Where the Cleveland Cavaliers stand after the 2019 NBA Draft lottery

Looking forward

They may have hired their head coach to lead this young team next year, but they still have to fill out the rest of the coaching staff.  The Cavs were likely very disappointed they didn’t win the Zion sweepstakes and even more disappointed they fell out of the top three all together.

Just because they fell out of the top three and fell to five, though, doesn’t mean all is lost.

In the history of the fifth pick of the draft we’ve seen the likes of De’Aaron Fox, Kevin Love, Dwayne Wade, Vince Carter, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Scottie Pippen, and Charles Barkley all get taken there. I’m not saying the Cleveland Cavaliers will find a Hall of Famer or an All-Star with the fifth, but it’s on Altman and the front office to find a valuable piece in that spot, just like many other teams across the league have been able to do with similar, or even lesser picks.

It would’ve been nice if the Cavs got the first pick, because Williamson would be an easy layup at that spot, but it just means Cleveland has more work to do in terms of scouting and finding the right guy. The Cavs seem to have their head coach in Beilein, but the next step will probably be to fill out the rest of the coaching staff.

Though I didn’t like the idea of him as a potential head coach of the Cavs, many seem to believe that former Memphis Grizzlies and Houston Rockets head coach J.B. Bickerstaff would make a quality lead assistant and that is a cause I could get behind, and Beilein seems to believe that himself, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski recently reported that Beilein and Bickerstaff are going to discuss a potential associate head coaching role for the latter soon.

The draft will be interesting, and the Smith contract could be the next domino to fall considering so many teams across the NBA are trying to create cap space and that would help do exactly that.

Furthermore, Cleveland’s offseason has really only just started, and there will likely be at least one trade the Cavs make this offseason (also factoring in Cleveland’s five expiring players in Brandon Knight, Matthew Dellavedova, John Henson, Jordan Clarkson and Tristan Thompson) to acquire more assets, so stay tuned.