The Cleveland Cavaliers have been playing pretty well since the All-Star break, and I asked the KJG team about that, and as has been the case for nearly all of our roundtable discussions, we discussed the 2019 NBA Draft.
The All-Star break seems to have helped the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are playing much better as of late. Kevin Love returning from missing over half the season due to reported toe surgery to play a large portion of recent games has worked wonders for Cleveland’s offense, and other pieces have turned it up a notch, too.
As we’ve touched on, Cleveland has benefited from playing a pretty light schedule post-break to this point, though, with the tanking Phoenix Suns, Memphis Grizzlies and New York Knicks being opponents, for example.
The Cavaliers would win those three games, and when the Portland Trail Blazers, who’ve been one of the better teams in the Western Conference (and currently the four seed in that conference), came to town this past Monday, it was a different story in a tough loss for Cleveland.
The Cavs’ 129-93 loss to the Detroit Pistons yesterday (even with Kevin Love being out reportedly due to rest) was another reminder of Cleveland having a long way to go.
Nonetheless, even dating back to pre-All-Star break, as we noted in the previous roundtable, key young pieces have make their case to be pieces for the future for Cleveland and general manager Koby Altman.
Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman, as KJG contributor Josh Friedman recently mentioned, have been playing much better over this recent stretch, and that’s a big positive heading toward the last month or so of the 2018-19 season.
The KJG team discussed the potential outlook for those Sexton and Osman looking forward with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland’s biggest need(s) looking at the 2019 NBA Draft, and two other questions.
Those other two questions included the KJG team’s reactions to, according to a recent report from The Athletic’s Joe Vardon (subscription required), Cleveland likely bringing back David Nwaba next season, and whether or not Love being healthier most of this year would’ve changed the direction of the 2018-19 season for the Cavaliers.
Now, onto question number one.