Cleveland Cavaliers: What does Drew’s career say about his style?

The education of Teague should bode well for Collin Sexton

One of the most interesting aspects of Drew’s tenure from the standpoint of a Cavaliers fan is he oversaw the changing of the guard from Mike Bibby to Jeff Teague, who came into the league as a sophomore out of Wake Forest. He was the 19th pick in a crowded 2009 point guard class – Ricky Rubio, Tyreke Evans, James Harden, Johnny Flynn, Brandon Jennings, Gerald Henderson, Jrue Holiday, Ty Lawson and Darren Collison – all but the latter of whom were taken before Teague.

Teague was drafted before Woodson’s final head coaching season, and received only 10 minutes a game. That first year under Drew he only played 13 minutes per game, but he started the last two, and bloomed into a 14.6 ppg, 7.2 apg and 1.5 spg that final year under Drew. He gave him the keys and the confidence to take the role and be, much like Collin Sexton, a shoot-first point guard.

That said, Drew also limited Teague’s development during that final year by insisting on closing games with Devin Harris instead. Choosing young players over veterans even though it may cost you wins is something that will be required of this year’s Cleveland coach, so this could be an issue. Still, it would be awfully hard to make a mistake on the front office’s intentions about Sexton under the circumstances.

It’s also probably worth noting that Teague still signed an offer sheet with Milwaukee to follow Drew to his new team (the Hawks matched it). Another noteworthy move by Drew was bringing in Zaza Pachulia to play center and move Al Horford to the more comfortable power forward position, the first coach to do that with any regularity.

Drew’s season in Milwaukee was a mess. They won 15 games and he was fired. But he made the canny decision to start a first-year 22-year old, 6-foot-8 shooting guard who had washed out of Detroit as a second-round pick the year before. Khris Middleton is still a fixture in the Bucks’ lineup. Drew also gave Giannis Antetokounmpo 25 minutes a night as a very raw 19-year old rookie.