Cavs Draft: Debating between Jalen Green and Jalen Suggs

The 2021 NBA Draft still is a few weeks away, but after the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ NBA lottery luck landed them the third overall pick in this year’s draft, the Wine and Gold have a great chance at adding an immediate impact rookie that could speed up their rebuild process.

While there is a lot of attention on USC big man Evan Mobley at pick No. 3, there is also debate about the Jalen’s. Both Jalen Green and Jalen Suggs are talented guards who are expected to go near the top of the 2021 Draft.

Before getting into who Suggs and Green are as players, there is seemingly a good chance that Green could be the choice of the Houston Rockets at No. 2. But at this point, the draft is still not until July 29, and we truly won’t find out who is available for the Cavaliers to draft at No. 3.

With that being said, let’s dive into who these players are and how they could potentially fit in with the Cavaliers, in the case that both end up being on the board, seemingly if Evan Mobley is Houston’s pick.

Cleveland Cavaliers: Debating between Green and Suggs.

First, there is Jalen Green. The 6-foot-5, 178-pound shooting guard averaged nearly 18 points per game while shooting 36.5 percent from three-point range in the NBA G League with the G League Ignite in the G League bubble. Green is extremely athletic, and while he proved to be an effective outside shooter, he has also shown the capability to finish around the rim both with power and finesse.

Green also showed an improved ability to get his teammates involved. While he is not the best playmaker, it is encouraging to see the growth of Green beyond just a scorer, and that should only continue to improve once he gets into the league.

What Green can bring to the Cavaliers first and foremost is a guy who can get a bucket from anywhere on the floor. Yes, Collin Sexton has been the Cavaliers’ primary scorer over the past few seasons, but Green seems like he could take over that role and take pressure off Sexton.

Granted, Sexton could be a potential trade candidate, factoring in recent rumors, albeit he could still be with Cleveland regardless, and Green again could alleviate burden for him.

And with that in mind, the potential trio of Darius Garland, Sexton and Green would be an excellent trio on the offensive end of the floor. Having three dynamic guards on the floor takes the pressure off all three players because they can each play to their strengths and not try to do too much. Plus, with three shot creators on the floor, the defense cannot pay close attention to one because the other two guys would take advantage of the scrambling defense.

Now onto Jalen Suggs, of which things could get complicated, which I will touch on in a bit.

Suggs is a 6-foot-4, 205-pound combo guard who not only can score the ball he can also facilitate and make plays to get his teammates involved. The offense did not always run through Suggs at Gonzaga, and his 14.4 points per game average could increase if he is more the focal point of an offense.

In addition, Suggs has excellent speed and can create in transition for both himself and his teammates. Suggs does a great job on the glass and rebounds well for a guard, too (he averaged 5.6 rebounds last season).

There does not appear to be a huge issue with Suggs on the defensive end of the floor either. He can dissect what other teams are running and can also be a good help defender. Suggs averaged nearly 2 steals per game and was effective at creating turnovers.

Obviously, Suggs isn’t the perfect prospect. He will have to cut down the number of turnovers he commits per game and improve his overall consistency from beyond the arc, as he shot 33.7 percent from beyond the arc last season.

While Gonzaga is a top-level college program, they play in a weak conference overall, and rarely did Suggs play the best of the best at the college level. But there is clearly a playmaking level that is intriguing, and with all this talent at just 20 years old, there is plenty of room to improve once he gets into an NBA system.

The possible addition of Suggs gets interesting because Cleveland would likely have to move on from one of Sexton or Garland, at least seemingly at some point down the road/during next season, in Sexton’s case. Choosing yet another key playmaking guard in the lottery while there are other areas of need is a risky move by Cavs general manager Koby Altman, who needs to get things well on track this go-round.

If the team truly believes Suggs is a franchise-changing player, they should take him and build around him, but there would surely be some backlash if Cleveland trades one of their two young guards, particularly very early on, before next season or early on, especially.

It would appear that the 19-year-old Green is the better fit for the Cavaliers in the 2021 NBA Draft, as he would fill an area of need and could clearly be a first option scorer for Cleveland for years to come, and even perhaps fairly early on in 2021-22. Conversely, Suggs may be a talented two-way playmaker but he may not be the piece to help the Cavaliers get out of the NBA’s basement.