Cavs 2021 NBA Draft: Jalen Green’s best potential role on CLE

The NBA regular season is beginning to wind down and the next batch of games will play in a role in determining if the Cleveland Cavaliers will have good odds of landing a top-three pick.

As it stands today, they have very good odds of getting the top pick, but with the lottery system, you really never know. If their pick lands in the top three, one player the Cavs should be keeping their eye on is Jalen Green.

Green is one of the top prospects of the 2021 NBA Draft and could end up being the best player in the draft when it is all said and done.

He is an incredible slasher with a great vertical and the ability to finish through contact. That said, he is far more than just a slasher.

Green has outstanding guard skills and a natural feel for the game. He knows which moves will lead to the right play and has shown capable playmaking ability, and that should continue to develop for him.

Along with this, while his jump shot is not quite where Cavs fans would want it to be, it is still good enough to keep defenders honest. However, if his outside shot continues to improve, there would not really be a single major flaw in Green’s game.

On a positive note, while it was just a 15-game sample size in the G League bubble with the G League Ignite squad, Green did hit a respectable 36.5 percent of his three-point shot attempts, and had a healthy 5.7 attempts per outing. He demonstrated impressive polish as an all-around scorer, too, and had a notable 17.9 points per game in G League burn, which should’ve only aided his stock for the 2021 NBA Draft.

On the defensive end, his raw athleticism and IQ make for him to have the capability to be a great defender, albeit down the road. Pairing this with his 6-foot-6, 178-pound frame, he will be able to guard point guards, shooting guards and some small forwards. He could still hold his own against a number of 3s, anyhow.

One thing that the Cavaliers will have to work on with Green is adding a little more weight and muscle to him. This is bound to happen once he is in an NBA locker room and training facility for a couple of years, but, if he is able to bulk up some, he could be a terrific defender if he can put it all together.

So what would be Green’s best potential role on the Cavs, then?

The only role that would really do Jalen Green justice and allow him to display his full range of abilities is franchise player for the Cleveland Cavaliers, should they draft him.

If he turns out to be the player that he is touted to be, the offense should be often ran through him and he should be the face of the franchise.

The Cavs could either put him at the point guard position and move Darius Garland to the bench and/or perhaps look to trade Garland down the road, or perhaps they could start Green at the small forward position and have Isaac Okoro play more of a bench role.

If the Cleveland Cavaliers are able to add Jalen Green to the roster via the 2021 NBA Draft, they will be getting a player where the sky is the limit.

If they are able to mold him and fully develop him into the player that he can be, he could easily be a perennial All-Star and finally give the Cavs another big-name player that fans can rally around.

Green clearly has all the potential in the world, and looks to have franchise player written all over him.