Cavs NBA Draft: Who has highest ceiling among Jalen Green, Evan Mobley and Jalen Suggs?
The Cleveland Cavaliers been in the midst of a rebuilding process since the summer of 2018 when LeBron James left the team for a second time. When you lose your franchise’s greatest player, and arguably the game’s greatest player, a rebuild is almost inevitable.
Over the last few years, general Koby Altman and the Cavaliers front office have found some decent success within the past draft classes, along with some trades here and there as well.
Three years into the rebuild and the Cavs have managed to build a young core around the likes of Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro and Jarrett Allen, with additional support off the bench in players like Dylan Windler, Isaiah Hartenstein, and some more established guys like Larry Nance Jr, and Kevin Love.
Now, a backcourt of Garland and Sexton does have its flaws when it comes to size, but Cleveland should remain committed to this dynamic duo, at least for the foreseeable future. There have been trade rumors involving Sexton of late, albeit with his continued growth, he could still seemingly stick around and perhaps he still will.
Meanwhile, Garland has begun to grow into a tried and true facilitator and playmaker, averaging 6.1 assists per game this past season. Along with Sexton, who had an average of 24.3 points per game, continuing his upward trend of being an electric scorer in this league. At this point, it would be foolish for the Cavaliers to move on from either of their young guards.
Cleveland’s youth movement as expanded beyond their backcourt, with the likes of Isaac Okoro, and the big man, Jarrett Allen.
Okoro averaged 9.6 points and 3.1 rebounds in his rookie season. Although those numbers are not stellar, they were still enough to earn the forward out of Auburn a spot on the NBA All-Rookie Second Team.
Okoro appeared to struggle defensively this year, which could be chalked up to having to guard some of the greatest players on the court at his position. Regardless, Ice needs to show more consistency next year to take his game to the next level, and I believe continuing to play with this Cleveland squad will help him accomplish just that.
Jarrett Allen was a player I had hoped the Cavs would go after, but I never expected him to end up in Cleveland via the blockbuster James Harden trade. While Allen would end up missing some games due to a concussion, and that did affect him, at the end of the season, he still put up some respectable stats.
Having averaged 12.8 points per game, with a solid 10.0 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks, the Fro is shaping up to be a franchise center for The Land moving forward. The Cavs would be wise to end up locking him up long term this offseason, too.
In my opinion, Cleveland would be remiss if they tried to move on from any of their young core. Unless Altman is being offered an up-and-coming star player, or proven talent, the Cavaliers should stay the course and remain committed to the young core of Garland, Sexton, Okoro and Allen.
Should they keep this core together, the addition of the third pick in this year’s NBA Draft could elevate the entire core to new heights. Throughout this piece, we will discuss three players the Cavs could realistically take in the 2021 NBA Draft and determine which of the three has the best ceiling overall, and the best ceiling when they are plugged into a lineup with this young core in Cleveland.
The three players we will look at today, from a Cavs’ standpoint, are Jalen Suggs, Evan Mobley, and Jalen Green.
To start, let’s talk about the guard out of Gonzaga, in Suggs.