The Cleveland Cavaliers are the lottery caboose for Thursday’s 2022 NBA Draft, picking 14th after finishing eighth in the Eastern Conference and missing the playoffs in the Play-In Tournament. As with every team, the most likely outcome for draft night is that they stay put and make the pick.
If they do, there are plenty of options available to them. Players mocked to them at 14 include Malaki Branham, Johnny Davis, Ousmane Dieng or Ochai Agbaji. Other than not picking a center, the Cavs seem open to the available options and will have plenty of players to choose from if they stay put.
The Cavs could turn their draft into a slam dunk by manipulating the draft board to their advantage. What three moves could they make to excel?
What if they don’t stay put? In that scenario, they could certainly trade out of the draft entirely, picking up a veteran player to help them win now. They could also push things back, trading down or out and adding future draft capital to add talent when their salary sheet will be even more onerous.
Let’s just focus on this year’s draft. If the Cavs trade around the draft board on Thursday night, what could those deals look like? Let’s outline three such scenarios, and in each case include the players the Cavs would then take wherever they land.
A number of teams in the mid-lottery are said to be open to trading their pick for the right deal. The New Orleans Pelicans, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Washington Wizards could all flip their pick for the right package, and so could the San Antonio Spurs.
The Spurs are rumored to be interested in a big man, and they could be comfortable dropping down a few slots to pick up a talented player and still get their guy. LeVert really doesn’t fit on the best versions of this roster, but the Spurs just found success with DeMar DeRozan, a player with a lot of stylistic similarities to LeVert.
The Cavs in turn would add Bennedict Mathurin, a wing with good size who can play the 2 or the 3. He is a strong defender, a great shooter and still boasts the upside to develop into something more as an on-ball player. He’s a high-floor, high-ceiling player who fits their needs perfectly.
Giving up LeVert so soon after trading for him is painful, but it’s worth it to add a player like Mathurin.
If the Spurs stay put at No. 9 and take a forward, perhaps they then move up to 14 to try and add their center. Mike Scotto reported that “Interestingly enough, rival executives believe San Antonio is a potential candidate to try and move up in the draft” and Cleveland could be the dance partner they are looking for.
This path even makes more sense for the Spurs than the first scenario. The Charlotte Hornets could pick a wing at 13 because they expect the Cavs not to take a center, and then the Spurs leap up to take Williams and deny Charlotte. They also take a flier on Dylan Windler as a “second draft” prospect who could respond to the “royal jelly” of their organization.
The Cavs have their pick of a number of interesting players at 14, but with the middle of this draft so “flat” the Cavs could trade down and still get a player they liked at 14, or even two. Jalen Williams and E.J. Liddell were ranked 12th and 13th on the Cavs-specific board and could reasonably both be acquired in a trade-down.
The options could also be TyTy Washington and Dalen Terry, or Jaden Hardy and Christian Braun. There are enough interesting players that someone will be available in that range. Add in a solid backup point guard in Tre Jones and this deal would be a slam dunk for the Cavs.
The Portland Trail Blazers don’t want to stay in the lottery. They have a fringe Top-10 player in his prime in Damian Lillard; you don’t waste whatever years he has left trying to develop teenagers. They’re going to push now to build a playoff team for this next season.
That means the 7th pick is very much in play for the highest bidder. If Jerami Grant ends up in Sacramento or Memphis or Phoenix then the Blazers could look to a deal like this where they add two solid, reasonably-paid veterans in Caris LeVert and Lauri Markkanen.
For their part, the Cavs would get an awesome backcourt complement to Darius Garland, a tall guard with elite defensive chops and amazing passing vision. Daniels is still a work-in-progress in creating his own shot, but playing next to either Garland or Collin Sexton would give him a very gentle learning curve.
Daniels is fifth on my Cavs-specific Big Board, and if he is available at No. 7 the Cavs should absolutely try to leap up and take him. Add to that the fact that Bledsoe can fill a role on an expiring deal and Hart is a really solid piece to add to this core, and this deal would be costly but the right move, even if the Blazers ultimately required a future first in addition. Here the Cavs retain the 14th pick for another wing or TyTy Washington.
As we said in the opener, the Cavs probably stay put. But if they don’t there are a number of partners the Cavs could dance with to move up or down the board, either snagging a high-level prospect to add to this core or moving down to get multiple pieces. Either way, there are multiple avenues to turning this draft into a slam dunk.