3 players Cavs could maybe target in 2nd round if they purchase a pick

Ignas Brazdeikis

If Cleveland wants to go with Beilein’s Michigan connection at some point in the second round, I could see the Cavaliers buying one of those picks to snag Michigan forward Ignas Brazdeikis.

We’ve hit on Brazdeikis a bit here at KJG, and rightfully so, as he led the Wolverines in the 2018-19 season in scoring as a freshman (albeit older freshman at already 20) with 14.8 points per game on 53.1% effective field goal shooting.

Brazdeikis is a player that has a very high basketball IQ, particularly when it comes to the offensive end of the floor, and should project to have some versatility on the offensive end, too.

He played predominantly as a 4 for Michigan last season, but in Beilein’s offensive system predicated on both screens on the ball and off it, often resulted in back-cuts, the feel is pretty positionless, anyhow, for a 3/4 and even at times 2 in Brazdeikis. I would imagine on the Cleveland Cavaliers, that he would project as mostly a second unit scorer/secondary playmaker that would feasibly play as a replacement for Cedi Osman and potentially be a small-ball 4 at times that can do damage as an inside-out scoring threat.

He shot 50.0% from two-point range (on a volume of 7.1 attempts per game) and 39.2% from three-point range (on a volume of 3.9 attempts per game), showcasing his versatility as a scorer.

He’s a player that could get it done for Cleveland’s bench both as a floor-spacer off the catch, and off the bounce some, as he is adept in his use of in-paint floaters, has some face-up ability with both hands as a finisher, and can get attack closeouts leading to layups/dunks and finish in the mid-range area pretty well.

Additionally, he has shown some ability to finish through contact with his listed 6-foot-6, 221-pound frame (per NBA.com), and he could potentially make something out of nothing as a rotational playmaker and get to the free throw line in attacking of smaller defenders, as he had a fairly healthy free throw rate of 36.9% and shot 77.3% from there.

Now, on the defensive end of the floor, there appears to be a ton of uncertainty. Brazdeikis did show he was a capable defender off the ball at Michigan, but that was also on one of the best defensive teams in the country and on a squad with very strong defenders such as Charles Matthews, Zavier Simpson and Jon Teske often on the floor with “Iggy.”

As draft pundits have all seemingly noted, Brazdeikis’ defensive floor doesn’t seem all that great as an individual defender because of his lack of athleticism, but from the Cavs’ perspective, Brazdeikis does seem to rotate well to shooters to closeout, and his defensive rebounding rate of 16.1% last year was encouraging, along with his functional strength in the post on defense that could allow him to hold his own in that way.

For now, Michigan’s only one-and-done player in the Beilein era (which was 12 seasons and h/t Mlive.com’s Andrew Kahn) is projected to be a late second-round pick according to Sports Illustrated’s Jeremy Woo (also h/t Kahn), and in that realm, I could realistically see the Cavs and Altman wanting to buy that selection and seeing if Beilein can get the most out of Iggy as likely a bench scorer, which seems feasible.