2020 NBA Draft prospect Anthony Edwards could make a big impact for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cleveland Cavaliers will once again be drafting in the upper half of the NBA Draft lottery, and according to Tankathon, are guaranteed to have a top six selection. While higher odds at landing a top five pick are never something to complain about, the Cavaliers are actually set to find themselves in a tricky situation. The main reason for that is many of the top prospects in the 2020 NBA Draft are guards.
Now this won’t be an issue for many other lottery teams. The NBA is starting to become a more guard-centric league. Every team is looking for that superstar ball handler who can run an offense while also taking on a bulk of the scoring load.
So when teams evaluate the 2020 draft class, they’ll likely be drawn to players like LaMelo Ball of the NBL’s Illawarra Hawks, the Georgia Bulldogs’ Anthony Edwards, or Killian Hayes of the BBL’s Ratiopharm Ulm.
But drafting another guard would throw the Cavaliers’ rotation into yet another spiral. In the last two drafts, the Cavaliers have selected Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, and ultimately via trade, Kevin Porter Jr., all three of whom are guards and all three of whom have shown both flashes of potential and uncertainty. The honest truth is that these three players are simply too young in their developmental progress to fairly evaluate.
But should that stop the Cavaliers from drafting another guard if that player is the best option available? I do not think so, and Cleveland reportedly views Edwards and Ball in their top tier. Granted, according to Hayes’ agent, Cleveland has very little to no interest in drafting a guard, but that could seemingly be a smoke screen.
Even if it adds more confusion to the Cavaliers backcourt and potentially hinders the growth of players like Sexton, Garland or Porter, the Cavs should always search for the best player available, even if that player is a guard.
Now if the Cavaliers do decide to pick another guard, the next question becomes, which one? You have Ball who has some of the best pure passing instincts in the draft. You have Hayes who has also shown flashes of playmaking ability.
But then you also have Edwards who has arguably the highest scoring upside in the draft with his mix of athleticism and shot creating ability. We don’t know for sure which of these young guards will have the best NBA career, but if I was betting my life on it, I would have to choose Edwards. I simply think his skill set will transition smoothly to any team that decides to draft him, and he did show impressive scoring prowess with 19.1 points per game and is still not even 19 yet.
Now if Cavs general manager Koby Altman and crew decide that the Georgia guard is the best option for their team in the 2020 NBA Draft, how would Edwards fit into the Cavs rotation for the 2020-21 season?
I think there are a few different lineups that Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff could deploy to best utilize the talents of Anthony Edwards.
We’ll examine the first potential lineup regarding that next.