3 ways Shaedon Sharpe entering NBA Draft helps Cavs

The 2022 NBA Draft has been categorized by many as a “weak” draft, where an elite top-4 quickly fades into a forgettable milieu of rotation players. Especially when compared to the elite 2021 group, which produced the Cavs‘ rookie phenom Evan Mobley and a host of other valuable players, this year’s group seems to be more average.

Injecting a boost of excitement into the draft cycle is the announcement that Shaedon Sharpe, elite prospect and one-time Kentucky Wildcats early entrant, will enter the NBA Draft a year early and skip his college career entirely. No longer one of the best recruits on Kentucky’s campus, he is now one of the best recruits going big.

The Kentucky-enrolled wing Shaedon Sharpe has declared for the 2022 NBA Draft. What does this decision mean for the Cleveland Cavaliers?

To this point, with Sharpe and his family saying publicly that he intended to play for Kentucky next season, we did not know for certain if he would be an option for teams picking in the 2022 Draft. Now that it is official, the balance of evaluating the lottery begins to ramp up.

Sharpe is a 6’6″ wing with a massive 7-foot wingspan, with the elite athleticism to make him a terror on both ends of the court. His shooting is good enough already that teams can project it as a major weapon at the next level. The league’s most valuable commodity is wing-sized players, and Sharpe has the upside to be the best in this class, easily.

How does Sharpe’s announcement, and inclusion in this summer’s draft, affect the Cleveland Cavaliers? It would have had relatively little effect if the Cavs had made the playoffs, as they would have shipped off their first-round pick. As it is they are currently slotted to choose 14th, with a sliver of a shot at leaping into the Top-4.

Here are 3 ways this decision can influence how the Cavs think about and conduct the 2022 NBA Draft.