With the 2013 NBA Draft set for tonight, the Cleveland Cavaliers are set to have one of the most important drafts in recent memory.
With so many rumors and speculation floating around about whether or not the Cavs will take former Kentucky Wildcat power forward/center, Nerlens Noel, Maryland center Alex Len, Kansas Wildcats combo guard Ben McLemore or package players in trades, this may be the biggest draft nigh for the Wine and Gold since taking Lebron James in 2003.
While I think that the Cavs should take the best player available, I believe the Cavs should trade one of their 1st round picks for a PROVEN veteran to come in and help lead this young team. I disagree with the rumored move they for Dallas Mavericks swingman Shawn Marion.
At 35, Marion is on the downside of his career and, to me, is just like bringing another Shawn Kemp or Shaq into the fold. It would be a bad decision and I feel he would not make a difference.
If Grant Hill didn’t retire or Ray Allen declines his player option with the back-to-back defending champion Miami Heat, either of them would have been a better addition talent and leadership wise than Marion.
I feel as a whole, the Cavs could get two to three great players/cash considerations for both 1st round picks.
Noel is not ready in my opinion, he is not strong enough for his height like say a Tyson Chandler or a Kendrick Perkins, and he looks like he’d be another possible Greg Oden or Andrew Bynum injury wise.
The Cavs already have problems with Kyrie Irving and Anderson Varejao being injury-prone, and in adding either Noel or Len, would only make problems worse and at the same time stunt the growth of this young Cleveland squad.
One option would be trading a first round pick with Varejao for a proven player, but considering his recent rash of injuries, Cleveland would be lucky to get a second rounder—let alone a lottery pick—for the energetic Brazillian.
Which brings into play a possible Portland-Cleveland draft-day swap.
Founder/CEO and Senior Editor-In-Chief, Robert D. Cobb feels that a possible package of both #1’s, Varejao and Dion Waiters to Portland for Lamarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum, plus their first next year, may benefit both teams due to a very weak draft,
“I’ve been watching basketball for over 30 years and have never seen such a weak draft as this one, you made a very good statement in comparing Oden to Noel. I don’t like him anyways he has bad knees, no offensive skills and won’t be ready till Dec. And considering the Cavs horrible history of making bad pick(a trained monkey could have picked LeBron in ’03) name me ONE Cavs player other than Andre Miller that is till in the league?(we traded Jamal Crawford for Chris Mihm, remember that?)
Bottom line : the players are either Ben McLemore or trade down.”
I am definitely on board with the Aldridge/Batum trade idea though. I’ve always liked Batum and Aldridge is very strong. While he needs some work on both ends of the floor, a Batum-Irving combo in the backcourt would be great.
Make no mistake, Cleveland needs a true center though, that’s a big problem. I think with time and development, Tyler Zeller can be a great backup center, Omri Casspi needs to go as well though, Cleveland should package him with along with Varejao if possible.
For many Cavs fans, the mere thought of trading would have been Kobe Bryant for Vitaly Potapenko, or trading with Seattle that we could have used on Scottie Pippen? These are just mere examples bad player evaluation, very poor mistakes and decision-making made in the past by Cleveland.
This draft is very weak in my opinion, which is why it would not surprise me if Cleveland does decide to make it’s own decision about it’s future and be big players tonight.
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