The Cleveland Cavaliers’ season thus far has been like the Millenium Force, a roller coaster at Cedar Point, in Sandusky, Ohio. The Cavs sky-rocketed to start the year, capping it all off with a 91-89 comeback win over the Boston Celtics. That win came in the midst of a stretch of the season that saw the Cavs win six of seven games. During the stretch, the Cavaliers beat the Blazers, Raptors, and the Knicks.
Just like the roller coaster in Sandusky, the Cavs season has turned into a free-fall, with a lot of that being due to injury. Collin Sexton was injured in the Cavs’ victory over the Knicks on November 7th. The Cavaliers won the game, but afterward, the news broke that Collin Sexton tore his meniscus. What looked like a month-long absence turned into a season-long one, as Sexton then had surgery to shut him down for the rest of the season.
On top of all the Sexton news, Lauri Markkanen and Jarrett Allen have missed multiple games with illness. However, the worst blow of all came when rookie stand-out Evan Mobley left the Cavs’ November 15th game versus the Celtics with an injured elbow. After losing the game, we found out that Mobley suffered a sprained elbow and would be out up to a month. Since the Mobley injury, the Cavs have lost four straight to the Celtics, Warriors, and Nets (twice). While that is a tough stretch, the Cavs have looked bad in the losses.
The Cavs are battling injuries and losses, and fans can find an outlet by watching some key draft prospects in big college basketball games.
With Mobley and Sexton missing significant time, now is a better time than ever to get a look at some of the prospects who will be in the 2022 NBA Draft. Last week, we previewed a couple of games, and we got to see some great prospects on display. Purdue guard Jaden Ivey was sensational in the first game of the Cheez-It Hall of Fame Tip-Off. He scored 22 points and grabbed ten rebounds to get a huge double-double in the Boilermaker’s win over North Carolina. After beating the Tar Heels, he was bad in the championship of the tip-off versus Villanova. Purdue got the win, but Ivey only had ten points and shot 33% from the field, although he did pitch in seven assists and seven rebounds.
Duke stretch-four Paolo Banchero had a decent two games last week. Versus Gardner-Webb, the silky shooter had 10 points and 8 rebounds while shooting 44% from the field. When Duke took on Louisiana-Lafayette, he only played ten 20 minutes, but they weren’t very convincing. He had 11 points while shooting 33% from the field. If he wants to continue to be in the conversation for the first pick, he needs to be better versus weak opponents. Much better.
Finally, freshman wing, Caleb Houstan’s stock is getting lower and lower while he’s at Michigan. In three games last week, two of them being Michigan losses, he combined to score 15 points while shooting under 25%. He really needs to pick his game up, or his stock could drop below the lottery.
Now that we’ve caught you up on last week, let’s look ahead to an exciting week of games coming up.