Where the Cleveland Cavaliers stand after the 2019 NBA Draft lottery

Examining the draft possibilities and hitting on J.R. Smith

Most rebuilds require patience and take a number of years, and general manager Koby Altman and the Cavs seem more realistic about the team being in a rebuild and that this won’t happen overnight.  Good franchises are able to find talent and develop it gradually, and that’s exactly why the Cavaliers hired new head coach John Beilein.

In regards to Beilein’s potential influence for Cleveland, one rival NBA executive had plenty of praise for the new hire, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.

"“Love the hire,” one rival NBA executive told cleveland.com. “For a team that is going to be player-development driven, with a young, exciting point guard, Koby Altman may have just knocked this hire out of the park.”"

Beilein looks like he could be very well be the right guy for this rebuild, and one player to look out for at number five, as our own Robbie DiPaola recently detailed, is Duke’s Cam Reddish, who has enormous upside (as CBS Sports’ Reid Forgrave highlighted with a Paul George comparison if he puts it all together and was Forgrave’s Cavs’ first pick) and could fit with Beilein’s offensive and defensive perimeter focus.

The Paul George comparison is one that’s been following Reddish for a while when you consider his size, elite athleticism, defensive potential and the fact he can create his own shot, which is the case, even though that wasn’t shown as much at Duke.

His production didn’t match the level of talent he has, but his upside is through the roof. Wednesday was the start of the NBA Draft combine and these are Cam’s official measurements per ESPN/Draft Express’ Jonathan Givony, which are a key plus with Reddish.

Again that’s why the Cleveland Cavaliers hired Beilein, so he can possibly develop someone as talented as Reddish to reach his full potential.

Let’s not forget the Cavs have the Houston Rockets’ 26th pick as well, and there are a multitude of ways Cleveland can go with that;  they could still use more wings on the perimeter, so they could still target players such as Kentucky’s Keldon Johnson (if he drops), Auburn’s Chuma Okeke (who would be a stash due to an ACL injury last month but has great two-way upside), or Washington’s Matisse Thybulle, considering how bad (a historically awful defensive rating last season, as we’ve often referenced) and how much help the Cavs’ defense needs.

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The Cavs also have a key trade piece they could use in J.R. Smith, thanks to another team being able to waive or stretch his contract, too, and combined with owner Dan Gilbert’s willingness to spend, perhaps Cleveland could acquire a pick near the lottery (as Fedor suggested), and target a piece such as Oregon’s Bol Bol in addition to or while packaging the 26th pick.

Obviously the cap would likely come in to play there, but Gilbert will spend to win if it’s needed, anyhow.

Bol (like Reddish to a degree) is a high-risk, high reward player. He has the chance to become another NBA unicorn standing at  7-foot-2 with an enormous 7-foot-7 wingspan, per Tankathon, but he only appeared in nine games for Oregon this past season due to a reported stress fracture in his foot (h/t NBC Sports Northwest’s Bri Amaranthus), but showed his potential in that time.

He was averaging 21.0 points on 61.0% effective field goal shooting (including a 52.0% clip from three-point land), 9.6 rebounds and 2.7 blocks in 29.9 minutes per game, per Sports Reference.

Moreover, the Cavs still have alot of work to do this offseason.