NBA Draft: 3 targets for Cavs with potential GSW #14 pick via trade

While I personally believe the Cleveland Cavaliers should give him some time with their #3 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, and still possibly could, Collin Sexton has been a key player mentioned in trade rumors of late.

To that subject, the likes of the New York Knicks, Miami Heat, New Orleans Pelicans, Indiana Pacers and Golden State Warriors appear to be the most legitimate rumored landing spots for Sexton via trade. And to that point, you can view more here and also here, via KJG’s Zane Harris.

I tend to agree more so with the aforementioned Harris, who expressed why doesn’t believe the Cavs should end up trading Sexton, who is a big-time scorer that’s on an upward trajectory in his career heading into his fourth season.

Nonetheless, I’ll put my feelings aside in that realm, and here, I’ll examine more so the Golden State-Sexton/Cavs element to a hypothetical trade.

Per a report from Evan Dammarell of Fear The Sword and the Locked on Cavs podcast, Golden State is a club that is “intrigued” with Sexton, but in a potential deal, would not be looking to part with their #7 pick (via the Minnesota Timberwolves), or a player such as James Wiseman or Andrew Wiggins. Albeit as Dammarell did state in his report, Golden State would part with the #14 pick, which Dammarell noted could possibly be used as a piece in a package the Cavs could try to send to the Detroit Pistons for the #1 pick/Cade Cunningham.

While teams could be hesitant to acquire Sexton, given his contract situation/next offseason’s restricted free agency potential, in this hypothetical, we’ll project the Cavs to end up dealing Collin for that #14 pick via the Warriors, though. Sexton could give Golden State some scoring pop, given Klay Thompson’s injury troubles.

And in this sense, I still do question if Cunningham could be had, even for perhaps another Cavaliers future first.

With that being the case, though, to go with maybe the likes of Jordan Poole or Kevon Looney (to a much lesser extent), who are a few targets for the Cavs at that #14 spot, then?

We’ll highlight three of them for the Cavaliers in that scenario here.

The first in that hypothetical relates to Moses Moody, a 6-foot-6 guard/wing out of Arkansas.

Potential Cavs NBA Draft target #1 with the #14 Warriors pick: Moses Moody

When it comes to the 19-year-old Moody, if he’s there, he’d provide a quality 3-and-D player for the Cavaliers that could be far more than that in the near future.

In this scenario, even with Sexton dealt, I would think that Moody would likely come off the bench early on for the Cavaliers, but could very well be a starting 2 or 3 with Isaac Okoro, and/or if Cleveland were to deal previously rumored trade pieces Taurean Prince/Cedi Osman at some point. That’s even more so if the Cavs were to sign a wing in free agency, such as Reggie Bullock or Doug McDermott, with uncertainty involved with Dylan Windler, for instance.

Anyway, with Moody, he did a nice job for the most part in his lone collegiate season at Arkansas, having 16.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per contest.

Now, though Moody had struggles in tournament play, for much of his season, he was a productive off-the-catch perimeter shooter for the Razorbacks. And overall, he did still knock in 35.8 percent from three on 5.1 attempts per outing.

With the Cavs, I do believe Moody, whether he came off the bench to begin his career or started, perhaps at the 3 with Okoro starting games more so at the 2, could aid the Cavs spacing/shooting, and Moody showed plenty of shot creation promise at Arkansas, too. That’s to go with off-movement shooting as well.

In addition, on the defensive end, the 6-foot-6, 205-pound Moody plays with quality technique to contain on-ball perimeter threats, and I’d imagine could more than hold his own against a number of guards/wings on-ball.

In the team sense, he is generally in the right spots, and his 7-foot wingspan should make him a factor in passing lanes at the next level. And it aids him in contests as a rotator to shooters and at times can help him block shots on the interior from the weak side.

Potential Cavs NBA Draft target #2 with the #14 Warriors pick: Josh Giddey

In relation to Josh Giddey, a 19-year-old who last played with the Adelaide 36ers of the NBL, he could provide a jumbo lead guard presence for Cleveland off the bench, or feasibly be a bench point-forward/wing type early on.

Giddey I would imagine could be Cleveland’s at least de facto 1 in minutes Darius Garland is not on the floor, or theoretically, maybe over time, he could be a starting 3 option for the Cavaliers down the road.

Earlier on though, which we’ll hit on more, Giddey, though his shot is a question mark, does have great passing capabilities, particularly for a 6-foot-7 player.

He had 7.5 assists per game with Adelaide in his lone season with them, and what jumps out from his play is his vision to hit shooters with a variety of passes, including wraparounds, hook passes and his precision with both hands with his passes can’t be discounted. Plus, Giddey does have the ability to hit rollers via looks over-the-top, pocket passes and no looks.

And in the transition game, which he can help also with his rebounding acumen (7.4 rebounds per game in 2020-21), he always has his head up, scanning for lead passes, which could aid the likes of Okoro, Evan Mobley feasibly if he’s the #3 Cavs pick, among others.

Defensively, with lateral quickness concerns and him needing to improve off-ball, I’d expect growing pains there, and shooting-wise, that needs to come along in time.

But if he were there at #14 in this Sexton-Warriors hypothetical and the Cavs just ended up keeping that pick, I could foresee Giddey bringing a different element as a backup 1 for stretches, and he could help lessen Garland’s playmaking burden.

We’d have to see from there regarding the potential Giddey-wing outlook.

Potential Cavs NBA Draft target #3 with the #14 GSW pick: Cameron Thomas

With the third suggestion for the Cavaliers in this hypothetical, I could’ve played it safe with older prospects such as Corey Kispert or Chris Duarte, but instead, I’m going with, while it’s a bit of a reach probably, Cam Thomas.

I know, Thomas is not a dude that you’re going to bank on developing into a plus defender, but with the likes of Okoro, Mobley/Larry Nance Jr./Dean Wade and Jarrett Allen/perhaps Isaiah Hartenstein in the fold, I’m looking past that.

I wouldn’t anticipate Thomas to be a starter player in Year 1, or maybe Year 2, but even he were to be more of a bench contributor early, Thomas, who had 23.0 points per game in 2020-21, has the potential to be a big-time scorer. He hit just 32.5 percent of his threes in his lone collegiate season at LSU, but the dude has deep range, a quick release and got his production not from simply standstill catch-and-shoot looks.

The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Thomas gets good lift on his shots, moves well without the ball to get open and could be a knockdown off-movement shooting presence for Darius Garland and the Cavs. And to counter that, he can create for himself manning the 2.

Thomas can get to his spots via jabs, pull-backs, side steps, in-n-outs, floaters and is dynamic in the transition game with his ability to slither through defenses, too. Plus, in regards to settled situations, Thomas has shown feel for getting himself separation for shots on occasion in the mid-post, which could be another weapon in his arsenal in the NBA.

So, while Thomas will likely need time to become more polished/well-rounded to be a starting-type player, for Cleveland, he’s a prospect that especially if Sexton were to be moved, with his shooting/on-ball scoring abilities, should be a clear target.

And if that’d mean at #14 via this potential Golden State deal, perhaps with Damion Lee as an added trade piece, that’d be fine with me.