3 wings Cavs should target if they acquire second first-rounder in 2020 NBA Draft

Given that the Cleveland Cavaliers still have a ways to go, they could try to acquire a second first-round pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. If that ends up being the case, three wing targets come to mind for the Wine and Gold.

The Cleveland Cavaliers organization finds themselves in an unusual spot in the NBA yet again, so the team’s current general manager, Koby Altman, has the immense task of continuing to attempt to build a consistently competitive and even potentially a championship team once again in Cleveland.

This task will be one that is clearly monumental and immensely difficult to achieve and maintain, but the team appears to have the makings of a solid, young core and some nice veterans to pair with them as well.

The roster could look incredibly different given how players such as Kevin Love, Andre Drummond, and Tristan Thompson all could seemingly be either moved or sign elsewhere this offseason.

Fans can expect the Love trade rumors to heat up once again this summer with a pretty underwhelming free agent class, and Drummond’s case, he could opt out of his $28.8 million player option for next season. If he opts in, though, he could still be a valuable player for the Cavs.

Thompson, meanwhile, is set to be an unrestricted free agent and based on previous reports, he could very well be moving on.

That being said, the team would move on from players like Drummond, Love, and realistically Thompson, perhaps via sign-and-trade, as Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca suggested before, really only in the scenario where the organization decides to go all-in on a full-scale rebuild and build around the Cavaliers current young core of Darius Garland, Kevin Porter Jr. and Collin Sexton.

I haven’t forgotten about you, either, Dylan Windler! Windler hasn’t played at all due to a reported stress reaction in his left leg and will miss the entirety of his rookie year, well formally, his rookie year.

Anyway, all three of Garland, Porter Jr. and Sexton have showcased stretches of quality play in which they have each shown that they can all become valuable players in the NBA in due time, and on the Cavaliers moving forward. Plus, the Cavaliers as an organization will very likely walk away with a great opportunity to add to this young core via the 2020 NBA Draft.

According to Tankathon (and yes, I know the lottery rules are different now), Cleveland is currently projected to land the second overall pick in June. The team will likely possess, at minimum, a top five selection in the 2020 NBA Draft, and could look to add another first-round selection to further their rebuild and youth movement along as such.

With the free agent class being weak, and with not many teams having tons of cap space, even with him being due to make $91.5 million over the next three seasons after 2019-20, with how Love has played for the last two months and with him being a much better teammate, I wouldn’t imagine it’s out of the question for Cleveland to feasibly acquire another lower first-round pick in this draft, seemingly via trade.

If they indeed do so, there are a number of solid prospects in the draft pool that are capable of developing into under-the-radar stars, or simply very good NBA role players. The Cavaliers are largely lacking most in two-way wing players, with Cedi Osman, Alfonzo McKinnie and to some extent, Porter Jr. all being the only true two-way wing players on the roster moving forward, and that’s not really all that much the case with Osman, though the defensive instincts are there.

It just so happens that the 2020 NBA Draft has a bevy of quality forwards and to enough degree, wings, that can potentially develop into solid to excellent two-way players in the NBA.

The 2020 NBA Draft may be lacking in serious, immediate All-Star-level talent, but three wing players have stood out the most to me thus far and are all very much so worth watching and paying attention to as players Cleveland could target if they acquire a second first-rounder in the upcoming draft in June. This is seemingly in relation to if Cleveland doesn’t end up with the likes of prospects such as LaMelo Ball, previously of the NBL’s Illawarra Hawks, or a wing prospect such as Deni Avdija of the I-BSL’s Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv.