The Cleveland Cavaliers will need to hit on draft picks in coming years to further progress in their rebuild. A piece that could be in that realm in relation to the 2020 NBA Draft is Maryland big Jalen Smith, if Cleveland acquires a second, presumably lower, first-round selection via trade.
The 2019-20 season is starting to get away from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Cleveland’s record is just 5-15, and the Cavs have lost 10 of their last 11 games, and in that stretch, the Cavs have an average point-differential of -15.0 points, as NBA.com demonstrates.
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As a die-hard fan of the Cleveland Browns, as well as the Cavs still of course, it’s only natural to take a look at some prospects that the Wine and Gold could potentially target in the 2020 NBA Draft.
As Cavaliers fans are aware of at this point, Cleveland has five players that have expiring contracts set to be up after this season.
For a refresher, those pieces are bigs Tristan Thompson and John Henson, to go with reserve guards Jordan Clarkson, Matthew Dellavedova and Brandon Knight.
Those pieces could help in asset accumulation related to maybe acquiring more draft capital in coming years and, in this case, the 2020 NBA Draft.
That would come from Cleveland possibly getting back a lower first-round pick, from dealing Thompson or Clarkson. A three-team deal could feature one of or a few of the other pieces down the road, perhaps near the 2020 trade deadline.
For a contender’s likely lower-end first-round pick, the Cavaliers would have to take back a bad contract player, too, for reference.
That’s something that owner Dan Gilbert is more than willing to take on, and Gilbert’s willingness to take on additional salary helped general manager Koby Altman and the front office wheel and deal during last season, and again at the 2019 deadline.
Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor recently touched on how Cleveland could realistically look to trade Thompson and/or a bench bucket-getter in Clarkson by the 2020 deadline, and seemingly acquire a lower first-rounder from a contender, for one of the two it seemed, coupled with taking back a bad contract player.
Of course, as Fedor also mentioned, the Cavaliers could potentially bring back Thompson next offseason and not trade him, but I’d personally prefer if Cleveland found a trade partner for TT.
Thompson’s been a terrific leader for this young Cavs team, but considering he’s putting up career-highs across the board in points (13.9), rebounds (10.6), assists (2.2), blocks (1.2) and steals (0.8) per game, I’d imagine signing TT back would take a whole lot.
There have been injury problems for Thompson in the two seasons prior to 2019-20, too.
Either way, even if Thompson, who is making $18.5 million this season, per Spotrac, isn’t traded, I’d rather Cleveland let him try to sign elsewhere, and perhaps Clarkson, who is making $13.4 million again per Spotrac, could get back a first-rounder coupled with a bad contract.
So who could be a potential target for Cleveland in the 2020 NBA Draft if they can land another lower first-rounder from a contender?
Maryland big Jalen Smith comes to mind for three reasons, of which we’ll get into now.