Heading into the draft lottery to come on June 22, the Cleveland Cavaliers are currently slotted at the #5 position after having lost a tiebreaker to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
At the moment, the Cavs do have a 45.1 percent chance of selecting in the top 4 of the 2021 NBA Draft, per Tankathon, but only actually have a 2.0 percent chance of landing at #5. From there, Cleveland has their highest odds of landing at #6 (an 18.2 percent chance) or #7 (a 25.5 percent chance), with them then having an 8.6 percent of landing at #8, and then just a 0.6 percent chance of slotting in at #9.
With the top four in mind, for starters, Cade Cunningham appears extremely likely to be the top selection in the upcoming draft, and names such as Evan Mobley, Jalen Green, Jalen Suggs and Jonathan Kuminga would seem to likely round out the top 5.
For Cleveland, in this case though, a few prospects that could potentially be in play for the 6-8 range could maybe be Scottie Barnes, Moses Moody, James Bouknight, Franz Wagner and perhaps Kai Jones and/or Davion Mitchell.
Among those prospects, while I’m particularly high on the first four mentioned, here, we’ll take a closer look at Barnes in this sense. The 6-foot-9, 227-pound likely combo forward but feasibly point forward at the next level is very intriguing, realistically from 5-onward.
For the Cavaliers, too, I believe he could be an X-factor-type player.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Barnes could be their X-factor.
On the surface, Barnes’ traditional statline of 10.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per outing didn’t necessarily pop out, but his defensive capabilities/versatility on-ball could make a big difference for the Cavs, and his playmaking could aid the likes of Darius Garland and Collin Sexton.
Barnes is not a player that would likely start regularly next season for Cleveland, with other wings in the fold, and Kevin Love, Larry Nance Jr. and Dean Wade in tow.
Granted, opposing general managers that were reportedly reached by sources of Sam Amico of Hoops Wire, OutKick and Forty Eight Minutes do believe that either before next season or at some point during it, that Cleveland and Love will eventually agree to a buyout.
Albeit he does still have two years left currently on his deal, so we’ll have to see, and Cavs general manager Koby Altman did recently state how Love is still valuable. So I’d still expect that Love will likely be well in the fold, at least for a large chunk of next season; although injuries with Love one has to expect could happen unfortunately.
Anyway, circling back to Barnes, I do still believe that he could help Cleveland in a big way with his defensive capabilities, first off.
Cavs draft: Barnes is a multi-faceted defender
Barnes did often defend opposing primary playmakers on-ball in his lone collegiate season at Florida State, and for the Cavs, I could see him defend opponents’ top wings or forwards for considerable stretches. That could be with Isaac Okoro getting a breather, for one, involving wings, or at times with Okoro defending opponents’ primary playmakers.
Barnes, as KJG’s John Suchan demonstrated, is capable of guarding a number of different positions though, and while I’m not going to say he could 1-5, 1-4, I could see it with the FSU product. He does a nice job of keeping opponents out of the paint and his quickness can really bother pull-up threats.
Additionally, Barnes’ ball pressure was a key reason why he had 1.5 steals per outing for the Seminoles last season, and to me, hounding of ball handlers could lead to a number of deflections and steals.
That could lead to Cleveland getting a number of transition opportunities when he’s in there, similarly to Nance, who I could foresee in lineups with Barnes on the Cavs next season, too, if they selected Scottie in the 2021 NBA Draft.
Plus, Barnes’ feel off-ball and length led to him getting his share of hustle blocks as a helper, which could aid in providing some rotational rim protection, at least to an extent.
A 2.1 percent block rate for the 19-year-old at FSU was a pretty robust one, especially for a player that was often defending on the perimeter on-ball, and played only 24.8 minutes per game. That was with how FSU has typically utilized a deep rotation, for context.
With Barnes, in a general sense, I could see Cleveland being disruptive in spurts/stretches on the defensive end, and that X-factor-type quality from him could provide plenty of energy.
Cavs draft: Barnes could provide a key playmaking/driving presence for stretches
On the offensive end of the floor, Barnes needs to improve as a shooter; that’s apparent. He hit only 27.5 percent of his three-point attempts in 2020-21, and only 62.5 percent of his free throw attempts. That to me, and with the other youth in that case, wouldn’t lead to him being a starter, I wouldn’t think, for until potentially Year 2.
That said, in stretches for the Cavaliers, the Florida State product could give the club a quality driving threat that uses his quickness and long strides to finish strong in secondary transition, and he’s definitely a coast-to-coast guy.
In those instances, Barnes is so difficult for opponents to account for with how he eats up space, and along with the driving, of which he can utilize with his strength in settled situations and in pick-and-roll, his passing could really help Cleveland.
Barnes has great feel for hitting cutters, and he has the timing/requisite accuracy to hit Jarrett Allen, for instance, but is more than capable of hitting shooters on-time in the shooting pocket via drive-and-kicks, skip feeds and wraparounds.
And in spurts, while I could very well foresee Cleveland looking to sign a veteran backup point guard such as T.J. McConnell or perhaps Brad Wanamaker, Barnes could fill primary playmaker duties even.
Of course, I’d more so expect him to play at the 3/4 formally, but Scottie’s point forward qualities could provide an interesting wrinkle and could make a difference for the Cavaliers off the bench, and in that way, give them a boost/Garland a breather.
Moreover, with the energy I believe he’d provide for the Cavs, I could see Barnes ending up becoming the Wine and Gold’s X-factor as a bench spark plug pretty early on.
He’s absolutely a key prospect to watch for Cleveland, from my perspective, regarding the 2021 NBA Draft set to commence on July 29.