If Cavs win lottery, Zion would have to welcome LeBron comparisons even more

The 2019 NBA Draft lottery is on Tuesday night, and if the Cleveland Cavaliers land the rights to draft Duke superstar Zion Williamson, he’ll have to be content with welcoming a comparison to LeBron James even more.

Tuesday night at 8:30 P.M. on ESPN is when the much-anticipated 2019 NBA Draft lottery will commence (our own Corey Casey has more on that), and of course, fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers are hoping that Cleveland lands the number one pick, which would be the rights to select consensus number one pick Zion Williamson, who was incredible in his one season at Duke.

As we’ve often mentioned here at KJG, Cleveland is tied with the New York Knicks and the Phoenix Suns (due to the new NBA lottery system giving the previous year’s bottom three teams all equal first pick odds) for having the best chance of landing the number one overall pick in the lottery, which is a 14.0% chance (per Tankathon).

Cleveland’s best-case finish would be winning the lottery, and their worst case, as we’ve also touched on often (due to a previous lottery odds tiebreaker with the Suns) would be landing the sixth overall pick.

Overall, Cleveland, New York (who reportedly would want to move Zion in exchange for New Orleans Pelicans superstar Anthony Davis if they won the lottery, per The Athletic and Stadium’s Shams Charania though that was rebutted by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski) and Phoenix have a 52.0% chance of having a top four pick (per Tankathon), but again, Cavs fans (along with every lottery team fan base) will be hoping for the first pick much more than in typical lotteries.

Pundits seem to believe the 18-year-old Williamson is one of the very best prospects to come into the draft since LeBron James, who was picked first overall way back in 2003 by Cleveland.

Obviously, James is the best player in the history of the Cleveland Cavaliers and he was one of the league’s best players (and was the best NBA player for the majority of his time in Cleveland) during his 11 years with the Cavs; he is the franchise leader in points, assists, rebounds, steals, player efficiency rating (PER), win shares, minutes played and more (per Basketball Reference).

More from King James Gospel

• 3 possible starting lineups for Cleveland Cavaliers in 2023-24
• The Cavaliers may have snagged a hidden gem in Craig Porter Jr.
• 4 players the Cavaliers should pursue in 2024 free agency
• 6 players Cavaliers might replace Jarrett Allen with by the trade deadline
• This stat is one to keep an eye on for Cavaliers’ Max Strus in years ahead

James was the main reason that the Cavaliers won their only championship in team history in 2016, and in my opinion, he’s the best athlete in the history of Cleveland sports.

Anyway, it appears that Williamson is going to be a heck of a player at the NBA level, too, and has ridiculous athleticism at a listed 6-foot-7, 285 pounds (per Tankathon), just like James has been known to have his entire career.

Williamson, as you’ve probably seen, is quite the physical specimen, and he is a thunderous dunker, both in the halfcourt as a roller and putback man, and in transition. As we’ve touched on, though, he is much more than that, as Zion has a really solid postup game and he can do damage as a pick-and-roll ball-handler in spurts, too, to go along with impressive passing vision and ability.

Williamson had a statline of 22.6 points on 70.8% effective field goal shooting, to go with 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.8 blocks per game, while also having an insane PER of 40.8 in his one collegiate season (per Sports Reference), so yes, the guy projects as essentially a can’t-miss prospect, just like James was (to be clear, Zion isn’t LeBron, though).

If the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have had their share of lottery luck (they won the lottery an unprecedented three times in a four-year span from 2011-2014), win the 2019 NBA Draft lottery, Williamson will likely be viewed as the second coming of James in Cleveland, whether that is a fair comparison or not.

If that’s the case, though, as it likely would be, Williamson will have to welcome the comparisons to the King with open arms, because just like LeBron did in the years he was playing for the Cavs, Williamson would have a massive impact both on the floor and maybe even more so, off it.

Crain’s Cleveland Business’ Kevin Kleps detailed that in a recent article, in which Kleps noted that according to a league source, Zion “could produce a 25% to 30% business lift for a team such as the Cavs,” and for teams with less interest from fans, “the increase could be 40%,” which is likely similar to the effect James has had throughout his career when it comes to Cleveland.

So given that sort of thing, it would be even tougher for Williamson to deflect a comparison to James (who he’s been compared to to a degree with his athleticism and strength), if he were drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Duke product would have to just smile about it.

Either way, Williamson will be must-see television wherever he ends up, but in the Wine and Gold? Wow, that would be unbelievable for new Cleveland head coach John Beilein, the organization as a whole and the fan base.