Cavs draft: Moses Moody could help early on as 3-and-D

Currently, after losing a coin flip tiebreaker last week to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Cleveland Cavaliers are set to head into the upcoming draft lottery in the #5 position. The Wine and Gold do not have much of a shot at physically ending up at the fifth selection, though.

Cleveland, as was the case prior to the tiebreaker, is still set to have a 45.1 percent chance of landing a pick in the top four.

In that realm, or at #5, Cleveland could have Cade Cunningham, at #1 seemingly, or perhaps Evan Mobley, Jalen Green or Jonathan Kuminga in the mix in those top 4-5. Or while I wouldn’t anticipate it with the guard situation, Jalen Suggs could be in that range to consider.

But the Cavaliers have the highest odds of either landing at #6 or #7 in the 2021 NBA Draft; their odds for those two are 18.2 and 25.5 percent, per Tankathon. From there, the Cavs have an 8.6 percent chance of landing at #8, and in relation to #9, just a 0.6 percent chance.

In that 6-8 range, as far as some prospects that come to mind for the Cavaliers to maybe consider, I’d think that the likes of Scottie Barnes, James Bouknight, perhaps Franz Wagner, Keon Johnson and/or Kai Jones could be in that mix, for instance. Barnes’ playmaking is a key seller for him, on that subject.

I’m probably higher on Bouknight than most for his on-ball scoring capabilities, but Barnes or Wagner I’d likely rather have, or maybe Cleveland could look to trade down. That said, another prospect that would be a sensible target in that 6-8 range for Cleveland could very well be Moses Moody.

The key seller for Moody is the 3-and-D aspect.

Cleveland Cavaliers: Moody could help early on as a 3-and-D.

Firstly, we’ll examine the defensive outlook involving Moody potentially with the Cavs.