Cavs rumors: Reports reaffirm 3rd first-rounder should be available

The Cleveland Cavaliers should be able to snag a third first-round pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, based on recent reports, and that’s a positive for their rebuild.

It’s obvious that the Cleveland Cavaliers don’t seem to be the standing pat type under general manager Koby Altman, and their front office/organization demonstrated that in recent years with how they’ve often conducted trades, and in 2018-19, in particular.

As you probably are aware of at this point, Cleveland currently is slated to have the fifth and 26th overall selections in the 2019 NBA Draft, which is on Thursday (June 20).

As we’ve often noted, though, based on the multitude of Cavaliers rumors, the Wine and Gold seemingly could trade up or down from either of those spots due to owner Dan Gilbert’s reported willingness to take on bad contracts/additional draft pick salary, and recent reports reaffirmed that Cleveland likely won’t just pick in their current selections.

In an appearance on Monday on 92.3 The Fan’s “Baskin and Phelps,” Sam Amico of Amico Hoops said that he would be “surprised” if the Cleveland Cavaliers only picked at five and 26, and that makes sense.

Amico would touch on the contract of J.R. Smith, and noted how his contract should warrant Cleveland being able to acquire a third first-round pick due to its cap relief.

Smith is a key trade asset for the Cavaliers and Altman, which should aid them in the 2019 NBA Draft.

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As we’ve often highlighted here at KJG, Smith’s 2019-20 salary is only guaranteed to be $3.87 million (if he’s waived by the end of the day on June 30, which he almost certainly will be), even with his contract officially counting for it’s full worth of $15.68 million (contract information via Spotrac), due to it being negotiated in the last NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Additionally, Amico would mention in that 92.3 The Fan appearance on Monday that Brandon Knight could be along the lines of the next other non-Smith Cav traded, and also said Tristan Thompson should warrant “a lot of” interest on draft night as a potential trade target.

Considering the Cleveland Cavaliers (who were 19-63 last year, per NBA.com) need to acquire a good amount of young talent in the near future, it’s a huge positive to hear that they are probably going to be aggressive in the 2019 NBA Draft and will be more than willing to make trades to help accelerate their rebuild.

As far as potential trade partners when it comes to a trade centered around Smith, Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor recently noted that the Charlotte Hornets, Milwaukee Bucks, Oklahoma City Thunder and Portland Trail Blazers “would make plenty of sense,” and we’ve hit on other teams that could feasibly be in the J.R. picture as well, such as the Miami Heat.

Given the recent Anthony Davis trade between the New Orleans and Los Angeles Lakers, we’ve touched on how the Chicago Bulls could make a drafting approach more clear for Cleveland, and if the Cavaliers were smart, I believe they’d go after either Texas Tech’s Jarrett Culver at five, Duke’s Cam Reddish or Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter.

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ first draft pick for head coach John Beilein should be a wing that has a fairly high ceiling on both ends, and those three seem to fit that mold, and I believe could all be key young pieces alongside Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman as starters on the perimeter.

Additionally, if the Smith deal (which would need to have a bad contract attached to another first-rounder) can allow Cleveland to draft a player such as Kentucky’s Tyler Herro or PJ Washington, Indiana’s Romeo Langford, or Tennessee’s Grant Williams, that’s a win for the Cavs’ rebuilding effort.

Amico would suggest in his aforementioned appearance that the first-round pick Smith would likely warrant as a return for his cap relief could come in a future draft (non-2019) as well, and if so, that’d be more than fine, too.

For a player that appeared in just 11 games last season (per NBA.com), and averaged 6.7 points per game on just 41.8% effective field goal shooting (again, per NBA.com) and has been trending downward for few years, acquiring another first-round pick which Cleveland could develop into a quality young rotational piece should be reason for optimism.

Thursday should bring smiles for Cavs fans, even without them drafting Zion Williamson, who will almost certainly be drafted first overall by the Pelicans.