NBA Draft: Should Cleveland Cavaliers consider Scottie Barnes at #3?

Weighing in regarding Barnes at #3 for the Cavs

Though I am a fan of Barnes, who had an impressive 31.6 percent assist rate at FSU, and had steal and block rates of 3.4 and 2.1 percent, respectively, and is so versatile on defense, I wouldn’t consider him there.

If the Cavs had, say the fifth-seventh pick, I’d be on-board with them taking him there. And early on, he could feasibly be a bench point-forward-type player, albeit I’d still expect a potential free agent addition such as T.J. McConnell, Patty Mills or Alex Caruso to maybe aid the team there.

However, with Cleveland’s #3 position, I’d much rather them go with either Mobley or Green. Or while I wouldn’t want it as much, I’d favor Kuminga over Barnes there.

Kuminga’s shooting splits weren’t good in his G League bubble run with the G League Ignite (43.0 effective field goal shooting), but the handle in settled offense will probably aid him more earlier on than Barnes, admittedly, and with Kuminga, the shot does look more fluid with a cleaner stroke.

Barnes, even with his playmaking and defensive abilities, doesn’t look as fluid with his stroke, and didn’t shoot much better than Kuminga from three on low volume (27.5 to 24.6 percent) and that early in the 2021 NBA Draft, I wouldn’t expect him to be that much in the conversation for Cleveland, nor should he really be.