the 20 prospects there were said to meet with during the Combine.

According to Vardon, the Cleveland Cavaliers came away from the Combine even happier about the value of their first-round pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.

The eighth overall pick could be used to select many of these top prospects, especially one that could fall out of a projected top-five selections.

The Cavaliers could try to trade back in the Draft to secure an additional pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. They could try to trade up.

They could trade the pick away in a package that lands them a disgruntled All-Star like San Antonio’s forward Kawhi Leonard or Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl Anthony-Towns.

If they keep the selection, upgrading one of the guard positions is a must as the Cavaliers have lacked a go-to perimeter playmaker (outside of LeBron James) in their starting lineup since point guard Kyrie Irving requested a trade and wound up on the Boston Celtics.

Upgrading the center position with a do-it-all prospect like Bamba, Jackson or Carter wouldn’t be a bad idea either. The Cavaliers have had to pick between floor spacing and rim-protection all season but if they selected one of those three big men at the top of the draft those days are over.

As you can see, the 8th pick in the 2018 NBA Draft holds tremendous value.

Because the void left by Irving has been irreplaceable this season, the Cavaliers have had to rely even more heavily on James, their aging megastar. Moving forward the Cavaliers will need better playmaker on the perimeter and better defensive potential, both which will help ease the pressure on James.

Of course, James is set to become a free agent this summer and because the Draft is held before the start of free agency, whoever the Cavs acquire with that pick will need to have the type of talent that could help sway James towards re-signing. For that read the Cavaliers could stray away from selecting a player with too much risk attached to their selection, like a slight-of-frame point guard in Young.

Young, a dynamic playmaker for Oklahoma, has the floor of Jimmer Fredette and the ceiling of Stephen Curry. That’s the definition of a high-risk, high-reward player.

Related Story: The boom-or-bust potential of Trae Young

The 2018 NBA Draft will take place on June 21st.