With the season coming to an unfortunate end, the direction quickly shifted to the offseason for the Cleveland Cavaliers. With the core intact, the team is now looking for players to continue to grow in different ways. Isaac Okoro should look to focus on improving his offensive game, Evan Mobley looking to expand his range and array of post moves, and Collin Sexton continuing to rehab his meniscus injury and re-sign with the team.
Missing the playoffs meant that the Cavaliers retained the pick used in the Caris LeVert trade. They know own the 14th-best odds at landing the number one overall pick with a chance of 0.5%. This is a hard way of saying that the team has the 14th overall pick, or likely near that, and should do extensive research of players who could be available around their pick.
The 2022 NBA Draft brings a question that the Cavaliers have had to answer over the last four drafts, should they draft for fit or talent?
Judging the roster, the team’s core seems to be set, as stated by many. Darius Garland and Evan Mobley look to be the “star” players that the team has been looking for since LeBron James’ last departure. For Garland, an All-Star campaign has multiplied his national buzz.
Career-highs in points, rebounds, assists, steals, field goal percentage, and three-point percentage, he was the one to keep the offense afloat despite the many injuries the Cavs went through. A combination of shifty dribbling, offensive orchestration, and deep-range, he has the goods to reach Damian Lillard/Trae Young-like play.
Evan Mobley showed it all in his rookie campaign as the scoring, defense, and playmaking were so impressive for such a young player, as our own Dan Gilinsky demonstrated. It’s scary how controlled and composed he was for a 20-year-old and as he continues to grow into his body, his play should only get scarier.
Jarrett Allen and Collin Sexton look to be complementary pieces to the core, and the All-Star-level play they’ve shown over the last two seasons is what gives the core that extra layer.
Isaac Okoro is looked at to be the glue that brings it all together, depending on his offensive growth.
Add in the veterans that the team has surrounded those players with and you see why they made the jump that they did.
Now, we look back to the draft. It’s easy to look for a plug-and-play guy as this draft has several but a swing at talent could result in a massive boost in their championship chances.
So, talent or fit? In today’s article, we’ll look at this question and see which route the team should go.
Drafting for fit
The easier decision of the two, the Cavs could look to take one of the plug-and-play prospects available this year in the 2022 NBA Draft. The biggest need for this team is wing as the shortcomings in this area forced a 7-foot Lauri Markkanen to play the small forward position this year often.
The two players that make the most sense, in this case, are Ochai Agbaji and Tari Eason.
Ochai Agbaji looks to be the more popular of the two, coming off a National Championship run with Kansas. Agbaji has all the makings of a modern-day wing. Standing at 6’5″, and 215 pounds, Agbaji’s size and strength is what stood out in his improvements as a scorer. Highlighting his scoring more, Agbaji’s scoring improved every year of college, as did his shooting.
This season was the pinnacle of his college career, averaging 18.8 points, shooting 40.9% from three on 6.5 attempts per game.
His fit with the team is seamless and the hope is that his offensive skillset improves enough to be a reliable shot creator for the team. Being 22 years old, the biggest question is just how much he can improve. If the Cavaliers are confident in his improvements, this pick should be a no-brainer.
Looking at Tari Eason’s case, his size, defensive prowess, and shooting potential have helped catapult him into lottery talks. On the year, Eason averaged 16.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.1 blocks, and 1.9 steals per game on 52/36/80 shooting splits.
Eason made highlight play after highlight play on both ends of the floor but still has questions that need to be answered. Is the three-point shooting legit? Is he a 3 or a 4 in the NBA? Should the foul issues be concerning?
If the team is confident in his ability to shoot and that his fit on this team could limit his foul tendency, he could be the big wing that brings everything together.
Drafting for talent
The riskier option, drafting for talent has worked for the Cavaliers with Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, all having All-Star potential. The difference here is those players were top picks in their respective drafts so things will be different with the 14th pick, or likely near that.
Looking into players available at 14 or so, Jaden Hardy is a name that sticks out.
A consensus top-five pick this time a year ago, Hardy’s draft stock has seemingly fallen due to inefficient play in the G-League. Hardy shot just 40% from the field and 33% from three, turning the ball over 3.2 times per game during the IGNITE showcase.
Context can be provided as he played alongside two other potential lottery picks and with poor spacing as the 31.8% they shot from three as a team would’ve ranked as fifth-worst among G-League teams.
Looking at what he does well, Hardy’s biggest selling point is his deep range and elite shooting ability. He can shoot off-the-catch or off-the-bounce. The numbers shouldn’t be looked at deeply here, as his release point and smooth stroke make his shooting something that should translate well in the league, just as our own Justin Brownlow emphasized.
Looking at other facets of his game, he showed an ability to orchestrate an offense with his pick-and-roll play and improved vision over the season. The biggest thing to take away was the two-man game which should bode well alongside Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.
His athleticism isn’t talked about enough as his body control and downhill attack are pluses. With talks like this, why is it that Hardy has slipped in the draft?
For him, he has to put it all together and clean up the shot selection/decision-making.
Hardy has all the makings of the next “star”-level NBA guard. Thinking of Jordan Poole or Tyrese Maxey, it’s those players that I can envision Hardy becoming, being able to succeed in a reduced role on a team like the Cavaliers before blossoming into a scorching scorer.
Final Verdict
So which direction should the Cavs go in?
It would make sense for the team to continue to take stabs at picks and hope that they work out. The NBA is a star-driven league and big shot-makers are the ones that run it.
For those that may question this decision, look at how much Jordan Poole has helped the Golden State Warriors, how much Tyrese Maxey has helped the Philadelphia 76ers, or how much Desmond Bane has helped the Memphis Grizzlies.
You get the picture. Worst comes to worst, the Cavaliers could look at fit later on in the draft, through free agency, or via trade.
Drafting for fit would be fine but in my opinion, I believe going after talent is the best course of action in the 2022 NBA Draft.