Cavs close to relevance again with the #3 pick in 2021 NBA Draft

The Cleveland Cavaliers are at a spot in their history as a franchise to move back into a competitive run where reaching the playoffs and moving through those playoffs could be right around the corner. I know I say this after the last few seasons of pretty stagnant and a less-than-arousing type of play that would have us all predicting another championship any time soon.

The Cavs have the #3 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft at the end of July and collecting another young and talented player at this pick could very well start that streak of seasons ahead that will have fans of the Wine and Gold smiling.

The Cavs seem close to relevance again, thanks to their upcoming draft pick.

Stay with me on this positivity trek ahead.

Back in 1986, the Cavs were able to trade up for the #1 pick in that year’s draft and they went with Brad Daugherty out of North Carolina and then picked up Ron Harper (Miami (OH)), and Mark Price (Georgia Tech). Along the way they had also picked up players like Larry Nance Sr. (via trade), and John “Hot Rod” Williams (with a pick acquired via trade).

Prior to this time in Cavaliers history, the team had been lousy, but they got a great head coach, Lenny Wilkens, to take the lead and Cleveland competed the rest of the decade and into the early 1990’s only to be outdone by the Chicago Bulls, and more specifically, Michael Jordan, during that stretch.

The Cavaliers then reverted back to irrelevance, for the most part, for a decade until King James, aka, LeBron James, was drafted in 2003 by the Wine and Gold. Cleveland would eventually reach the NBA Finals in 2007 only to be outrun by the more experienced San Antonio Spurs.

After not obtaining a title that first time around, James bolted for the surf and sand of Miami, where the Cavs then seemingly tanked for four seasons and were awful again. But the hero, James, came back to the franchise that had drafted him and finally, alongside then Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and others, brought a title to a city that had yearned for one for over 50 years.

The last three seasons since James’ second departure have been generally awful too, though the Cavs have added some nice pieces to the puzzle that I believe can get them back to relevance in the NBA.

For the last 20 years, the franchise has had James in and out of the organization, and I think many of us fans have, to some degree, been conditioned to believe we can’t win without James.

Obviously, this franchise has won before and that’s why I like to look back at that stretch in the 80’s and early 90’s when the franchise built the team on drafting players and also mixing that with experience and veterans.

When you look at our current veterans like Kevin Love, that might not be what this team moving forward will need to win. It hasn’t helped to this point yet, and with all the injuries and other issues that have come up with Love in recent years.

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I certainly hope the Cavs front office is evaluating who they could bring in with a bit of NBA experience to mix with the young core of this team moving forward.

But having this #3 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft is going to help this team, for no other reason than you are getting a very talented player. Now, Cleveland could reportedly be open to trading their draft selection, along with salary matching, perhaps being Love, and seemingly Collin Sexton, given recent trade rumors, for an established star.

Albeit it would still seem as if the Cavaliers, given the talents at the top of this draft, could more so just take that selection, though.

With that thought in mind, if the Cavs go with Jalen Green, a prospect from the G League Ignite, than you are getting a very good scorer and a player that can play the game at a very high level already.

If the Cavaliers go with Evan Mobley, the 7-footer out of USC, than you have the chance to put him next to Cavs Jarrett Allen (if he’s locked up long term) and have two pretty dominating interior defenders.

When you go back and study that 1986 draft that the Cavs took Brad Daugherty you discover that the new general manager of that team, Wayne Embry, felt that Cleveland needed help on the inside and would need that to move forward and get better.

Our current Cavs roster doesn’t have a ton of height to it, and while we’ll have to see regarding Sexton, the Cavs last season often lost in part because they aren’t defending and aren’t winning the rebounding matchups each game.

So for that reason, bringing in a player like Mobley or even Scottie Barnes, the 6-foot-9 all-can-do point forward out of Florida State, might be the Cavs’ best options. Now as far as Barnes, that might not be as realistic as say Mobley, Green or Jalen Suggs, but he could really make a difference for these Cavaliers.

Generally though, while it might just be wishful thinking, I get this feeling that the Cavaliers are close to entering one of those periods again, where, by way of continuing to bring in talent along with a young head coach like J.B. Bickerstaff, they could start playing more meaningful games this time of year.

It took the Phoenix Suns 28 years to get back to playing in an NBA Finals. The Cavs hopefully are a lot closer than that.