NBA Draft: Updated Big Board; Duke-UNC Viewing Guide for Cavs fans

Ah, what a beautiful Saturday it is in Northeast Ohio. We’ve been hammered with snow this week, and temperatures could drop into the single digits this weekend, which is fantastic! But, with all that said, it’s great to be a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, considering the team got their first All-Star in the post-LeBron James era.

Darius Garland was selected as a reserve player for the Eastern Conference in this year’s NBA All-Star Game, taking place in our very own, Cleveland, Ohio.

With the good news comes some bad, as Jarrett Allen was snubbed out of the game, with the Milwaukee Bucks’ Khris Middleton essentially taking his place. I could go on and on for hours about how both Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland should have both been All-Stars. There’s even a case to be made that Evan Mobley deserved a spot as a rookie.

Instead, let’s just enjoy having Darius in the All-Star Game, while everyone sits back and starts to realize this will be the last All-Star roster for a couple of years, without at least two Cleveland Cavalier participants.

So congratulations to Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro, and Evan Mobley for being selected to participate in at least one event on All-Star weekend. However, let’s turn our gaze to the college hoops scene. Nothing has changed in the top four of my 2022 NBA Draft Big Board, but there were some changes that had to be made.

Rising this week is sharpshooter AJ Griffin, whose continued playing time at Duke is proving he’s a star-caliber player. On the other side of things, Jaden Hardy is starting to fall in a lot of mock drafts, and he’s fallen on mine as well. His decision to join the G-League straight out of high school was an interesting one. He was the best scorer in the class of 2021, but he hasn’t jumped off the screen in the G-League quite yet.

So before we go any further, let’s update our Cavalier Big Board.