Cavs draft: 3 ways a potential Cade Cunningham selection would impact CLE
By Corey Casey
This year the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ rebuild has made noticeable and considerable progress as the Cavs go into the All-Star break at 14-22. Collin Sexton very much looks like a future All-Star and is having a a big year averaging 24.1 points, 4.5 assists and 1.2 steals, while shooting 48.7 percent overall and 40.0 percent from three-point range.
Sexton has improved every aspect of his game this year, and Darius Garland looks like the player the Cavs envisioned when they took him fifth overall; he’s putting up 16.1 points, 5.9 assists and 1.2 steals, while connect on, most notably, 38.4 percent of his triple attempts. Albeit hopefully, his left groin strain is not too hampering for him; he’s looked like a different player, though.
Meanwhile, Isaac Okoro is still raw offensively as expected, but he’s shown encouraging signs of late, and defensively, has often held his own while having a ton of tough assignments. And from there, to top that off, the trade acquisition of Jarrett Allen looks like the Cavaliers’ defensive anchor for years to come.
The Cavs’ young core has become very promising and there is plenty to like about it going forward. The Wine and Gold aren’t a playoff team quite yet, but you can see some of the growth and progress of the rebuild this year. But if the Cavaliers get lucky enough and get the number one pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, it would completely change the trajectory of this rebuild.
Unlike last year, this year has that clear franchise-altering player sitting atop the draft in Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham. This is considered a very strong draft, but Cunningham looks to be the easy number one choice.
As of now the Cavaliers are tied for having the fifth-best lottery odds, which would give them a 9.7 percent chance at the top pick, per Tankathon. With the new lottery odds, that isn’t much of a difference between Cleveland’s current odds and the 14.0 percent the three worst teams get.
The new lottery odds it looks like has stopped the race to the bottom of the standings-type tanking. You really don’t see many teams that are organizationally tanking. However, if Cleveland’s lucky enough to pick first, it would affect them in a number of ways.
Along those lines, here, we’ll hit on three ways a potential Cunningham draft selection would impact the Cavs.
We’ll get right into that with #1.