The Cleveland Cavaliers should not be targeting Georgia’s Anthony Edwards in the 2020 NBA Draft, who is simply not what they need going forward, which is not predominantly a volume scorer.
Currently, the 2020 NBA Draft is likely to be pushed back to a later date than was originally the case, of which it was set to be on June 26. This is due to the 2019-20 NBA regular season being suspended for the Cleveland Cavaliers and other teams due to novel coronavirus concerns after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for it on Wednesday, and on Thursday, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Utah’s Donovan Mitchell tested positive for COVID-19, too.
From there, Wojnarowski reported that it was unclear as of Thursday if Gobert and Mitchell were on a charter flight to Utah from Oklahoma City, the location of what was supposed to be Utah’s last game, of which was postponed.
In regards to the Cavaliers, Cleveland was told to self-quarantine, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst (and h/t ESPN’s Tisha Thompson), as they were one of the teams that as of Wednesday, were one of the teams that played Gobert/Utah within the last previous 10 days, as they played him last Monday.
As of Thursday, no Cavaliers players/staff were showing symptoms of novel coronavirus and due to limited availability of tests, they were not going to undergo testing, the team stated and h/t Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor. Fedor himself was also told to self-quarantine for the next 14 days as of Thursday.
So, considering that the season is suspended for “at least 30 days” as of Thursday, per NBA commissioner Adam Silver in an appearance on NBA on TNT, and that games are suspended until further notice but the season’s at this point postponed and not cancelled, also given other reported details as of Thursday, the 2020 NBA Draft will seemingly be pushed back later this year.
At this juncture, though I understand lottery odds now are anything but certain, the Cleveland Cavaliers are currently projected to have the second overall pick in the upcoming draft, according to Tankathon. Again, where Cleveland actually ends up picking is uncertain, but it would appear they’ll still likely have a top five selection with their record going into the league suspension being the league’s second-worst at 19-46.
In the 2020 NBA Draft, if he’s available at their selection, the Cavaliers should not target Georgia’s Anthony Edwards.